and All Consoles

Two weeks after it was released in the US late last year, the Nintendo Wii came out in Japan, and consoles literally flew off the shelves. Reports received from areas such as Akihabara (the major electronics district of Tokyo) and Shinjuku (another massive shopping location) said that it was nearly impossible to walk down the sidewalk anywhere near an electronics store.

Without doubt, the most popular choice of games console by the Japanese people is the Nintendo Wii, although the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have sold quite well in Japan. You couldn’t escape the ads for Wii anywhere last year, and it seemed to be all Japanese video games were talking about. So, why is the Nintendo Wii, loved so much in Japan?

To start with, the Nintendo’s have always outsold the other gaming systems in Japan. A survey noted that the Nintendo games tend to contain subject matter that was interesting to Japanese gamers. They said that the Nintendo games appeal to all ages and tastes.

The interactive features of the Nintendo Wii have become extremely popular. The Nintendo Wii makes use of a new remote sensing technology, which means that while playing a game, such as golf you can actually take a swing to hit the ball. Naturally, this technology has caught on with the non-gamers as well as gamers. Recent studies have discovered that more woman and older adults, demographic groups that don’t normally go for games consoles in a big way, get a big kick out of the Wii’s interactive features.

There was tons of promotion and advertising. It was almost impossible to get anywhere near an electronics store in Japan at the end of last year without noticing a guy dressed up like a giant remote controller, of kids of all ages crammed around a Wii demo console. The Wii was witness just about everywhere last year, much more so the any of the other consoles. With such a big push off, it had to be popular.

One of the main strengths of the Wii console is it sports games. Lately, sports games have become more and more popular in Japan, and they have started to outsell the more traditionally popular adventure games such as Legend of Zelda. The Wii offers great quality, realistic golf, baseball and tennis, among others. For the Japanese gamers, these are a great step forward from the sports games of yesterday.

Then again, maybe the massive popularity of the Wii in Japan is due to those wacky pictures in its safety manual. The Wii has been stirring up headlines worldwide mainly because of the Wii strap related incidents, and the Japanese safety manual covers everything. It’s packed with comically rendered pictures of housewives whacking their husbands around the head with controllers, Wii-motes stuck halfway down a child’s throats, and people injuring themselves in a variety of outlandish ways. Do a quick internet search yourself and see if you can find some pictures!

While the Nintendo Wii is undoubtedly the most popular new gaming system in Japan, the PlayStation 3 does come in as a close second. Some sources on the web believe that the PS3 does actually sell better, but it’s hard to say for sure. Certainly, the new interactive features are a draw for Japanese people, who are always searching for something new to enhance their gaming experience.

Published by Darren Lintern

The Nintendo Wii has establish itself as a ground-breaking system, which is mainly because of it’s accessories that have change the way you can play games. You’ll no longer restricted to the couch with the little controller in your hand; now you can jump all over the room, serving up those bowling swings for real, and taking a roll of the ball in real-time.

Here are some of the new accessories that are available for the Nintendo Wii:

Wii Nun-chuck controller: This controller isn’t designed for kung-fu games, although it can be used for fighting games. The nun-chuck works similar to the Wii-mote. You hold it in your hand, and it is installed with a motion sensor technology so wireless play is intended. It’s designed to fit your hand well and can be used for either right or left.

What’s great about the nun-chuck is that, for some of the games, you use the analogue stick to control the characters basic movements and your wave the nun-chuck around to perform special actions, such as lobbing a ball or shooting a weapon.

The nun-chuck is notably smaller than the standard remote controller, and is fitted with less buttons. It is similar in design and intended for certain games only.

Wii Component Cables: The cables that are supplied with Wii are useful for various needs. You have the option of connecting your Wii to an HDTV for improved graphics. Or, you can hook up the Wii to your stereo system for better sound. The component cable basically offers you the chance to hook your Wii up and pimp it out.

Gamers have been delighted with these in view of the better graphics offered. The only set back is that Nintendo have not really made them that easy to purchase, they currently only available of online sale.

Wii LAN Adapter: Although the Wii has WiFi installed, you may want to get wired up, that’s what the LAN adapter is for. It is fitted with a USB port so that you can get a wired connection going through your Nintendo Wii. Many users tend to prefer a wired connection to a wireless when hooking up to the internet.

The start with, the LAN adapter was only available in Japan, and it came to the stage at one point when you couldn’t even purchase them off Play-Asia anymore. They just couldn’t keep up with the demand. Nintendo has now released this accessory worldwide.

Wii Controller Glove: The controller glove is extremely comfortable and stylish, but it’s more important positive point being that it makes gaming safer. Once you begin playing your Wii with the remote, it’s all becomes too easy to get into your game a little too much, and to watch the remote go flying. With the controller glove, it will help to keep the remote where it actually belongs – in your hand, and not flying across the room towards your television screen.

Although, the controller glove aims to make gaming safer, you still need to be careful. Last year, gamers were complaining about the thin straps breaking. Nintendo has stated that the newer one in production will be more durable, but try not to get too out of control.

Published by Darren Lintern

One of the many features of the PlayStation 3 is that it’s capable of using Linux, which means that owners of the PS3 can customize their system and get lots more out of it. Game consoles tend to be designed in order to prevent foreign systems from running on them, but Sony have gone in total the opposite direction with the PS3, allowing an experienced Linux user to personalize their system. Most of the gaming systems will be intentionally locked so that other systems will be unable to run, so the PlayStation is unconventional in allowing this. The only thing that is not possible with the PS3 is to run accelerated graphics.

The PlayStation 3 isn’t the first gaming system to allow Linux. The Xbox also utilizes this feature, but the PS3 differs in several ways. To start with, the PS3 is more powerful. In addition, the Xbox requires an additional chip to run Linux, whereas the PS3 is capable of running it without. In fact, it’s completely free to run Linux on the PlayStation 3.

Here are some options that you have with the Linux on the PlayStation 3:

With an addition of a keyboard and mouse, the PlayStation 3 can be used like a PC. Not all PC programs are able to adapt to the PS3 environment, as least not yet, but Linux enables you many choices.

Run your own operating system. This is a great advantage to those that would prefer to personalize their system.

Make sure of the Internet. You can search the web on your PS3 with the Firefox internet browser.

Use the office software package. Although, at present it’s been reported that Windows doesn’t’ run that well on the PS3. However, in the future, Microsoft may consider creating a version of Windows that can run on the PlayStation 3. There is no official word on this at the moment.

Run various kinds of emulators. This will allow you to play of your favourite games of yesteryear on your brand new PlayStation 3.

Play a variety of media types, such as CD’s, DVD’s and ROM’s. With Linux running, you can listen to music or watch movies on your PS3

Connect to share networks. This will enable you to save and retrieve file on a outside server, meaning a saving in memory.

There is one slight problem with getting Linux on your PlayStation 3 console though, and that is because it’s difficult to install and hard to use. At this moment, it’s pretty much restricted to the programmers and hobbyists. In the future, hopefully, there will be a more user interface to accompany Linux on your games console. Since PS3 emerged, most programmers liked to use Fedora Core to run Linux on their PS3’s, but there is now a new system in town called Yellow Dog, which is intended to be used specifically on the PS3. Yellow Dog is being highly rated ad gaining exposure.

Still, the best thing about Linux is that is totally free. All you need is a PlayStation 3, the necessary cable, a USB keyboard and mouse, a USB flash drive and various other accessories to make the installation run smoother… ok, so if you don’t already have all that stuff, its not really free, but Linux itself certainly is! It may not be that tough to install, if you’ve used Linux before. There is a wide choice of websites out there that provide tips on installation, and most seem to recommend Yellow Dog. You will also discover many great ideas on how to run Linux in the gaming forums.

Published By Darren Lintern