When the Wii launched, a few pundits called it “two GameCubes taped together”, which I thought was a bit rude and overly dismissive.
Years later, I started really looking into the technical side of things, and oh my goodness it really is almost two GameCubes taped together. I mean, it works wonderfully and I’m not knocking it, but IIRC the majority of what’s under the hood is either an upgraded version of what was in the GCN, or a doubling of the capacity (in some cases literally two) of the same component.
And that’s fine too, I think. This is what gave the Wii the perfect backwards compatibility, allowing many more people to enjoy Gamecube games on original hardware without getting a Gamecube, which are way more expensive today.
And you know, the Wii is like a beast when it comes to sub HD stuff. It’s the most powerful console that ever released that wasn’t designed with HD TVs in mind. That lead to many Wii games just looking really damn good and clean. Seriously, Mario Galaxy on a CRT in RGB looks absolutely stunning.
But maybe they did go to far trying the same thing again with the Wii U.
Redkey@programming.dev 1 month ago
When the Wii launched, a few pundits called it “two GameCubes taped together”, which I thought was a bit rude and overly dismissive.
Years later, I started really looking into the technical side of things, and oh my goodness it really is almost two GameCubes taped together. I mean, it works wonderfully and I’m not knocking it, but IIRC the majority of what’s under the hood is either an upgraded version of what was in the GCN, or a doubling of the capacity (in some cases literally two) of the same component.
timo_timboo_@lemmy.world 1 month ago
And that’s fine too, I think. This is what gave the Wii the perfect backwards compatibility, allowing many more people to enjoy Gamecube games on original hardware without getting a Gamecube, which are way more expensive today.
And you know, the Wii is like a beast when it comes to sub HD stuff. It’s the most powerful console that ever released that wasn’t designed with HD TVs in mind. That lead to many Wii games just looking really damn good and clean. Seriously, Mario Galaxy on a CRT in RGB looks absolutely stunning.
But maybe they did go to far trying the same thing again with the Wii U.
SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world 1 month ago
A hacked Wiiu though, chef’s kiss
timo_timboo_@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Absolutely. The Wii U modding community is really active, I feel like there’s something new every few months. I love it!