What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[Nel_Annette]

Club Nintendo is dying.  Spend'em while you got'em (even though the prizes have been pretty crap for a while now).

http://club2.nintendo.com/program-notice/

[Foggle]

Club Nintendo is dying.  Spend'em while you got'em (even though the prizes have been pretty crap for a while now).

http://club2.nintendo.com/program-notice/

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'll wait for those last surprises to go up in February, but I've got a lot of coins to spend.

I'm hoping the next program uses aspects of the Digital Deluxe Program as well as the prize system from early Club Nintendo. CN became awful in the last two years.

[talonmalon333]

Officially in the planning stages of getting a good HD TV for my gaming area. Afterward, I'll save up for a Blu-Ray player for my living room, that way the PS3 can be relocated to my bedroom and be used be used for games again, rather than just movies.

How good do Wii games look on an HD TV?

[Spark Of Spirit]

How good do Wii games look on an HD TV?

Bad.

Unless you play them through the Wii U, they look pretty awful on a HDTV.

[Commode]

They don't look too bad using composite, but yeah I still prefer to play Wii games on CRT.

[talonmalon333]

I use my Wii with the composite yellow, white, and red cords.

[Commode]

Those sound like the standard A/V cables.  For the best picture you can get out of your Wii, you want something like these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16868992004&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-General+Game+Console+Accessories-_-N82E16868992004&gclid=COrqvKTyo8MCFZSPfgodNiQAIA&gclsrc=aw.ds

Although I think if you aren't all that interested in playing GameCube games, it might be in your best interest to just invest in a Wii U.

[gunswordfist]

i started playing golden sun 2 again on friday and finally got past air rock. i know i fought every random battle on purpose but it taking me over 4 hours and 40 minutes to beat air rock's dungeon is ridiculous. then i went back to the garou village. i actually didn't know i had to go to air rock first. anyway, i came to garou to fight werewolves...and got sappy dialogue instead.

[talonmalon333]

Those sound like the standard A/V cables.  For the best picture you can get out of your Wii, you want something like these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16868992004&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-General+Game+Console+Accessories-_-N82E16868992004&gclid=COrqvKTyo8MCFZSPfgodNiQAIA&gclsrc=aw.ds

Although I think if you aren't all that interested in playing GameCube games, it might be in your best interest to just invest in a Wii U.

Thanks. I'll definitely consider getting those, once we get that new TV, since I do still play GC games.

[Daxdiv]

I'll wait for those last surprises to go up in February, but I've got a lot of coins to spend.

I'm hoping the next program uses aspects of the Digital Deluxe Program as well as the prize system from early Club Nintendo. CN became awful in the last two years.

That's my plan as well. I'm gonna wait to see what CN is offering in February and see what I can spend my coins on. That and curious about the next program they have in stores.

[Foggle]

How good do Wii games look on an HD TV?

Bad.

Unless you play them through the Wii U, they look pretty awful on a HDTV.

The Wii looks just fine on an HDTV if you use Component cables. You can buy some for around $5.

Hell, even the PS2 ain't bad on an HDTV if you've got S-Video.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Fun Fact: I've hooked up my N64 and played Ocarina of Time on an HDTV. Even with the expanded ratio for widescreen, the game looked just fine, and the textures were even a little clearer than they appeared on any SDTV.  That said, this was a bulky older model Sony HDTV (we're talking about 2005, here), so it's likely that it was built with SD video in mind, since this was still before last-gen consoles came out.

[Commode]

Was it a flat panel TV or a CRT HDTV?  If it was flat panel, you might have been using S-video, which would make it look alright.  Or it may have been a plasma display, which would look better than a LCD TV. 

N64, and really anything from that generation, are notorious for looking awful on LCD TVs(8 and 16 bit games for the most part look fine, however the input lag is another issue).  There is a bit of a movement towards using an upscaler to play them on HDTV's, but I haven't messed with any of those to know how well they work.  If you have the space I advocate getting a CRT, since they are dirt cheap/in many cases free; I have a 19" JVC that I got for free that I use for my retro gaming needs and it works great, but I've also got the room for it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm not familiar with all of the technical details, but it definitely wasn't an SD flat-panel TV. It was a 55" widescreen Sony HDTV, and it even had the HD AV cable pin ports that you would only see with HDTVs. I don't know if it qualifies as having LCD or not, but the picture quality in general isn't nearly as sharp as you see on more current model HDTVs.