will they ever make an external hd of some sort for the wii

[Kangum]

I am running out of space for virtual console games. I think its because I have all the n64 ones and they take up alot of space. Anyway i was wondering if they had plans to make an external hd or use the built in removable sd card slot for the vc. Anyone have any idea or hear any rumors?

Im afraid they wont use either because they are paranoid people will swap and trade vc games. maybe nintendo can compensate somehow and select 1 random file from each game and leave it on the internal hd space and the rest on the sd slot. this would make the game only work on its own system and take up 2% of the space.

[Howard_Casto]

Well the VC games are heavily encrypted and only play on the system they are downloaded from, so THAT isn't the reason. 

Anyway, the short of your question is no, nintendo won't ever release a hdd, simply because there isn't any money in it for them to do so.  With that being said, I think nyko is working on one.  Of course who knows what kind of support it'll get seeing as it isn't an official product.  My guess is it'll be like the sd cards in that you can merely store things on it and you can't play anything until it's transferred to the wii.

My honest suggestion is to get a larger sd card. 

[Green Giant]

Legally - NO,

Illegally - Yes.  Its only a matter of time before a modchip allows an external harddrive to run games and more.

[SavannahLion]

Did Nintendo ever get off their programming thumbs and enable SD support for the virtual games?

I was under the impression that the SD card was largely useless in its current context due to the Wii's inability to actually save anything worthwhile to the SD card and still pull data off as required. I remember a bunch of hoopla early in the Wii pre-release media about hwo the SD card was going to be an extension of the internal memory. Instead it turned into some sort of castrated memory management thing where you had to literally jump through hoops to save or extract anything to/from the card.

If Nintendo isn't going to leverage the SD card fully, I see zero reason for them to even consider an external hard drive.

[Kangum]

Yeah... I've got a 1GB card in mine.... that's a ton of VC titles potentially.... how many have you downloaded???

 

ive downloaded about 3 wii pages worth. i have all the n64 titles. all the zeldas. all the marios. metroid, kid icarus and many more. i love having them all at the touch of a finger. I love the wii interface. the limited space is a real drag though. i dont want to have to swap stuff.

[ChadTower]

Jesus... how much did all of that cost?

[shardian]

Yeah... I've got a 1GB card in mine.... that's a ton of VC titles potentially.... how many have you downloaded???

 

ive downloaded about 3 wii pages worth. i have all the n64 titles. all the zeldas. all the marios. metroid, kid icarus and many more. i love having them all at the touch of a finger. I love the wii interface. the limited space is a real drag though. i dont want to have to swap stuff.

Wow.
Just curious, but do you realize that if something happens to your system in which it requires service, you lose all of that?

[ChadTower]

That is what I was wondering - what if the storage medium craps out on him?

[shardian]

Wow.
Just curious, but do you realize that if something happens to your system in which it requires service, you lose all of that?

Nope, not true.  Nintendo tracks what you've purchased and it's been reported online that they either replace the games or comp you the points.

That's the first I've ever heard of that. That is good. I wonder if Xbox has the same policy.

[AtomSmasher]

Wow.
Just curious, but do you realize that if something happens to your system in which it requires service, you lose all of that?

Nope, not true.  Nintendo tracks what you've purchased and it's been reported online that they either replace the games or comp you the points.

After they replaced my broken system, all I had to do was redownload the games I had purchased.  They just transfer your store account to the new system.

[versapak]

Wow.
Just curious, but do you realize that if something happens to your system in which it requires service, you lose all of that?

Nope, not true.  Nintendo tracks what you've purchased and it's been reported online that they either replace the games or comp you the points.

That's the first I've ever heard of that. That is good. I wonder if Xbox has the same policy.

MS does track your purchases, and you can always redownload anything you have purchased, but...

When you buy a game, it is tied to both the serial number of the console and your Live account.


If you have your system replaced by MS, then supposedly you can just redownload the stuff, and it will be reset to the new console. If you get it replaced via a store replacement plan or upgrade to a different 360, like the elite, then you are SOL.

Those games are still tied to the serial number of the old console, and you can only play them if you are logged into Live with the account that made the original purchase.

[Kangum]

Jesus... how much did all of that cost?

not really keeping track honestly. ive had my wii quite awhile. usually once a week or 2 i throw 20 bucks on there or whatever and grab 2 or 3 games depending wich ones. i didnt just go out and buy all that at once. this is something that has grown over the months.

the games can be redownloaded ive heard if you accidently lose data since your account is tracked. so im not that worried. id still rather have a larger medium to store it all on.