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Nintendo's Dolphin Becomes The N-Cube
Xenex writes "Nintendo's next next-generation console, formerly know as 'Project Dolphin' now has an official name - the 'Nintendo Game Cube', or 'N-Cube' for short. Info about the name can be found on IGN's new N-Cube site here. Also a N-Cube FAQ is here, specs here (400mhz PowerPC based), and there is a quick editorial about why the N-Cube will succeed here."
Says a spokesperson: "Not only will you get to play your old Sega games, they will now be infused with carbony-funness!"
When asked for comment, Sony PSX developers said: "Sega? Who? Oh... didn't they have some game with a hedgehog who got voiced by that Urkel kid in its cartoon form? Are we supposed to be worried?"
Sandidge
What's next? Rubik's Cube?
Even the samurai
have teddy bears,
and even the teddy bears
Even the samurai
have teddy bears,
and even the teddy bears
get drunk
Actually, as any avid vid-game owner knows, the limitation is not keeping the old machine, but how many S-Video ports you've got on the back of your TV. (At our house S-Video ports are a rare-commodity. Trade wars flare up over them all the time.)
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Oh god, not one of those "quality not quantity" nimrods. I thought you were all shot when Nintendo64 did so crappily in Japan. The thing is, that Sony has nothing to do with "saturating the market." If you don't remember exactly what happened, Nintendo had to come up with the "quality not quantity" bullshit because they were the only ones making games for awhile. Sony on the otherhand, probably had more good games, than Nintendo did. Nintendo was in the same position as Sony back in the SNES days, and it is agreed that SNES was probably one of the most successful consoles in history. The thing is, that approach may lead to a lot of crap games, but in the end, sheer volume makes sure that the library of good games is large. Also, it enables a lot of selection. Nintendo was really hurt in Japan because there weren't any (not good or bad, ANY!) RPGs on Nintendo 64. (Aside from the RPG-pretender Quest64.) Choice is good. "Quality not quantity" is game censorship.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Isn't Apple going to make them change it to N-Sphere or N-Rhombus?
Hmm..everybody seems to be missing one important point here.Why do you guys think that games are only for adults?My kids enjoy the Playstation but they LOVE the N64.And their friends too.This is the reason that Nintendo won't go out of the market too soon.The Nintendo games are more targeted to kids and try expalinig to your 8 years old that playstation is better when he tells you clearly that Playstation games sucks and all his friends are playing Nintendo games which are far better and not so hard.
The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. Alan Saporta
apparently NCube shifted focus to multimedia streaming, or something else.
No, not really - they've just watched the success of more mature games and realized that the 10-and-under croud doesn't have the most money, while the 21-26 croud is the most profitible group to pander to. Basically they finally realized that being a "family game company" was hurting them, so they gave up on that and are allowing the rest of the audiance a chance to play games on their system - after all, if they don't, others will, and Nintendo stands to lose big time...
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
The hardware people had to agree to enforce region codes in the DVD spec to get the content people to come along for the ride. Tough luck, but that's the deal. It's also proof that "globalization" as a business practice isn't taken as seriously as people would have you believe. "Globalization" means making shoes and selling fries in China.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
The pity is, despite what game editors think, is it's a better piece of hardware to play the same overdone crap.
This sounds very uninteresting already. Looks like a proprietary lock so I can't develop anything, cross-compiled on my PC to distribute. Nothing new there, Nintendo started the NES with everything locked down, so developers had to pay-off Nintendo, who made the cartridges. Obviously Nintendo's strategy is still to make money off game fees and royalties rather than selling the hardware.
With decent GamePC's zipping out for a pittance, I'm seriously wondering what the future of these are, particularly when the buyer can zip out and get the latest sound and video cards and drivers and spiff up their old box.
At least at this price it won't hurt too much when it's in the back of the garage after 5 months...
Vote Naked 2000
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
'Bits' don't matter. In fact, people who talk about 'how many bits' a console has are idiots. ALL that matters is the quality/speed of the graphics it can generate. Remember, ALL x86 processors currently available are 32-bit processors. But obviously, a PC can do better graphics than a Playstation. And arguably can do better graphics than a Playstation 2, which is, as you say '128-bit'. The point is, the N-Cube will probably be at least as powerful as the Playstation2.
I don't really see the lack of DVD playback as a big issue. Adding DVD playback to a game console may be a big seller in Japan (it certainly helped the PS2), where DVD players so far have not sold very well, but in the States and in Europe, DVD players are doing much better. So... why buy a second DVD player (and why should everything be able to play DVDs in the first place? This is a game machine.)?
If you really insist DVD playback from a Nintendo machine, then Matsushiba (one on Nintendo's major partners in this little project) will be releasing DVD players with the 'N-cube' innards, thus giving you the best of both worlds.
--- In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro
I am sorry but Nintendo's image as a gaming console is not as great as it used to be. Sonys' PS2 has a better image than Nintendo but this might help them out we will see.
Cool , thanks !!! Do you know how much your friend paid for the remote (with the deal ?).
- sigs are for wimps.
The Power PC is not made by apple, but by IBM... their also making the chip for the N-Cube wih the same technology.. so both companies are partnered with IBM, but not with eachother. I think that then makes a good trademark case for apple considering the similarity of the parducts (both based on power pc tech). - Ryan
"Everyones gotta' be something / Me I'm stupid / It's all I ever wanted to be" -MGB
ok, on the convenience issue, i'll agree with you, yeah it would be nice to have dvd and a gaming console combined. i hear the psx dvd is pretty decent, that's decent, not great. my reason for upgrading to DVD is for quality, i don't mind spending a few more hundred bucks to get both. The nCube will be $150-200, so you could get a dvd player and the ncube for about $350. that's about the price of the psx2 anyway. hell, i've seen dvd players as low as $149. you take the combo, i'll buy 'em separately.
Erian
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This Post has been brought to you by the letter "E".
Why is it that everything Apple deals with is called a "Cube" now? You've got the G4-Cube, now the N-Cube... where will it end?
Will they release MacOS/Cube to run on the I-Cube?
In post-9/11 America, the CIA interrogates YOU!
> Besides, the DVD playback on consoles will be crap compared to DVD players.
Where did you read this ? Reports seem to be that DVD playback on the PSX2 is very good, with two little glitches (one is sound related for very high end sound systems, the other is no remote control yet).
>and don't complain that you'll have to buy 2 devices, a decent DVD player costs about $250.
And a console is around $250 - $350, why pay $500 total, when less will do. And I don't want a million things hooked up to my TV anyways.
- sigs are for wimps.
If I recall correctly N-Cube used to be the name of a super computer (manufacturer). It had an N-dimensional hyper cube architecture, hence the name. Every processor in the system had at least one flashing light mounted on the machine, in order to impress potential military customers.
I never expected them to be sold at toy stores!
A cheap frisbee would be a "coaster". Then you could play your favourite titles while drinking a pint of Guiness.
Whether AOL might sue or not remains to be seen.
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
In the IGN article claiming how the N-cube was going to roll over everything he did even mention the Sega Dreamcast. Sega isn't going away this time and if you underestimate the threat you may be taken by surprised. So what if the dreamcast isn't quite as powerful as the other consoles -- the playstation was as powerful as the n64 (and if you measure power based on pure cpu power or 2d gaming abilty the psx wasn't even as powerful as the saturn.) The DC has a lot of great games and a growing army of loyal fans.
it all started with the NeXT Cube, etc.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
it leaves out all of the x-box specs, conspicuously enough...
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Cube: Monosyllabic, easy to say, easy to remember
N is for Nintendo, which is Japanese for box on the carpet into which you continually shovel money.
You'd prefer Duodecahedron? Yeah, cool name, but harder to stack.
Vote Naked 2000
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Yes sony sold 2,200,000 playstation 2 with 4,000,000 games across 35 titles, but that does not make hurt the playstation per se. Sony's philosophy is to saturate the market with games and let the buyers sort it out. Nintendo is a little more subtle, they create great games that sell alot. Both of these styles work well. I will be definately buying myself a playstation 2 because I believe the programmers who are complaining now will adapt when they get used to the technology.
IMHO Nintendo learned its lesson with respect to cartrige based games and will do extremely well with the dolphin. Square, Konami, Namco, etc are already on board for the playstation 2 and I trust they will figure the kinks out by the time the Cube comes out.
My only fear is that the playstation 2 might be overextending itself. I like the playstation because I could just stick in games and not worry about it. I did not have to deal with hardware problems like the ones games on PC have. But it will be nice to have a DVD player for my TV.
i tell ya, the N-Cube sounds WAY better than the dolphin. true the "dolphin" was just the working title of the new nintendo box. can't wait till this thing is out!
Erian
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This Post has been brought to you by the letter "E".
hmm.. seems that Nintendo not only doesn't want to pay the license fee to the DVD CCA, but they think the CSS-Auth algorithm is too weak for their software. Someone should mention this to 2600's legal team, that other major corporations won't use the product as it's seriously flawed, and doesn't actually prevent piracy.
I think N*Sync will be even more pissed.
"Blue Elf shot the food!"
Because you can't, you won't, and you don't stop...
It will have a DVD drive, but won't be able to play DVDs.
...
Yuck.
Next
- sigs are for wimps.
Here comes Cobalt, and man, they look pissed! ;>
As I understand it, n-cube is the generic name for a type of graph representing all possible bit strings of length n. A vertex (for example 001, where n==3) is connected to another vertex (let's say 011) if and only if the bit strings differ by only one bit position. So, 001 would be connected to 011 since the two bit strings differ only in the second bit position. 011 would be connected to 111, but 111 would not be connected to 001.
Anyway, an n-cube or hypercube is an efficient way to connect the processors in a massively parrallel supercomputer. As a result, there are already plenty of computers that are referred to as n-cubes. As a result, I'm pretty certain that Nintendo will not end up calling this machine the N-cube because the name is already taken, and defending their trademark would be very difficult.
Well, if you decide to take the job, good luck! Hope you enjoy it.
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It's a
-- Danny Vermin
Steve Jobs lined up a lawsuit against Nintendo immediately...
Actually, nCube shouldn't have any problem with the name considering that, for all legal purposes, the system would be called the Nintendo Game Cube. That name should probably be available if Nintendo wants it.
In accordance with Microsoft's "X-Box", and Nintendo's newly renamed "N-Cube", Sony has announced that the Playstation 2 will now be called the "P-Right-Cylindrical-Solid". Sony could not be reached for further comment.
This is a manual virus. Copy it to your sig and help me spread!
On the other hand, it might be fun to taste the games industry for a few years. Please try and talk to some people at the company, IN PRIVATE, before you commit. Very Big Game Makers tend to be Fascist Bastards.
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It's a
-- Danny Vermin
Per usual, the Slashdot editors forgot to verify the details.
The site states in several places that 'N-Cube' is just a best guess for the system name. The official name will not likely be announced until Spaceworld (Aug 24). For now, the official name still has yet to be released.
** Sig-a-licious **
In the article above (trying to give proof of the claim of the new nintendo name) :
But why Fiftytwice.com? What could it mean? And then the answer hit us -- 50 multiplied by two equals 100. And there are 100 new Pokemon in Gold/Silver, which release later for Game Boy in the US. Can there be any more doubts?
And if they put all the pokemons in a row, it would form a straight line! This isn't detective work. This is a bad attempt at relating a website to a company...
-- "Almost everyone is an idiot. If you think I'm exaggerating, then you're one of them."
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Umm. No. Star Cube was a name that was revealled a while ago, and they debunked it....
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Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
Because, man, if you're not cube, you're just square.
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The gravitational constant of protein has changed. - Turbine
So now we have the NeXT Cube, the Cobalt Qube, the X-Box, the Mac Cube and the N-Cube!
Couls somebody pass me a sphere?
If they always used this naming scheme, the N64 would be the "High Level Nintendo Gaming System", and the next one will probably be "Ninntendo Realism Creator" and before that they'd have something like the Nintendo Entertainment System! Wait, they already did that.
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Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
Hmm. Depends on what business nCUBE is in. (I followed the link bug didn't dig)
At first blush I don't think nCUBE is in a field that's remotely related to Nintendo's consumer consoles.
If there's a low likelihood of someone mistaking N-Cube for nCUBE (or vice versa), then there's a low likelihood of damages occuring by the use of the name.
Countless products in completely dissimilar industries use the same product names, it's only when the products are similar to one another (in form, function, or even if the two companies are in competition somehow) that "damages" (lost sales due to any one of a billion reasons) occur.
So *if* nCUBE isn't in a related industry, Nintendo COULD use N-Cube. If they really wanted to.
Of course IANAL. And the only thing keeping me awake right now is a continuous stream of quart-sized coffee mugs...
Moof!
It's not even close to a Mac with a twist. PowerPC is IBM/Motorola architecture, based in part on IBM's POWER Architecture. IBM's the backer of Nintendo on this venture. However, it's expected that the development should be Mac friendly, as the Gecko chip should be able to handle PowerPC opcodes, although I don't know if it supports AltiVec.
Apple doesn't have any influence at all in this. It's like saying that Compaq has been working on the X-Box just because it uses an x86.
Raptor
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
Is that a good thing for Sony?
Consoles are usually sold on very narrow margins at best; manufacturers make most of their profits from licensing. I don't think Sony will be too glad of the additional hardware sales if they don't get the software sales to go with them.
Captain C**t
Not really. The whole "kiddie" thing only comes from the N64 since the majority of the decent games (originally) on that platform came from Nintendo/Rare, and Nintendo itself has always made "kiddie" games. Actually, during the SNES, there were a lot of "adult" games.
Learn your history! Back in the 16-bit era, there was much moaning about how the SNES had kiddie games and Genesis titles were more "mature." That was the initial backlash against the classic Nintendo school of game design, at least from people who had outgrown the NES.
I would just like to point out the fact that N-Cube is not official in anyway. Insiders report that Nintendo has yet to decide on a name, though Game Cube, Cube, and even Star Cube, among others, are in the running.
Notice the huge caveat by IGN that this is all still speculative and not set in stone? That's probably because, until Spaceworld next week, the world will not really know what the Big N has up its sleeve... Until then, for me at least, all bets are off.
Somehow I doubt Apple's going to sue a company that's going to produce a system that'll generate a couple hundred or so games that'll be a piece of cake to port to/co-develop for the Mac.
it probably doesn't hurt that a bunch of the early development gear sent out were Mac systems either.
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Stupid sexy Flanders.
Actually, whilst you are right that the N-Cube won't play movie dvd's, the very reason for this is so that the Big N can release at a very low price point - I have heard $99 US bandied about a lot, as opposed to the $299 US for a PS2. Granted, the PS2 might (probably will) have dropped in price by the time the N-Cube is released, but I'm betting it won't be 200 bucks cheaper.
perhaps that is exactly the meaning that is meant to be portrayed! Seeing as though it would require about $20 of patent payments to allow the machine decode and play a full on content scrambled DVD perhaps instead they are simply going to let the machine playback non-CSS streams. Some manufacturers have already released non CSS DVDs so perhaps this is Nintendo's way of telling the MPAA and its cohorts that it can go fuck itself if it thinks they are going to hand it any real amount of money to release a player for the titles THEY sell. Console manufacturers (and never forget that Sony is not a console manufacturer but a giant comglomerate who has every interest in making a cheap box that can play their games aswell as thier cds and dvds) make their money from selling cheap hardware and recouping the costs through licensing for game creators, do you think they are going to add more cost to the machine for a feature which will not help them sell a single extra game but will provide someone else with an improved revenue stream.
I hope Nintendo release a prototype (or the inital Japanese release) with no media support or just mpeg support (pay them some licensing, they are the not-"open" standard video format) and make a big stink over why they will not pay HOLLYWOOD. The average punter will listen if Nintendo says their console would be $20 more to play the HOLLYWOOD DVDs without any change in hardware AND that the people collecting the money are also collecting it on every DVD created (etc. etc.).
I would not assume that this announcement vis-a-vis DVDs has anything to do with hardwre or software or any other technical or marketing decision......it is simply the start of a negotiation for "substantially reduced" royalty charges (i.e. none), and perhaps the thought of an extra few tens of millions of cheap DVD players out there will tempt the MPAA etc. into accepting the royalty payments from the DVD producers. Perhaps Nintendo will simply buy a special license (then what odds on the Nintendo DVDPlayer for every platform under the Sun).
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
There's a 3rd-party remote attatchment available in Japan, consisting of a remote and an IR receiver that plugs into a control-port. It has the 'side-effect' of disabling territorial protection. Maybe not an issue for Americans, this is quite a biggie for those of us outside area 1, since native UK releases tend to cost more, take longer to arrive and have less in the way of special features.
And you obviously have no clue do you.
What do you want? N-Cube 100% Open Source GPL Game Sytem with GPLed SDK, GDK. Using standard cd's since they are nice and easy to burn, so you can make your own stuff and sell games to your friends for $5?
Seriously? What does it matter if they use their own format to do things? You still have to go through Nintendo to make games for their system anyway. You think things will be any different if they use real DVD disks?
And do you honestly think Sega and Sony are any better about this?
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But almost all DVD movies are Hollywood movies. Remember that you need to pay 10kUSD to the DVD CCA for a licence to CSS before you can burn movie DVDs. Unless you're going to sell a lot of DVDs, which most independent filmmakers aren't, this is cost-prohibitive.
Also, I suspect that the N-Cubes sold in the US (region 1) will not play French movies (region 2).
There is arrogance involved here, but it's not on the part of the journalists.
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E_NOSIG
What's up with consoles these days? I had more fun playing 2600 games than most of the things out there today. The last game I bought with re-playability was Perfect Dark, which is basically a revamped Goldeneye. Everything else has been spotty at best.
What happened to those 80's game designers, anyway?
I might buy a PSX2, but that might be my last game console. I'm just not seeing a reason to continue to sink money into pointless hardware. The Internet is more interesting.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
The very same ArtX as this?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
In other news, the descendants of the Greek thinker Euclid have filed lawsuits against Nintendo, Apple, Rubik, and anyone else who has ever used a cube shape for any reason.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
I don't see how this is going to be all that great. I mean, its big Oh of n cubed. I mean there isn't much worse other than big Oh of n factorial.
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
I always knew Mario could kick Sonic's @$$.
Sig:
Barbeque is a noun. Not a verb.
Well, considering that x^3 could also be expressed as 'x cubed', much like x^2 could be expressed like 'x squared', I'd say it makes lots of sense to use 'n^3' as shorthand for the 'n-cube'.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
actually the article states the N-cube will be around $150-200, about $100 less than psx2.
This is where the "set top box" always lacks - no user customization or creative input i.e. you can't add new levels designed by the amazingly creative minds that design for Q/UT/DOOM and you are stuck with whatever the N developers make.
BINGO! I think we've just found out a use for the PSX2 hard drive...
-- Dr. Eldarion --
See the truth here!.
Good job, guys!
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Liberty uber alles.
Hmm, the name N-Cube for some odd reason reminds me of The Borg on Star Trek and that Cube they had... Let me guess, the Nintendo Club membership card included, offers you to join the "collective"...
You're right, they are nuts. Actually, Nintendo consoles usually have a much better S:N ratio than the other consoles - but also, they often have far fewer games. Say that we can quantitize the Nintedo as producing one excellent game (signal) for every four poor games (noise). Say the PlayStation gets only one good game for every 10 games. (IE, S:N is 1:9, but that makes it a nice 10% good, 90% "other.")
The problem is that the PlayStation will have 100 games in a certain time period, while the Nintendo may get around 20. 100x10% = 10, 20x20%=4, so by this "example" the PlayStation has 10 good games and the Nintendo only has four...
This is, of course, an over-simplification, but there are many really bad games for the PlayStation - far more than for the Nintendo. There are just more games for the PS. Nintendo needs to get back some of the developers they managed to lose, most noticibly Capcom and Squaresoft. Some of the best SNES games where by those two, and their "defecting" to the PlayStation was a real hurt to the N64's success.
Not to mention that the great hardware of the N64 was severely hurt by the really crappy media used to store games - something like a max space of 350MB. Final Fantasy VII was something like 1.5 GB, spanning 3 CDs. VIII approached 2 GB with 4 CDs if I recall correctly. But these were "cinimatic" games, so the CG probably hurt them - then again, MGS which contained very few CG sequences and was mostly done through an ingame rendering system weighed in around 1 GB on 2 CDs with all the audio it had, not to mention the superior music.
The bottom line is that even if the tech specs seem superior, a console is only as strong as it's weakest link - it remains to be seen if the Dolphin will be as good as the PS2, the X-Box, or the Dreamcast. There are many things that go into a good console, the hardware is just one variable among many.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
N-Cube sounds cool and all but will it be able to play older N64 games? The one thing I like about the Playstation 2 will be its ability to run older Playstation 1 games (most of them anyway)
I don't know why it took so long for somebody to think of that. I spend all this money on the games (where they really rip you off) and then they release a new console and then your back to square one.
P.S. Not to mention a real DVD player!
The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data.
c:\>deltree -y \windows
Next time you might want to try "deltree /y \windows", just to make sure you won't have to press that pesky Y-key.
Monkey sense
History, shit I was playing the games back then! Sure some of the SNES games were a little kiddie (especially at first) but since the SNES had the shear bulk of the games, a lot of mature games came out too. First of all anything from Square Soft. Sure some of them (Chrono Trigger) had a younger image (though CT was far from kiddie) but there is a difference between image and actual game-play. You also had a lot of horror games, a lot of fighting games, combat sims (Iron Eagle and Urban strike), the list goes on.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Ok, just minor bitching from me.
First, from what I've read the N-Cube will have a mini-dvd format (i.e. smaller discs) and won't play DVD's...why should it, between the license and uselessness it's a waste of money. I for one am glad to get a video game system that is a video game system, not a cd player / movie player / toaster / book shelf etc.
And just out of curiosity - how is it that Nintendo has released underpowered/under featured consoles? The SNES was FAR more powerful than the Genesis (though the genesis was easier to program for). I'm not saying this in terms of games but in terms of hardware. And what features did the Genesis have that the SNES didn't? I certainly can't think of any (wait, what was that buzz-word, oh ya, blast-processing? haha)
Even the Nintendo 64 is/was a rather powerful machine (compared to Saturn/PSX) - granted it was hurt by a few bad choices (i.e. lack of texture ram and carts instead of CDs).
Nintendo has consistently came out with good hardware (well except the NES, that thing was an evil little beast to develop for).
I'd say nCube is in a pretty closely related industry. They build servers to stream high quality digital video. (They also build equipment to insert ads into TV shows, but that's a little different.)
If you think about it, the set-top boxes that receive digital video aren't all that different from game consoles (or Tivo boxes or WebTV boxes, for that matter). A future Nintendo game console could potentially receive streaming video--all it really takes is a demodulator (cable, satellite, etc.), an MPEG-2 decoder (HW or fast SW) and the right conditional access equipment. To keep up with Sony, Nintendo might even have to build or acquire a server that competes directly with nCube. Sony already makes lots of cable head-end equipment, set top boxes, and game consoles.
I can't imagine that Nintendo would limit their ability to compete in the video market over something this easy to avoid. Look for a totally different name.
I've had an N-Cube for years:
www.nCube.com
Catcha' later,
Paul.
The SNES hardware was better than the Genesis in many aspects, except one important spec: CPU mhz. The SNES's CPU was dog slow. It caused the imfamous "slowdown" in many early SNES games. The CPU for the SNES was chosen, mainly for legacy reasons, as it is the upgraded version of the 6502, which was used by the NES.
The SNES patched its slow CPU problem by including fast DSPs inside many SNES cartridges. This made SNES games expensive at the time. Hell, when the processor inside the cartridge for Super Mario Kart over twice as fast as the CPU in the SNES... your system wasn't designed very well.
Who's going to blow 300 dollars on a PS2 when they can get a PS-One for 100?
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Interesting articles. Is N-Cube a response to Microsoft's X-Box, only cooler? Did Microsoft not want to invoke images of the Borg with its antitrust case on appeal? ;) Oh, there's another interesting article by Robert X. Cringely on Microsoft's X-Box.
While I think that the editorial author makes a few interesting arguments about the N-Cube, and is an admitted Nintendo supporter, he misses or misinterprets several crucial points in Sony's strategy.
1) The author cites that 2,200,000 PS2 units have sold, but only 4,000,000 software items have been sold. He cites the large number of PS2 units have sold primarily as a DVD player.
Be that as it may, an installed base is an installed base. I have sincere doubts as to whether Nintendo can create such a large demand for its unit, especially in the light that its N-Cube will not play back DVD's. I know many people who are only lately adopting DVD players, and Sony was wise to catch this wave. I'm precisely in that demographic, both fascinated by PlayStation 2 as a gaming console and interested in the console, but immediately converted to a buyer since I want a DVD player among my TV options as well.
2) The author cites that several longtime PlayStation developers are having problems with the learning curve that PS2's Emotion Engine/Graphics Synth computing platform presents them, requiring more programmers and programming skill to eke out the performance they want.
The thing is, I have no doubts whatsoever that the N-Cube will present a similar learning curve to developers for it as well. The virtue of having larger V-RAM than PS2 has, which some current developers have cited as a problem, won't reduce the learning curve for the platform drastically.
3) He cites that Nintendo has admitted that it will not be an internet appliance device, though it will support internet connectivity. He says that by the N-Cube not trying to be A) a DVD player, or B) an internet device, hence its focus will be only on games.
He misses the ENTIRE point of the killer app of modern gaming: MULTIPLAYER capability. Sony's strategy is hinging on A) urging developers to assume an internet connection and B) creating an infrastructure to support the consoles. Sega may have caught onto that concept first, but Sony has wholeheartedly adopted the same view that internet multiplay will be an essential component of newer games.
It's what PC gamers have come to learn over the past few years: a game may be good by itself, but it reaches a whole new level of compelling or interesting gameplay when you have a human opponent or ally. Sony and Sega are wise to cash in on this lesson from the PC, especially because homes are increasingly connected to the internet and those connected homes contain computer network at a increasingly brisk clip.
The author of the editorial may be correct on the certain advantages that the N-Cube enjoys, and my take on the gaming industry may turn out to be wrong. If that's the case, then the renewed competition in the console gaming field will be certainly welcome. Who knows, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo may have to unite to successfully defend their turf from wily Microsoft. Microsoft may often not get the first or second forays into a field right, but they learn from their mistakes, and take no prisoners.
It certainly will prove to be an interesting story.
From what I've seen - it's not that great...and no remote sucks. It's more there so Sony can say "and look, we do this too" than a useful item.
They'll probably all be called Mario^3, Marioworld^3, Mario Kart^3, Mario Golf^3, and etc. Nintendo always uses the system name's modifier to modify the names of their games.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Because it's made by Nintendo. Ever since the SuperNintendo, Nintendo has been release under-powered, under-featured consoles that nevertheless sell like crazy. The reason? Marketing and Mario.
This things going to have a DVD that doesn't play DVD's (how...useful), no built in harddrive like the x-box (though, how necessary this is is certainly up to debate), and from the look of the specs, no built in modem/ethernet card for on-line play. And it won't matter a bit, because MarioWorld 128, DonkeyKong Word 2, or whatever they'll call all those titles will be available, and half the country will want one anyway.
Not that the Dolphin will necessarily be a bad thing, however. SuperNintendo and N64 certainly had their share of good games, and there's no reason to think Dolphin won't either. Still, you have to wonder what the console gaming field would be like had Nintendo simply put more power into their gaming consoles. Coming of the NES, Nintendo literally ruled the console market, with Sega shooting themselves in the foot and others like Atari not really a threat. Had Nintendo beefed up the hardware for the SNES and N64, you might not even be hearing about Dreamcast, PS2 or XBox.
Some things never change. Speaking of which, no surprise to see Nintendo is still hanging onto the proprietary media for "counterfeit crotection." Sure, that and crotecting the high manufacturing prices they've enjoyed throughout the cartridge era.
By the way, I thought the Game Sphere was a promising idea that was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.
> I know this seems like the same point, but for ME at least, this has been a big seller to my wife. =) I'm sure I'm not the only geek who's getting away with a PSX2 on the grounds that "Well, we don't have a DVD player yet..."
:-)
Do you work for Sony's marketing ?
You are so right on this point, I don't know how many people are using that "excuse" with their wives, but I'm betting they's lots of us.
My wife could care less about games, but when I said, we can watch all of these movies and have less cables hooked up to the TV, she was happy !!!
- sigs are for wimps.
I can't wait till Apple sues them for using the cube shape...
_______
2B1ASK1
A Nintendo machine powered by a PowerPC chip called the N-Cube?
I've seen all this before.
sigh.
"Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."
If you ask me, Nintendo has effectively become another failure similiar to Sega. The Super NES was the last great thing to come from Nintendo, and is in my opinion, still the best gaming console available.
Look at Sega... everyone thinks the Dreamcast is all that because its new. It'll fade just like the SegaCD did before summer of next year. The N64 pales in game support compared the PS.
I think we'll be seeing PS 2 and X-box going at it head to head next year. Its about time for Nintendo to retire anyway.
TVs weren't meant for killer graphics that we have today, that's why we have PCs and 3d accels. IMHO the SNES, with its very well defined graphics (you can actually see what's going on, god forbid!) is the best console system.
- Anubis
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." - Tao of Programming
I 4 1 am one of those first person gamers - UT, Qx, DOOM][, Descent, etc... and I LOVE Mario Kart!!! It is living room deathmatch for the whole family - no blood/guts and the computer cheats in the not so skilled players favor so they aren't completely left behind in the dust.
This is where the "set top box" always lacks - no user customization or creative input i.e. you can't add new levels designed by the amazingly creative minds that design for Q/UT/DOOM and you are stuck with whatever the N developers make. (mario paint doesnt count so don't even bother).
They definitely need to allow for multiple display o/p...cramming 4 people on one 25" TV is a pain.
Feature wise, set top boxes always lack so I will most likely purchase a computer upgrade instead of an N^3/PSX2/etc... and yes I realize they are great for the computer illeterate (if that even makes sense).
--Clay
Wow, it certainly does seem that 'Cube' computers are becoming the new trend. I don't see the big deal though, the standard box isn't that different from a cube shape, just a little wider and taller, which is generally a good thing (more space=more room for expansion)...
Personally my bets are on this for Nintendo's official announcement:
"We have no official announcement on 'Dolphin' at this time, but look, a Squirtle-shaped N64!"
(Sorry, been in this business way too many years now.)
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
Wonder if the "other" companies will follow this pattern: X^2 Box Sega DreamPI Sony PlayCrate/PlayCase
Ok first off the price point. When the PS2 comes to the us its going to retail for $300-$400 and the N-Cube will be from $150-200. Ok, theres that. Now, who cares if it has dvd playback or not? I have a dvd player and dont need another one, and someone who buys the n-cube for $150 can easily get a dvd player for $130 and still save money than buying the ps2. Another point someone made was that it can play psx games. Big deal. Who is going to spend $300+ on a psx machine when you can get one for like $80 nowadays. I have a nes, snes and a n64, why do I need my n-cube to play carts for? Especially if its going to raise the price of the system, which it certainly will. wells thats, it so bring on the flames :)
You know, there is a company called Indrema that's planning on releasing a Linux-based video game console. Hoor-fucking-ray. Obviously the reasoning behind this is to appease the loud, vocal minority of Linux gamers who feel that everything should be open-source and free.
Oooh, and they've got a great new business model! Let me take a stab at it... they're gonna market the thing like crazy to geeks, and then take forever to release ports of games that are spectacularly old and underwhelming. Why play tired old games like Sonic the Hedgehog when you can have gSonic gthe gHedgehog? It's almost the same game, except it's pretty slow, and you have to recompile it with a special option if you want sound. But let freedom ring, brother!
For more information, click here.
...not to support "trusted client" systems... they're just bad news.
-- Apple G4 Cube
-- Cobalt Qube
-- Nintendo N-Cube
Is Cobalt going to sue Nintendo too ?
I might patent the cube and get loads of greenback.
c*
No brain, no headache
On the other hand, it might be fun to taste the games industry for a few years. Please try and talk to some people at the company, IN PRIVATE, before you commit.
... the advantage to being a T&L head is that if you get pissed off, NOTHING ships until they find a replacement, which tends to tilt the negotiations in your favor depending on how replaceable you are. Presumably a Dolphin lead would not be replaceable quickly or cheaply :)
The person I was having the beers with went to this Very Big Game Company after working for me on Mac stuff three years ago, and is now big in their PS2 world, so I'm getting the pretty straight dope here I think.
Very Big Game Makers tend to be Fascist Bastards.
Very Big anything tend to be Fascist Bastards
Didn't NeXT make something a long time ago called the N-Cube or something similar?
I don't know if it's still there, but if you go into the CSci building at the U of MN, they have this thing thats about 2' x 2' square, and 5 feet tall. The top has a pyramid on it and it says N-cube. The doors on the sides are tinted glass and it has hundreds of blinking lights inside and it looks like it's doing many very important calculations at a blistering rate of speed. However, I asked one of the sys admins what it was, and he opened up one of the tinted doors, and what I saw completely amazed me. It was powered by cheap 2-dollar blinking christmas lights. The machine itself wasn't even plugged in, they just looped a couple of strings of blinking lights around inside of it. Apparently the machine is too slow to do anything useful but look good.
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Can anyone here report on how good a DVD player the PSX2 is? There is definitely a high end and a low end when it comes to DVD players, and I would just as soon buy a PSX2 to play games and a nice DVD player to watch movies if the PSX2 DVD playback wasn't up to par. I've heard that it doesn't have a remote; that's a pretty significant drawback. What's the interface for navigating a DVD then? My DVD remote has about 50 buttons, and I'd hate to see that simplified into a few buttons on the console itself or, even worse, some kind of on-screen menu.
I can't wait to assemble a Beowulf cluster out of these signatures.
.. its call because too many people work in cubicles ...
do i hear office revolution ? or am i just reading too much dilbert ?
I'm not sure where but I think I read that there might be two versions of the Dolphin, er, N-Cube, one that is exclusively for game playing and another with DVD playback enabled. I think the DVD enabled one costs ~$100 more, though. That's still cheaper than the PS2. Anyone else heard this?
I can't wait till this thing comes out. Nintendo64 may not have had as many games as PS but the ones that were good, were REALLY good(e.g. MarioKart 64, Perfect Dark).
Nosce te Ipsum
One of my biggest gripes with the N64 is that every damn game seems to be using the 3D landscape, run-around-as-mario-or-link camera view. I hate that. It looked cool for about two seconds.
I really enjoyed the old Zelda games. They were great. I still play them. But when it hit the N64, they lost something they once had. It was now a question of trying to jump through hoops and it was no longer fun.
I hope this new system returns to the old camera views, ease of use, and great storyline.
-Frijoles-
Pokemon
DonkeyKong Word 2
...and you thought that stupid paperclip was annoying. Just wait until you have a giant ape constantly throwing barrels that roll along your lines of text to kill your cursor and delete your file if you don't hit the "jump" button just before it hits.
---
Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not a turnip.
As far as the game development side of Nintendo goes, I've always had a bias towards them since I was a kid playing Super Mario Bros.
The reason why this thing won't play DVD movies is because of royalties. The DVD consortium (I think its called) wants money per unit to be able to legally play DVD movies, somewhere in the range of $20 per console. With the added on cost and the legal burden added on by all the crap that's going on with DVDs right now, I think Nintendo made the right choice, sticking to their focus - they've always been a gaming company, not a consumer electronics company.
Wise man say, choose your enemies carefully, for you will become like them...
Yes I know some of the replies already mentioned this, but I agree with the editorial's opinion that making this console NOT be anything but a game playing machine is a good thing too. It allowed them to reduce the cost of the machine itself by not having to conform it to any standards. (according to them, it'll be approximately $100 cheaper than PSX2) Plus the fact that Nintendo always follows this pattern. They have always been the last out to market for each generation, but always put out a Technologically superior product. The thing they MUST get going this time around is the Game developers. In my memory, the PSX had tons more titles than the N64. Nintendo needs to make huge incentives to the developers to make more games.
Because it's made by Nintendo. Ever since the SuperNintendo, Nintendo has been release under-powered, under-featured consoles that nevertheless sell like crazy.
...
Had Nintendo beefed up the hardware for the SNES and N64, you might not even be hearing about Dreamcast, PS2 or XBox.
I question these comparisons, as the N64 was released _years_ earlier than the systems you list above.
In my experience, Nintendo has usually waited six months to a year after Sega released a platform and then released a platform with superior hardware that blew them out of the water.
Rememeber the Sega Genesis? It made the NES look very shabby, until Nintendo rolled out the Super NES as *their* entry into the 16-bit arena.
The N-64 was Nintendo's first-generation 3D console, designed to compete with the Playstation (Sony's first-generation 3D console) and Sega's Saturn.
Now we're seeing Nintendo's next-generation 3D console, designed to blow away the Dreamcast and the Playstation 2 - and it just might do it. 16 megs of _embedded_ _SRAM_ means no memory bottlenecks in the graphics subsystem, and T&L at 0.18 copper (migrating to 0.13) should take care of geometry.
Again, it looks like Nintendo is releasing _superior_ hardware about 6-12 months after the competition.
Nintendo's achilles heel has always been game quality, as opposed to platform capability. There are good games for Nintendo machines, but there are also many mediocre ones, and my gaming-nut friends tell me that the signal to noise ratio is substantially better with other platforms.
Icebox
)
History, shit I was playing the games back then! Sure some of the SNES games were a little kiddie (especially at first) but since the SNES had the shear bulk of the games, a lot of mature games came out too. First of all anything from Square Soft. Sure some of them (Chrono Trigger) had a younger image (though CT was far from kiddie) but there is a difference between image and actual game-play. You also had a lot of horror games, a lot of fighting games, combat sims (Iron Eagle and Urban strike), the list goes on.
The general feeling many people had at the time was that SNES games were "too brightly colored" (and therefore too kiddie) and Genesis games had a darker, edgier look. I don't agree, but that's how it was.
Won't Ncube be pissed?
They make servers for streaming live media (at broadcast quality).
As I remember it, the reason Genesis games had a darker, edgier look was because of the Genesis's ridiculously small color palatte. (64 onscreen out of 512 compared to the SNES's 256 on screen out of 32768)
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Firstly, the "N-cube" has a DVD drive like PSX2, but doesn't play DVDs... Secondly, the new N box will have a similar price point to the PSX2, but without the extra selling point of the DVD player. I know this seems like the same point, but for ME at least, this has been a big seller to my wife. =) I'm sure I'm not the only geek who's getting away with a PSX2 on the grounds that "Well, we don't have a DVD player yet..." Lastly, the marketing for the Dolphin/N-Cube has been pathetic up until now. Nintendo seems to be really focussing on the Gameboy Advance to the detriment of the console system. I'm looking forward to the new Nintendo console because as a whole I've found that Nintendo games tend to be more family and friends oriented -- ie. they play to non-gamers. Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Golf (see a trend) are all games that appeal to people who don't usually play video games. I just hope the thing doesn't falter because Nintendo is relying on its name to carry the box, er, cube, through a couple of rather big selling holes...
--
The gravitational constant of protein has changed. - Turbine
I would be skeptical of whatever name they are calling this thing at this point. The N-64 was supposedly going to be called the Ultra-64 until a couple weeks before it hit store shelves in Japan.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
They are control freaks.
When they could get away with it (back in the NES days), they locked developers into contracts so they could only make NES games. Even now, I believe they don't allow straight ports to their platforms. If you want to bring one of your popular games to a Nintendo platform, you have to add at least one special Nintendo feature, so Nintendo can claim that their version is special and unique and worth paying for a second time even if you've already got the original.
They also insist on being "the family video game company", and not having any games that hurt that image. They will tell you that a feature of your game is unacceptable, and you must change it or you can't release. The guys at id Software had a terrible time getting Wolfenstein released for the SNES (I think it was the SNES). They demanded a bunch of goofy changes ("can you change the dogs to rats? It's wrong to shoot dogs.") and generally made a nuisance of themselves.
That kind of thing wasn't uncommon, either. They are a royal pain in the ass.
They'd have to completely change the way they work to even have a chance at getting their old developers back.
---
Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not a turnip.
I see a number of posts putting down Nintendo for being a kiddie machine. Let's stop and think about this for a minute. Nintendo started out in the console business by targeting kids. They were right on target, IMO. They did things like "little tiny guy defeats huge, mean boss." They had long, repetitive segments in games like the original Zelda. Cartoony graphics aside, those kinds of things are perfect for kids, and more, often than not, annoying to adults.
As the Nintendo kids grew up, they eschewed Nintendo-style games as being for children. It was a weird teenage backlash, though, as the perceived requirements for "adult" games were superficial: gore, more techie stylings, dark graphics, plots involving evil corporations that kidnap princesses instead of goofy cartoon guys who kidnap princesses. So when someone puts down the N64 as being for kids, it's hard to take them seriously. Most games on other systems with more of a pseudo-adult feel have the same type of gameplay, but they have what I suppose are viewed as edgier graphics. It's not like there are many video games that really do target a more intelligent market, in the same way that a good many novels (written by people other than Danielle Steele) do.
I asked him and he gave me a link to it.
-jpowers
-jpowers
Dammit!
If Nintendo dropped the copyrighted "DVD" logo, would N-Cube be allowed to play DVD-movies without the $20 fee?
The main reason I didn't buy a PSX is because I could play the games on my computer. I got free copies of said games rather than buy them. Now Sony gets none of my money.
N-Cube is already handicapped by not being able to play CDs or DVDs.
They have a contract with Matsushita. They will make DVD players that can play N2(N-Cube) games, and Nintendo makes just the game system for people who already have a DVD player or just want games. Nintendo gets licence fees no matter which one you play the games on.
nintendo will never mass produce their games like CDs/DVDs are mass produced. Thus games will cost more for Nintendo.
Nintendo is using a mini-disc DVD. You can mass produce them just as easily and cheaply as as you can mass produce CDs or DVDs. Thus games will cost exactly the same for Nintendo.
Sorry, tie_guy_matt... If you look at the numbers, dreamcast just isn't performing as well as it might. Maybe it's the lack of imagination in every game I've seen for it. Maybe it's the crappy plastic that it's made out of. Maybe it's the fact that the graphics could be great, but they don't have enough programmers to make use of them.
Take your pick, but the "army of loyal fans" is probably more like a squadron (in the national market scheme of things).
I don't mean to slam on your system of choice, but even if the technology is better, the numbers say that Sega's still barely a blip on the radar of game systems. If anyone will overtake the Nintendo/Sony domination of the market, it will be Microsoft. I doubt it, but hey, people are dumb enough to wait in lines after midnight to get Windows, they might just be dumb enough to open their wallets for X-Box, too.
Um, why not use a off the shelf DVD machanism and DVD discs.
Because people will copy them! Ok, maybe that's what you want, but Nintendo doesn't like that. Look at the Playstation 2 and Dreamcast. They're getting copied already and neither is a year old yet. If you controll the medium, then you don't have piracy, except for roms, but that gets hard if you have a mini-DVD.
I think nCUBE might have a slight problem with the name.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
I need PSX2 this year for DVD & Final Fantasy 9/10/11/etc and because I just haven't had a console in forever.
Next year if there is a new Mario or Zelda title that does 3D right & corrects their N64 mistakes, I will need the N-Cube.
Then if MS-Bungie decides Halo is an X-Box-only title, or Enix likewise with the new Dragon Quest, I need that.
Oops, now Sega announces the Dreamcast 2 next summer, and of course it promises to display infinite polygons per second and save your marriage.
It will be fun to watch, in any event.
("Good old rock! Nothing beats that!" - Bart Simpson)
--Clay
A few companies are making them. Here's one. A friend of mine preordered his PS2 through EB and got a deal on the remote.
-jpowers
-jpowers
Don't forget the "Beer Ball"
-dB
"It if was easy to do, we'd find someone cheaper than you to do it."
So they're replacing a proprietary cartridge system with a proprietary mini-DVD system? Hoor-fucking-ray. Obviously the reasoning behind this is to make the things harder to independantly produce, so they can maintain a vice-like grip on the games, and so they'll look like data discs always do in the movies.
Oooh, and they've got a great new business model! Let me take a stab at it... they're gonna market the thing like crazy to kids, and then sell the console at below cost to harrassed parents while conveniently forgetting to mention that they're going to need a second mortgage to buy any games for it. Am I close?
fish and pipes
This is a rather serendiptious posting -- last night over beers I was apprised that A Very Big Game Maker (not that I should probably say who, but I live in Vancouver, figure it out for yourself) is planning to commit bigtime to Dolphin, as in hoping to have at least three games shipping at launch ... and they have no tools and libraries team yet, and I should sign on and head it up.
... and ran away screaming when I saw the code) and have won a large number of awards for my various Mac products, so therefore I'm more inclined to learn NeXTStep, er, OPENSTEP, er, Yellow Box, er, Cocoa instead for the brave new OS X world. But if Dolphin goes big ... being The Man for it at this Very Big Game Company would be a pretty cool position to be in.
I, however, have been a Mac programmer for fifteen years (earlier this spring I was offered the chance to port said Very Big Game Maker's T&L suite to the Mac
So, so, so. What would all of YOU do if you were me?
I'd imagine that we're going to find a somewhat dopier name, as per the rumors floating around that Nintendo might be catering this game box towards kids.
Maybe it'll be shaped like Pikachu!
...will develop, manufacture and supply to Nintendo a proprietary DVD disk drive for incorporation into the Cube. Note that a DVD disk drive does not guarantee that Cube will be able to play Hollywood DVD movies.
will it play independant films? or how about french movies? note to journalists: not all movies are hollywood movies...
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
this isn't necessarily better. for n less than 8, n^3 is less than n64 anyway.
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Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
SRAM == Static RAM
SRAM is what pentium2's and the like use for cache because its so damn fast.
Gets hot tho.
We actually used the nCube @ Bell Atlantic in 93 as a "video pump" for the Reston VA trials of Stargazer, a VOD service using mpeg2 and ADSL.
Is everyone doing cobes or is it just me?
It all started with the Cobalt Cube, then Apple came out with the G4 cube. Why cubes?! =P
I think cubes are a very strange shape for hardware. They're not very ergonomic, aren't the idea shape (when it comes to a space issue, all sides are same size), but do look cool.
I'm wondering if anyone else is coming out with a cube-y product...
the n-cube is (was?) a massively parallel superdupercomputer at Sandia National Labs. I think the nodes were m68040's or maybe 030's. I ran some simulations on it a few years ago.
Its showing the symbol as "N^3"... this is a bit confusing for me. First nintendo was the nintendo, second one was the supernintendo, third one was the N64, and the fourth one is this N-Cube. So putting a 3 anywhere in the title is kinda screwy....
-- "Almost everyone is an idiot. If you think I'm exaggerating, then you're one of them."
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
ext.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
And now they want us to buy a slow, crappy 32-bit machine? At least the PS2 has a 128 bit chip in it (no doubt just so they could fight Nintendo FUD when they started throwing it around). At least we don't have to deal with cartridges again. :) (this is a parody on Nintendo's past marketing campaigns, for the humor impaired)
The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
Does the graphics chip smack of DirectX or what? (S3TC is the standard Direct3D texture compression mechanism) Although texture compression is a great idea. If you've ever seen those Unreal-S3TC screenshots you'll know what I mean. Lastly, 16MB of SOUND RAM! That's got to be a typo.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Apple has been working with them. Notice that it has the 400MHZ PPC chip. It's just a Mac with a twist. I bet we can hack a DVD playback.
photosMy Photostream
Are they still in business? Ah, yes, they still do
The original "N32" was the PlayStation, which was originally a Sony addon for the SNES. When Nintendo killed the PS project, Sony developed a version called "PlayStation-X" that was designed to be independent from the SNES. That's the PSX that killed N64.
And yes, the AltiVec unit in some PowerPC processors (is it in Gekko?) can crunch 128 bit vectors, making the G4 Cube a 128-bit system.
But doesn't the name of the core of the N-Cube remind you of the name of the core of Mozilla?<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
Will I retire or break 10K?
The article here states that there are 2,200,000 PS2 units sold in japan but only 4,000,000 software titles sold (of of 35.) Apparently this means the PS2 is only being used as a DVD player.
But what about the hundreds of millions of original PS titles that the PS2 is still compatible with?
The "Ncube" or whatever will be DVD based, so you can forget about the rest of your nintendo cartridges.
So now we have the N-Cube and the X-Box. How boring. In the form of cubes and boxes, these consoles are useful for little other than being consoles. Why not more fun and interesting shapes? Maybe Sega or Sony can be more creative. The S-frisbee would be great. Power outage leaves you unable to play video games? Try playing with the frisbee outside! (Gasp!) Just imagine the marketing possibilities of such a device.
Matt Reece