Wii: The Total Story
Introducing Nintendo Wii…
Nintendo’s new generation console, which was formerly codenamed Revolution, is now simply named Wii. For the record, it’s pronounced like “we,” despite the different and deliberately odd spelling. Nintendo announced the official name of Wii on April 27, 2006. The announcement can be read by clicking right here. The official Wii announcement trailer can be downloaded right here.
The Wii brand is designed to accentuate the console’s unique controller (as represented by the ‘ii’ in the title) and its ability to bring gamers of all types together, hence the name “we.”
The Wii system is the fruit of a new Nintendo philosophy that is determined to emphasize original and fresh gameplay endeavors over dramatically enhanced graphic presentations. Whereas both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are designed from the ground up to deliver more detailed, high-definition graphics, Wii’s biggest innovation lies with a potentially revolutionary new controller and not raw horsepower. It is this controller, dubbed the Wii remote (or Wii-mote for short), which truly distinguishes the Big N’s new platform from its competitors.
Technical Breakdown
The Wii system has been designed to be “small, quiet and affordable,” according to Nintendo. The machine, available at launch in glossy white, is just 8.5 inches long, 6 inches wide and less than two inches thick (the exact dimensions are 157mm x 215.4mm x 44mm.) The Big N is fond of comparing the system to the size of roughly three stacked DVDs. Wii can be placed horizontally or vertically. The console is roughly twice as powerful as a GameCube, putting it in horsepower territory beyond Xbox, but well shy of Xbox 360. Tech specs do not tell the whole story, which is probably why Nintendo itself has chosen not to provide intricate breakdowns for Wii’s CPU and GPU. Bearing that in mind, here’s everything we know about the console’s internal makeup:
729 MHz IBM PowerPC “Broadway” CPU 243 MHz ATI “Hollywood” GPU
24MBs “main” 1T-SRAM 64MBs other 1T-SRAM
512MBs internal flash memory 3MBs texture memory on GPU
Built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi capability One SD memory card bay
AV multi-port: S-video, composite, component Analog (left/right) audio / DPLII
Four GameCube controller ports Two GameCube Memory Pak slots
Two USB 2.0 ports Compatible with up to four wireless Wii-motes
Self-loading media drive Accepts 12cm Wii and 8cm GCN discs; no DVD movies
The specs are good and fine, but they do little to paint Nintendo’s full plan for Wii. The Big N hopes its new platform will captivate the elusive non-gamer market. To do this, Wii will come packed with a number of extra features - some of which branch out of games-only territory.
