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It appears that mysterious and arcane forces (like the impending end of Q3 and the subsequent shopping frenzy) have allied themselves to give Geeks an confluence of events that may not happen again in our lifetimes.  Here, in the same week, we are expecting major product announcements from Apple and Nintendo.  If my great-grandchildren can still speak to we fleshly beings, I'm sure I'll tell them tales of this exciting moment.

While Apple is expected to announce a 'true' video iPod and movies in the iTunes store, some rumors fly as far as the tivo-killing set-top boxes or iPhones that are almost certain to seize their respective markets, almost anything could happen once Steve gets to the 'one more thing' slide.  Given the number of people involved, it's quite impressive that Apple retains the ability to not only announce, but also instantly launch a product that people weren't expecting.  If Apple's rumored PVR Mac is ready, this would certainly be a logical event (It's Showtime!) at which to announce it. 

The information that Nintendo is expected to announce answers far more specific questions.  When will Wii launch, how much will it cost, what will be in the box?  That's all we want to know.  The launch is almost certainly sometime in October, although it looks like Nintendo still has to hire people to stuff the boxes.  The cost has been rumored to be as low as $150, although Nintendo has launched its 4 previous consoles at $199 and that's worked out pretty well for them.  Plus, with the competition squarely in the $300-$600 range, they've got plenty of price advantage at $199.  While $150 would be extremely aggressive and sure to make a splash heading into the holidays, it's a solid and frequently-made point that Nintendo is unlikely to price the Wii at only $20 more than the DS lite handheld.  Of course, if they really wanted to make some waves, they'd drop the DS lite to $99, launch the Wii at $150 with a solid Wii-DS link title, and advertise that you can get a Wii, a DS lite, and that new game for the cost of an XBox 360… and you could get TWO such kits for the cost of a PS3!  However, while Nintendo clearly wants to make waves with the Wii, they'd rather make money.

Which brings us to the most hotly debated issue.  What will we get in the box?  My money's on the prevailing thought of the console, 2 controllers with nunchaku attachments, and Wii Sports.  At $199, that is an unheard-of value, and really harkens back to the megahit NES of the 80's, which sold 60 million units over its lifetime into a market with far fewer gamers than there are around today.  If Wii Sports really is bundled with the console, and the Wii is the smash hit is seems poised to be, Wii Sports could be positioned to finally eclipse Super Mario Bros. as the best selling (although bundled) video game yet.  If I recall correctly, it will also be the first console to launch with a bundled game since the Super Nintendo in 1991.

The other option is that we could get a 2-controller, Wii Sports-bundled $199 set at launch for the early adopters, and see a $149 bundle with a single controller and no game for next Christmas, when the ball is really rolling and manufacturing costs are dropping like a stone.  In any case, Nintendo has all the hype and is positioned to be making a killing on the Wii when Microsoft and Sony are still struggling to get a handle on manufacturing costs and collect their first dimes of profit.  Nintendo excels at making money in this business, and I am so ready to help them achieve that goal.  Only a few days until all our questions will be answered… 

You may remember Nemo as the winner of Kotaku's Halloween Costume Contest. Well, as his birthday rolled around, and we started discussing what he wanted for his party, the very first thing he said was that he wanted a King Bob-omb cake. As his party got closer, we kept having fun ideas, and by the time the day arrived, things had gotten a little out of hand, and turned into a full-on Mario Party, complete with koopa-shell invitations. The cake was a bit of a structural challenge: Twinkies, as it turns out, are not intended to be load-bearing.

Of course, Nemo wanted to wear his Luigi costume, sans mustache and Poltergust 3000. Everybody got to try DDR Mario Mix. We only put out 1 pad to halve the occupied floorspace, as well as the mayhem. One of the best things about Mario Mix is that its easy mode only uses right and left, which is a much easier place for a 4-year old to learn to play DDR. Nemo has since moved on to Normal mode, and loves to play real DDR, too. His favorite song is 'Speed Over Beethoven' on DDR Extreme 2.

We wanted to have a pinata, but with 4-year-olds, nobody's got the strength to breach the um, containment unit, so some grown-up usually has to rip it open surreptitiously while pretending to 'examine' the darn thing. Instead, we took a square cardboard box (I can't believe we had a perfectly sized and proportioned one in the basement), cut off the lid, and decorated it with construction paper to look like a classic Mario Question Block. We attached it to a string tied to the bannister, and let the kids jump and bop the bottom of the box.

When they hit the bottom of the box hard enough (or if we yanked the string for a little extra oomph), out popped their treat bag, which contained some turtle stickers (not koopa troopas, but close enough), a dumdum and a fruit leather (we figure they cancelled each other out), a real noise-making noise maker (sorry parents), and a Japanese Mario figure, the kind where you don't know which one you got until you open it, and that includes a tiny packet of 6 tasteless white candies. We got them at Wizzywig, where they also have a tissue cozy shaped like a Famicom. I covet it. Anyway, this worked beautifully, and turned out to be a great alternative to a pinata, with the extra advantage of avoiding the mad scramble, which can be a mess, particularly when kids of several different sizes are involved.

A good time was had by all, especially by Nemo, who got a new Mario Kart DS bundle from my parents. And Nemo's papa, who doesn't have to share his DS anymore.

Last week’s biggest surprise was the announcement of Nintendo’s new design for the DS. It had been rumored for weeks, and the fan mockups have been flying fast and furious, with some hitting very close to the mark.

What’s most interesting about the announcement of the new design is that the day before the announcement, the General Manager of Nintendo UK said he was not aware of a redesign in development, even though Reggie knew something back in November. The very next day, the pics were all over the web, and there was much rejoicing.

So, is this bad message control, perfect message control, or did he honestly not know? Is Nintendo getting all cagey, or so ossified that a territorial suit was not aware of a major product announcement? The most likely explanation is perfect message control, but I’ve heard that Nintendo of Japan doesn’t necessarily keep the left hand informed.

Nintendo’s brilliant ‘and then there’s the Revolution‘ strategy for the next generation requires cachet by the truckload, and getting the ascendant DS in tune with what we’ve seen of the Revolution’s aesthetics thus far says that the integration that Nintendo’s got in store for us is going to raise the bar considerably. The stylish new look also helps the DS compete with the ultra-slick but nearly gameless PSP on a level where the PSP had previously had an undeniable edge.

Nemo’s already getting an ‘old’ Kart DS bundle for his birthday to settle the household squabbles over my DS, which I apparently don’t get first dibs on, even though it was a Father’s Day present!  The new DSlite will be hard to resist. I wonder what the eBay market for a used ‘old-style’ DS will be like once this hits, since we surely don’t need 3 DS’s in the house.  Although, family mario kart night could become a new tradition…

At last year’s AADL-GT Grand Championships, when the final battle got down to two players, one of them (Duck) intentionally drove into a fake item block, losing his last balloon, throwing the match, and guaranteeing that he would win not the Grand Prize, engraved iPod, but the then-only-weeks-old Nintendo DS. Given the iPod’s formidable cache (and higher dollar value), this was a surprise.

This season, instead of having set prizes, I decided to have the final place determing the order the winners would choose a prize from the prize pool, to avoid a situation where someone would throw the final match. Given that this year’s final surprise game was Pong, watching someone throw a match would have been utterly anticlimactic. Duck was victorious this year, taking first prize, and choosing the PSP (interestingly enough, Duck has since announced that he plans to trade in his PSP for more DS games).

The second prize winner was Jerry, a wildcard, and he barely stared at the table holding a brand-new 30gb iPod (with video) for half a second before snatching the Nintendo DS Kart bundle. Now, admittedly, these guys are gamers, but he could have sold the shrink-wrapped iPod on ebay and gotten a DS and 5 games for it. However, for the second year in a row, the appeal of the DS is apparently irresistable, even when it’s right next to Apple’s glistening cash cow.