For those of you who bought an original Nintendo Wii, you would have tried the Wii Sports game that comes along with the entire package. A few of the sports available are; Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling and Boxing.
They are all good fun. I personally love the bowling, tennis and golf games. Apart from working out a sweat, it also promotes interaction esp with the opponent, spectators as well as with the console.
Bowling is pretty realistic and its fun to see how ppl scream and shout at the console hoping that the ball will end up where its supposed to. It definately makes you feel like you’re in the bowling alley. The plus point is that you don’t have to pay expensive lane fees for each new game!
As for Golf, its also nice fun because it creates the feeling that you’re actually playing the game without being in the hot sun. Of course I can’t play real golf for nuts but when I chalk up some experience, I’d try out the Tiger Woods golf game, which seems to be more technical. A little mistake there would cost you dearly! For now Wii Golf is nice and simple and suits my needs
Won’t be turning PRO soon I guess.Tennis would have to be my 2nd favourite Wii Sport but it does get a little tiring especially when you’re trying hard to return the perfect shot to your opponent. Plus I have not yet mastered how to perform ACE SERVES yet. There has to be a way to do it right? My nephew does it all the time effortlessly but that’s from just waving the controller left and right infront of him. Not by any means a realistic serve. But if it works… what the heck!
Boxing on the Wii seems retarted. Perhaps I’m not doing it right but the shots are too limited and non-responsive. The system doesn’t seem to detect jabs too well. It also can’t do hooks, upper cuts, body shots & etc. Definitely not the FIGHT NIGHT experience but it does work out a sweat nonetheless.
As for Baseball… well… I suck at swinging the bat. Seem to miss or contact it at the wrong time. Those who indulge in this are reminded to put on the STRAP. If you happen to lose the grip on the controller, that’s the only thing stopping it from flying at warp speed towards someone or something friendly. Â
All in all the FISHER PRICE Mii characters are cute and make the entire Wii Sports experience a pleasure without putting too much seriousness realism in the game. Nintendo has done right by including such a simple yet innovative game that highlights the features of the Wii.
July 18th, 2007
1. Press the home button on the main menu. Next click on the controller image. You can adjust the wii-mote volume and rumble functions.
2. Hold a and b down and you can move the windows on the main menu around.
3. In order to add someone to your friend’s list you BOTH have to enter each other’s Number ID and Console Nickname to be able to send messages and Mii’s.
4. Want your plain-looking Wii to have some style? Add a blue light around you CD drive anytime the console is on by doing the following:
Go to your email from the home menu, and add your personal computer email address to your address book. Wait ~1 hour for the email (mine took at least this long) Reply to the email from your computer. In a few minutes, you will have an email waiting for you on your Wii. Don’t read it! As long as it remains new, you have a pretty blue light!
5. In wii sports bowling, you can release on the back swing and throw the ball backwards. It scares all the miis behind you.
6. Email A Wii: You can email any Wii that you know the Friend code for. The Email address will be w(Wii Number here)@wii.com. For Example: w1234567891011@wii.com
7. Get rid of Generic Teammates/Spectators: The Wii will automatically use the other Miis in your Plaza as teammates and spectators in certain Wii sports games. Create friends and family, and you can get rid of the generic Miis.
8. Register and Extend Warranty: Register your Console on Nintendo.com, get a free 90 day extension to your warranty.
9. Get Free Nintendo Power: Register 3 Nintendo products on Nintendo.com, and get 3 months of Nintendo Power free.
10. Extra Parts: There are two parts to the Wii in your box that you may either not find, or never know what they are. The first is a Clear Disc piece. This piece fits under your Wii stand to Stabalize it’s balance. The second is a Small(1″ - 1.5″) plastic Piece. This piece is the stand for the Sensor bar. It puts some disntance between your TV and the bar. In theory, that should give you a better angle reception.
11. Get Miis in your parade: Setting your Miis to Mingle, and having your friends do the same thing will soon have Miis walking around in your parade. Your friends’ Miis will wonder over to your console and parade around, so long as they are set to Mingle. You can then grab them and send them to your Plaza so you have a copy.
12. In Zelda, the direction Link spins when doing a spin attack depends on which way you spin your nunchuck.
13. In Wii Sports Bowling, when you press up on the Directional Pad, it will zoom in on the lane. The zoom in sound is the exact same sound from Super Mario 64 anytime you moved the camera.
14. If you go to the Channel section in your menu you can choose to save VC games on a SD card.
15. In LOZ:TP if you keep it at the start screen for an extended period of time, it plays an extremely extended trailer that they didn’t show to the general public.
16. On hole 3 of Wii Sports Golf, there is a small section of fairway at about a 45 degree angle to the left from the tee box. It is a small patch surrounded by Out Of Bound-ness. If you can land your ball on there, you can easily make it on the green in 2, to to Eagle the course.
17. Wii Video 9 - Wii Video Converter
Wii Video 9 is a free video conversion application developed by Red Kawa. It allows you to convert your computer video files (like avi, divx, mpeg, etc.) into the specific video formats that are playable on the Wii.
Wii Video 9 can also be combined with Videora, another software application, and together they can let you automatically download and convert video for your Wii using BitTorrent and RSS technology.
18. In the Wii menus, turn your wrist and the hand cursor will also turn.
19. While your Wii is powered down you can press any button on your Wiimote and lights will flash. The number of lights flashing is the amount of charge left in your battery (1 is least charge, 4 is most charge).
20. In Wii Bowling, if you aim right to any lane near you, you can throw your ball there, but you won’t hit any pins unless you aim right.
21. Zelda. You can skip cutscenes in Zelda by hitting the - button. You must have at least seen the cutscene once, however.
22. Wii Bowling easter egg YouTube - Wii Sports Bowling Easter Egg
23. When you purchase a virtual console title and Mario runs across the screen, if you happen to get fire flower Mario, you can shoot fireballs with the A button.
24. When looking at your messages press a+b and you can move the messages around. If you have a lot of messages then you can arrange them in this manner or you can just delete them.
25. In the Photo Channel, you can catch the evil cat that runs across the screen to get tips! It appears in the Fun option, and you can grab the cat with the A and B button.
26. You can have a 194 piece puzzle by holding down the 1 button before selecting any piece amount.
27. when you get an e-mail, not only does the disc drive light up and pulsate blue, but your Wiimote sends out a little chirp
28. when you’re in the Mii channel and you don’t use the Wiimote for a little bit and your Mii’s start walking around, if you then suddenly use the Wiimote, all the Mii stop and follow the ‘hand’ for about 3 seconds.
29. If you hold the SYNC button down on the Wii for 15 seconds, it will clear all synced Wii Remotes from the console.
30. Hold the B button and point to the direction you want to go in the Mii channel and you can scroll around the screen. You can see all the Miis without arranging them.
31. Press down on the control pad while watching a video to change the voices, if you change the mood on a video the sounds will be affected too.
32. With Wii forecast, you can rotate the globe on a different axis by turning/twisting the remote.
33. if the weather shows rain when you check it, you will hear the sound of rain and the same for thunder.
34. The weather channel will affect your in-game weather on Wii games.
35. Hit left and right on the dpad in the Weather Channel Globe to change the icons between the various options.
36. You Can Use The Right Analog Stick On The Classic Controller To Navigate The Wii Menu.
37. I have just found when on the main menu on Wii Play were you select which game you want to play you can click on various places on your Mii and he/she will perform different poses and facial expressions.
38. In the globe view in the weather forecast channel, if you grab the world and give it a quick flick the world will go spinning (it works better if you zoom out with the - button) you can only really spin it east or west cause it gets stuck on the poles. This has no real value unless you wanted to choose some random city in the world.
39. If you’re winning in Wii Sports Baseball by 4 or 5 points, the pitcher on the other team will start sweating.
40. On the Beta Version of Opera, there are two files. One is in the Wii channel for the browser itself. The other is in the same area as game saves. If you delete the file, it clears the cache and cookies resulting in keeping the experience snappy.
41. When viewing photos in the photo channel, press B to create a pixilated circle for censoring The size of the circle depends on how close your remote is to the TV.
42. Wii Tennis: When you get to the screen (in 1 player) where there is a picture of 2 yous and 2 “?” press on them and they will change between “?” and u so u can play against yourself or just watch a match.
43. In bowling when the bowling game is loading you can press different directions on the D-pad to change the color of your ball.
44. In Wii boxing you can have your character do poses by moving your hands around. Example, put both hands up in the air as if you just won a victory.
45. In Wii Play: On the game selection screen poke your Mii’s arms, legs, face and torso with the (A) button and see what happens…
46. In Wii Play, leave the main game select title page on and do nothing. After a while you character Mii’s will fall asleep and the music will change to a more nite nite twinkley sound.
47. In tennis, hold the two button during the warning screen right until the positions screen loads up for a blue court (the one from training).
48. The number of coins mario gets when downloading VC games is the same as the number of blocks of memory it takes up.
49. After beating the Boxing champ - Matt - you can get silver boxing gloves. To wear - Hold (1) when the screen goes black before a match.
50. Press 2 while pitching in Wii Sports Baseball and you’ll pitch side-armed.
51. When loading WII NEWS grab the cat that appears at the top of the loading screen to get some tips.
52. If you click on the loading cats on the news channel each one will make a different pitched noice a bit like a miaow. They act as a kind of keyboard.
53. To Make Your Mii’s Pants Red… Select Them As A “Favorite”
To Make Them Blue, You Must Send The Mii To SOmeone, And Have Them Send It Back To You.
54. Go to http://wiiminder.com whilst on the opera browser to have tabbed wii browsing
55. In the boxing, if you dodge a punch it will do a slow motion type sound and the screen will blurr a bit. If you quickly hit your opponent when this happens it will do a special punch that hits really hard.
56. When in the doodle mode of the Photo channel, when you add things like glasses, or lip marks, or hearts, or whatever, if you move your remote closer or further away from the screen, the images you put on the picture get smaller or larger depending on the distance from the screen
57. You can add more Miis in Parade and audiences. Use Wii Sports to do it:
1. Make about 10 Mii’s.
2. Transfer those Mii’s to your Wiimote.
3. Delete the Mii’s that are transfered to the Wiimote out of the plaza.
4. Start up Wii Sports.
5 When given the option of which Mii to use during gameplay choose the option to get the Mii from the Wii Remote.
6. After viewing the Mii’s on the Wiimote back out by using the B button.
7. Exit out of Wii Sports and back onto the Wii Menu.
Now check the Mii parade and all 10 of the Miis that were on the Wiimote are in the parade. Now if you dont want the Miis on the Wiimote just delete them off. These Miis will now show up in all Wii Sports games that have an audience.
July 8th, 2007
As part of the whole process of enjoying the unit, I had to try every single feature on the Wii. One of the problems I encountered since obtaining the unit was a problem with connecting to my WiFi Router. When I first brought the Wii back from the shop, they have already downloaded the “Internet Channel” from the “Wii Shop”. Detecting the WiFi from the unit was easily done. Even a manual setup was easily done. Both yielded positive connection test results.
Problem was this, how am I able to connect to the “Internet Channel” but was unable to connect to the “Wii Shop”. What this means is that if the shop where I purchased the Wii from did not download the Internet Channel Opera Browser for me, I had no way of doing it myself since I could not get connected to the Wii Shop in the first place to download it. Confusing? Well… basically, my unit even though could surf the internet via the Internet Channel via the Opera Browser, it was unable to connect to the Wii Shop.
After much surfing around, I found I wasn’t alone in this matter… and after lots of testing, I (think) I finally managed to find the problem which had something to do with my SMC2804WBR Router setting. First of all, I have to say that the WiFi connection on the Wii is very tempermental. It’s not as solidly built as other WiFi equipments. I had checked various settings like:
- Broadcast SSiD naming (mine is named with periods in the middle of the name, so I thought that affected the Wii’s ability). I changed it to a single name without special characters and tried…. but this was not the cause
- I had to disable Firewall (Mac Address Filtering in particular) as I thought that affected the Wii
- I limited the Channel to 1 (as advised over the many forums out there) and it seems to work for me. I have yet to try another Channel. But this is also not the Main problem (though this was a setting I had to change on my existing router)
- Transmission Rate. This I deduce to be the problem. When I used AUTO, it seems to have problems. When I used 1Mbps, it also had problems. However when I set it at 2Mbps, the connection to the Wii shop was very consistent. So what does this mean? The Wii has compatibility problems with my SMC WiFi Router. My router was unable to set the Transmission Rate for the Wii so I had to stick it at 2Mbps before the connection was stable.
Next… I’m going to try to change the Channel to AUTO and see if that affects the connection. However I’m glad that its working now and I think I’ll save the testing for another day. I have “wasted” a good 3 days or so trying to troubleshoot this problem with numerous reboot of the Router and Wii. Luckily they’re not as slow as Windows is to boot up else I would be bald from pulling my hair out of frustration!
Hooray for a working Wii! The WiFi on it still sucks however. Not as problem free as I would have thought. Proof of this problem is all over the net… even on Nintendo’s support website.
Anyway for the sake of those who might have problems with their Wii WiFi, you can try the following:Â
- SSiD Broadcast can be On or Off (Better ON for easy searching for an access point else you have to set up the connection MANUALLY)
- SSiD can be nammed with periods in them like a domain name. It doesn’t matter but its best to stick with just AlphaNumeric Characters.
- CHANNEL ID - Set to 11 as 1 did not work for me
- TRANSMISSION RATE - 2 Mbps (maximum). Anything more or less seems to create problems to the Wii Shop
- WIRELESS MODE: Long Range Mixed (11b + 11g) *The Wii only supports 11b.Â
- G NITRO: Enabled (Without Problems but you might want to try to turn yours off)
- FIREWALL MAC ADDRESS FILTERING can be switched on. But ensure your Wii’s MAC Address is entered into your Router
That’s about it! I wish you luck on your setup and hope this article helps. Hmm… time to get online and send my Mii running around to my friends’ units.
July 5th, 2007
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I was informed by a friend yesterday during dinner about Apple Computer Inc’s new phone, called the iPhone. I went to apple’s site today and checked it out on Quicktime and yes, I was truly blown away!
If the phone was readily available now, I’d go pick it up! Unfortunately it will only be released in US around July and Europe will only get it by the 4th Quarter of 2007 and Asia will only get it in 2008. What’s the date today? It’s only Jan 12! That means I have at least 353 more days to wait! In the meanwhile, there is one year for other companies to work on to change my mind. If Nokia is innovative enough, they will not lose a loyal customer like myself. Let’s see what they will be able to offer…
So what’s so great about the iPhone? EVERYTHING! It’s basically an IPOD, PHONE and INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE. All three items built into one sleek looking phone which has no buttons apart from the Sleep-Wake Button on the top right hand side. All other buttons are virtually built into the touch screen.
A host of toys are available on the iPhone, ranging from smooth butter like scrolling displays, to OS X operating system to high screen resolutions for movies, photos & graphics. There are even different sensors built in like the proximity sensor which switches off the touch screen when the phone is placed near your face to avoid accidentally “keypresses”. There’s an “Accelerometer” which basically detects whether the device is in Portrait or Landscape mode, thus changing the display, features and orientation automatically. The last sensor would be the ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen based on the ambient light where the unit is housed. Cool or what !?!?
There are basically two models available, the 4GB or the 8GB model. The recommended selling price in US with a contract with Cingular is about USD499 for the 4GB model and USD599 for the 8GB Model. That works out to only about RM2150 or so… which I feel is very affordable especially if everything is in one cool devide like the iphone.
Technical Specifications
 |
| Screen size |
3.5 inches |
| Screen resolution |
320 by 480 at 160 ppi |
| Input method |
Multi-touch |
| Operating system |
OS X |
| Storage |
4GB or 8GB |
| GSM |
Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900) |
| Wireless data |
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0 |
| Camera |
2.0 megapixels |
| Dimensions |
4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm |
| Weight |
4.8 ounces / 135 grams |
|
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This phone is definately on my wishlist for next Christmas…
In the meanwhile, here’s a good read at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/10/tech/main2349900.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_2349900Â which describes the lawsuit Cisco has filed against Apple for using the trademark name iPhone in their products. Cisco says they own the name, Apple says the products are different thus justifying the use of it. Who do you think will win? This will be interesting to follow. But even if Apple loses and renames the phone to a simple “Phone”,… iWantOne and iStillWantOne!
January 12th, 2007
Is Astro Max as good as they say? Here’s my personal account on what its like to use Astro Max.
I managed to get hold of an Astro Max unit due to Astro’s initiative to reward faithful existing clients the opportunity to experience this new service via free upgrade of our existing unit with a brand spanking new Astro Max unit. With that…. who can complain?
I was happy to hear of the free upgrage from their notification letter and quickily called the Astro center to have the upgrade sent to us asap. I was informed that it will take about 3 weeks to have the unit delivered over but to my surprise again, it was delivered by one of their agents only after 3 days.
During installation we had to change a “receptor?” on the satalite dish because apparantly one of the sensors in it was damaged. What used to work for the old Astro unit will no longer work for the new Astro Max unit. This is because the new Astro Max unit requires all the sensors or receptors to work properly before it is able to operate properly. The changing of the part cost like RM80.00 (if I remember correctly) so… so much for the FREE upgrade. In any case, we’re still happy to receive the free unit F.O.C.
The Astro Max unit is touted to have various features:
- Pause Live TV
- Rewind Live TV
- Records 60 hours of Live TV
- Watch another show while recording another
Astro MAX highlights:
- 80GB hard disk drive.
- 60 hours of programme storage capacity.
- 2 tuners - watch two time-conflicting programmes.
- Creates a 30 minute buffer in the programme you are currently watching.
- Lets you control live TV with pause, rewind, instant replay, slow-motion and frame by frame.
- Fully integrated with the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) for easy to use recording
My Personal Experience (after a couple of months usage):
PROS
-
I like the recording capability of Astro Max. The fact that we can record while watching another channel is a good plus point
-
Furthermore the ability to set the unit to record at a pre-designated time and interval is also useful.
-
The rewinding feature while watching Live TV has also been used but not all the time. Its good to have none the less.
-
The fast forwarding feature for pre-recorded shows are a good feature. I find myself fast forwarding past all the adverts. I wonder how they can charge as much now to advertisers. Most people will just fast forward through them right? … unless you’re dead bored and would watch anything out there.
CONS
- Unlike old Astro units, this Astro Max unit takes ages to load! When you click on a button from stand-by or start-up it boots up like a PC. After all it is somewhat like a PC with a 80GB Hard Disk in it. This is what you see when you start up….
- I have experienced lots of software issues with the unit. Luckily they’re really not that life threatening and I can close one eye and “reboot” when I am faced with such situations. I wonder if it uses a Microsoft Windows operating system… what’s with the reboots? Anyway some of the software problems I have encountered are:
Slow Startups. It takes up to 20 seconds or more for the unit to start showing a channel. The old units will normally display a channel within a couple of seconds.- Auto Checking and Updating of unit when starting up and sometime while watching astro
- Channel Information sometimes does not show up automatically at all when changing channel. All I see is a channel number without the name of the channel. Everything else is blank. I will need to press the INFO button before I can see the name of the channel and also name of the show.
- Unable to record certain channels. Sometimes I will be able to records Channel 30 WLT but sometimes it doesn’t even give me the option. I am sure this is not limited to Channel 30. Why is it I can record sometimes and I can’t at others?
Unable to start and watch pre-recorded shows during rain or poor signal strength. How frustrating have you felt when you want to watch astro and it starts to rain? Ok so you decide to watch pre-recorded shows… After all they are pre-recorded and you don’t need signal strength to watch it. But then, due to some unknown reason (probably software related rather than hardware), the unit is not able to start up without proper signal even though you are planning to watch pre-recorded MYMAX shows.- Hanging of machine. What’s new here? In order to get out of hanging, pressing any other button will not help. You actually need to swicth off the wall switch and back on again and keep your fingers crossed that the unit will boot up correctly. Of course in the meanwhile, you will need to wait for the starting up again. Sometimes it takes up to three reboots to get things to work properly. What gives?
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Would I purchase my own Astro Max? - The answer to this is perhaps NO. Though it has all the perks listed above, it also has all the problems listed above. For ordinary Astro users, I think the old units will do just fine. However if Astro is able to address my concerns above and have them rectified, I think it Astro Max would be the way to go. After all, the features are good things to have. But from how I see it, Astro Max still needs a lot of tweeking to carry out. The hardware might have limitations but the software is definately way below par.
NOTE: This article is based on personal experience and need not be a full and complete representation on all users of Astro Max.
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To find out more about ASTRO MAX service you can find it here at
http://www.astro.com.my/astromax/
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November 5th, 2006
Wario Ware Smooth Moves is one game that should not be missed by any Nintendo Wii owner. This is another innovative game that highlights the capabilities of the Wii. It also highlights the uses of the controller which can be held in a variety of ways. Each method of holding the controller has a unique name and some of them are: The Waiter (holding the controller like how a waiter holds his tray), The Umbrella (holding the controller upright like how you’d hold an umbrella), The Elephant (holding the controller infront of your nose making it look like an elephant’s trunk), The Remote (holding it like a remote control), The Handlebar (holding it with both hands like how you would hold a bicycle’s handlebar), The Artist (holding it like how you’ll hold a pen), etc etc… you get the picture.
Last week out of spontaneity, I decide to purchase a video game console after eons since my last one. What did I use to own? Oh… just a simple Sony PlayStation (ONE). Anyway this time round, the contenders were an X-BOX 360, PlayStation 3 or a Nintendo Wii.
