Codename Nintendo Revolution, the Wii is Nintendo's new Blue Ocean strategy manifested. Nintendo has chosen to forgoe the traditional route slaving away to graphics processing and focus on new and innovative control mechanisms. This strategy has found massive success with the Nintendo DS and the touch and dual screens, and which Nintendo looks to replicate in the console space with a motion and pointer sensitive remote controller.
Nintendo has a great online manual that should answer all your questions [link].
Nintendo Wii Hardware
Why is the Wii Special?
The big reason is the controller. 
Pictured here is the Wiimote which is the main part of the controoler, other attachment is the Nunchuck. In every game the Wiimote is required but only some games make use of the Nunchuck. So why is this controller so special and make games fun? It knows what you're doing. Both the Wiimote and Nunchuck can detect the way you're holding the controller, they know what angles it's rotated (pitch, yaw, and roll) and it knows when it's being moved in a certain direction. By combining all of this information game developers can create games that have the player performing the actual motions themselves. This is most evident in the Wii Sports game that is bundled with the Wii that contains 6 different sport activities, each one requiring a different motion. Baseball, you swing the Wiimote just like you would a baseball bat. Golf has you swinging it like a golf club. Tennis like a tennis racquet. You can see the pattern.
Moving the Wii around and performing these motions creates a far more engaging and immersive activity that just becomes a heck of a lot of fun for everybody, gamers or non.
The other innovation that Nintendo is introducing with the Wii is the use of a pointer. By attaching a sensor bar (included with the Wii) to your television the infrared signal emitted by the is read and you can point at your television screen as if you were using a laser pointer. This makes menu selection and those kind of menial tasks an easy motion, and when it comes to games there are many obvious uses such as in First-Person Shooters, but also some innovative games will surely make use of the pointer system in a really creative way we can't imagine.
What comes in the box?
- Wii console
- 512 MB flash memory
- B/G WiFi
- SD Flash reader
- 1 composite cable
- Wii sports (a collection of 5 sports mini-games)
- 1 Wiimote
- 1 nunchuck attachment
- 1 sensor bar
- 1 sensor bar stand
- 1 Wii stand
- 2 AA batteries
Nintendo Wii Expandability
Bluetooth - The Wiimote and Nunchuck connect to the Wii console wirelessly through the standard Bluetooth protocol. The system can support up to 4 controllers connected at the same time, and while the Bluetooth spec can support 7 connected devices, it's unknown as to whether or not the Wii will allow normal Bluetooth devices, as currently only the Wiimotes work.
2 USB ports - for future upgradeability. Currently the only device that works with the USB ports is the official USB to Ethernet Adapter released by Nintendo.
SD Flash slot - place your digital camera's memory in the flash slot to view your pictures, videos, and even music on the Wii console. The maximum size that the Wii supports is 2GB.
B/G WiFi - used to connect the Wii to your home network, the Internet, and eventually the DS.
4 Gamecube controller ports - connect your Gamecube controllers to these ports to play your backwards compatible Gamecube games.
2 Gamecube memory card slots - used for saving game data of your Gamecube games.
Nintendo Wii Backwards Compatibility
Full 100% compatibility with every single Gamecube title ever released. There are no enhancements or modifications that are done to these games, just stick them in and play. The big issue with playing Gamecube games is that you have to use original Gamecube controllers and Gamecube memory cards. You can't use any Wii input devices, whether the Wiimote or the Wii classic controller.
Nintendo Wii Audio/Video Output
No HD signals are output by the Wii console. 480i/p with or without widescreen is the only video output option. On the audio end the Wii outputs stereo, and Dolby Logic Pro II, so no true 5.1 surround sound is output.
Nintendo Wii Software
Nintendo Wii Channels
Xbox 360 has the dashboard. PS3 has XMB. The Wii has channels.
Wii Game Channel
Play whatever Wii or Gamecube disc is currently inside the system.
Mii Channel
Create, edit, and play around with your Miis, either ones you've created yourself or ones that your friends have sent you through mail or transferred from their remotes.
Wii Photo Channel
View photos that are stored on a SD card that is placed in the Wii, or that's stored inside of the Wii on the Message Board. The interface is fast, clean and easy to use, and using the Wii processing capabilities Nintendo has created some pretty neat functionality. You have your normal picture viewing capabilities, and the standard slideshow which you can set to your own mp3 background music, but when you're looking at a particular photo some options open up. You can send that photo as a message to another Wii, or post it on the Message Board for other users on that Wii console to see. There are also some fun options such as drawing on top of the photo, which can then be saved, and converting the photo into a cut-up puzzle.
Wii Shopping Channel
Purchase Virtual Console games, or WiiWare which are new channels such as Weather, News and Internet. Similar to Xbox Marketplace Nintendo's Wii shop uses points instead of straight money. You can purchase points directly from the Wii shop, or purcahse point cards from retailers. 1 Wii point costs 1 cent American and comes in denominations of 500, 1000, 20000, and 50000 points.
Miis
Miis are an integral part of the Wii experience, as the Mii is a virtual character inside the system. Miis can even be used as the characters inside your games such as Wii sports. You can transfer your Mii to another Wii user by attaching them to a Message. When the user receives the Message the Mii becomes part of their system and will show up in their Mii channel to play around with. This way you can create yourself and send your avatar to all your friends without having to recreate yourself on all of your friend's console.
Mii statistics are also tracked, your Mii gets points for the different games and activities they play in compatible games. So far the only Mii compatible game that has been released is Wii Sports, but other games are already confirmed to use the Miis such as Warioware: Smooth Moves.
In the future there are some exciting possibilities with Miis as combining them with the Wii's online functionality could be the basis for the creation of a MySpace like service for the Wii. Nintendo hasn't made any public comments as to this kind of service, but considering how close they already are I wouldn't be surprised.
Wii Virtual Console
What is a Virtual Console anyway? It's just a marketing term to describe paying $5 a pop, to play some NES games. And SNES games. And N64 games. And some Genesis and Turbo Graphx 16 as well. The Virtual Console is an area of the Wii Shop where you can purchase classic games that were available on systems released many years ago. Once you've bought a game it shows up in the main Channels area where you select it and start playing. Once you've purchased a game once it's yours forever and even if you delete it off of your system you can redownload the game as many time as you want. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade the classic games have undergone absolutely no updates, they're just straight copies of the originals. There's one feature that's been added, and that's an automatic save of the state your game is in when you exit back to the main Wii channels area.
Wii Message Board
The Message Board is the central location for all communications using the Wii. Send messages to other Wii users, post notes to yourself, and view photos saved to the Wii's internal memory. You can even send and receive e-mails to the message board, or send and receive text messages to your cell phone. Every Wii has an e-mail address which is w[Your Wii number, minus the square brackets]@wii.com.
Wii Games
And for an ongoing list of Wii games refer to this continually updated list here.
WiiConnect24
Wii Number - Every Wii has a number associated with it. This acts as your unique identifier that allows Wiis to communicate with one another and add each other to your address book.
To Find your Wii Number
- open the message board
- click create a message
- click on the address book
- click on previous page arrow, or the minus "-" button
Address Book - just like your Xbox friends list, MSN/AOL contact list. Your address book is a list of your friends that allows you to send messages (including pictures) and in the future should be used for inviting and playing games.
Text Messages - send and receive messages whether to yourself in the form of a memo, or to other Wiis on your address book, or even over e-mail. To send and receive e-mails first you have to create a new contact in your address book with the real-world e-mail address. Then send that contact an e-mail through your Wii. The person then replies to that e-mail which you will then receive in your Wii!
Achievements, Gamerscore, and Game Invites - No games that have been released are online enabled so Game Invites do not currently apply and it's unsure as to whether Wii games will offer this feature. Achievements and Gamerscores are also not found in Wii games. Some games may have their own medal system, but there's no standardized point system that you can compare with people across a bunch of games.
Issues with the Wii
Error 110213
If you get this error then you're in trouble. Deep trouble. It seems that certain consoles were shipped with an incorrect firmware version. When you connect the console online and update the firmware, something goes wrong that completely ruins the Wii. If you get this problem then the only solution is to call up Nintendo so they give you a new Wii FOR FREE.
