Slashdot Mirror
Next Generation Nintendo Revealed
dwlt writes "I'm sure lots of people have sent this already, but take a look at
the story on videogames.com
for the full scoop on Nintendo's Game Cube (gotta catch 'em all!), and Game Boy Advance. The controller is kind of crazy, though..." Let me tell ya about the countless hours spent in the geek houses drinking and playing Mario Kart 64: Kurt The Pope is a wildman under the influence of alcohol, and the new one looks cool.(thanks to those of you who wasted no time in submitting a new Slashdot icon too ;)
Hmm, reading the article I run across this line: An additional broadband ethernet card will be available at the console's launch.
I read the internet for the articles.
A 56K modem to communicate on a broadband Bluetooth network.
Those are three concepts that have nothing to do with each other. What was the author smoking?
Hello, Metroid.
Have you heard about the new site, slashdot.org?
It is my source for video games news. I learned how to install Linux from it. It told me the evils of Microsoft.
I hear that 90% of the posts at slashdot.org are made by trolls.
Aahhhh, the trolls. Aaaahhhhh.
(Sorry, that damned commercial won't leave me alone!)
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
*ahem* *cough* Need I point out that the propietary "GD-ROM" has not seemed to hurt the Sega Dreamcast at all?
I think the fact that the game cube is so damn small is pretty cool, think of the library of games you can carry around with them only being 8cm in diameter?
however, the controller absolutely BLOWS. how am I going to be able to play a fighting game on it? at least the n64 had the button arangement...
perhaps someone will just make a fighting game-oriented gamepad, and we'll all be happy.
oh well, if they make another Zelda game, and a Metroid game, I'll buy this system.
While the Nintendo Gamecube looks like a potential winnner, the problem is that it's not "forward-looking" enough in terms of technology.
If the specs on X-Box are correct, not only does X-Box support full DVD discs (which means you can put in 4.7 or 9 GB of data on the disc), but it also has a 8 GB hard drive for "scratch data," which means extremely fast loading of new scenes in the game even in high-resolution 32-bit color fully anti-aliased mode. Given that X-Box will use nVidia graphics chip technology (anyone who's seen the GeForce2 GTS running a game in 32-bit color at 1280x1024 resolution are usually extremely impressed, and the X-Box is supposed to use an even better nVidia chip), it'll certainly be able to do very realistic lighting and other graphical effects. And X-Box has true surround-sound capabilities you normally associate with a Creative Sound Blaster Live! card.
If Microsoft allows X-Box games to be written with Linux, X-Box games may graphically be the most impressive of them all. And given what I've read, several Japanese game companies are chomping at the bit to really push the limits of graphics using X-Box.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
I write optimized assembly code for high-performance computer systems that use a PowerPC chip with AltiVec, the family that is used in the N-cube. Although you describe the N-cube as a more conventional design, making effective use of the AltiVec features requires careful attention to detail, just as you describe for the PlayStation 2 system (whose specifications I have not seen). When we want the performance the system can give, we count CPU cycles for instructions and even consider the internal CPU stages and resources. Programming for the N-cube will not be conventional.
This is misinformation: The PowerPC processor used in the Game Cube is a new variant designed by IBM. AltiVec is a Motorola-exclusive technology, found only in the MPC7400 (aka G4). The Game Cube does not have AltiVec! Therefore, programming for it will be much more similar to programming for the 750(aka G3), and hence far more conventional. Now, what I'd like to see is someone port Darwin to this thing... probably more trouble than it's worth, though.
Supreme Lord High Commander of the Interstellar Task Force for the Eradication of Stupidity
You are missing a very, very important point: Console systems do not compete with PCs . That is not the market they are aiming for. Of course you can get a PC that is more powerful. That's assumed. The other thing you miss is they want you to buy a 405MHz machine for $200. Tell me how this is in the same market as the $1500 and up computers you're talking about. It isn't. Don't confuse the console market and the PC market. They do not compete. If you are willing and able to buy a PC, then buy a PC, don't waste your money on any console. The console market is aimed at children who want it for Christmas, and at people who don't have the technical savvy to be reading slashdot.
Supreme Lord High Commander of the Interstellar Task Force for the Eradication of Stupidity
__________________________________________________ ___
rooooar
If it weren't for the fact that I don't recognize the scenery, I would have said these were from Mario Karts 64. Don't get me wrong, I love Mario Karts 64. But what's new about this?
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
Im suprised no on has posted these yet, found on IGN.com
g c ube/colors.jpg e rs.jpg
http://ps2media. ign.com/media/previews/image/gamecube/gamecube.jp
http://ps2media.ign.com/media/previews/image/game
http://ps2med ia.ign.com/media/previews/image/gamecube/controll
I personally want the Game Boy Advance, that will rock!
In case of Emergency, Curl up in the Fetal position, and lick a Bible for comfort!
Warning... incoming game.
Warning... incoming game.
It's a game cube! Look out!
For more information, click here.
But if you're going with DVD's, CD's, or even diskettes, you're going with a standard format. That way you can sign up with a company to press them out en masse without having to design special plastic molds or casings just for your games. The fact that your manufacturing cost is minimized leads to more competitive pricing.
Proprietary cartridges still cost more to make than standard CD/DVD's. The only major benefits they offer are durability (very good for kids who like to toss cartridges around, whereas CD's will scratch rather easily) and piracy protection, at least until the standard is reverse-engineered by some enterprising bootleggers.
For more information, click here.
lemme 'splain a couple things to you..
1. yes the kind of dev environment the system provides matters. but not as much as you'd think.. the console game development world is not like the PC world. companies like id software do not exist.. it is a very expensive proposition getting a game released on a console, you can't just release some shareware version across the net, etc. (at least not yet.) the decision whether or not to make a game for a system is generally made by a bunch of suits. now, the reason the n64 was so lacking in games that the n64 cartridge was only capable of holding about 20 megabytes (of course if they wanted the cartridge to cost $200 they could have made higher capacity ones, but they were already expensive enough at that size... $70).. so, this precluded a lot of the question of what platform to develop for in the past. the new nintendo has 1.5gig capacity per disk, and i would assume, can swap disks while running. so, while that is less than the DVD discs of the PSX2.. it should be enough to bring developers back. nintendo is a bit more fascist about content than sony as well...
2) the x-box will be a waste of money. i've said this countless times in the past. it is a scaled-down PC. by the time it comes out (christmas of 2001 is projected) it will be obsolete already. as it is the hardware is not very impressive. especially given that it will likely cost $300-400
and the main reason for buying a console is?
to play games you cannot get on the PC!
because look at the games *i* have my playstation for : Gran Turismo (1 and 2) and street fighter alpha 3. both of these would run much better, and be more fun on my PC... but they are on the PSX, so that's why i have it.
we are at the same point we're always at when new consoles come out,.. they get ahead of PCs in graphics for a couple months, but not all that long... the x-box will have no time ahead of the pack, the PSX2 i expect will have 8 months to a year, the nintendo, even less.
anyway that's enough rambling.
Think different? I'd be happy if most people would just think...
This is false. The Net Yaroze was not "an early plus" of the PlayStation. It came about well after the PlayStation peaked. I am not aware of any games developed using it that actually made it out to non-Yaroze users.
=wl
SpaceworldLive.com also has continous updates from many different sources. Like for instance this movie of the Gamecube presentation.
You're getting ripped off if you pay over $60 for any game at any time. I've NEVER paid over $60 for ANY N64 game. It pays to shop around instead of automatically buying it at EB.
Secondly, part of the reason game prices were so high is that Nintendo charged quite a bit of money to use their carts. However from what I've heard NIntendo is not doing that with their DVD format, so the cost of a NGC game should be about 10-20 dollars lower than an N64 game. But time will tell.
Yes, it does come in 5 colors! 5 controllers and 5 systems
I've wondered for a while when the videogame industry would eclipse the movie industry and take over the entire entertainment sector.
Actually, video games have made more in their "opening weekends" of sales than most movies have. Mortal Kombat for the SNES was one of the first to do this (over 50 million the first weekend).
With the capabilities of this system approaching photo-realism, producing games is going to cost so much that the publishers are probably going to have to look for financial backing somewhere; I wouldn't be suprised to see some of the entertainment giants jumping into the videogame market now.
This happened in the mid-1990s, and there were many casualties. Don't you remember all the talk of Silliwood, the merging of Silicon Valley and Hollywood? It was generally a major failure all around.
Video games do make a lot of money, but so far there hasn't been much luck breaking out of the "for kids" mold. Games are fun, I admit, but in general the big hits (not hardcore games for the PC, which tend to be fringe products), tend to be of the "try and die and repeat" school, which don't have much appeal if you're older than about twelve. The Sims is maybe the best example of a different form of entertainment.
Um, did you say 50 million? I really really hope you mean dollars grossed and not copies sold
Of course. When you hear "50 million" in reference to how well a movie did, do you think it means "50 million people saw it?"
WHy did Nintendo include expansion ports?
They add significantly to the cost of the console, and yet almost nothing ever comes out to utilize them.
Genesis, 3DO, PSX, N64, JAGUAR etc. all had expansion ports. Nothing of use ever came out of it with the exception of the gameshark.
CD-ROMS, Bulky-Drives, Modems, VCD Players, increased performance hardware(a la 32X)... nobody uses them, because nobody develops for them. The game support for add-on peripherals is always ridiculously low... WHy make a 32X game when I can make a Genesis game? The install base of peripherals is necessarily a subset of the original hardware, so the market is guaranteed to be smaller!!
The only exception I can think of is the addition of a highspeed connection. But nintendo has a *seperate* slot for that!! What useful periph. could ever come out? The memory expansion pack for the N64 might be considered a successful peripheral, but it *came* with the games that required it!! Not really a peripheral at all? It may as well have come attached to the cartridge!
Tell ya what.. remove the expansion slots, and drop the price $30... that's make me MUCH happier.
I didn't see much where the article was (mebbe I missed it, but I didn't see it :/)
The specs for the thing are here.
They also have info on the gamecube and screenshots from it.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
"GameCube software will be released on small (8 cm diameter) 1.5 GB proprietary optical disks manufactured by Matsushita." That doesn't sound like a CD to me.
I will try not to sound too harsh, but rtfa before you spout. The Gamecube can also read regular DVD's and developers are free to put out games on regul;ar DVDs, they just offer the proprietary DVD format to thwart piracy (probably not possible - but they're trying to appease their developers). It is unclear if it will include software to play DVD movies, but Nintendo has a deal with Matsushita to produce DVD players with GameCube functionality as well. Also, a 400mhz machine this is built from the ground up to play games could easily give a $3000 PeeCee with a 1Ghz processor, 256Mg memory, and whatever 64mg video card you want to put in it a good fight in the performance category, and Nintendo has made it clear that they will not charge more than $200 for this machine. Take another look at those screen shots. A dreamcast looks as good as anything out for PeeCee right now, and the Cube will easily be much more powerful. Take another look at those screen shots.
e x p e c t d e l a y . c o m
Insightful. +5. If not, why not?
From the article:
It's not a cube. NOT a cube.
My other first post is car post.
Man, compatible processing power to the SuperNES? And full colour too? Can you imagine? I'm sooooo hoping that SuperNES titles will be released for it....like, can you imagine Final Fantasy III for GameBoy? Or multiplayer GameBoy StarFox? Gnnnaaaaaahhhhhhh....
Can we port xbill to those? ;) Hours and hours of plenty family fun and the DOJ plays it too!
-Stskeeps, http://unrealircd.com
How excited were you all to see this screenshot? I think that the return of Metroid is the only thing that would make me want to get this system.
-----
"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad." - Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Amiga was WAY before my time.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
A window on the future perhaps?
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
If you think Zelda didn't sell 10 times better than Mario Kart, you're clueless.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
I read somewhere (can't quite remember where) that the port is like USB, but not quite. (real technical, huh?)
If you've owned a Game Boy at any time, you've probably noticed that the game link connector also looks a lot like a small USB port, that's because it's a very early version of the same technology that was used for USB.
I'm going to assume that the GameCube (sucky name, I liked Dolphin a lot better) uses a proprietary format, because they would have hyped USB compatiblity to no end on that page if they had it.
-subtraho
Has anyone noticed that the controller looks like a cross between a PS2 dual-shock controller (for overall styling/layout) and the Dreamcast controller (for position of the analog/ditigal controls + buttons).
:))
It certainally looks a lot more comfortable than the DC controller though, that thing sucks (Virtua Tennis has given me a serious case of sore-thumb). IMO Nintendo have always done the best gamepad design, the NES might not have been super-ergonomic (what was at that time), but the d-pad rocked. The SNES controller added more buttons and those now-ubiquitous sholder buttons. The piece de-resistance really was the N64 controller, it just oozed quality. If you have one, you might not have noticed that without a rumble/memory pack in it balances perfectly on your finger.
Sony may have stolen the show with their dual-shock for a bit, but I have faith in Nintendo and know that both the GB Advance and Game Cube will perform brilliantly.
Besides, lets face it, we all know that the games are where its at, and you can't beat the big N for that (aided and abetted by Rare of course). Can you tell I'm excited about this?
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
Hrm...this caught my eye:
Developers can use the C programming language to take advantage of this functionality and create software at a low cost. Based on the foundation of a developer-friendly environment and a system configured with few restrictions, developers can create an unequaled level of entertainment and create the kinds with the kind of depth everyone will want to experience.
And the rest of the site focusing mainly on the "Developer Friendly" atmosphere of the new systems. Maybe Nintendo is looking to tap the extensive community of open source developers to overwhelm the market with games for their consoles?
Just a crazy off the wall thought...
Ok, that's them done, let's discuss the damn products can we?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Both the Cube and PS2 have similar technical specs, making a declaration of one as king impossible. To me, it will al go down to which system has the best and easiest to work with development platform. Sure people always says "it's about the games stupid!", but a good deal of how good the games are depends on how good the development platform is, which is mainly why most developers are going crazy about the X-Box even if many gamefans are still skeptical.
I've heard PS2's development system is a nightmare, but t
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
Granted, the DualShock would be impossible to use if the people making the controller forget that you can only use the d-pad(directional pad)/left-stick or the buttons(/\ [] O X)/right-stick - but most games keep that in mind (because they also are compatible with the standard controller).
First of all, putting the d-pad where they did seems like a bad idea to me - but I'd have to have the controller in my hand first. I find that my thumbs "work" just about right for the button-use position and the stick-use position on the DualShock - I'm not sure that I'd find myself being able to use the Nintendo controller quite as easily. Although they're probably hoping that all the games will support the analog control as opposed to the d-pad. I'm not sure what they're thinking with the shoulder buttons, either - I think there's only one of each. I wonder if the parts where you'd grip the controller (the white lines sticking down) will have "Z-trigger" like things on them?
The buttons do NOT look like they'd work well with most games - I wonder how easy it would be to play Mario on that thing? The C-buttons worked on the N64 controller because they were not in the middle of the A and B buttons - and they were nicely arranged to make using them somewhat easier.
As always, the start button is in a location that's not overly easy to use, but the DualShock has that problem too (I'd move them closer to the d-pad and the buttons, but...)
All in all, I think I still perfer the DualShock as a control over any other console controller. I wonder if the new Nintendo controller has force-feedback? Force-feedback can be really nice in some games - the controller jerking in your hands when being discovered in Metal Gear Solid is enough to make you jump. Games just don't play the same without it - and Sony did a good thing with the "dual" part, there are two different types of shaking the controller can do - the rumble pack for the N64 seems to have only had one way. Having the motors powered off the PlayStation and not a battery was nice as well.
I'll have to actually get a controller in my hand before deciding, though - I didn't like the look of the N64 controller either, but it turns out to be fairly usable.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Now, while I have not read many of the articles surrounding the n-cube, the "perepherial atattachment area" on the bottom of the box looks very much like a male USB port.
Any comments? I can imagine if this is a USB port the things that can be done!
As much as I have diseregarded nintendo over the past few years (as well as most other console systems), I want one of these to try to hack. Actuall, better make that two, so I still have one to play on!
Shameless Plug! If you like trance, tell me what you think!!
Here. Wireless controllers, online connectivity, Metroid. Could be interesting.
The GameCube tech demo movie is also available as an .mpeg file, playable via your favourite OSS movie player. Die Sorenson codecs, die! P-)
The file is right here, a zipped mpeg. It's a direct download off ZDNET's servers, which should handle the load effortlessly. *grin*
The tech demo shows some nice, although pre-rendered scenes featuring the inevitable Pokemon, a waverace game, some scened from a 3D shooter demo, and an X-Wing.
Alex T-B
St Andrews
The PS2 system is tricky because of two main systems.
Firstly, it's designed with high bandwidth, and low cache. This is very different to the standard 'low' bandwidth and high cache. Whether better or not remains to be seen, but the fact is that by being very different, it is causeing problems for the developers
The other point is that some of it's much vaunted power comes from the vector registers. And (speaking from experinece) these require careful coding to get the best out of (such as doing the sum on 32 memory locations rather than just the required 5 can be faster). As far as I know, the only people who really have experience with this sort of thing are the supercomputer programmers.
Um, how many people write computer games and code on supercomputers too? Not darned many. Thus there is a lack of experienced deveolpers for the platform.
The N-cube specs suggest, to me, a more conventional design, although I would hardly call that page detailed or technical.
A more conventional design, means more deveolper experience, which, as you point out, means better games.
Time will tell, but I am wondering about the disk drive used in the cube. Anyone familer with it?
NINTENDO GAMECUBE Specifications
The peak figures listed are all for maximum instantaneous performance and cannot be achieved with the actual game. However, following the conventions in the game industry they are listed for your reference.
Wow, that's an extremely unusual thing for a hardware vendor to state up front about published specs. Kudos to Nintendo!