Winnipeg Experts

Well the district Manager for Zellers here in Winnipeg called me. She was not very simpethetic about the Wii situation. She refused to hold one for me but she did how ever give me a $25 gift card for my troubles.

I’ve been looking for answers on the Wii. This report will list all the questions and the answers I found to the questions.

1. How to play safely when playing with Wii Controllers.
2. The Wii takes both SD cards as well as GameCube Memory cards. Unfortunately when playing Game Cube games you can not save the games to SD cards. You can only save to the Game Cube memory cards.
3. You must have the Wii controllers for Wii games, You must use Game Cube controllers for GC games and then you must purchase a Wii Retro Controller.
4. Wii comes with normal AV cabeles. Click here for a picture.
5. You can play music off SD memory on the Wii. The issue is that you have to play the songs one at at time through the PICTURE viewer. That got me scratching my head. Games developers can allow the games to use mp3s off the card but at launch only one game “Excite Truck ” will be using this feature.
6. The Wii will be able to join wireless networks using WEP/WPA/WPA2. When using WEP you must use Key #1 as I had previously found out.
7. The highest resolution that the Wii can display at is 480p. From the display setup in the mall yesterday it still looked VERY good
8. The Wii allows you to create Mii’s. The purpose of Mii’s are: When you play a game, you simply tell the Wii which Mii you are, and it can track your scores. You can let your Mii “mingle” with other Mii on other consoles by downloading them to your Wii Remote, and bringing your remote with you when you play at a friend’s house. The Mii also identifies you to other Wii users who find you online.
9. No DVD play back as of yet although there is talks of a Wii being released next year that would be able to do this. It will not be able to play HD-DVD or Blue Ray.
10. No Dolby Digital playback. All demoed Wii games were running in Dolby Pro Logic II, the same audio standard employed by GameCube. Dolby Pro Logic II uses a matrix to simulate 5.1 surround sound and many studios have used the alternative to true aural separation for some impressive listening results.
11. The controllers can rumble as well produce sound through the internal speakers inside. The game developers must write extra code for this to work so not all games will use this ability.
12. See Wii in action.
13. The reason why the name Wii was chosen instead of Revolution is that there is no need to translate the name (Breaks down language barrier) and bo need to shorten it. Of course they wanted something catchy as well something that would bring a sense of community. I did read this from another website and it made sense as well: Talking to people that have worked in games retail, you find that normal people can’t/don’t/won’t keep the names of the systems straight. People ask for “PlayStation 360s” and “PlayCubes” and “Mario on Xbox” even though they actually own a GameCube – to them the system names are confusing and completely interchangeable.This is basically Nintendo trying to create a name and brand that is in no way similar to the others, in order to be distinct in the minds of consumers. They see the ad, they actually retain the correct name, and they go and ask for it at the store.Also, while it may sound dumb to us, you know that they focus-tested the hell out of it in all three territories and, at the very least, it’s not completely repellent to those focus groups.

Here’s a link

Another link from my friend Ken. After going through a bit of the website one thing to note that I can see most people having issues getting the wireless working for the Wii.  This site states that the Wii only understands Key 1 of WEP. If you are using a Wep Keys 2-4 then you will have to change your router configuration as well as any PC that connects to the Wireless router.

Here’s the link to the website. Once I have my Wii I will also post any issues I might have with it and how to correct it.

Here’s a neat article that reviews the new game for the US army. This is the follow up for America’s Army that was developed using tax payer money ($1.5 Million to be exact) that uses weapons that the US Army is currently using and developing. The main issue with the game is that it gives the users a false assumption that guns never lockup and the enemy never evolves which is certainly not the case. The full review of the game can be found here.

I have to thank Ken for this link. Here is a link on how to run SLI on a Crossfireboard.

Here is a quote from the F-Secure website. “… this program could be silently installed to your User account and hooked to each application you use… and it doesn’t require Administrator rights to do so. We won’t disclose the exact technique used here, it’s a feature not a bug, but let’s just say that installing a System Library shouldn’t be allowed without prompting the user.”

Get the full article here.

You can read the whole transcript of how the deal between Microsoft and Novell went. Here is the transcript.

Thankfully I have a few programmer friends that are amazing web developers. A Big thank you goes out to them for helping me with CSS! One thing I have learned with CSS 2.0 is that although it really helps to make things uniform within a page, it really isn’t the savior I thought it was going to be. I can’t wait to start exploring CSS 3.0. FireFox already has some of the BETA-features of CS3.0. The nice thing about learning from a seasoned veteran in CSS is that I am learning how to overcome some of the compatibility issues between browsers. Believe it or not browser issues are just as big of an issue as they were 10 yrs ago. It’s learning about these issues first hand that I believe will help me out over just reading a text book.

I want to let the Internet know why I will never shop at Zellers.

This is the time of year when pressures are high to get that just “Oh so perfect” gift that all the kiddies want. While I am not a kiddie by any stretch of the imagination, my story does effect both Kiddies, Parents and myself. After the release of the Nintendo Wii which is the newest console from Nintendo, all the stores we sold out. This made the console a very hot commodity. I was hover lucky enough to get the new legend of Zelda game from the Wal-Mart in St. Vital on opening day. Pretty much every electronics store in St. Vital and Polo Park was sold out. On a side note because I pre-bought some accessories I want the main console more then ever.

I was amazed to find out on Fri that Zellers was going to be selling Wii’s Sat morning. I called a few stores and I was never told by the Pembina store about getting lined up before the store open or that they would be giving out tickets. I then called Zellers at Grant Park Mall (a 5 minute walk from my house). They informed me that they only had 6 Wii’s and that I should get there for 6:30am when they would be giving out tickets to the first 6 people that got there. I woke up at 5:30 and I was at Grant Park for 6:00am. I went to the front doors and knocked on the windowed Doors at some people walking around inside. They heard me, stopped and looked and then continued on there early morning duties.

I then proceeded to go back to my car and wait things out. I thought for sure I’d be able to pickup the console. The next 2hrs seemed to be the longest 2hrs I had ever experienced. At around 7:15am another guy a few years younger then me arrived at the store. I jumped out of my car and proceeded to wait in between the doors. I might add there was no indication that all Wii’s were already sold out a common practice of Resellers to at least inform people so they didn’t waste their time. We both stood in the doorway till around 7:50. By that time around 20 or so people lined up hoping to be able to get the console for their kids or themselves. We all started talking about how excited we were to pick it up and bring it home. It seemed 1/2 was going to be giving it as a gift where as the other 1/2 was going to be opening it as soon as they got home.

A couple piped up and asked if we all had tickets? We all looked and said no. She then said her kids were there at 2:00am and that they were all given out at 3:30am. These tickets guaranteed you a console. They were in fact the only way to get one! About a minute later a lady opened up the door and said people with tickets are allowed to come in. Everyone else wait outside. I was shocked!

How could the people just let us stand out there instead of at least letting have the courtesy of knowing we had better chances of getting it else where!!! I raced to the Zellers near St. Norbert within 11minutes. I found out from other people that the same crap happened to them. They were told not to worry about tickets or pre-sales. The stores did this anyways.

Today (Monday) I talked with a fellow worker who was just as excited about getting the Wii for his boys. The same thing happened a 2 other Zellers in town. I think Zellers show be responsible for this! They should save the first consoles that come in their next batch for the people that waited in line just to find out that some little punk manager figured he’d give out “coupons” at times that were not posted or relayed by the staff all week.

I know I am not happy with this experience. Let me know if this happened to you!