Hey everybody, what's up? It's
bizzarro here
with a comprehensive
preview of Nintendo's next big thing, the GameCube. The GameCube is obviously Nintendo's
next attempt at releasing a console game system. But how will it fare against it's major
competition come this fall? Read on to find out VG Source's opinion...
The NGC (that's the official
abbreviation, as if you couldn't figure that
one out) is quite an advanced piece of machinery. First and foremost of importance to this
system's success would have to be the launch date of the system. All signs are pointing to
September 5, 2001 in Japan, which looks likely for them. In America, the
"official" release date is November 5, 2001, but as we all know, Nintendo has a
horrible record with actually delivering their products on time, so you may see a delay in
hardware possibly into early 2002 here. Then, again, they have been more accurate
in the past few years with their software titles and GBA.
The second part of the NGC
preview falls to the system itself. The GameCube is really quite small (see official specs
down below.) Basically the system is not as wide as a Dreamcast, it's vertical height is
smaller than a GBC, and it will literally fit in the palm of your hand! That's small,
folks. Yet,
despite it's very small size, the NGC still is able to cram 4 controller ports, 2 memory
card ports, a slot for either a 56k modem or a broadband modem, and it's mini-DVD player
to play the games.
What all is housed in the
system, you ask? Well, if you're looking for
extras, you might want to stay far away from the GameCube, because it's almost just a pure
gaming machine. There is no DVD player, no CD player, no little screensavers, or anything
like that. However, Nintendo has given rights to Matsushita to produce a DVD player with
GameCube support, but it's quite a funky looking (and expensive!) machine. It will retail
for $299, but there is no official launch date for this version of GameCube.
When the big board of directors
sat down at Nintendo and came up with the
theme for NCG, they must've all said the word "small" at the same time because
everything about this system is small. That includes the game disks themselves. As most of
you know, Nintendo's always been big on anti-piracy, and just because the Gamecube uses
DVD, is no exception. Nintendo is using a proprietary format called "mini-DVD",
that is
all but impossible to copy. The downside to this, though, is that the disks can only house
about half the data that can be put into a PS2 or X-Box DVD. However, this is easily
remedied by using more disks.
Of major interest to most
people excited about NGC has to be it's very,
very odd looking controller. Basically, Nintendo has added many features that it had with
N64's controller, and added in some stuff that the PS2 controller has. The main joystick
bears more than a little resemblance to the N64's, it's the exact same one, so veterans of
the N64 know exactly what to expect here. Also worth noticing, there is another joystick
on the opposite side of the controller called the C-stick ("C" obviously
referring to "camera".) However, it will not be limited to simply rotating a
camera around.
Also about the NGC controller
is the fact that it is a good deal smaller than the N64 controller. This was obviously
produced due to the overwhelming response from the Japanese gamers that the N64 controller
was really too big for their hands. However, it does look very comfortable. It has 2
prongs on each side that bear resemblance to the N64 controller. Overall, the controller
looks like it is designed to be the perfect controller for 3-D games.
Also worth noting about the
controller is the button placement. On the right side of the controller, the "A"
button is located as the "center" button on the controller. To the lower left of
the controller, the small, red "B" button looks like it's ready for gaming
action as well. Now, to the top and right of the "A" button there are two
buttons denoted as "X" and "Y" respectively. There is also a small
"start" button in the middle of the controller.
On the back of the controller,
though, there are 2 analog triggers denoted as
"L" and "R". The cool thing about these triggers, though, is the fact
that not only are they analog, but if you press them hard enough, you will hear a
click, which signifies that they are digital as well!
But for the first time in
Nintendo history, this will not be the only first party controller released for the
system. Nintendo will also produce a wireless controller called the Wireless Wavebird. The
controller bears almost an exact resemblance to the standard controller, but the middle of
the controller has been enlarged and brought down past the D-pad and C-stick. Otherwise,
it's the same thing. The Wireless Wavebird will use an RF adaptor plugged into the
controller port in order to play from 10 meters away, according to the specifications.
Now, perhaps the most important
factor regarding the launch of the
GameCube- the games themselves. For the GameCube, Nintendo will be employing a new
marketing strategy designed to target not only children, but adults as well. How will they
do it, you may ask? By making and producing more mature-themed games. Nintendo feels that
this will help them broaden their market by not only competing in the market that they
have been for the past 15 years, but they will add demographics from the other half as
well.
However, you probably couldn't
tell that just by looking at the launch titles, because they seem to be a lot like the
N64's launch. I do have faith in Nintendo, though, as far as their abilities to bring more
mature rated games to their consoles. Perfect Dark 2 is in development along with probably
Conker's BFD 2, along with who knows what. However, I think Nintendo is playing it safe
for the launch by sticking with what they know will work, even if it isn't very risky.
It's not like the launch titles will be bad, I was just hoping for something more varied
than what we've already seen before.
I'm not going to be too picky
about the launch software though, because
the hardware and accessories are at an all time low for launches. The standard, non-DVD
system will retail for $199 and will come with a controller, stereo A/V wires, AC wires,
and possibly a demo of "Mario 128" (Note: This was the first playable GameCube
demo that featured 128 versions of Super Mario and were all selectable.) The standard
controller will retail for $19.99, but it is not known how much the Wireless Wavebird will
retail for. The Digicard Memory Card should retail for about $11.95, but it is not known
if the SD Memory Card will be available at the launch or not. The wires will
also be cheap as well, as you could probably expect by now. The games will retail for
$49.99, as is the standard nowadays with new game software.
However, there is something
unusual about the system design that I thought I would point out, since this is the
preview and all. There appear to be only two memory card slots on the front of the system,
yet the system houses four controller ports. I'm not sure how this is supposed to work,
here, but it doesn't make very much sense to me. I've contacted Nintendo about this, but
they haven't answered yet. When they do, though, I'll post it on the message boards, so be
sure to look out for that.
Overall though, I personally
think that the GameCube (or 'cube as we on
the staff like to call it) can and should be a massive success if they come through in
just three simple things. One is that they must stick by their promise of delivering more
mature-themed games, not only for the gamer's sake, but for theirs as well. Another is
that they must get more third party support, because just Nintendo franchises won't cut it
this time around. And finally, they must avoid what I like to call the "Rehash
Syndrome". This is when all they do is update existing Nintendo 64 titles by
prettying them up and calling them something different, and they're the exact same thing.
If the GameCube can do all of these things, they'll be a contender for a very, very long
time to come.
Nintendo Gamecube
Confirmed Launch Titles
Luigi's Mansion
Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet
Wave Race- Blue Storm
NBA Courtside 2002
Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2
Super Monkey Ball
Madden NFL 2002
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Extreme G 3
All-Star Baseball 2002
NFL Quarterback Club 2002
Crazy Taxi
NHL Hitz 2002
NFL Blitz 2002
Batman: Dark Tomorrow
Future/Possible GameCube Titles
Pikmin
Perfect Dark 2
Soul Calibur 2
Mortal Kombat
Eternal Darkness
SSX: Tricky
FIFA Soccer 2002
Resident Evil Zero
Metroid Prime
Legend Of Zelda
Conker's Bad Fur Day 2
And Many More!.........
Hardware and Accessories
Price List
-
Gamecube System -- $199.99
-
Standard
Controller (Included w/ NGC) -- $19.95
-
Digicard Memory Card
-- $11.95
-
Component
Video Cable-- $29.95
-
Stereo A/V
Cable (Included w/ NGC)-- $11.95
-
Mononatural
A/V Cable -- $9.95
-
AC Adapter
(Included w/ NGC) -- $24.95
System
Specifications
Graphics
-
MPU (Microprocessor Unit)- Custom IBM PC Power "Gekko"
-
Manufacturing
Process- 0.18 micron IBM Copper Wire Technology
-
Clock Frequency- 485 Mhz
-
CPU Capacity- 1125 Dimps (Dhrystone 2.1)
-
Internal Data
Precision- 32-bit inter & 64-bit Floating Point
-
External BUS- 1.3GB/ second peak (32-bit bandwidth address space, 64-bit
data bus, 162 Mhz clock
-
Internal
Cache- L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8-way); L2: 256KB (2-way)
-
System LSI-
Custom ATI/Nintendo "Flipper"
-
Manufacturing
Process- 0.18 micron NEC embedded DRAM Process
-
Clock Frequency- 162 Mhz
-
Embedded
Frame Buffer- Approx. 2MB Sustainable Latency : 6.2ns (1T-SRAM)
-
Embedded
Texture Cache- Approx. 1MB Sustainable Latency : 6.2ns (1T-SRAM)
-
Texture Read
Bandwidth- 10.4GB/second (peak)
-
Main Memory
Bandwidth- 2.6GB/second (peak)
-
Pixel Depth-
24-bit color, 24-bit Z-buffer
-
Image Processing Functions- Fog, Subpixel, Anti-aliasing, 8 Hardware Lights,
Alpha Blending, Virtual
Texture Design,
Multi-texturing, Bump Mapping, Environment
Mapping, MIP
Mapping, Bilinear Filtering, Trilinear Filtering,
Anisotropic
Filtering, Real-time Hardware Texture Decompression
(S3TC), Real-Time
Decompression of Display List,
HW 3-line De-flickering
Filter
Nintendo GameCube Specifications
Sound
Sound Processor- custom Macronix 16-Bit DSP
-
Instruction
Memory- 8KB RAM & 8KB ROM
-
Data Memory-
8KB RAM & 4KB ROM
-
Clock
Frequency- 81 MHz
-
Performance- 64 simultaneous channels, ADPCM encoding
-
Sampling
Frequency- 48KHz
-
System Floating Point Arithmetic Capability- 10.5 GFLOPS (peak) (MPU,
geometry engine
Nintendo GameCube Specifications
Hardware
-
Real-World Polygon- 6 million to 12 million polygons/second (peak) (Assuming
actual game conditions with complex
models, fully lit, fully textured,
etc.)
-
System
Memory- 40 MB
-
Main Memory-
24MB Mo Sys, 1T-SRAM, Approximately 10ns
-
Sustainable Latency
-
A-Memory-
16MB (81MHz DRAM)
-
Disc Drive- CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System
-
Average
Access Time- 128ms
-
Data Transfer
Speed-16Mbps to 25Mbps
-
Media- 3-inch NINTENDO GAMECUBE disk based on Matsushita's
-
Optical Disk
Technology. Approx.
1.5GB capacity
Input/Output
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