E3 2006: Hands on with Nintendo's Wii and new Dell Designs
by Haider Farhan on May 11, 2006 9:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, held in the famous Los Angeles Convention Center (next door to the Staples Center, home to the L.A. Lakers and L.A. Clippers) here in downtown Los Angeles. E3 is an annual trade event in which numerous exhibitors converge to bring their latest creations to the eye of industry related media and professionals to salivate over.
Tens of thousands of industry professionals and media are expected to attend E3 2006 and hopefully this year, everything goes according to plan. If you didn't hear about what happened last year, the power went out in the media and administrative facilities and on one of the show floors. With no power in the media and administrative facilities, that meant members of the media had to wait in up to three and a half hour long lines to receive their well sought after press badges (yes, we were in the midst of this last year). And with a power outage on one of the show floors, that meant no air conditioning; and with thousands of people in one large room, it gets uncomfortable in a short amount of time.
At E3 2006, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), whom E3 is owned and operated by, expects nearly four hundred exhibitors from eighty countries around the globe to bring to life their well hidden and sought after productions.
Some highly anticipated games that are expected to be displayed this year are: Spore, God of War 2, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Halo 3, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Final Fantasy XIII, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway and many, many more. We're also expecting Nintendo to have their latest console, the Wii, on display as well as Sony's PlayStaion 3. We will no doubt find Microsoft to have one of the larger booths on the show floor, but with their latest console, the 360, already in the hands of enthusiastic gamers, we're mainly expecting a wide array of software and accessories to go along with it.
We spent some time with Nintendo's Wii, formerly known as Revolution, as well as some of Dell's upcoming XPS designs, which we're covering here today.
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tonjohn - Saturday, May 13, 2006 - link
So does anybody know what is behind that flap on the front of the Wii?It's rumoured that the tray on the front of the console is a stereoscopic digital projection system.
I'm quite surprised if real, why didn't they demo it.
http://dennispatterson.blogspot.com/2006/04/why-wi...">http://dennispatterson.blogspot.com/2006/04/why-wi...
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php...">http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php...
http://www.playbomb.com/2005/11/01/18/nintendo-for...">http://www.playbomb.com/2005/11/01/18/nintendo-for...
....
Miyamoto,
"I think maybe if I could do anything, I would make it so you don't have to sit in front of a TV and play. If you could have a machine that you just plugged in and played inside a virtual world that - would be just great."
"It's convenient to make games that are played on TVs," Miyamoto is quoted as saying. "But I always wanted to have a custom-sized screen that wasn't the typical four-cornered cathode-ray-tube TV. I've always thought that games would eventually break free of the confines of a TV screen to fill an entire room. But I would rather not say anything more about that."
http://www.xgaming.com/newsletter/Revolutionary-Te...">http://www.xgaming.com/newsletter/Revolutionary-Te...
tthiel - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
Those Dells look hideous. Cheap and plasticky and the seams don't even match up. The red looks terrible. Hard to believe this is the best they can come up with but then their forte has always been low cost not design. Now they buy Alienware with their lame childish cases that have stayed the same for years with overpriced hardware and terrible service. It's been a long time since Alienware was cool but I gues aobut anything is cooler than a Dell.dali71 - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
Agreed, i thought that they had released an air purifier.JarredWalton - Thursday, May 11, 2006 - link
Hey everyone,I just put up a couple of videos Haider uploaded to me in a torrent file. The link is on the bottom of page 2 of his article. If someone can download that file and open it up in a BitTorrent client to make sure it works properly, I'd appreciate it. I *think* my system is configured properly, but I host torrents so rarely that I never know.
FYI, the videos were made with a digital camera (Canon SD400, possibly?), and I used ATI's Avivo Converter tool to turn them into MPEG-4 (DivX compatible) format. That cuts the size to 49.2 MB from 239 MB without damaging quality, but 50MB is still a bit large for our normal server demands (depending on how many people want the files).
Take care,
Jarred Walton
Editor
AnandTech.com
rrcn - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
Thanks for converting the files, Jarred.Cannon S2 IS. =P
JarredWalton - Friday, May 12, 2006 - link
Okay, judging by the 8+ downloads already started, it's working. Again, let me know if you have problems.--Jarred
Cullinaire - Thursday, May 11, 2006 - link
Loving the new XPS design. Finally Dell's got something badass on their hands. Wonder how much input AW had into this design? Also wondering if this line finally means builing your own is actually going to be cheaper than buying an equally specced Dell. (not including "special editions" and frivolous features like paint jobs)ninjit - Thursday, May 11, 2006 - link
Infrared line-of-sight controls aren't that great in the first place (think of your buddy getting up and walking past you to get a drink while you're in the middle of a fight).But that + motion control?? It's going to be dropping connectivity everytime someone takes a swing within a tennis game, etc.
I'm having a hard time understanding this, I'm surprised that nintendo went this route (there's a good reason why everyone else is going the RF wireless way).
Am I missing something?
rrcn - Saturday, May 13, 2006 - link
After seeing the sensor bar the other day, I had to find out how exactly the wireless remote worked, so I spoke to a developer:Plain and simply, the sensor bar actually emits an infrared "wall" or field directly in front of the TV (it creates this in front of the TV because that is where it's placed, either on top of or below the TV is recommended). As the remote is pointed towards the TV, it will reflect off of the infrared "wall," created by the sensor bar, and this tells the remote how far the remote is from the TV and where it is. The remote then communicates with the console via Bluetooth, sending this information to it, and the action is completed successfully.
The sensor bar doesn't receive any type of signal from the wireless remote. If one actually gets too close to the TV, within about three feet or under, it will not work precisely.
The remote has a gyrometer and accelerometer to allow it, for instance in the tennis game, know when you swung the "racket" with a back hand or regular swing.
Hope this clarifies everything.
Haider Farhan
bigboxes - Thursday, May 11, 2006 - link
If your "buddy" walks in front of you during your "fight" then you won't be able to see the screen. Think about it.