Console Spotlight: Nintendo Wii

The release of the Nintendo Wii issued in the dawn of motion controlled gaming with many people blown away by the fun to be had playing Wii Sports and using the Wii remote to play bowling, golf and tennis. The Wii became the fastest selling video game system and targeted an audience that weren't used to playing video games. The console still had a great selection of "gamers" games though and so was very popular with a wide range of people. The architecture, PCB and CPU of the Wii included backwards compatibility with GameCube games and other older Nintendo console games were downloadable through the new online store.

Although Nintendo haven’t officially released the majority of technical details for the Wii, many key facts have been released by press and electronic manufacture fans since release.

• IBM PowerPC-based "Broadway" CPU (estimated 729 MHz)
• 88 MB main memoryATI "Hollywood" Graphics (estimated at 243 MHz)
• 512 MB Internal flash memory storage
• Stereo audio (Dolby Pro Logic II-capable)
• Disc drive compatible with 8 cm GameCube discs and 12 cm Wii discs
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB 2.0
• Backward compatibility with Nintendo GameCube
• Supports 16 Wii remotes and 4 controller ports for GameCube controllers

Fact: Last year, Nintendo released a revised model of the Wii called the “Wii Family Edition” which was designed to be laid horizontally and got rid of the backwards compatibility with the GameCube.