DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Fantasy & Gaming I *heart* Wii!

Stay in 2nd place so the person in front of you gets hit with the blue shell then you coast into first place.

I thought he was talking about some kind of cheat at first but it appears he's just mad about the killer blue shell.

I've gotten burned by it a number of times but it's not like it happens every race or anything.....and I love when it happens to the guy in front of me and I win.

I can't imagine that ruining the game for someone.

Okay, that's what I was trying to figure out. It is a cheat. And that sucks.

It's these cheats that pretty much made me stop playing on-line (except with friends, which I don't have my Mario Kart game right now, my brother is still has it). I had the same issue with people in MOHH2, you can unload on someone and they won't go down, they shot you once and you're dead.

My kids still play Wii...mostly Guitar Hero. I really have not seen a title that really interested me much. I'd like to try COD World at War but won't lay out the money just hoping it might be good. Heck, I still like the plain old bowling and golf!

What I'd like to see is them do a knockoff of the old GameBoy Color title "Mario Golf". Your character advanced through practice and tournaments and it was a top notch game! Maybe there's something similar and I just have not seen it.

Question about my wii and my new 47" 1080p lcd. I have already hooked my PS3 up to a HDMI cable to my TV (outstanding). My question is I see no where to hook up HDMI cable to my wii, can it be done? I assume it will have to get hooked up through the USB ports if it can.

Frenchy, I'm pretty sure that the best the Wii can pump out is 480p so, even if there was an HDMI interface out there made specifically for the Wii (I haven't seen one), it wouldn't do you much good. I've heard that using the component HD cables do improve the overall look of the console's games, but don't expect to be wowed like you were with the PS3 HD setup.

Thanks

Browns Lifer is correct. Pick up the component cables though, they do make a difference, especially on a TV that size.

If you're an old-school junkie like me, I recommend Punch-Out!! I got chills when mac was running after doc's bike in his pink jumpsuit. The only thing I'm not crazy about is I'm not good with tv balance board. Got it on amazon for $40.

And yeah, the component cables are a must. Night and day IMO.

After checking Ebay this is what I found:

BRAND NEW, NOT REFURBISHED, NOT MADE BY NITENDO, QUALITY 3RD PARTY PRODUCT
Brand New Wii HD Component Cable. This 3rd party high definition AV cable connects the console to most TVs with interlaced component video inputs
including high definition ready TVs that support 480i and either 480p, 720p or 1080i component video signals. Look for HDTV support on Wii games
packages. Movie playback is in 480i only. High definition ready television required to enable high definition features. Enhance your video experience with these
high quality Component Cable.
Component-video connection from Wii to TVs or receivers with compatible inputs
Offers high quality signal

As it says they support hdtv's up to 1080i, I have a 1080p will they still work?

Your tv will autoscale to 480p if you have an LCD, DLP, Plasma, or LED TV. I don't think it will if you have a CRT TV (which they do make in 1080i,) but I'm not sure.

Pretty much any digital TV can downscale resolution. Also, progressive scan requires better speed than interlaced.

In this case your TV being able to support 1080p doesn't make a difference because the Wii will only be outputting 480p. However, your TV should be able to output 1080i, which is typically the HD signal which is broadcast "over-the-air" (your local network TV HD signals.) To get 1080p you pretty much need a Blu-Ray player/PS3 game. If that's what you're rockin' buy the HDMI. But for goodness sakes buy it online... you can get for $6 online what will cost you $50 at Best Buy when it comes to HDMI cables. It's a digital standard... there's no signal quality issues.

j/c

Does anyone know how to get that fast start off the line on Mario Kart?

You have to accelerate immediately after the second light goes off and then pull back on the wheel like you do to do a wheelie as soon as the third light goes off.

For anyone interested in what Nintendo announced at E3 this past week:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/992/992000p1.html

Few quick points, Nintendo announced two new Mario games (Galaxy 2 and Super Mario Bros Wii) along with new Zelda and Metroid game for wii.

SMB Wii is going to be awesome

jc

Anyone have any tips for beating Mr Sandman in Punch Out?

Punch him and don't let him punch you.

Powerful Ideas: Wii Aids Doctors and Patients


The popular Nintendo Wii console offers video games that venture into the world of exercise, but scientists now are taking it further, to help doctors heal the body.

The key behind the Wii is its motion-sensitive wireless controller, the Wii Remote, or the "Wiimote," with which players control actions on screen. Players can swing the controller to simulate countless realistic motions, such as swatting a baseball for a home run. Such technology is becoming increasingly popular - at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Sony and Microsoft both revealed motion-sensitive game controllers.

Playing with the Wii could help surgeons in training improve their fine motor skills and performance in a surgical simulator. Eight trainees were asked to play the Wii for an hour before performing virtual laparoscopic surgery with a tool that simulates a patient's body and tracks the surgeon's movements as he or she operates.

The Wii-playing residents scored 48 percent higher than others without the warm-up with the Wii, working faster and more accurately.

Although the researchers first relied on off-the-shelf Wii games, they will soon release a complete surgical training system they designed for the Wii, where trainees can practice suturing and other procedures.

"There's really no accurate way to train surgeons in the operating room, so it's virtually all the on-the-job training, which is very time-inefficient," explained researcher Mark Smith, an endoscopic surgeon at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Arizona. "There are surgery simulators out there, but these are still very expensive. With the Wii, we have a very easy and inexpensive platform where surgery residents can learn and develop their skills."

"You can even have the surgeons train at home," added researcher Kanav Kahol, a biomedical informatician at Arizona State University. Although the Wii could help surgeons train in virtually any surgical specialty, the researchers are especially interested in using the console to teach robotic surgery, where surgeons can use robots for precise, minimally invasive procedures or to help patients at remote locations.

The Wii is also helping patients with Parkinson's disease gain or maintain their independence with physical activities. Occupational therapists at Medical College of Georgia are using the console with patients to help them exercise.

"One of the therapists uses the Wii for timing and loosening up, and the other uses it for coordination and balance issues," said researcher Ben Herz. "These therapists are thinking way out of the box. They're doing activities that will make a difference in these participants' lives based on what we know about Parkinson's."

Doctors at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are using the Wii to help scan through an ever-increasing workload of patient X-ray and MRI images.

Instead of spending hours at a time navigating through pictures using basic keyboard and mouse clicks, which can lead to repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, one cycles through scans with the Wii by just rotating the wrist.

"The remote is very intuitive," explained George Shih, a radiologist at Weill Cornell Medical College, who with his colleagues helped develop the system that links the Wii remote to the diagnostic computer.

At Weill, "Wii-habilitation" therapists are using the console to help patients with burn injuries. For such patients, moving and stretching the skin is very painful, but crucial for a successful recovery.

"If a burn injury is near joints, the healing process makes the skin tight, so the natural tendency is not to move normally," said Roger Yurt, chief of burn surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "However, if the patients don't, the joint itself starts to get stiff, so right from the beginning after a significant burn injury, patients have to start doing physical therapy."

The researchers have found that Wii games not only help the burn patients exercise as they need to, but "get their mind off their disease, accomplish the objectives of the therapy without being routine and boring and monotonous," said researcher and physical therapist Sam Yohannan at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

"If they're in for multiple surgeries, for an extended period of time, it gives them a little bit of escape, doing some sort of sport with scenery that's typically outdoors," Yohannan added. "And it also improves socialization, and that's a big part of burn rehabilitation and therapy, to get social support."

Such research, or "Wii-search" as Yohannan said he sometimes calls it, "is very cutting edge, and there will be a lot more in the future, to see why and how games can better improve the health of patients. It's a great and inexpensive technology."



http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090617/sc_livescience/powerfulideaswiiaidsdoctorsandpatients