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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."
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...
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.
> 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.
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?"
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.
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
Here comes Cobalt, and man, they look pissed! ;>
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...
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
DVD drive that can't play movies....hmm...Nintendo afraid of MPAA perhaps?
which brings me to my next question, while slightly off topic....
Will the Playstation 2 be enforcing region codes?
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 **
That sucks...I don't own a DVD player yet anyway, so it hasn't had any diret realivance on me yet...but the fact remains that I think the coding "feature" sucks.
Because, man, if you're not cube, you're just square.
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The gravitational constant of protein has changed. - Turbine
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.
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Stupid sexy Flanders.
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
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.
It does suck, but they probably are required to "enforce" it.
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You won't like this, but the US version of the PS2 will have the DVD playback stuff in the hardware
For more info, check the PS2 FAQ.
- sigs are for wimps.
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 --
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.
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...
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.
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 can't wait till Apple sues them for using the cube shape...
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2B1ASK1
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
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?
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.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
.. its call because too many people work in cubicles ...
do i hear office revolution ? or am i just reading too much dilbert ?
Nintendo afraid of MPAA perhaps?
Or the DVD (Forum | Consortium). The site mentioned that in order to play DVD movies, Nintendo would have to give them $20 for every unit sold -- too much for Nintendo.
This is supposed to be great art. So why does it look like a bunch of decapitated naked people? -- Calvin
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-
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.
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Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not a turnip.
As per the specs page on cube.ign.com:
When one says mini-disc, and they don't mean sony, then they mean 77mm, like the "three inch" CD/CD-R format.
You most likely will not be able to fit a full-size DVD into the box in any case. If you could, then you could load a DVD player software app (if someone wrote one and got MPAA licensing) into it and play one in software. It doesn't look like it's that kind of party.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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.
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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.
Early Japanese PlayStation 2's had a "bug" in that you could circumvent the DVD region locking. If it wasn't done by default, you could type a secret key sequence to disable the region locking.
This actually prompted Sony to issue a recall, even though there were no functional defects with the unit. That was possibly the first time in history that a product has been recalled because it had too many features.
For more information, click here.
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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...
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The gravitational constant of protein has changed. - Turbine
Since it's got a PowerPC in it, it might be able to run Linux - Then you could play CDs on it - Would be cool to be able to pop in a "DVD Player Cartridge" and convert it from a game machine to a DVD player. Now to get Linux on a BootProm....
Don't pick up the pho*(@)$*@&@!@ NO CARRIER
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.
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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 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.
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
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?
...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.
I would not be surprised if it took a hacker almost a year to crack Nintendo's new system. Just like the Dreamcast over the summer, a bunch of crackers finally reversed-engineered the DC and made it playable with normal CDR's instead of Sega's GD-ROM.
Now, I'm speculating here. So everything from here on is what I heard from various sources on the net and in magazines (probably all those sources related to IGN) and what I'm picturing what the N-Cube will be.
The N-Cube would be base on a new technology to deflect piracy on the new system. In helping with this is their new mini-DVD format. I'm guessing its the size of those mini-CDs you might see in an import section of a store. (You see the mini-CDs a lot for Asian music sinlges.) Though, I also heard that the mini-DVD may be in a case... sort of like the MiniDisc. That's my guess.
Now with that idea in mind. And this N-"Cube" shape (assuming), wouldn't it be nicer for Nintendo to create a mini-DVD drive instead of putting a full size DVD drive (which wouldn't even play movies)?
That will help Nintendo out for piracy since there won't be any mini-DVDR burners out there. Not only that, no one would be able to insert a normal DVDR in the player. (ala Dreamcast: Uses GD-ROM, though a CD-ROM can be used, too.)
But will be the new Nintendo system be un-crackable? Don't know, will have to ask the HK black market for that one. Anyway, also more heard information about Nintendo's new system. Matsushita is developing the drive for it. Also, Nintendo would be licensing their technology (maybe a year after N-Cube is released) back to Matsushita to develop a "home entertainment system". That's DVD playback and N-Cube playing included.
Only then I could think that N-Cube could be cracked and by then maybe DVDR will be cheaper. But, Nintendo's counterfeit protection isn't limited to the mini-DVD. They're doing some funky stuff internally with the system. I don't know much about security, so I'll leave it at that.
Though, I can say it will be fun watching everyone trying to crack Nintendo's new system. I guess that's how we progress in the technological age :)
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neafevoc
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.
Knowing how determined hackers are about the PlayStation, and considering that a CD-R drive was unheard-of in the consumer market when the PlayStation came out, I wouldn't worry about this. In a few years, the PlayStation 2 will still be going strong despite the influx of new 256-bit and 512-bit video game systems from Sega and Nintendo, due in no small part to the high availability of DVD copiers.
For more information, click here.
ext.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
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...
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?
So long and thanks for all the frag
I guess it's not the kind of thing that Arthuer Dent would buy anyway.
- Derwen
http://fsfeurope.org/
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