When I first saw Wii and it’s ability to download and play small games I was very impressed. It was a breath of fresh air in the console market, neither of the two large competitors had anything like it. It was pitched as a sales channel for retro games and “all old games would be available”. While that promise is far from true yet there are some of the great old games available for download.
What struck me almost instantly was how could I get my hands on a SDK and start hacking my own games for the Wii? It sadens me now that I’ve realized that this is not something Nintendo planned to make (at least somewhat) public. I had hoped for an “emulated” programming environment, an abstraction layer hiding the hardware (since they would most likely never release control to that to anyone who did not sign fourtytwelve agreements of non-disclousure and other legal notes). This environment could protect the Wii’s system from harm and at the same time provide easy access to a development library for thousands of wannabe game developers. It would be the toy of my dreams!
Unfortunately Nintento is rich enough without having to employ the large group of jobless programmers dreaming of creating their own game.
