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Nintendo Unveils GAMECUBE At Spaceworld 2000
Mark Programmer writes: "After several months of secrecy, Nintendo finally unveiled their new GAMECUBE system at the Spaceworld 2000 Expo in Japan. While many companies had new systems out for display, Nintendo was one of the few to have an actual playable demo involving 128 fully-rendered independent Marios shoving each other around in real-time. Check out these screenshots or (if you've got the bandwidth) download the demo movie.
(By the way, whenever you see GAMECUBE in print, it's in ALL CAPS. I guess that's because Nintendo likes to PLAY IT LOUD.) *grin*"
That's exactly the point I'm making about the N64 controller's layout. It may be comfortable, but no game can use all the buttons because their positions are too far apart. Maybe I've just got weird hands, but I find the PSX controller much more comfortable and practical. A pity, too. I absolutely love Rare's games.
>I trust Nintendo / Miyamoto when it comes to
:) ) are all real close together so you can reach everything at once. The two big, well-gripping analog sticks are wonderful for games like Apocalypse or Gran Turismo 1/2. Mucho kudos to Sony for making the Dual Shock the PS2 controller as well.
>controller design.
Ugh. I don't. That wretched N64 controller is made of the weakest plastic on the planet. Not only that, but the buttons are so spread out that the crosspad and left shoulder buttons are useless. The analog stick is the most innacurate joystick that I've ever used.
Now the Dual Shock controller for the Playstation is a work of art. You can swing that thing around, smashing it into walls, and it won't break. The buttons, all 10 of them (not including the sticks and crosspad
And don't even get me started on the Dreamcast controller. Sega engineers should be shot.
Do you think nintendo will back on top? I just they come out with a cool ass metroid for this box.
What I meant by Crusoe-type technology was the "hardware in software" design. Portable chip design *still* uses legacy instruction sets, and the entire idea of Crusoe was not to emulate the architecture, but to emulate the instruction set. They also ended up emulating part of the architecture, as the north bridge is on die too, I believe. But the code-morphing software idea may be helpful by using a more powerful processor which is difficult to program for (like the Crusoe) and emulating a more standard instruction set. See also Nintendo's recent stance with the GameCube - they're interested in appeasing third-party developers, and the architecture lends a lot to that. Crusoe-type technology may allow them to use more powerful technology without sacrificing the ease of use.
Or something like that...
Patrick
Wow. "Old news for Nerds. Stuff that mattered". It's not as if we haven't heard this before or anything.
What next? Will we see "Nolan Bushnell invents Pong" up on the front page?
Hey! You know what? Yesterday I was doing some gardening in my backyard. I lifted up this rock, and Hemos crawled out from underneath all pasty-looking. He then looked at the sun, cursed at me, and ran underneath my neighbour's back porch.
Come on guys, I usually don't complain, but this is REDICULOUS. Even all the local news stations aired this story on the day it happened, and they're completely clueless towards this stuff.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
And Slashdot has already covered it.
As far as I can tell, a lid system is *easier* to break than a slot loader.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Has anybody else come to the conclusion that I have, namely that NonMindO's sprite editor must have crashed back in the late 1970's? The only thing they seem to be able to get out of it are Mario's. And that little splat of a character, Kirby.
Heck, they even did a Tetris clone with Mario's
It must run on Windows....
</humor>
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I really like how nintendo has stuck by the cartridge system even though every other company out there gave it up a long time ago.
For console systems, I guess that it makes sense to use CDs (or their kin), they are cheap to produce and have high capacity. For portables, the only way to go is solid state. There is less chance of killing the game due to travel (scratches are a bitch) and the machine takes less power to run (therefore can runlonger on the same amount of power) because there are no motors. Witness the pocket gameboy running 10 hours on two triple-A batteries.
I hope that the Nintendo GAMECUBE comes quickly to Europe, unlike the N64. It took forever to get here in Israel, and it *still* costs like $300. Madness I tell you! Madness!
Rami
--
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Thats what i was thinking -- this news came out on shugashack, bluesnews, and even [h]ard|ocp had it over a month ago. Of course I submit a story about sex in space it gets rejected -- someone submits a story thats a month old -- it gets in. Maybe I should re submit?
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Gimme another Mario Kart, and watch me waste another year or two of my life :)
Mario Kart 64 had fifteen flaws in its gameplay. Mario Kart 3, for Game Boy Advance, returns to the old SMK style of gameplay with near-MK64 graphics (the GBA seems to have Sega Saturn-level graphics capabilities).
<O
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The GAMECUBE was shown to select people actually at SpaceWorld, the GameBoy Advanced was the main thing there for the public. Also, the GAMECUBE was NOT playable there (only Miyamoto played a few simple demos). It was on demo and to keep people wondering no one was allowed to hold the controller, only look at it. Way back at the "Europe's version of E3" headline I posted about the GAMECUBE being revealed but done in a way to not allow you to know much about the system and what it can really do. Just alot of eye candy. http://cube.ign.com has some great information too. The GAMECUBE will be revealed at E3 AND be playable THERE (not at Spaceworld) and be the main spotlight. Hemos, sorry to say, but this headline is Outta date.
It's not a CD3 - It's a 1.5GB mini-DVD.
"I will destroy this runaway renegade robo-ninja you call shinanui..."
Most gaming experts agree the greatest weakness of the playstation and the Dreamcast is immobility. For instance, my family used to live in Ohio. When we moved a year ago, we had to leave my Playstation behind. Why? It doesn't have a handle. The movers just stood there, staring at it, saying "I'm sorry sir, I just don't see a place to grab the thing."
I know Microsoft is still working on their X-box design, but even if they started now I doubt they could develop a workable handle for their machine by next fall, as Nintendo is believed to have a 2-year lead in plastic handle technology.
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
It'll be a while yet. The Japanese/USA launches are slated for mid to late 2001... I havent heard any info on the Euro launch... Of course, keep in mind that Nintendo is known for missing/slipping dates, often by a wide margin.
This was already covered a month ago, on August 24th, the day after the unveiling (August 23rd).
Sorry guys...
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Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
Those CD-ROMs that it uses... maybe it is because of the image, but (to me) they look a little different than normal CD-ROMs....
Perhaps they are trying to curb what happened with the Playstation, in terms of duplication.
There is also the fact that Nintendo all but invented the idea of licensing games (avoiding the Atari anyone-can-make-a-videogame fiasco - see earlier Slashdot articles on the topic) -- perhaps developers will also have to license the ability to use the proprietary CD-ROM technology or format... I suppose this would be no different than it is now with the cartridge-based N64.
Lucas
--
Spindletop Blackbird, the GNU/Linux Cube.
How long will it be before Apple's lawyers come knocking at another door in Redmond?
Can anybody explain to me why ALL screenshots for console systems are captured in medium quality jpeg? Aren't they support to be advertising how great the graphics are?
Actualy, the Mario128 demo was only pre-rendered. There were no playable Gamecube demos at Spaceworld.
The Gamecube itself though sounds wonderful, and a 400Mhz PPC processor to boot.
-- Hob - Java Spectrum Emulator
Nintendo announced that they were indeed continuing with the Cartridge trend, to the suprise of many. They stated that the CD-ROM format "does not include enough interactivity."
Looks like they've reversed their position. CDs are much cheaper to manufacture, much cheaper to package, and can hold a lot more information than a cartridge. (If you notice, it appears the CD size isn't standard. It doesn't look quite as big as a regular CD, but it doesn't look quite as small as one of the Mini-CDs that your CD-ROM tray still supports. I'm guessing that this format is either a "new" CD size, or it is in fact one of the Mini-CDs.)
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Um, according to this page over at Daily Radar, Spaceworld 2000 was on August 23. That's more than a month ago, dammit! Surely, this can't be news to many?
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