I said this in another thread, but after giving it a second thought, i decided it deserves a thread of its own. A solution for Wii HD, would be a peripheral, that would connect to Wiis component and/or USB output. For the current games, it would only give hardware acceleration, upscaling and added effects (in a little similar fashion that GBC could put colors to GB games). And Wii HD games would be able to fully use the peripherals capabilities, so that the games would be similar "hybrids" as the games that worked with both GB and GBC. Considering most of the PS360 games run on comparatively low resolution, the HD peripheral would bring Wii games a lot closer to them graphicswise. What would the peripheral would consist of? A processor and some additional memory, own power supply and would output via HDMI and component. Max resolution 720p/60, 1080i/60. Price at maybe 50-100(enter your currency). Some may say "impossible" or "highly unlikely", but when you look Nintendos history with countless peripherals/add-ons, it's not that unlikely after all. N64 had the memory expansion and 64DD, SNES had Super FX and CD ROM was on its way. And what else performance boosting stuff Nintendo has had that i can't think of at the moment. It would definately be a easy and cheap jump towards the more demanding audience, while leaving the option to the customer itself, whether he/she needs HD and pay accordingly, without anyone feeling getting ripped.

But would that be a seperate game for HD and seperate game for non HD? It'll be suck on Metroid Prime 3 to be in HD resolution. thats what I thought, its not the console itself its the games.

before even getting into the technicalities of such a peripheral, the big question is:

why?

it is so pointless.

yushire said: But would that be a seperate game for HD and seperate game for non HD? It'll be suck on Metroid Prime 3 to be in HD resolution. thats what I thought, its not the console itself its the games.

The non-HD games would just be upscaled with added hardware effects. Like MP3, SMG or MKWii. And the HD games would have a "core", which is the non-HD game, but also additional data for the HD game, more details. A firmware upgrade would be required for the Wii to know what data to use and what not to use for non-HD/HD versions.

Lingyis said: before even getting into the technicalities of such a peripheral, the big question is: why? it is so pointless.

For core gamers out there who wants great graphics for the Wii?  

 

bdbdbd said: yushire said: But would that be a seperate game for HD and seperate game for non HD? It'll be suck on Metroid Prime 3 to be in HD resolution. thats what I thought, its not the console itself its the games.   The non-HD games would just be upscaled with added hardware effects. Like MP3, SMG or MKWii. And the HD games would have a "core", which is the non-HD game, but also additional data for the HD game, more details. A firmware upgrade would be required for the Wii to know what data to use and what not to use for non-HD/HD versions.

 

But is the added peripheral for the Wii can sustain the current specs of the console? If making a HD console was easy why not Ninty just do it before?

 

Since the output resolution and screen shape are handled (across all games) by the Wii, and not by the game itself, it may be possible for Nintendo to release more powerful hardware which renders Wii games at higher resoltuions; at the same time the cheapest solution for HD output would (probably) be to scale the output after it had been rendered.

But (as Lingyis said) Why would they bother?

Its not like the lack of HD has turned out to be a problem for the Wii, so why release new hardware?

^^^

What I want to know is "is it possible"?

Lingyis said: before even getting into the technicalities of such a peripheral, the big question is: why? it is so pointless.

As you know Iwata has said that they plao to target everyone and at the moment, they don't target the most demanding audience, the people who want HD games. In other words, Nintendo would move upstream. Besides, look how many "HD exclusive" games there is. It would make the devs more willing to port their games for Wii and the most commonly used HD engine, UE3, would be somewhat compatible with it.

yushire said: bdbdbd said: yushire said: But would that be a seperate game for HD and seperate game for non HD? It'll be suck on Metroid Prime 3 to be in HD resolution. thats what I thought, its not the console itself its the games.   The non-HD games would just be upscaled with added hardware effects. Like MP3, SMG or MKWii. And the HD games would have a "core", which is the non-HD game, but also additional data for the HD game, more details. A firmware upgrade would be required for the Wii to know what data to use and what not to use for non-HD/HD versions.   But is the added peripheral for the Wii can sustain the current specs of the console? If making a HD console was easy why not Ninty just do it before?

Well, it's not "easy", but think of the costs. Releasing a HD console in 2006, would have resulted in extremely high costs, releasing a HD add-on for christmas 2009 with 45nm tech, would be cheap. You'd remain the profits out of the original hardware, without increasing its price and make more profit with the new peripheral who wants one. Look at people who pays nearly two times the price of Wii for the PS3 just to be able to play in HD. The market is big. And even the devs wouldn't have to develope in HD, they still could make their Carnival Games as "standard" Wii games, but games like CoD6 would virtually be on par with PS360.