Wii-U thoughts so far

[Ziggy]

You're counting PCs as their competitors, right?

It's common knowledge that the CPU in the SNES was slow compared with the CPU in the Genesis. Sega created Sonic to take advantage of that, hence Genesis does what Nintendon't. The N64, I'm not sure of the specs all around, but I do know it has a lack of RAM. The Expansion Pak was needed. The GCN was already mentioned, but it came out over a year after the PS2 so it's only natural to have a hardware edge. The Wii was obviously the weakest console (in terms of hardware power) this past generation.

Nintendo's platforms always have very specialized hardware usually revolving around what Nintendo wants to do with their games and not necessarily what is actually more powerful.

They also optimize their games, so in most cases they can afford to have slower or less powerful hardware without having to sacrifice anything (not including making the Wii SD). Or in the SNES's case, certain games having co-processors. Nintendo has always been about keeping hardware cost down.

[CavZee]

Hopefully that means it's possible that Nintendo can patch that later on down the line.

I'd certainly make a lot more VC purchases and such if I knew I could easily recover my investment if I have to.

Cross buy with 3DS for stuff like NES VC games would be ideal too, but I'm not gonna hold my breath for something like that.

Well they've said Miiverse is coming to 3DS at some point which would require you're NNID to be usable on 3DS. They've also said they want people to be able to access their account from PCs and smartphones to make purchases which would require expanding the account system. In fact if you go to the Miiverse sign in page, it even states that At this time a NNID can only be created on a Wii U console.

So hopefully the changes come soon. Among all the complaints I hear about Nintendo, this is the one that absolutely needs addressed.

[KDub]

You're counting PCs as their competitors, right?

Not for this argument.

The NES was much weaker than the SMS and PC Engine/Turbo.
As Ziggy mentioned the SNES had CPU issues despite coming out after the Genesis. Turbo CD games were heavy competitors against it still. Doesn't even touch Neo Geo.
The N64 still used carts and lacked ram that it should of had. Gimping it against the PS1 and Saturn then against the Dreamcast that followed only three years later.
The Gamecube to me was the best of that gen which is why I said almost. I'm not sure of its raw power.
Wii was way behind.

All of their handhelds were the weakest competitor in terms of power.

None of them were bad systems, just not powerhouses when in comparison. None of them boasted the most raw power available at the time. They either played it safe or were easily beaten in some area just one or two years later.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Wasn't the PC Engine a generation ahead of the NES? Obviously Neo Geo beats everything before it.

Carts instead of CDs did turn out to be a disadvantage, but the N64 wasn't lacking in RAM. It comes with 4MB unified RAM, which is expandable to 8MB. The Playstation has 2MB main RAM and 1MB VRAM, while the Saturn has 2MB main RAM, almost 2MB VRAM, and the 4MB expansion slot.

Also, what was more powerful than the GBA? I remember that as the only handheld for a while, after the NGPC left the market.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Wasn't the PC Engine a generation ahead of the NES? Obviously Neo Geo beats everything before it.

Yup. It used the same CPU though IIRC (and clocked much higher)

Also, what was more powerful than the GBA? I remember that as the only handheld for a while, after the NGPC left the market.

NGage?

[KDub]

I've always considered it a bridging system. The CD system and ram cards kept it going against the 16 bit gen.

[Ziggy]

Carts instead of CDs did turn out to be a disadvantage

Yes, in terms of how large (in data) a game could be. But it turned out to be a huge advantage in terms of loading times, which are basically non-existing versus the CD-ROM consoles of the time. So if we're talking about the power of a console, carts means the N64 was able to load data much faster than PS1, Saturn, etc. Storage space doesn't really have to do with how powerful the console is. Much like the size of the HDD in your computer doesn't play a role with how fast/powerful your computer is.

Speaking of loading times, that reminds me of something I just read about the Wind Waker HD release. In regards to how fast the ship can sail, they said that with the Gamecube version the game wouldn't have been able to load fast enough. I guess limiting the speed was a way to get around this and still not have any loading screens.

but the N64 wasn't lacking in RAM. It comes with 4MB unified RAM, which is expandable to 8MB. The Playstation has 2MB main RAM and 1MB VRAM, while the Saturn has 2MB main RAM, almost 2MB VRAM, and the 4MB expansion slot.

Oh wow, I didn't know the N64 had more RAM than the PS1 and Saturn. Interesting.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

NGage...Oh...that thing...I guess it was more powerful.

So, the carts had faster loading times. That is good. The cramped storage space and expensive manufacturing did end up being a disadvantage for Nintendo, though. If the N64 had used CDs too, I wonder if it would have been more successful?

Having only a few megabytes to make a game was problematic even back then. Imagine a gaming PC with tons of computational power, with a 64 MB hard disk

[isiolia]

Oh wow, I didn't know the N64 had more RAM than the PS1 and Saturn. Interesting.

Problem, I think, was more the max texture size (4KB), coupled with slow access to RAM in some cases, and the general lack of copious storage space thanks to cart use.

[Ziggy]

So, the carts had faster loading times. That is good. The cramped storage space and expensive manufacturing did end up being a disadvantage for Nintendo, though. If the N64 had used CDs too, I wonder if it would have been more successful?

Yeah, most likely FF7 would have been on the 64, etc etc and all that. Looking back on it now though, we should all be glad that they went with carts instead of CDs. N64s will far outlive PS1 consoles, probably PS2, and I wouldn't be surprised if PS3 too.

edit: Nintendo will never have a mainstream storage format for their consoles (not counting a HDD or whatever). They went with proprietary carts instead of CD-ROMs for the 64. Everything after that is a "Nintendo optical disc" though. The Cube was a mini DVD, the Wii a DVD, and from what I understand the U is basically a BD, but they don't call it as such. That's why the Wii cannot play DVD movies and the U cannot play BD movies. I'm betting it's so they don't have to pay the royalties or whatever, and I'm not complaining since that means I get to pay less for a consoles and probably the games too (I saw that even some U games are still only $50 and not $60).

Problem, I think, was more the max texture size (4KB), coupled with slow access to RAM in some cases, and the general lack of copious storage space thanks to cart use.

Ah, is that what it was? I remember reading a few times the drawbacks with the N64 regarding something about RAM.