thoughthead

I did an interview with a member of the WiiJii modchip team for nintendo-scene recently. I think it’s worth reading. I know as the person giving the interview I asked questions I was genuinely interested in knowing the answers to and to be perfectly honest almost every answer he gave surprised me on some level. It certainly gave me a different perspective on the motivations behind some of the people who make this products as well as changing my opinions of the specific product their team makes.

I’m quite interested in doing more interviews like this so if anyone knows anyone in any modchip teams or even just in the game industry, I’d be interested in getting in touch with them.

          

The concept of hacking has been around as long as there have been things to hack. The concept of console modding has been around as long as there have been consoles to mod. Even back in the old Atari 2600 days people were tweaking their carts, writing unlicensed software and getting the console to do things above and beyond what they were designed to do. When the original Playstation became mainstream back in the late 90s, console modding experienced a significant boost in popularity. One that has only grown since, but with more complex system comes a system that is more difficult to tweak. How does the state of modding fare in the face of the new console generation? (more…)

          

When the 360 launched it did so at a price higher than most people were used to paying for a console. By the time the PS3′s price was announced the 360′s price tag didn’t seem all that bad, though, the Wii reminded us that a new console can still have a reasonable price. There’s a lot of rumors flying around about when we’ll see price drops happening this generation. Here are my predictions… (more…)

          

One of the best features of Xbox Live is the Live Arcade which allows you to download classic arcade games as well as new games in the classic arcade style. Many people don’t realize it but this was actually available on the Xbox 1, but it required you purchase a disc and there were only a very small handful of games (most of which which were either ported to or had a sequel on the Xbox 360 version of the arcade). The Xbox 360′s arcade offerings started fairly strong out of the gate but it has suffered a drought that it’s just now starting to overcome, unfortunately it comes at a time where they now have Nintendo and Sony to compete with in that regard as well. It leads one to wonder: what does the future hold for the Xbox Live Arcade? and do they have what it takes to put up a good show against the likes of Nintendo, Sony, or the countless Arcade style games on the PC? (more…)

          

It seems like almost daily for short span of time last month there was a new Wii modchip announced. First the Wiinja, then the Cyclowiz, the WABCheap mod, the Wiikey, and the Chiip. in the course of 2 weeks we had 5 different chips announced (and undoubtedly more on the way), Some are even hitting their second version already; Cyclowiz V2 and the WiiFree (based on the WABCheap mod). So how good are these chips and what does it mean for the “Wii Scene”? (more…)