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It was one of my biggest problems with nintendo until I saw that they had stopped being idiots...

Here's the same story on IGN.

Capcom is moving all it's Resident Evil games to Game Cube. Plus there's PSO2, Wave Race, and a whole bunch of other games. And don't underestimate Pikmin, you'd be surprised how a unique concept can be hugely entertaining.

Game Cube. It's not just for little kids anymore.

Starting with Resident Evil: Biohazard

Why did the video game suck so much? The control was awkward and it took forever to move around, by which time you were torn to pieces by the monsters. It was so awful that I stopped playing after 5 minutes and never touched it again.

On the other hand, the commercial for it was hilarious. Some guy gets a hedge-trimmer attached to his arm, and then Bruce chases after him yelling "Get back here you freak". It looks like the streaming isn't working right now; if someone else has a copy of the commercial, I'd love to see it again...

-Chris

Videogames are more often than not bland products created by teams of unimaginative drones of big corporations, following simple formulaes. However, some are art.

Its a lot like movies, some of the are real pieces of art, and some are simple cash-cows.

Quake isn't art, and Most Valuable Primate isn't art, but then you can see O Brother Where Art Thou or play Myst, wich are in my opinion works of art.

The correct link is located right here at linuxgram.

Also, IGN has measurements of the new device as compared to the old ones here.

According to many, it's been confirmed that the lid switches have nothing to do with the cube's territory lock-out "feature." IGN said they knew it was possible to mod the japanese system to play north american games, but now that they have NA systems they can't figure it out. Here's a hefty thread from the IGN boards discussing the japanese-gamecube-mod (or lack thereof).

If you've ever seen the GameCube in person the first thing you probably thought was "Wow it's small!" Well I noticed a few things that contributed to how they made it that size. One was the power source. It's external so it resides in the AC adapter. This thing is fairly large for a console adapter. Here is a picture:Cube IGN.

The second is the processor. IBM has developed a VERY tiny 485Mhz processor for the Cube. It's called the Gekko and is based on PowerPC technology (uses copper wire tech as well). Have a look at it: GameSpot Dossier.

The GameCube hardware is unique. The chip is produced by ATI although it was designed by another company (hence, it is not a Radeon). It also features 1T-SRAM developed by MoSys. It's more efficient although not necessarily all that much better than the RAM used in the Xbox. Unfortunately only 24mb out of 40mb of the RAM in the Cube is 1T-SRAM.

This document(http://formen.ign.com/news/35095.html) dated 21st of MAY!!

Shows how old this news is...

Did anybody else notice the amazing similarity between the Gamecube graphic and the Inktomi logo?

For those interested, the Japanese release date is Dec 14th.

The Ultimate Gamecube FAQ (at cube.ign.com)

If you go by published specs, the ps2 pumps out around 66-75 million pps, and the cube does 6 -12 million (I think you get more polygon effects on cube though..

Yeah -- the PS2's graphics hardware can theoretically push 66-75 million flat-shaded triangles per second. Apply a texture and you halve that. Enable lighting and halve it again. Do some game physics and AI calculations and ... Well, you've got a couple million polygons/sec to work with. (Not a bad number by any means -- but it's not 66-75 million)

The XBox has similar numbers and similar 'issues'.

The Gamecube advertises "6-12 million polys/sec" because it's a real number. Developers are *guaranteed* 6 million polygons per second with:
a) hardware lighting
b) 8 simultaneous textures

Basically, any numbers you get from Sony or MS are purely theoretical and don't reflect an actual game environment. Nintendo's and Sega's specs are real in-game numbers.

Of course, all the numbers in the world don't make good games. But if you're going to base your judgement on hardware specs, you need to look at in-game numbers. Not market propaganda.

--Jeremy

Then again, as the games are clearly targeted at a young audience, they may appeal more to kids than me.

What are you talking about? Did you play Star Wars? How about Madden 2002? Resident Evil? Wave Racer? Yes there were some kiddie games, but why is that such a bad thing? Kids have to have fun too. Pikimin was good? Are you on crack? Star Wars was the Killer App, hands down.

Graphics on par with PS2. In spite of specs that don't look as good on paper as ps2 ('cept RAM, I guess), the EA games (NBA and Madden) looked every bit as good as the ps2 versions.

Ummm, well.. hmmm, maybe you haven't seen the specs, but if you go to cube.ign.com I'm sure you can find some. The Gamecube is the leader in all areas except clock speed, which in reality doesn't matter because it has the highest processing power, it just takes less clock cycles to produce it. It runs off of a PowerPC-type RISC chip that was designed specifically for gaming (not watching DVD's). The most important areas are PPS (polygons per second) and Colors, and the GameCube has the lead in each of those categories. Anyway, all the stats in the world don't matter, PS2 has what feels like a 2 second delay between your movements and the game's reaction where the GameCube flows right along with your input, and that's the most important thing to me.

I don't think Nintendo's going for a strong launch. They don't really need to come running out the door screaming HEY LOOKIE AT WHAT WE GOT!

They've got the same stuff that they've had all along; their franchises. And that value is stronger than ever now that Pokemon is so strongly established (they haven't even announced a pokemon game yet!). They already know how well their franchises are going to work (Zelda '2' for the N64 sold like hell, even though the game was a piece of ass). Now's a good time to show off some new stuff, like Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin (which looks amazing).

The N64 had a lot of flaws. It was notoriously difficult to develop for (although it sounds like the PS2 is worse), and the cartridges where incredibly expensive for developers. It was just much more cost effective(and in many ways, more rewarding) for developers to develop for the PSX. So Nintendo was quiet at the time and worked on the Gamecube in the background. The N64 was a flop in Japan and enjoyed moderate success in the states. The best thing they could do for it was to replace it :P

No more cartridges, no more pain-in-the-ass programming. They built it as a platform from the ground up to play games. The PS/2 and the X-Box aren't for that- they're made to take over your living room (pah, AOL vs MSN). The Gamecube ends up being a lot cheaper than the others too.

I expect that they intend to sell quite a few right now without trying too hard- they've got the kids cornered (who can expect Pokemon), and it's much cheaper. The launch titles at least prove that the system is capable; I don't expect most people to say 'it sucks' and dismiss it entirely (of course, some people will anyway. PIII RULEZ d00d!).

Next year, we can probably expect Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. Wow. And I can't begin to imagine what form F-Zero would be like on this thing. And then there's whatever Rare will make for the system. And then you have some very strong third party support.

Nintendo's drawing power is their franchises. There's no point in putting them all out at launch. Let Microsoft use up Halo, let Sony use up MGS2 to fight Nintendo. Nintendo already sounds like it has the next couple of years down solid. What are Sony and Microsoft going to deliver that's bigger than what they're doing this year? (I suspect that's there's an answer to this- I'll admit that I'm a bit ignorant here).

So why buy one now? Because duh, you like playing games! (and you don't think consoles suck because they're consoles). There's not much point in buying a PSX or N64 right now. The DC's a great choice (now that it's soooo cheap), but it doesn't have any long term potential. The 'cube is going to be fun now, and it won't be letting up any time soon. And the price is good.

I had been checking my local Electronics Boutique for the past few weeks, asking if they were doing pre-orders. They weren't, claiming that they didn't have numbers on how many systems they'd be getting. Rumor has it that Microsoft and Sony were being bullyish, and trying to get retailers to not stock or do pre-orders on GameCubes, but that's another story.

Anyway, they finally started doing pre-orders/purchases. Thanks to the PS2, it looks like all future consoles will be available only bundled at launch. For $399, I got a GameCube (it comes in indigo and black), 3 games (I chose Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II, and Super Monkey Ball (not all launch titles were available in the bundles)), one controller, and one memory card. A little pricey, but once I had one readily available in front of me, I had to have it. :-)

I had been checking my local Electronics Boutique for the past few weeks, asking if they were doing pre-orders. They weren't, claiming that they didn't have numbers on how many systems they'd be getting. Rumor has it that Microsoft and Sony were being bullyish, and trying to get retailers to not stock or do pre-orders on GameCubes, but that's another story.

Anyway, they finally started doing pre-orders/purchases. Thanks to the PS2, it looks like all future consoles will be available only bundled at launch. For $399, I got a GameCube (it comes in indigo and black), 3 games (I chose Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II, and Super Monkey Ball (not all launch titles were available in the bundles)), one controller, and one memory card. A little pricey, but once I had one readily available in front of me, I had to have it. :-)

I had been checking my local Electronics Boutique for the past few weeks, asking if they were doing pre-orders. They weren't, claiming that they didn't have numbers on how many systems they'd be getting. Rumor has it that Microsoft and Sony were being bullyish, and trying to get retailers to not stock or do pre-orders on GameCubes, but that's another story.

Anyway, they finally started doing pre-orders/purchases. Thanks to the PS2, it looks like all future consoles will be available only bundled at launch. For $399, I got a GameCube (it comes in indigo and black), 3 games (I chose Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II, and Super Monkey Ball (not all launch titles were available in the bundles)), one controller, and one memory card. A little pricey, but once I had one readily available in front of me, I had to have it. :-)

This guy I know got his game cube early, (Lucky bastard developers...) Anyways, at his birthday party everyone was playing Monkey Ball, and I guess it kicks ass. So I dug up some info a IGN to see what its like.

IGN has a review with some screenshots, and the tv commercial

This guy I know got his game cube early, (Lucky bastard developers...) Anyways, at his birthday party everyone was playing Monkey Ball, and I guess it kicks ass. So I dug up some info a IGN to see what its like.

IGN has a review with some screenshots, and the tv commercial

But in the video game world (especially home consoles) "exclusive" titles are usually interpreted as exclusive until they feel like porting it over to another system (usually a year) or when a system is on it's last lifeline.

Remember when Resident Evil: Code Veronica was exclusive for Dreamcast? Now it's on PS2 and will be headed to GameCube.

Speaking of which, for those who didn't know, Capcom announced plans to make the whole Resident Evil series GameCube EXCLUSIVE, both past and future titles.

This includes the once exclusive Dreamcast RE:Code Veronica. Fun, ain't it?

But the interesting thing was a severe grinding noise that was definately coming out of the Xbox. The kiosk had Xbox, PS2 and I believe n64 (which i'm sure will be replaced with the game cube at some point) and the grinding noise was DEFINATELY coming out of the Xbox. Did anybody else experience this? I'm not sure if it was the disc spinning or harddrive noises. And I think the controller sucked. I'll stick to my less obtrusive, less buttoned PS2 controller.

Warning: fully disrobed polygonal behind rendered and animated.

This will be XBOX's first killer app.

This is the first time a console has been launched in America first for quite some time. Usually the majority of the kinks are worked out when systems ship in Japan first and later in the US. We're experiencing virtual "beta hardware" testing firsthand with Xbox.

Second, there have been tons of reports of Xbox kiosks failing. Not just on GA. I've been reading a lot in the news and on many forums that Xbox kiosk failures are happening very frequently, far more than any PS2 failures. I have yet to hear about a single GameCube failure since it launched in Japan, too.

DOA3 has been reported to be heading to PS2 in the Official Playstation Magazine, along with a lot of Sega games that will merely premier on the Xbox.

Also, to clear something up, DOA3 does not look as good as Tecmo would want everyone to believe. Tecmo has a bad habit of releasing ultra high-res screens captured from developer kits (we're talking near 2000x pixel resolutions). They released beautiful but fake screenshots of DOA2: Hardcore on PS2 with tons of antialiasing. Then when you actually play DOA2 you'll find it's a jagged, shimmering mess. Sad to see that people are falling for the same trick again with DOA3.

Example:
Tecmo provided screenshot of DOA2:HC:

Touched up screen of DOA2

What DOA2 really looks like:

Real screenshot of DOA2

As you can see from these screenshots and movies not supplied by the overseers at Tecmo, the game doesn't really look that much different from DOA2.

Movie of DOA3

Screenshots of DOA3

Not to mention the DOA series' gameplay is very shallow and caters to button mashing, not nearly as deep as Tekken and Virtua Fighter. From the reports it sounds like DOA3 is a carbon copy of DOA2 with prettier graphics. Odd that the DOA series has suddenly become big-game despite lackluster sales on PS2/DC... Maybe because it's on Xbox, because if DOA3 were on PS2 it would be overshadowed by Tekken 4, Virtua Fighter 4 and Soul Calibur 2?

I'd say hold off on an Xbox until they work the kinks out and better games come out for it. The Dreamcast is dead but you can grab one for a very low price. The PS2 is the best platform for gaming now, there are so many good games out and coming out next month that my wallet is going to be screaming for mercy. GameCube looks solid but not quite as solid as the PS2. Wait and see if you are still uncertain.

This is the first time a console has been launched in America first for quite some time. Usually the majority of the kinks are worked out when systems ship in Japan first and later in the US. We're experiencing virtual "beta hardware" testing firsthand with Xbox.

Second, there have been tons of reports of Xbox kiosks failing. Not just on GA. I've been reading a lot in the news and on many forums that Xbox kiosk failures are happening very frequently, far more than any PS2 failures. I have yet to hear about a single GameCube failure since it launched in Japan, too.

DOA3 has been reported to be heading to PS2 in the Official Playstation Magazine, along with a lot of Sega games that will merely premier on the Xbox.

Also, to clear something up, DOA3 does not look as good as Tecmo would want everyone to believe. Tecmo has a bad habit of releasing ultra high-res screens captured from developer kits (we're talking near 2000x pixel resolutions). They released beautiful but fake screenshots of DOA2: Hardcore on PS2 with tons of antialiasing. Then when you actually play DOA2 you'll find it's a jagged, shimmering mess. Sad to see that people are falling for the same trick again with DOA3.

Example:
Tecmo provided screenshot of DOA2:HC:

Touched up screen of DOA2

What DOA2 really looks like:

Real screenshot of DOA2

As you can see from these screenshots and movies not supplied by the overseers at Tecmo, the game doesn't really look that much different from DOA2.

Movie of DOA3

Screenshots of DOA3

Not to mention the DOA series' gameplay is very shallow and caters to button mashing, not nearly as deep as Tekken and Virtua Fighter. From the reports it sounds like DOA3 is a carbon copy of DOA2 with prettier graphics. Odd that the DOA series has suddenly become big-game despite lackluster sales on PS2/DC... Maybe because it's on Xbox, because if DOA3 were on PS2 it would be overshadowed by Tekken 4, Virtua Fighter 4 and Soul Calibur 2?

I'd say hold off on an Xbox until they work the kinks out and better games come out for it. The Dreamcast is dead but you can grab one for a very low price. The PS2 is the best platform for gaming now, there are so many good games out and coming out next month that my wallet is going to be screaming for mercy. GameCube looks solid but not quite as solid as the PS2. Wait and see if you are still uncertain.

This is the first time a console has been launched in America first for quite some time. Usually the majority of the kinks are worked out when systems ship in Japan first and later in the US. We're experiencing virtual "beta hardware" testing firsthand with Xbox.

Second, there have been tons of reports of Xbox kiosks failing. Not just on GA. I've been reading a lot in the news and on many forums that Xbox kiosk failures are happening very frequently, far more than any PS2 failures. I have yet to hear about a single GameCube failure since it launched in Japan, too.

DOA3 has been reported to be heading to PS2 in the Official Playstation Magazine, along with a lot of Sega games that will merely premier on the Xbox.

Also, to clear something up, DOA3 does not look as good as Tecmo would want everyone to believe. Tecmo has a bad habit of releasing ultra high-res screens captured from developer kits (we're talking near 2000x pixel resolutions). They released beautiful but fake screenshots of DOA2: Hardcore on PS2 with tons of antialiasing. Then when you actually play DOA2 you'll find it's a jagged, shimmering mess. Sad to see that people are falling for the same trick again with DOA3.

Example:
Tecmo provided screenshot of DOA2:HC:

Touched up screen of DOA2

What DOA2 really looks like:

Real screenshot of DOA2

As you can see from these screenshots and movies not supplied by the overseers at Tecmo, the game doesn't really look that much different from DOA2.

Movie of DOA3

Screenshots of DOA3

Not to mention the DOA series' gameplay is very shallow and caters to button mashing, not nearly as deep as Tekken and Virtua Fighter. From the reports it sounds like DOA3 is a carbon copy of DOA2 with prettier graphics. Odd that the DOA series has suddenly become big-game despite lackluster sales on PS2/DC... Maybe because it's on Xbox, because if DOA3 were on PS2 it would be overshadowed by Tekken 4, Virtua Fighter 4 and Soul Calibur 2?

I'd say hold off on an Xbox until they work the kinks out and better games come out for it. The Dreamcast is dead but you can grab one for a very low price. The PS2 is the best platform for gaming now, there are so many good games out and coming out next month that my wallet is going to be screaming for mercy. GameCube looks solid but not quite as solid as the PS2. Wait and see if you are still uncertain.

Parental Warning: fully disrobed polygonal behind rendered and animated.

This will be XBOX's first killer app.

I recommend remaining with your choice of the gamecube. Go to the Nintendo GameCube website and check out the CubeClubs. Basically these are events in select cities where you can go play the GameCube with a lot of different games. I went to the one in Atlanta, GA a few weeks ago and I have to say that Star Wars is absolutely breathtaking. I felt like I was actually in the movie controlling the X-wing. You can do many different missions though, and use a lot of different vehicles. Another one I really liked was Madden 2002. I've been a fan of Madden ever since it was Madden 64. I have played Madden 2002 for PS2 at a friend's house and I thought the graphics were really great but the play was unresponsive. Well, for GameCube, as expected, that is fixed. The players respond immediately to what you press on the controller. Oh, and that reminds me, the controller for GameCube is really cool. I was skeptical at first sight on cube.ign.com but when I held it in my hand it just felt right. They've really outdone themselves with this system, trust me... or go to a Cube Club.

Fortunately, because it's a random process, you can simply click "Back" on your browser, then click on the link again, usually bypassing the ad. It's not too tough to get around... From the article, though, Salon is not random, so that sucks. But this method is nothing new or ground-breaking...

This isn't a new thing at all -- all of the IGN.com websites do this. (DVD.IGN, PS2.IGN, etc) However, the IGN method is closer to television advertising -- you have to look at the advertisement for something like 5 seconds before the "continue to the article" link becomes active.

This isn't a new thing at all -- all of the IGN.com websites do this. (DVD.IGN, PS2.IGN, etc) However, the IGN method is closer to television advertising -- you have to look at the advertisement for something like 5 seconds before the "continue to the article" link becomes active.

Erm, yes there are working X-Boxes. :P It looks like IGN has some kind of working prototype (http://xbox.ign.com/news/38343.html), and I remember seeing articles in the recent weeks on GameSpot and a few other sites about their hands-on expierience with near-complete games on (I would think) complete or near complete hardware, brought in to their offices.

That's what everyone said about Nintendo before Playstation came out. :)

And you're right, PS2 is good, but not great. I have a PS2 and I love it for 4 reasons: GT3, SSX, backwards compatibility and DVD playability. Waiting for 2 more reasons: Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear 2.

Only appealing to 10 year olds? Nobody knows. We'll see when NCG comes out.. and it is the ONLY next-gen console to have exclusive Resident Evil games heron in as stated by this article from IGN.

That's what everyone said about Nintendo before Playstation came out. :)

And you're right, PS2 is good, but not great. I have a PS2 and I love it for 4 reasons: GT3, SSX, backwards compatibility and DVD playability. Waiting for 2 more reasons: Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear 2.

Only appealing to 10 year olds? Nobody knows. We'll see when NCG comes out.. and it is the ONLY next-gen console to have exclusive Resident Evil games heron in as stated by this article from IGN.

There are working Debug consoles, which actually look cooler than the real thing. I dunno if they are running full-speed though. IGN has one, go check it out

One good month of advertisements and kids'll be hocking their N64's like there is no tomorrow.

(c) the lack of real support from Japanese companies. (Token games, for sure, just to test the waters, but they'll probably pull back real quick when the recession hits full on.)

One good month of advertisements and kids'll be hocking their N64's like there is no tomorrow.

(c) the lack of real support from Japanese companies. (Token games, for sure, just to test the waters, but they'll probably pull back real quick when the recession hits full on.)

One good month of advertisements and kids'll be hocking their N64's like there is no tomorrow.

(c) the lack of real support from Japanese companies. (Token games, for sure, just to test the waters, but they'll probably pull back real quick when the recession hits full on.)

I hate to get on a rant here... But are you people dense?? Why do you keep calling it vaporware when sites like xbox.ign.com have working hardware and games in their possession? That they're reviewing no les... Sure let's all jump on the I hate Microsoft bandwagon. You people are the same ones who complain that there is a monopoly in the desktop OS arena. But when it comes to consoles you feel only Sony and Nintendo should rule. (insert smart-ass remark here) Unless Indrema does make it to shelves... Then you'll only cry and complain how open source solutions don't get a chance to compete in the market. Cry me a river. If you don't like Microsoft's products do what all of us do... Don't buy them. But don't say because it's MS it must suck. Imagine if you were told don't use Linux it's not Microsoft so it must suck. You like others know that you need to evaluate new products before you use them, so you can make a solid judgement on merit, not brand name. That's why I haven't bought a PS2. My friend has one, and I'm not that impressed. I loved my PSOne, and my DC but the PS2 isn't all that. But that's just my opinion and because I'm and American I'm entitled to have one.

If you're going to do a project like this, use a good platform. Check out This website for some good info on the box, I think they have a link for game developers. Anyway do it for GameCube, PS2 is lame, IMHO.

Check out IGN.com for a seriously in-depth review. (It's 8 pages long.) I'm not sure about the movie, but it sounds like the extras are great. I guess the DVD is actually a director's cut sort of thing, with footage that was cut from the theatrical release reinserted for the DVD release. Who knows? Maybe in 10 years Lucas will give us a cut worth watching. We can hope, anyway.

Not just old news, but positively antique. Here's a link to a C&VG article complete with screenshots of the PS2/XBox versions, which were announced long before the GC one. Also an IGN preview of the PS2 version.

According to IGN Cube and GameSpot the Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan) series from Capcom will be EXCLUSIVE to the Nintendo GameCube. I doubt that ANYONE can call Resident Evil a "kiddie" game.

According to Cube.IGN all three of the Japanese GameCube launch titles have received gaming publication Famitsu's "gold" rating. The games are Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm and Super Monkey Ball.

Nintendo didn't invent cel-shaded rendering. Its been used in various games already including Jet Grind Radio.

However, the new Zelda game does look very cool.

There's some video of it (and the new Mario game) here.

It will be $199.95 upon release in the US. That includes the main unit and one controller. I may have read that it also comes with a memory card, but I'm not sure about that.

http://cube.ign.com/news/35091.html

Panasonic will also be releasing a DVD player that plays Gamecube games for around $300 in Japan. Not sure if it is supposed to come to the US or not.

http://formen.ign.com/news/35095.html

There will be new *BRUTTAL* RE1 for GC. igncube has the story

So I geuss that the hundreds of images and movies on ign are fakes too. They must have an huge crew to create all these fake images and movies.

Here is the link to make it easier for everyone

Cube News

Zelda isn't the only upcoming game which uses a cartoon shader. Cel Damage for the xbox uses one too and I think it looks better than the Zelda shader. Source code for such a cartoon shader can be found at Game Developer Magazine (source code of the march 2001 edition).