Game Sizes

[Fearnavigatr]

Some months ago, this site was created to keep track of the block sizes of each game (after an attempted Wikipedia page on the same subject was rapidly deleted):

http://www.freewebs.com/vcsizes/

It's not very well visited, so I figured I'd ask here for some assistance. Post the numbers of any game you might have here and I'll add it to the site, credit included.

Possibly, I'll just mirror the lists to this post. But for the moment, I'm satisfied with linking it here (too bad Freewebs sucks though).

[Kevin]

:shock: I had no idea that the channels (regular channels like internet and everybody votes) take up so much space! Thanks for the link! I'll definately give you some when I get the chance to jot them down.

[RMA]

Probably the type of question the village idiot would ask but why do EU games take up so much more memory? I could understand if there was a small difference due to the PAL / NTSC changes but why the large change, nearly 20% in some cases?

[link64]

Probably the type of question the village idiot would ask but why do EU games take up so much more memory? I could understand if there was a small difference due to the PAL / NTSC changes but why the large change, nearly 20% in some cases?

Maybe the wii stores all of the languages when you download a game and picks your countries language based on your settings.

[Mad_Doggie]

Internet channel for NA is 234 blocks
SimCity SNES for NA is 33 blocks, that's not including the save file, which is another 4 blocks.

EDIT: Just made another purchase =P
Legend of Zelda NES for NA is 22 blocks, not including the save file.

[Fearnavigatr]

Thank you very much for your contribution, I have added it to the site.

[PlayerOne]

As far as I can tell, the first game you download for any system is much bigger, since (I'm guessing) it includes the emulator, whereas the subsequent games don't.

Can anyone back that up, or did I imagine it?

[Fearnavigatr]

From what I've heard, the games aren't at all emulated. They're just very straight ports that play off the Wii software.

Either case, no. All of my first console-specific games check with other people who got a different game first.

[Kevin]

(NA)

Castlevania-21
Excitebike-22
Donkey Kong Country-58
Ocarina of Time-286

[Mad_Doggie]

Wow 286 for OoT. That's bigger than the internet channel.

Glad I have the gamecube promo disk.

[Fearnavigatr]

I actually have four copies of that game...
Original, WW bonus disc, Collector's Edition and Virtual Console.

Only Super Mario Bros. beats that (original, with Duck Hunt, All-Stars, Deluxe and Virtual Console).

[Kevin]

Wow 286 for OoT. That's bigger than the internet channel.

Glad I have the gamecube promo disk.

Yeah, I was surprised by that too.

[dk_xcalibur]

From what I've heard, the games aren't at all emulated. They're just very straight ports that play off the Wii software.

In my last Nintendo Power, it stated that they're not straight ports but slightly upgraded. They actually had side-by-side comparisons of the original Star Fox 64 next to the upgraded Star Fox 64 VC version. The article stated that Nintendo has been upgrading the graphics slightly on some of the games with help from the Wii.

[Fearnavigatr]

Obviously, not all games have gone unaltered.

N64 games have been enchanced, Tecmo Bowl player names have been removed, Kid Icarus secret codes don't work...
And in both Donkey Kong Countries, the cool flash effect when changing direction in the flashlight stages have been removed. Oh this hoopla of epilepsy...

I mean, obviously, if they can or must change a fatal error, it's not unlikely that they will.

[PlayerOne]

They must be emulated or simulated to some degree, otherwise, well, they might as well write a new version instead of a VC version. It is possible the emulator is packaged with every game, but I'm almost sure my first SNES download was much bigger than the others. It might just have been a much bigger game, of course. I can't remember which one it was.

[Mad_Doggie]

Isn't it possible whatever emulators are already part of the Wii's internal system?

[Fearnavigatr]

They must be emulated or simulated to some degree, otherwise, well, they might as well write a new version instead of a VC version. It is possible the emulator is packaged with every game, but I'm almost sure my first SNES download was much bigger than the others. It might just have been a much bigger game, of course. I can't remember which one it was.
Have you deleted or moved any games from your Wii yet? If not, you can check the order of download by going into the channel memory management menu. The first game listed there is the latest game you downloaded, the second is the second latest and so on, up until the last one listed which is your first downloaded game.

Isn't it possible whatever emulators are already part of the Wii's internal system?
Then it'd be a bit hard to add games for new consoles. System updates, alright, but it's still fishy.

I'm fairly certain the games aren't emulated though.

[iNma]

If the games use the original code, they're emulated, it really is that simple. Instructions from the original console must be translated into visual, audio and control cues on the Wii somehow, and by definition, this is emulation. The only way this would not be true, would be if the games were rewritten from scratch using the original resources (art, sound etc.), i.e. ported to the Wii. Given the sheer amount of time this would entail for a comparatively small gain, it's unlikely. An emulator would do the same job, with about 0.567% of the hassle.

As for the graphical improvements on N64 games, incorporating new video modes, as well as cleaning up the graphics through filters pre-display (adding full-screen antialiasing and so on, which is what you all seem to be referring to vis-a-vis Lylat Wars) can, again, be done extremely simply through an emulator, as long as the host hardware is powerful enough to deal with the additional processing overhead, and/or the emulator is efficient enough. Both are likely true for the Wii. For similes, see any N64 emulator for the PC from UltraHLE onwards.

Now, when it comes to where the emulator is located, I'd hazard a guess at it being built into the flashable ROM, and the increased size of the first downloads for a given console people are noticing being a wrapper to define the parameters or the key for the as-of-yet uncracked DRM system. That is simply a guess, though.

[Fearnavigatr]

But the first downloads for a console aren't bigger.

[Spore]

Wow 286 for OoT. That's bigger than the internet channel.

Glad I have the gamecube promo disk.

When you think about that, that really isn't that large. Infact, I'm constantly amazed at how small game sizes were back in the day! 286 blocks is roughly a bit more than a tenth of the Wii memory. So about 55 to 60 megabytes. If you said WOW THAT'S HUGE! think about today's super PC games ranging from 3072 megabytes to sometimes even 5120 megabytes and beyond. Does 55 megabyes really seem like a lot?

[iNma]

But the first downloads for a console aren't bigger.

Changes nothing, simply renders my speculation erroneous.

[tylo5]

The game sizes should be stuck on the database wink* wink* :mrgreen:

[link64]

Wow 286 for OoT. That's bigger than the internet channel.

Glad I have the gamecube promo disk.

When you think about that, that really isn't that large. Infact, I'm constantly amazed at how small game sizes were back in the day! 286 blocks is roughly a bit more than a tenth of the Wii memory. So about 55 to 60 megabytes. If you said WOW THAT'S HUGE! think about today's super PC games ranging from 3072 megabytes to sometimes even 5120 megabytes and beyond. Does 55 megabyes really seem like a lot?

Megabits not bytes a megabyte is 8 times larger the wii only has 512Mb of memory (64MB) a basic CD can only hold 682MB so I dont think the pc engine games were that big.

[iNma]

[quote=Spore]
Megabits not bytes a megabyte is 8 times larger the wii only has 512Mb of memory (64MB) a basic CD can only hold 682MB so I dont think the games were that big.

And again... The Wii has 512 megaBYTES of NAND flash memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii

Zelda was on a 256 Mb (that's megaBIT) cart, which equates to 32 megs; however, that was using heavy compression, so the actual game was probably a fair bit larger.

Games on optical media spend most of that memory on textures and models, something Nintendo attempted to bypass through clever programming and superior graphics hardware. They only half succeeded.

[link64]

[quote=Spore]
Megabits not bytes a megabyte is 8 times larger the wii only has 512Mb of memory (64MB) a basic CD can only hold 682MB so I dont think the games were that big.

And again... The Wii has 512 megaBYTES of NAND flash memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii

Zelda was on a 256 Mb (that's megaBIT) cart, which equates to 32 megs; however, that was using heavy compression, so the actual game was probably a fair bit larger.

Games on optical media spend most of that memory on textures and models, something Nintendo attempted to bypass through clever programming and superior graphics hardware. They only half succeeded. my mistake thougth mib stould for megabit.