Café Notes - Site Explanation Update: November 3, 2006

When we originally started the Café we had said we wouldn’t become one of those sites that never updated their little message to the readers. Well, it has been just over fifteen months since this bad boy was last updated. This is actually my first time doing the writing (after careful review, I realized I updated this thing like four years ago once; but then again, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning). In the past I have delegated this little task to my partner in crime, Carl. It’s hard to believe, but this past July the Café turned four years old. I figured by now we would have either gotten bored or killed one another.

Since we last updated this thing we have actually slowed down in pace quite a bit. That is mostly because some of us have actually obtained lives outside of cyberspace. I’m sure there are a few people who are thinking to themselves, “why the hell are these guys still around?” Then E3 week comes and those same people are saying, “thank God these guys are still around.” One thing we did better than anyone else is media coverage at E3. We promised even more coverage for 2006 and we definitely delivered.

With YouTube and many copycats popping up since E3 2005, free video exploded within the last year. We worried that with such powerhouses we would get less fans coming to the site. But even those free hosting sites like YouTube cannot compete with high resolution widescreen video. With the debacle that was E3 2006, we are very proud of what we managed to bring out of there. No one had the amount of free video we did and our quality simply blew them out of the water. E3 was our baby, our time to shine. But that most likely will not happen in 2007.

We will be the first ones to admit that E3 had turned into a circus and that it needed to have a serious make over. E3 was suppose to be a media focused event, but the last couple of years it seems like ESA lost sight of that and it turned into a EBGames, Best Buy, Gamestop, etc register biscuit love fest. ESA had the right idea, but they just went too far with it. There isn’t much info yet on what E3 2007 will truly be like, but it is doubtful that GameCube Café will be attending. It isn’t the fact that we wouldn’t get an invite, we almost certainly will, it’s that we just think it’s going to completely suck. We do plan on going to a games convention in 2007; we just aren’t sure which one it will be. My guess is that PAX (Penny-Arcade Expo) will become the new “it” games convention to go to.

As some of you know, we also did another E3 DVD documentary this year. What you probably don’t know is that it didn’t sell nearly as well as the 2005 DVD. Our only assumption is that with all the free video on the net for E3 2006, most people figured that whatever we had on the DVD they could easily find for free online. Well that just wasn’t the case; we had tons of exclusive footage. To prove that to you guys we are going to actually put the entire DVD on the site for you to download. The Friday before the launch of the Wii we are going to put up our Twilight Princess footage from E3 2005 AND E3 2006. That is about ninety minutes of Zelda goodness. The quality won’t be DVD quality but it will be very good by internet standards. Then, later in December we will put up the rest of the E3 2006 DVD for you to download; it will be in standard quality/resolution. We also changed over the 2006 Media Briefing from streaming to downloadable. All of our E3 video content will always remain live on the site, just in case you want to view an old video for whatever reason. I know I can’t stand it when I want to watch something from a few years ago and it is completely gone.

Now we come to the launch of the Wii. What will become of GameCube Café? Pretty simple and straight forward: we will officially become Wii Café (two words) sometime before the launch of the new system. The domain name WiiCafe.com (and .net) is actually already up and running. The site will not see a major overhaul like some other places are claiming they are planning. We rather enjoy the way the Café is laid out and probably will not change it for some time. Minimal changes were of course needed. Our logo needed an update, and I am proud to say it came out beautifully. If you want to check it out you can head on over to the forums (which have already been Wii-ified). The text logo will simply see the word “GameCube” changed to “Wii.” Lastly, the navigation tabs with the characters will also be all updated. And of course our e-mail addresses all changed to @wiicafe.com; although you can still send stuff to our @gccafe.com boxes and we will receive it.

When the Wii launches you can be sure that we will have a decent amount of reviews for you as well as previews for upcoming Wii games. This has been mildly entertaining to write and perhaps I shall give it another go in about six months.

Matthew Silver

Carl DeNovio

And the entire Wii Café Family

Café Notes - Site Explanation Update: July 20, 2005

How long's it been since I made an update to this section? A while, at least. Not sure why I put it off so long again. I enjoy doing these features, as it gives me an opportunity to share with our fans what's been going on with the site for the last few months, and I feel it draws us closer together, like one big dysfunctional family. Imagine if the Jacksons all sat around and compared the crazy stunts they pulled. "I got arrested for touching little boys in their little boy places!" "I showed my tits on live national TV!" "My name is still Tito!" It's like that, only with less Tito, and the dysfunction is more legal.

At any rate, I'm here once again to talk to you guys about the latest and greatest in Café happenings. Let's talk E3 first. In May Silver, Kevin, Mike, Marlow, Eric, AJ, and myself took the long, treacherous journey to the promised land of gaming once again. This year we didn't have any rookies with us, which was a little unfortunate, as it's great fun to see the show through the eyes of a first-timer as well as those of us who have been there two or in some cases three years. On the bright side, this being the Junior and Sophomore years for everybody at the show, we didn't have to worry about inexperience hurting us at all. Absolutely everybody did their part in making this by far the best E3 experience we've had in Café history. We had Eric, Marlow, Kevin, and myself writing taste-tests and news out the bloody yin-yang, and we even still have some articles to put up yet, as well as more to write - if you thought hands-on E3 stuff was finished, we've got a surprise for you. Expect more articles to keep coming for a while to come. It's a new thing we're trying out for this year: rather than throw up everything in one fell swoop the week after E3, when there are a billion of the same articles on every other site out there all saying the same stuff, we're going to keep the impressions coming at a steady pace for months to come. It's still experimental at this point, but if we get feedback on the system, we'll either keep it for next year or modify it, as we feel necessary to give you guys the best coverage possible.

Sticking on the topic of E3, I'm going to talk about our DVD. Of course I am, you can't go two pixels on this website without somebody talking about the DVD. Why is that? Because we're damn proud of it, and we feel that it is the absolute best compilation of Nintendo footage you'll be able to find anywhere. AJ, Silver, and I have been working furiously the last month and a half getting the DVD edited and ready to go, often times pulling 10 hour days or longer, deep into the night. With over four hours of the coolest exclusive gameplay, conversations with developers, interviews, spread over two discs, and an absolutely hilarious and insightful commentary track featuring me, Silver, Eric, Marlow, and AJ, this DVD will bring the E3 experience right to your living room. We have everything covered, across all three of Nintendo's systems, highlighted, of course, by 53 minutes of outstanding, must-be-seen-to-be-believed Zelda footage, an exclusive interview with the lead animator of Ubisoft's highly anticipated final chapter to their Prince of Persia trilogy, and nearly 15 minutes of footage of Geist, Nintendo's next big step in reinventing their image. With over 30 games covered, you won't find a more comprehensive or entertaining documentary anywhere! You can buy the DVD now at the incredibly low-price of just $11.99 by clicking right here.

We'll be sure to keep you guys posted on any new things that come up with us at the Café, and rest assured that we will continue to provide the great coverage you already know us for, and for more surprises yet to come in the months ahead. As always, if you want to communicate with the staff or your fellow Nintendo fans, you can always head to the forums or the chat. Both are, of course, 100% free of charge. You can also drop an e-mail to any one of our staffers simply by clicking on their name in any article they write or by finding their name on the staff page. All of these links and more are also available on the top of any page of the site, just above the randomized banners. And remember, if you're an aspiring writer, you can always feel free to send us a sample article and we'll gladly look over it and review your potential as an asset to us. New talent is always welcome.

Thanks for your continued patronage and support, for the past three years and the more yet to come,

Carl DeNovio

Matthew Silver

And the entire Wii Café Family

Site Explanation Update - December 18, 2004:

Hey everybody. Carl here once again to give you the Café skinny and happenings. It's been a whole year since this thing was updated. Doesn't seem like that much time has passed, does it? While this segment won't be a "Year in Review" or what-have-you, I will use this opportunity to tell you some of what's been going over the last 11-plus months and what you can expect from us in the future. In the words of Richard Prior, we ain't dead yet.

Let's start at the obvious spot: E3. This year's E3 coverage, I think you'll all agree, was a vast improvement over what we did in 2003, our first time there. This time we had three people who had been there before, in Silver, Mr. Twomey, and myself. Last year we had five, those three just listed, along with Dannielle Pence and Chris Tucker. Most of you know by now that Dannielle and Chris have parted ways with us since, but we filled their void beautifully at this year's Expo. Kevin McGinnis, who has been with us since the beginning all those years ago, joined us, along with webmaster Tom Capor, IT Director AJ Henderson, writer Eric Jones, and Comics Editor Matt Marlow. We gave you a metric asston of video and screens from both the floor and the bevy of press kits we got (being media is great…you get all the cool stuff the "normies" at the show don't - heh heh heh). As far as next year's E3, we'll have even more people attending, and the more astute readers may have seen Silver slip in every once in a while a hint towards a big surprise we'll have…I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but rest assured you'll find out soon enough. It'll be like something the Café has never done before, take my word on that.

With E3 out of the way, where do we move next? I know what you're all thinking every damn time you come to this site. "Why the hell are we still looking at Soul Calibur II as the site theme?" Honestly, we're sorry for that. We've been working extremely hard to get up our all-new site design up and running, we've just hit snag after bloody snag in the coding process. We're currently working on a general Nintendo theme to replace SCII until we can get the new design working and live. That will be coming to you shortly (really, it is). We've gotten major feedback from the few people who have seen the prototype for the new layout and it's been very good. I hope it'll be worth the wait for you.

We held a trivia not too long ago, as well. We gave away, for the first time in Café history, a system. A Nintendo DS, to be exact (duh). It was a highly, highly successful night, with 108 people as our max chatroom load, and between people who came and left sporadically during the night, we had somewhere between 150 and 200 total people come in to at least watch the game. Of course, everybody here, especially Silver and me, thank you all for your support and dedication. We offer once again congratulations to Jim "DXSSI" Patzer who took home the prize as well as to BreakyBoy, who held on for two tie-breaker rounds before finally being overcome by Jim in a rousing comeback, and to everybody who participated. Keep your eye out for the next Café event, which we're gearing up and getting ready to announce (we've got a lot of little secrets, don't we?). Again, you'll want to stay tuned for news on this one, it'll be big.

So let's get to the issue of staff changes in the last year. People have come, and some people refuse to leave. Business as usual here. We've added some new faces, so let's start with them. The newest additions to the staff are Nick Basile and Will Szwagiel (I don't even know how to pronounce that one, so don't feel bad if you don't) as well as Chris Hofer. Chris (now the youngest, at 14), Will, and Nick were all added as Staff Writers. For a time we also were privileged to have with us the multi-talented Mr. Paul Tabachneck, but he has since gone his own way to further his music career and continue his education. We all wish you only the best, Paul. We have some other people going through the rounds and are on their way to possibly joining the family here, and we are always looking for new talent to add. If you think you have what it takes, don't be afraid to contact us.

So, kids, I think that's it. If you have any other questions regarding the site or just want to talk to any of us on staff, there are always (shameless plugs ahead, proceed with caution) the Forums, Chatroom, and e-mail. Until next time, go play your Cube…or DS. We'll be here waiting when you get back.

Site Explanation Update - December 18, 2003:

Looks like it’s been a while since we updated our site explanation. The first time since March, actually. Anyway, the site’s gone through a lot since the last time, so, I’m going to take some time out and give you people what you want to know: the latest happenings in the world of the Café. Even if you don’t want to know, I’m telling you anyway.

Let’s start with the obvious. This past May, Matthew Silver, Dannielle Pence, Mike Twomey, Chris Tucker, and myself attended E3, and, well, it was, by all accounts, rockin’. We promised you the best E3 coverage possible, and we feel we delivered. Most people would say it was a below average showing for Nintendo, especially compared to last year, when they displayed Super Mario Sunshine and The Legend of Zelda in playable form. And, while the lineup may not have been as impressive, we still feel that we chose a fantastic year for our first E3 and we wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Be prepared to have even better coverage next year now that we have experience. We plan to have about twice the amount of staff there working round the clock to bring you the absolute best E3 floor news on the ‘net.

Our staff seems to be ever changing with the times and we’ve added some new faces. Joe McCollum, Tom Capor, AJ Henderson, Eric Jones, and A.B. Osborne have joined the team and they tell me they’re working, but what do I know? Joe is helping out with news and doing a stellar job. AJ, an old friend of a few of us on staff, and Tom, another old friend of a few other staffers, have joined us in the form of IT Director and Webmaster. They’ll fill in the technical void we’ve been experiencing lately and are fitting in swimmingly. Ozzy, as we’ve come to call him, is in charge of the Screening Room, which is our new series of semi-weekly flash cartoons (listen for some of your favorite staffers to possibly provide hilariously poor impressions of Nintendo characters). Eric, we’re not sure what he does, but we think he does it well.

In addition, we’ve parted ways with a few of our other staff members. Our great Webmaster Matt Schraeder (Frozen), one of our editors, Dannielle Pence, news guy Chris Tucker, release dates editor Bryan Rose, News Editor Matt Saunderson and staff writer Eric Schwarzott have come and gone, and have decided to pursue new endeavors and focus on their lives at school and work. They’re still considered great friends who we are in constant contact with and we wish them luck in their lives. Matthew Marlow, our resident hick and codes lackey, has been promoted to Senior Editor (though he’ll keep his codes duties as well). We also hired Tom Capor, as I mentioned before, as our new Webmaster who will take over Frozen’s duties.

The site evolves with the times and we’ve been adding some sections and features like never before. Kevin’s Editor’s Note, which is quickly becoming one of our most widely read features (which, due to problems with his computer, has been put on temporary hold), will be coming back with new hosts and a new format. In addition, the XCluder comic strip, which has been on hiatus for several months now, has returned, with a new artist. Also, we’re working our butts off to have one special feature for every day of the week. We don’t know how long it will take to bring this idea to fruition, but we’re not going to give up on it. Remember, as far as we are concerned here, you, the reader, are our boss. Whatever you want us to do, tell us, and we’ll listen. Every one of us here are open to suggestions from anybody and there are many ways to get in touch with us; we each have a personal staff e-mail address, in addition to the forums and chat room, all of which are 100% free of charge and open 24 hours a day. We encourage all of our readers to sign up for the forums; it only takes a few seconds to register and you’ll get to talk to your fellow Nintendo fans about just about anything.

In addition, just recently AJ graced us with the NewsLink feature. This is a very cool little toy, which you can add to your AOL Instant Messenger profile to share any news or articles we put up on the site with your friends and gives you an even easier way to check out our headlines and famous news summaries. We strongly recommend the usage of this system. It only takes a few seconds to set up and absolutely no downloading is necessary.

I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you all about our next trivia game happening on February 1st of next year, at 9:00 pm Eastern. We’ll be giving away Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. Make sure to read up on the rules for that. The last trivia we did using this format was for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and the turnout was spectacular. The feedback from the game was even better. People loved it and based on the success of that, we’re bringing back the craziest, most unpredictable trivia on the Internet. The more people we have the more fun it will be, and remember, with this format, even if you suck at trivia, you have just as good a chance at winning as anybody else!

Just a reminder to anybody interested: Though the Café is not always officially hiring, if you think you’ve got the stuff you need to work for us, we’re always willing to hear your case on why you think you should be part of our site. If you’re interested in a position, e-mail either myself or Matthew Silver.

That’s it for now. Look for the next update to this section in the coming months. Keep on keepin’ on, and remember to spread the good word of Nintendo and Wii Café.

Site Explanation Update - March 29, 2003:

Our second update of this section since our opening in July will be short and sweet, just to update you guys on some things. We have added another section since last time, bringing you guys “Café Xcluder.” This happens to be our attempt at a humorous comic strip. From the feedback we get on our forums you guys seem to like it. We hope to keep bringing you more hilarious strips in the future. We have also gotten the codes section jam packed with tons of Nintendo cheating goodness. The Menu is beginning to take shape as Bryan, our newest staffer, continues to work hard to bring you accurate info.

Wii Café is also starting to move into getting easy updater software so we can put out info even faster than we do. We first got our easy updater for our news section around three months ago. Recently our good and wise webmaster Mr. Schraeder has been moving the other sections into php based easy updaters as well, thanks to his good friend Alex Stevenson (Monqui - That's pronounced Monkey folks - of http://www.hlatlas.com). The codes section is already finished that way and Mr. Marlow can update codes with the click of a button. In short time Bryan will also be able to update The Menu in rapid pulse speed. The other sections will all be this way by the end of the year and possibly by the end of June (that is if Frozen ever stops playing Zelda). Right now I notice a lot of our sections are lacking but that will pick up soon enough.

As you can notice the site is actually quick bulky with content now. I remember starting out eight months ago with basically zero content. Our hard work has paid off but it is you, the reader, who keeps us on our toes. We are a business (because we are a business now!) who tries to please its fans and customers. You can drop by our forums or chat any time just to say hi to all of us and if there's anything you like or don't like please let us know there or through one of our many email addresses.

Our Zelda trivia was a blast with over fifty people showing up for their chance to win a shiny copy of Wind Waker and the bonus disc. Our next trivia event will most likely be either F-Zero, Wario World, Mario Kart, or Soul Calibur II. If Mario Kart comes out any time soon it will most definitely be it. The games we will be for sure giving out this year are Mario Kart, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, P.N.03, and Resident Evil 4. Maybe not RE4 because of the whole M rating thing; we have to check out a few things first on it. We don't really feel like being sued for giving an 11 year old a game that violent.

We have also started to hold monthly Smash Brothers Melee tournaments in upstate New York. Check out the site for more details on that if you live in the New York area. Our first one was March 22nd and we had a decent turnout of thirteen people. The winner took home some cash and we all had fun. Hopefully for our second one more people decide to show up. The current champion, John Lee, who is only 13 years old, is unbelievable at the game. We need more people to show up to give him a challenge! Some of our staff members are also looking to host their own Melee tourney. Keep watching the site for more information on that.

Lastly, ok this wasn’t so short after all; our trip to E3 in May begins to get closer and closer. We have been approved for E3 media badges and four staffers will be attending, Matt Silver (the one writing this article), Carl (the other owner), Dannielle (our lovable senior editor), and Mike (our slave we beat to do a comic each week). We will have video of the games they show there as well as many pictures of the event. Up to the minute coverage will be handled by Matt Schraeder (our wise and all-powerful webmaster) and Matt Marlow (the resident redneck) who will be our “home-base” coordinators we give info to through cellular phones. When E3 comes around make sure to watch the Café for the fastest news coverage anywhere. When the event gets closer we will notify you guys where we’re staying and such so we can possibly have some sort of gaming tournament out in LA (that is if we’re not to damn tired from the event.)

Site Explanation Update - November 3, 2002:

It’s been a while since we updated this. Actually this would be the first time we updated since the site launched in late July.

Again, welcome to Wii Café or as we like to refer to it now as just “The Café.” We promised to bring you the best in Nintendo news, previews, reviews, impressions, and editorials in our first letter to the fans and I must say we did a fine job pleasing not only you the fans but us the staff. Since the site launched we added a few new sections which I am sure you have all seen by now. First we added Codes and Café Buzz; and just recently with Coffee Talk and The Menu.

I talked about success as well in the first letter and how we had already reached success just because we actually made it live. After a few months of being open we are not only a success we are by far the fastest growing Nintendo site on the entire internet. No site has grown to the point we are in only a little more than three month’s time. Our forums are starting to warm up and our chat is by far one of the hottest places to be at night on mIRC-x.

The site is anything but bare now as you can see that by just browsing around. Gameboy Advance codes will be up shortly when my trusty codes guy and good friend Matt Marlow gets them done. If you look around the net we have some of the best codes for a Nintendo fan site and we are quite proud of this. When The Menu is up and live you will also see that we take great pride in having the most accurate information. If you don’t see it on The Café then it just isn’t true. We will continue to please you down the road for many years. We will be covering E3 live for you in 2003 so look forward to that. Full media will be coming to the Café; pictures and videos. If you have any questions remember that our doors are always open for questions and inquiries.

Letter from the Directors:

Welcome to Wii Café. Over the past several months, my partner, my wonderful staff, and myself have been working to get this site online. It’s been a long and tumultuous road, for some of us dating from our days on GCRevolution and CubeFreaks, which tragically would never see the light of day as true websites. But that time is over. Those sites are gone and Wii Café lives on in their memory. We wish our friends that still remain on those sites good luck and hope that they are some day able to join us successfully.

I used the term successful. You may be wondering how I can call this website, which has only just now gotten online, a success. The success lies in the fact that we exist. Even before we had gotten the hosting, before we had decided on a domain name, we had loyal fans and supporters, who showed up every day in the chat room to joke with us, give us site feedback and ideas, and just be there. To those friends, I thank you. It has been a tough few months for all of us here, but now that we’re online, we can finally start to relax and get this site moving. Also, I would like to give a special thanks to Jon Coley of N-Philes for finding us a great host for the site.

The site now may seem a bit bare. Don’t worry, in the next weeks and months, we’ll be shelling out reviews, previews, editorials (which will be known as our own “home-brewed”), taste-tests (impressions), and, of course, plenty of news from all over the Nintendo universe. This site will not remain empty for long, with our twelve staffers toiling day and night to bring you, the Nintendo goods. Our main goal here at Wii Café is to please you, the fans. We will strive to have the most up-to-date news on Nintendo GameCube and Gameboy Advance that we can have. We will try to maintain a family-friendly atmosphere here and most importantly, make it fun for you and ourselves. Please be sure to visit the Wii Café forums and chat room (channel #gamecubecafe on server irc.mircx.com, port 6667 on IRC or the java link to the left) to contribute to the great community we have already started to build.

Thank you all for your support and patronage. With your help we will eventually grow to become one of the largest, most respected Nintendo websites on the ‘net. We will do our best to be our best, after all, as General George S. Patton once said, "If a man does his best, what else is there?"

Welcome to the future of Nintendo websites.

Owners, Directors: wiicafe.com

Carl DeNovio
Matthew Silver