Difference between revisions of "IQue Player"

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(Undo revision 978 by Nim (talk))
 
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iQue was Nintendo's attempt at getting a foothold into the Chinese market, and tackling the perceived challenge of high piracy rates and developing original content that appeals better for the market. However, their focus shifted recently to merely provide Simplified Chinese localizations for Nintendo, that make their way back to the home market via grey imports.
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:iQue Player}} [[File:R logo.gif]]
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[[File:iQue Player.png|thumb|An '''iQue Player'''.]]
  
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iQueBrew focuses as a wiki on the Nintendo 64 iQue variant, as the other iQue variants of later consoles are out of its scope, and are generally close enough to their
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The '''iQue Player''' (Chinese: 神游机, lit. "iQue Console") is a game console created by iQue and BroadOn (formerly Routefree, later iGware, now Acer Cloud) in partnership with Nintendo, only released in China in late 2003. iQue company was co-founded by engineer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Yen Dr. Wei Yen], an USA-CHN scientist mainly involved in the development of the N64 GFX chip "Reality Engine"; he is also the founder of ArtX, a company that was commissioned by Nintendo to produce the GameCube GPU named "Flipper".
  
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=Released=
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The reason for this union was dictated by the fact that, since 2000, the Chinese market "suffered" from a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_gaming_in_China#Changes_to_video_game_ban_in_China ban on gaming consoles] because they were considered harmful to the psyche of children (the ban ceased in 2015); Nintendo needed to circumvent the problem and to be able to insert its consoles in the vast market of China ([https://www.thegamesmachine.it/speciali/72045/time-machine-online-nintendo-cina-ique/ here it is a plausible explanation] on how it seems to have done). The opportunity came with iQue products, of which the "iQue Player" represents the progenitor and corresponds to the Chinese version of the Nintendo 64 (there are also iQue GBA, GBA SP, GB Micro, iQue DS, DS Lite, the iQue 3DS)!
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==iQue Player==
 
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A rebranding of the Nintendo 64 released in 2003 exclusively for mainland China, although an unannounced Traditional Chinese localization for Zelda Ocarina of Time was also found on the CDN, suggesting plans for a console release in HK/TW territories (which didn't happen until the Wii in 2008).
 
  
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See [[Games this page]] for more details.
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This console is not a normal N64 but a "compressed" version of it in a single chip: based on the Nintendo 64, the iQue Player adds features like [[iQue Card|removable NAND flash]] memory, PC connectivity (via USB), slightly better performance, and 14 different [[games]] translated into Simplified Chinese.
  
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==iQue Game Boy Advance==
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==Official Gallery==
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===Released Games===
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<gallery>
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TBC
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File:Bb_4.jpg|Sideview
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File:Bb_1.jpg|Topview
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File:Bb_3.jpg|Frontview
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File:Bb_2.jpg|Bottomview
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</gallery>
  
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===Unreleased Games===
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==[[iQue Club]] Wallpaper==
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Those games were dumped recently from a leak from discarded government approval materials.
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<gallery>
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* Legend of Stafi 1
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File:M_bbplayer.jpg|Wallpaper #1 (Blueprint, wireframe)
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* Legend of Stafi 2
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File:Xx bb02.jpg|Wallpaper #2 (Family gaming together)
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* Kuru Kuru Kururin
 
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* Kururin Paradise
 
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* Fire Emblem Sealed Sword
 
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* Advance Wars 1
 
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* Mario Kart Super Circuit
 
  
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Those games were announced but never leaked:
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[[Category:Hardware]]
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* WarioWare: Twisted!
 
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* Golden Sun: The Lost Age
 
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* Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
 
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* Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (ISBN)
 
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Two original games developed by iQue were also planned but never released. They were supposedly card games. Some localizations were planned as well but dropped due to the lack of developer interest from the Japanese side, such as Pokemon games. It's unknown how far those made it.
 
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==iQue DS==
 
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===Released Games===
 
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* TBC
 
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The standalone version of Nintendogs (iQue Dogs) was cancelled, then released under its original name Nintendogs exclusively for the iQue DSi as a pre-installed game.
 
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===Unreleased Games===
 
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* Daigasso! Band Brothers
 
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* Ridge Racer DS
 
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* Metroid Prime Hunters
 
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* Electroplankton
 
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* Kirby: Canvas Curse
 
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==3DS==
 
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Chinese audiences experienced official support for the Nintendo 3DS in very different ways, each with their own region lock. Sometimes the same region had differently region-coded games and devices, which were NOT cross-compatible. Overall there were three different regions used:
 
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* Mainland China: iQue 3DS with Simplified Chinese region.
 
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* Hong Kong, Taiwan: 3DS with Traditional Chinese region.
 
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* Later Chinese support (2015 and later): 3DS with Japanese region (same as Japan 3DS imports)
 
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==
 
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=Unreleased=
 
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==iQue Box==
 
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A planned iQue variant of the GameCube. Not much information exist about it.
 
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==iQue NetCard (NC)==
 
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A planned add-on circa 2007 for the iQue DS that would have provided digital distribution and anti-piracy DRM as strong as the iQue Player (N64) for Game Boy Advance games. Mentions of it can be found in documentation for some Wi-Fi certificates. iQue withheld their remaining game releases on the iQue GBA to make them exclusive to this format, over concerns of high piracy rates for the already released GBA iQue games. However, neither the peripheral nor the games saw release.
 
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==iQue Wii==
 
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Cancelled very close to release (2008) over problems with government approval. The Traditional and Simplified Chinese regions are planned as their own regions in all versions of the Wii OS, and some traces of the finished localized menu exist in various games.
 
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Nintendo instead released Simplified Chinese versions of the same games planned for the iQue Wii, and the console itself without the OS localization (instead in Japanese) in 2008 in HK/TW regions. The Chinese version of the Nvidia Shield also included some of those localizations, along with new Simplified Chinese localizations for Wii games.
 
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===Released Games===
 
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===Unreleased Games===
 
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==Nintendo Wii U==
 
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The Traditional and Simplified Chinese regions are planned as their own regions in all versions of the Wii OS, and some traces exist of its support:
 
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* The OS includes full fonts for Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese
 
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* Some games like Super Mario Maker include the Chinese flag into their internal data for the online system
 
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The Wii U proved very fast after release to be commercial failure, which probably caused it to be skipped.
 

Latest revision as of 16:26, 12 April 2019

R logo.gif
An iQue Player.

The iQue Player (Chinese: 神游机, lit. "iQue Console") is a game console created by iQue and BroadOn (formerly Routefree, later iGware, now Acer Cloud) in partnership with Nintendo, only released in China in late 2003. iQue company was co-founded by engineer Dr. Wei Yen, an USA-CHN scientist mainly involved in the development of the N64 GFX chip "Reality Engine"; he is also the founder of ArtX, a company that was commissioned by Nintendo to produce the GameCube GPU named "Flipper".

The reason for this union was dictated by the fact that, since 2000, the Chinese market "suffered" from a ban on gaming consoles because they were considered harmful to the psyche of children (the ban ceased in 2015); Nintendo needed to circumvent the problem and to be able to insert its consoles in the vast market of China (here it is a plausible explanation on how it seems to have done). The opportunity came with iQue products, of which the "iQue Player" represents the progenitor and corresponds to the Chinese version of the Nintendo 64 (there are also iQue GBA, GBA SP, GB Micro, iQue DS, DS Lite, the iQue 3DS)!

This console is not a normal N64 but a "compressed" version of it in a single chip: based on the Nintendo 64, the iQue Player adds features like removable NAND flash memory, PC connectivity (via USB), slightly better performance, and 14 different games translated into Simplified Chinese.

Official Gallery

  • Sideview

  • Topview

  • Frontview

  • Bottomview

iQue Club Wallpaper

<gallery> File:M_bbplayer.jpg|Wallpaper #1 (Blueprint, wireframe) File:Xx bb02.jpg|Wallpaper #2 (Family gaming together)

Retrieved from "http://www.iquebrew.org/index.php?title=IQue_Player&oldid=979"