Mac Wii-lated
I got up at 6 am yesterday to wait in line for a Wii at the local Gamestop. Really local. Like 7 minutes away local. (I had no idea it was that close.) It’s a good thing I did too. Their most recent shipment only contained 8 Wiis. I arrived fourth in line and the five through eight spots filled up minutes after I got there. I picked up an extra Wiimote/nunchuk pair and Twilight Princess as well.
I’ve never been a huge Zelda fan, and after playing through Final Fantasy XII the art direction, sparse voice acting and polygon count in Twilight Princess leaves a lot to be desired. That one of the first tasks in the game involves herding goats (“GOAT IN?”) doesn’t do much to improve the first impression. Where the system really shines is with the pack-in, Wii Sports. Specifically Wii Bowling. My left leg and right arm are sore today. Fortunately, after day one there were no broken TVs—or faces.
This morning as I punched into the internets I remembered coming across a couple of Mac apps that work with the Wii and remote. I thought I would compile them here and solicit recommendations for other interop apps.
- WiiSaber (does exactly what you think it would)
- Wii Transfer (drag-and-drop Wii-compatible video conversion)
- DarwiinRemote (use the Wiimote as a Bluetooth remote)
013 Comments
My brother managed to nab me a Wii yesterday I haven’t seen it yet (he’ll be delivering it Wednesday, probably), but I’m stoked. We had one in the office for a few days and it was a blast — way more fun than the PS3 we have now. Can’t wait to have my own. :)
What I’d really like to do, if I had the money, would be to string up a series of 30” displays on my wall, create the world’s largest Photoshop canvas, and grab the Wiimote and tag up my apartment wall. At the very least, it would make for a great installation at a museum, where guests could continually graffiti the canvas.
Sorry, I stopped reading when you said you didn’t like Zelda. ;) Seriously, though. Keep playing, it’s a great game.
Wow. Up here in the Portland area Wii’s are hard to come by. I hopped in line at a local Target at 2:30am, and there were already 11 people ahead of me. By the time they handed out tickets at 7am, there were over 80 people in line. They only had 18 units to sell that day.
I’ve yet to pick up a Wii. I’ll probably get one sometime after xmas, when the rush dies down. I’m not really a morning person :P
What other games would you consider buying?
Jeff, I wouldn’t count that chicken before it hatches—unless your brother already has one. ;)
Michael, why 30” displays and not a LCD projector? Might be a bit more economical. ;)
Wilson, no worries there. Once I caught a damn fish (two actually, the cat didn’t go for the first one) it started to pick up.
Brett, the Targets were crazy around here too. I think mainstream publicity has ruined any chance of strolling into a Target or Walmart and just picking one up. The niche gaming stores seem to have the shortest lines from what I’ve heard. Sounds like you scored one though.
Oliver, for launch titles Rayman Raving Rabbids looks interesting, as does the Dragon Ball Z game. I’ll probably pick up the new Mario, Mario Kart, Metroid, and Final Fantasy games as they come out.
My housemate pre-ordered a Wii but was unable to pick it up the day they came out, the store rang him and told him if he didn’t collect it first thing the next morning they would sell it. Not a lot of help when you aren’t actually in the town for the weekend. Shocker!
I’d seriously like to play one though, would love to get one after Christmas sometime!
I used nintendofinder dot com — thought it might be a scam, but for a few bucks I was willing to give it a test. Two days later — Wii purchased online (along with extra remote/nunchuk and zelda). I kept my subscription for a bit just to see if I could continually hit the online stores when they got new shipments — I’d say it worked 25% of the time. Beats having all the local stores on speed dial though. :)
Shaun, I’m ashamed to admit it, but it literally took me about 20 minutes to catch a fish the first time.
Still waiting to see the DarwiinRemote framework picked up in one of the remote-control-your-mac apps so I can use it on my living room mini.
He actually got two (had a friend with him). So yeah, he has one. He got in line at best Buy at 11:30pm on Saturday in order to get them Sunday morning. Crazy.
Shaun,
I totally agree with you on Wii Bowling - have you gotten Power Bowling yet? It’s even better than normal bowling.
Also, you should check out wiihaveaproblem.com to see some real disasters (catchy domain name too!)
Steve
Power Bowling? Is that the Training program where you have to knock down eleventy billion pins? I just reached Pro status after bowling a 256. I had a Turky and Fifth (!) run and two other decent rolls.
I have to admit, I haven’t been into gaming for a long time. I just haven’t had the luxury of time the past year. However, the Wii has always had me interested in maybe doing some casual gaming…probably to just keep my sanity, which is somewhat lacking these days.
If I do get one, it will be sometime next year. I couldn’t stand in line for hours. I’d probably go nuts.