Wii U and Storage Space

I've bought quite a few digital games on my Wii U and the 32 GB storage is absolutely woeful.  To make matters worse, the eShop insists that I have enough free space to BUY a game.  Absolutely insane to think about this restriction.

At first, I figured I could use my spare micro SD with an SD card adapter as back up but apparently, it's only usable on Wii mode!  What in the world?!  I swear, sometimes, Nintendo tries hard to be incredibly dumb!

So, at the end, it looks like I will have to buy a USB hard drive with an AC adapter OR with a Y-cable to use the USB power.  It seems that these drives have sleep modes if there isn't an independent source of power.

Nintendo Wii U and the Samsung HT-BD2

So, after studying how to get the my Wii U to work with the Samsung bluray home theater system, I figured out a few things.  First of all, most likely due to a recent firmware upgrade, it is now possible from the TV setup menu of the Wii U settings to set the audio to go to HDMI, A/V cable, or both.  This became key to setting up the system (and it's very easy to miss!) as the Samsung HT-BD2 does not have any HDMI input.  For you to use the home theater system with other devices, you either use the digital audio in (which was abysmal the last time I've seen it used) or the auxiliary in (which worked much better).

Using the Wii component cables, I had hooked up the audio cables on the AUX in ports of the home theater system.  I also set the Wii U to use both HDMI and A/V cables for audio.  It worked really well but I realized that if the home theater system was turned on after booting the Wii U, the Wii U detects there's no device active on the A/V cables so it will automatically disable those.  To recover from this, you'd want to turn on the home theater system first before booting the Wii U.  If you get into the situation where the Wii U disables the sound, visiting the Settings app on Wii U re-enables the sound settings saved.

Nintendo Wii U and my HD TV

So here's a fairly significant update from my tests for some form of TV control via my Wii U gamepad for my Ovation 32" HD TV (OVA-HKC32A5).  For control, my bare minimum requirements are volume control and powering up and down my TV.  In my previous post, I found a signal buried in the Wii U's Akai manufacturer to provide some minor semblance of functionality.  Unfortunately, it's woefully inadequate.  This time, I've gone without much success until I reached 'T'.  All through that time, I was only testing using the volume + and - buttons but since the recent finds, I've decided to also test the INPUT button.  So without further ado, I give you the signals I found in addition.

TAG Signal Type 1 surprised the hell out of me as at this time I had come to get used to nothing ever happening.  Pressing 5 will change the sound mode on the Ovation TV.  Pressing Volume - will open the TV source menu.  The A button will decrease the volume while D-pad right will increase the volume.  D-pad down will alter the picture mode.  Pressing either the left or right stick will decrease the volume of the TV.  None of the other buttons seem to have any discernible effect.

Telefunken Signal Type 21 is the next one.  Again, pressing 5 will change the sound mode.  Pressing on Channel down button changes the picture mode.  D-pad down does this as well.  The volume buttons are properly mapped, so that's a good thing.  D-pad left increases the volume.  INPUT button toggles the sleep mode of the TV.

Telefunken Signal Type 23 is another.  The volume buttons are once again properly mapped.  INPUT button opens the TV source menu.  D-pad left decreases the volume and D-pad right increases the volume.  The channel up and down buttons browse the source menu up and down respectively.

Last one is Telefunken Signal Type 24.  INPUT button once again opens the TV source menu.  Channel up button decreases the volume.  D-pad right increases the volume while D-pad left decreases it.  Power button is properly mapped so it's now possible to turn on the TV and fiddle around with the volume settings.  This is pretty much the bare minimum of what I want my Wii U TV remote to do.  Shame Nintendo had to make me go through an enormous amount of tests just to find this.

Nintendo Wii U and TV Signals

Good grief, Nintendo.  You clearly don't know how to make a user friendly app.  I've gone down to 'P' with no sign of progress except for the Akai one.  I read somewhere that the Akai TVs were rebadged Samsung TVs so that gave me some hope in using the Samsung signals.  I did go through those though and came away with nothing!

Nintendo has a search page for TV remote signals on their website but its all hidden in this crazy ajax search box.  Please let people browse the actual database.  Some people may actually want to try different codes on their TVs and not something tied specifically to their model number.  If you have a wealth of information there, let the people actually see it!

Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition not on Wii U?

Hey Ed Boon, skipping on Wii U like all the other developers, eh?  How hard is it to simply release an Ultimate Edition DLC pack on Wii U and sell it on eShop instead of pressing discs?  C'mon.  This ain't right!

This is Insane!

I've begun searching through my Wii U TV signal to find a hopeful possible remote control code to use to interface with my TV.  The old Ovation LCD TV (OVA HKC32A5) is an OEM LCD TV from the manufacturer HKC down in Shen Zhen, China.  Unfortunately, it looks like this is no longer being sold here so I figured finding out a possible replacement for my remote control in case that piece of equipment breaks would be a fine idea.  Nintendo's interface is so sucky though so it's been time consuming going through each of the TV signals from the Wii U's database.  Is it so hard to automate the IR transmission and have a progress bar go through every signal type of every brand and have the user just tap Work or Didn't Work?  Gah!

I've gone from letters A to F brands and probably will resume on the letter G when I turn the machine back on.  The lone success case is Akai Signal Type 10 but it's far from perfect.  The remote signal mapping is totally weird in that signal type.  Pressing Vol + would change my picture mode while pressing INPUT would increase my volume.  0 will open the TV's option menu while 7 scrolls up.  8 enters the menu and also increases the volume (if the menu is not open).  The rest of the buttons do not do anything.

I'll be back with an update if I find a better signal type or with a note if I did not find any signal whatsoever.

Random Thoughts: New Super Mario Bros. U and other stuff

Last night, I used the Luigi Guide on the Final Battle and I could not wait to get through this agonizing experience.  All through my time playing this game, I've felt more and more angered by this game.  It's drudgery.  It's a total drag to play.  It's unfortunately the game my nephew wants me to play.  Whoever thought of the Luigi Guide should be shot.  The idea of making players progress by seeing some scripted play through just downright sucks.  Allowing players to take control right after the segment they got stuck only partially alleviates my grievances of this concept.  I would have preferred a level having dynamically set difficulty configurations than this.  Make the player go through the level and feel like they accomplished something.  I hope never to have to play this game ever again.

Sleeping Dogs seems OK.  The game's mission structure is quite unimaginative and sometimes, just downright lousy.  It's unforgiving difficulty setting also makes for a crazy time for players, but so far, it's been kinder to me for some reason.  Unfortunately, the story just doesn't feel like a Hong Kong film.  The lines and writing feels more like Western games like GTA and Mafia than something from an Ekin Cheng triad movie.

Saints Row IV is HILARIOUS!!!  Enough said.

Mass Effect 3 has been an awesome, awesome ride.  Somehow, playing the Wii U version doesn't feel less or lacking.  Sure there are some small bits and pieces that aren't there, but they aren't significant enough to make me angry.  Great game on Wii U.  Please BioWare.  Please put Mass Effect 1, 2 and all the DLCs on Wii U.  Please.

Random Thoughts: Wii U and the Thomson Tablet

I find myself surprised at how addictive Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is.  The singleplayer story has been a great ride, but I had no plans on ever dabbling on the multiplayer part.  It seems to be very well designed in that it makes the game very hard to put down.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about New Super Mario Bros. U.

For a Mario game, I found myself slowly loathing the game the farther I got into the game.  The levels turn into a total drag to play and the Luigi Super Guide is just not a fun way of pushing the game forward when you've hit your limit.  Alas, my nephew loves the game, so I am forced to tolerate this drivel of a game.

Just got a new Android tablet called Thomson M6.  Here's some pics of the box.

Specifications

Thomson M6

It seems to be a Chinese OEM tablet released in Australia and New Zealand.  After all, how else can the NZ Herald Times app be preinstalled in this?  For a cheap 7" tablet, I found the fact it was dual core very attractive.  The tablet is plenty zippy and it also comes with Google Play Store.  Strangely, it didn't have Google Play Services which seems to be required for apps like Youtube.  You can install it via Play Store though so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

There are two main downsides to this tablet.  First is the screen.  The touch is just plain weird as it sometimes registers incorrect gestures.  Dragging icons seems to be very difficult on this tablet.  The LCD screen also suffers from colour loss when viewed from an angle.  Truly not one of its shining moments.  The second is the battery life which really sucks up fast.

Over all, it seems to be okay.  Doesn't hit all the bells, but for a cheap price tag, that is to be expected.

Thoughts on Wii U

First thing I noticed is the constant updates that streamed into the machine.  It was annoying, but it seems to have tamed down.

The Wii U Gamepad was sweet but I couldn't step out of the room and keep the connection to the console.  Pitiful.

Nintendo seems to be in the spot where third party developers just don't care about the console.  Maybe they should instead do everything like them producing games like NBA Courtside, the canned project NFL Retro Football, 1080 Snowboarding and Wave Race.