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Inside The Nintendo GameCube
Mortin writes "Icrontic.com has ripped apart a Nintendo GameCube. They document the entire procedure with a myriad of pictures. It's neat to see how clearly the Xbox and GameCube differ in respect to physical hardware." Luigi's mansion looks cool. The Star Wars game wasn't very fun. But the cube is so tiny, it's cute!
Check out this article over at ign.com. Nintendo is claiming 2:1 sales over the xbox and 25% more units sold than the PS2 in it's first week.
I have a relative who works for Best Buy corporate and she says the Gamecube is outselling the Xbox across the US in their stores by a substantial margin as well.
Xbox will be dead in a year. The game industry doesn't give a shit about third place (ask Sega).
--
Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.
Taco, do you frequently rip open things that you find cute? Remind me never to let you near my dog.
-Chris
The link is already slashdotted. I couldn't find a cache on Google. Here is an alternative link to another gutting of the Gamecube. All this Gamecube gutting reminds me of Ben Heckendorn's next project at VCSp to make the Gamecube into a portable... watch for it.
To go off on a tangent for a paragraph or so... I would pick the GameCube over the Xbox any day. Personally, I believe the Xbox is simply Microsoft's way of trying to monopolize yet another market with their inferior stuff. With the Sony PS2 and GameCube on the market, I believe there is no room for the Xbox. If you want a computer to run Linux or one of the BSDs on, get a real computer and don't support Microsoft. And if you don't want a whole computer, pick up a Circuit Cellar or some other magazine and get one of those 4x4 inch boards that contains a complete Pentium computer with everything, sometimes including even the sound hardware. Seriously, I really honestly believe that Microsoft is leveraging their monopoly in the area of operating systems and office productivity software to obtain monopolies in other areas as well. They've been talking about getting into the games market for about 5 or 6 years that I remember. (There were articles in the gaming magazines about 5 or 6 years ago with Bill Gates' pictures all over them.) I think Microsoft has done quite enough to put perfectly good companies out of business and take over markets with their inferior products (only because of the strength and vigor of their marketing).
Now back on subject:Both the GameCube and Sony's PS2 are very nice machines. I like how, over the years, these things have slowly transformed from machines designed only for video games into machines that serve as a nice component in a home theater (or, as they were called in the 80's, home entertainment systems--this makes more sense to me than home theater, as a theater is a place where you watch plays, a cinema is a place where you watch movies (so it should be called a home cinema rather than a home theater) and an entertainment center can contain any kind of component that serves to entertain). Nice article, and pictures.
Oh well.
Since most of you who're slashdotting it right now might have seen this part, you'll know why I'm asking this question.
Why do console manufacturers use proprietary screws?
Now, in recent years, console manufacturers have let off a bit, but after the NES, Nintendo has gone crazy with the security screws. My SNK NeoGeo Pocket Color has one triangular screw that has prevented me from taking it apart. The GameCube has those weird things. I think the GBA has a full set of those wacky triangular screws.
Why do they not want me to see inside of it without marring the case? Is it warranty related? One of the first things I do with my things (after I've enjoyed it in its virginal form) is to take it apart. But I also hate ruining cases/screws, and I don't feel like investing the $35 it takes to get the proper bits for certain equipment.
Is there any good reason? I cannot imagine anything mechanical that makes a phillips head any worse. Has Nintendo or anyone ever commented on this issue?
I'm happy to say that upon reassemble of the unit, it still works.
he spelled it wrong but at least he did it.
BOSTON SUCKS!
Nintendos done everything right.
As far as hardware goes, PS2 went for all polygons and no textures and is barely better than Dreamcast.
Dreamcast went with good textures, low polygons, and PS2 was able to hype up 60 million polygons per second and make Dreamcast sound cheap.
What Nintendo did, was alittle of both, Polygon power thats 12 million polygons per second, which is twice the power of the Dreamcast.
And 64 megs of ram, This is more ram than any other system and not just any ram but FAST ram.
Nintendo realized the quality of rendering, and the special effects are more important than the pure polygon power.
PS2 has better special effects and you see it in certain games, Theres a new water racing game for the PS2 which has the most realistic water i've ever seen, photorealistic and definately better than wave race. Problem is, while PS2 games have better physics, the color quality is horrible. Metal Gear Solid 2 the best game PS2 has to offer right now, clearly lacks color and textures, and this is why a game like Shenmue on the dreamcast actually looks more realistic. Color and Textures are very important, not just physics.
Xbox has the most potential hardware wise, A pentium 3 which can be used for Physics and a high quality graphics chip, However Gamecube is easier to program for, so while Xbox has the potential to destroy the game cube, right now Gamecube games look better simply because its easier to right them, so with Xbox you have an almost Sega Saturn style system which gives programmers too much power
and while Microsoft makes good development tools, we have yet to see what Xbox can do and most likely wont see what it can do for a couple of years.
So why do i believe Gamecube did everything right?
Cheap, Its cheaper than all the competition.
Marketing, It has some of the best commercials I've ever seen.
Power, while Xbox may be more powerful, Gamecube has better looking games.
I expect Gamecube to outsell all systems this year and Next year and perhaps be the console to Dominate. If the Marketing remains at this level, and Xbox doesnt get some good games fast, I dont think Gamecube will have any serious competition. PS2 is still in the picture, but they better have an ace up their sleeve or they will go the way of the Dreamcast.
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Once again, this article looks like an old rerun
Too bad the link is slashdotted already.
Though the inside of the gamecube can be found here (from the other slashdot article)
Here's my whole deal on the GameCube. It's long. Sorry about that. But I wouldn't feel fair if I said all that stuff on the Xbox in a previous post, then left the GameCube swaying in the wind. So this whole thing is my honest opinion. Take it as it is.
The size of the past
About a month ago, I bought my first Nintendo Entertainment System.
Growing up as a child, I never had a Nintendo of my own. My parents waited until I had left home to stop being poor, so I didn't know the joys of the little sister. That means no Kid Icarus, no Castlevania, and especially no Final Fantasy.
Until a month ago, when a chance run into a Software Etc made me notice the Final Fantasy (not II, III, or otherwise) - an original Final Fantasy game. 20 minutes later I bought it, and went out to find myself a Nintendo to play it on.
20 years is a long time to wait, and its interesting how Nintendo's systems have evolved over the years. Some things, like the output plugs for the systems, have remained the same since the Super Nintendo Systems. The cartridges have gotten a little bigger and could hold more memory, but they were still cartridges, made to deliver their information as quickly as possible so game players could focus on playing games rather than waiting for the information to load.
That also meant there was a trade-off. Companies that went with the PlayStation system could use disks that held far more information, which means more cinematic gameplay, sometimes at their benefit, sometimes to their detriment.
But now Nintendo has joined the rest of the disk based world with their little square wonder, the GameCube. And in true Nintendo fashion it's brutally efficient at doing one thing: providing gaming entertainment.
Hip to be Square
The first thing I noticed when I opened up the box was my little black GameCube is small and perfectly square. Actually, the first thing I noticed was the handle that let me pull it out and walk around the house going "Look at this little thing?"
The GameCube weight between 3-4 pounds, and while it's small, it feels solid, and the little guy is quiet when you turn it on. To be honest, Nintendo did cheat - the power cord has a large brick on it that's used for AC/DC conversion, and that big brick is a slight problem when you're trying to find a place to plug it in. (The power brick alone is almost as heavy as the GameCube itself!)
The GameCube is a simple system. On the top are 3 buttons - On, Reset, and Open so you can insert the mini-DVD's (more in that in a moment). The front as 6 slots - 4 controllers, 2 memory. The back has inserts for the power and Video Out (which uses the same plugs as your old Nintendo 64, which uses the same plugs as your Super Nintendo), as well as another plug for Digital Out - and since I don't have a system that supports that, RCA works just fine for me, thank you very much.
The bottom is where you upgrade the system. Two serial ports and one high speed port are covered by smooth covers, set up so that when you do plug in future add-ons (like a broadband adapter or modem), they'll be perfectly flush with the system so you won't notice them in the way.
The system is made to play games, so forget any ideas about putting in your music CD's or movie DVD's inside. The individual games come in small, 3 inch disks that are burned with DVD level technology (so they can store lots of information in a small space). Nothing else is going to fit inside, and while there are reports of a GameCube compatible DVD player in Japan being released sometime in the next few months, the unit you buy from Nintendo doesn't aspire to any of that.
It just plays the games, kids. I can't stress that enough, because it does it so well.
It's Flipper!
The original code name for the GameCube was the Dolphin, and it makes sense that the ATI graphics card that powers the GameCube was named Flipper. (Unless you haven't been born in the last 30 years like myself, you might remember that Flipper was the dolphin star of a popular TV show. Like Lassie in the water.)
ATI proves they know how to do graphics, because so far the first set of games for the GameCube look incredible. I've been playing with Super Monkey Ball, and the game looks incredibly smooth. The spheres look perfectly round, colors and textures are bright and colorful, and the other little tricks like lens flare and so on never slow down the system at all.
Or another game sure to be popular this year, Rebel Assault II. The first mission alone, a recreation of the Battle of Yavin where you get to destroy the Death Star, looks like you're inside the movie. But the next mission after that which has you flying through a nebula, and I was impressed by the sheer beauty of space, the distant stars shining through interstellar gas in a sight any science fiction fan would sell their soul to be a part of.
Quick Load
One problem with most CD or DVD based games is the long load times, or the wait to load or save games to memory cards.
The opposite is true with the GameCube. Somehow, maybe because the mini-DVD's are so small the seek time is less, games load up very quickly, and games saved to the small memory cards (which resemble the PlayStation 2 memory cards, only half the size (and at 4 MB, half the storage space)) quickly store their information so you can get right back into the game.
Either way, the near lack of wait between the time you say "Start Game" and the time the game launches keeps you from getting bored.
Fits like a perfect, tiny glove
You know what they say about a man who can drive a stick? Yeah, me neither.
As much as I've tried to avoid it, sooner or later I have to mention the recent review of another console's controller, the Xbox. Like the Xbox controller, the GameCube's contains several buttons and features:
* Two analog sticks
* One D-Pad
* 3 finger triggers (two on the right, one of which is the Z button, one of the left)
* 5 buttons - A, B, X, Y, and Start
And while the controller is made for hands slightly smaller than my own, it was still very comfortable. I could reach every single button (except for the Start button, which really doesn't count) with my thumb, and the finger triggers were pretty accessible, except for the Z button which was a further stretch for my right index finger. I believe that there's a larger model made by another company, but as it is the default controller is comfortable enough to use for long stretches. (In fact, I recently bought a second during Thanksgiving so me and the kids could play the games together. Made me a big hit in the family, I can tell you.)
The buttons give a good response so you know they've been pushed down. The main finger triggers also have a "click", which means that just pressing down the trigger means one thing, while "clicking" it all the way down can mean another. For example, in Rogue Squadron II, pressing down the right means to accelerate, while clicking it can activate the S-Foils or hit a Turbo Boost.
The controller has rumble technology, which means it can vibrate depending on what's going on in the game. It isn't terribly strong, but it's effective enough.
Inside the Cube
When the GameCube is first turned on, even its boot-up sequence is cute as it "rolls" a purple cube on the screen to form the GameCube logo.
The menu system is also made of a cube, and moving the controller in each of the four compass directions gives you the various options, like sound, video, time, memory, and launching the game itself. The cube menu is transparent, and each item is clearly depicted in little squares that make up the letters, continuing the cube tradition.
There's nothing outside the ordinary, so let's move onto the big event.
The Games
Compared to the Xbox or the PlayStation 2, the GameCube doesn't have a lot of games available at its launch, and if history is a key, it probably won't have as many as its competitors. (Take a look at the games for the PSOne compared to the Nintendo 64.)
But those games that are out, the two that I've been playing with are both incredibly fun. Listed here are "Gut Level" reviews of the games - these aren't final scores, but just my general impressions after spending around 24 hours with them and the system.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader:
For fans of the Star Wars game, this is as close to flying the X-Wing and other crafts as you're going to get. The controls are simple enough - the left analog controls your direction, left and right trigger buttons decrease/increase speed, A to fire the primary weapons, and B to fire the secondary weapons.
It was evident from the beginning that the Factor 5 crew was interested in fun. When it first starts, you see a group of StormTroopers dancing to the Cantina Theme before the camera pans back to reveal the LucasArts logo. It's cute, and just ads that grin to your face before the game even begins.
The missions are fairly simple in and of themselves, usually spent blowing up the Imperial Forces in the various crafts. But expertise in being quick, accurate, or not getting dead are rewarded by giving out Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards that can be used to collect points for better ships in other missions.
As far as the graphics, it is amazing. Flying down the Death Star Trench with the Tie Fighters roaring after me, it almost looked like the gray, dominating trenches of the Death Star trench.
The other interesting graphical feature depends on the time of day. On planet based missions, the sun moves depending on what time the GameCube reports, so missions flown in late afternoon will have the sun setting, while missions played in the middle of the day has the sun high overhead. It was a surprising detail, and one that just adds to the cool factor of the game.
Probably the most aggravating thing is the radar system. I'm used to the old Tie Fighter/X-Wing system, where the left circle is the back and the right is the front (or is it the other way around?), but for Rogue Squadron II there's the only the one on the upper right, and I often had problems knowing if something was above me or below me.
Gut Level Score: 8 or 9
Super Monkey Ball:
Oh, yes, I'm sure that PETA will just love this game.
Sega, I love you. This game is a blast. Imagine one of those marble mazes, where you'll tilt the maze about to move the marble through the hallways, avoiding the tiny holes.
Except in this case, the mazes are huge, the size of a football field, and the marbles are encased with...monkeys. Cute little monkeys that try to run and keep up with the marbles as they race down the ramps at 70 mph, while you try and grab the bananas (I believe sponsored by Dole) while keeping them falling off the edges down into oblivion.
First, the graphics are even better than Rogue Squadron II. It's bright, the balls are perfectly round, the the little monkeys have all sorts of expressions as they're rolled around, expressing shock or glee as they race about your tilting world.
The game has that "Ah-ah-woah!" feeling as you just barely keep your Monkey from falling off the edges so you can get that one extra banana, or the sudden fear as parts of the mazes break off to float away, leaving you to make split second decisions of whether to play it safe, or go for broke.
Then there's the party games and mini-games mode. I've only played one of the party games, Monkey Fight, where you control a monkey with a boxing glove and try to punch the other monkeys off the board. Boxes will drop down that will give your monkey's various abilities, but primarily it's a romp to move around the board, trying to keep a wall at your back so you aren't knocked off.
Sega captured the very essence of gaming with Super Monkey Ball - it's just flat out fun.
Gut Score: 9 or 10.
Closing the Box
I like the GameCube, and I'm not going to be ashamed of that. It's almost half the size of its competitor, but it's like looking at a puppy around some big dogs. It's cute, it wants to please you, and it's got the charm and energy to make playing with it funner than playing with the bigger, dogs that might know a lot of cool tricks, but they don't make you want to scratch the back of their lids. Er, ears. I like the system, I like the games, I like the controller, and I'd gladly buy it again, and gladly recommend its purchase to anyone who just wants to have fun.
As always, I'm John "Dark Paladin" Hummel. And that's my opinion.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
What do you expect? Look at the ads on TV, they are just a billion trillion times better than any I've seen. Then look at the price, its cheaper. Then look at the games like Luigis Mansion, Metriod Prime, Starwars. And even if these games all suck, we know two things.
1. They are better than the average Xbox game.
2. The ads make each game look like its the next coming of christ or something.
Xbox has crappy ads which look as bad as Sega and their Dreamcast ads.
Xbox needs better games and better marketing for the few good games they do have. Lastly to compete with gamecube Xbox would need a cheaper price tag.
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Xbox is in the same situation as PS2, but Xbox is more powerful, and Microsoft has more influence in the USA.
Xbox will survive. This isnt a question. Because with enough money a failed console survives.
Sega didnt survive not because their console didnt sell, Sega didnt survive because Sega didnt have the money to compete with the likes of Sony and Microsoft, When Xbox came into the picture thats when Sega called it quits.
Xbox is taking the Market that Dreamcast was going after.
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Sega was in first place and actually the Dreamcast still has more units Sold than PS2, Xbox and Gamecube.
The problem isnt selling the units, Its the fact that Sega didnt have the money to compete with big companies like Sony and Microsoft who were buying Developer support left and right.
Sega was losing third parties because SEGA didnt have the money to keep them. Third parties dont like to hang around a company which is bleeding money left and right, They prefer the stability of a Microsoft or Sony.
Sega couldnt make enough money off of Dreamcast on their own, and unlike Nintendo Sega didnt have enough money to save dreamcast on their own, Sega was in debt.
Sega had no other choice but to kill Dreamcast, not because Dreamcast wasnt selling, or Because Dreamcast was a bad system, but because Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo left no third parties for Sega. Money is made on game sales mostly from Third Parties.
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Sega Dreamcast sold well. Sega however always does bad in Japan and good in the USA and this is where Sega seems to look (oh we arent selling in japan, lets scrap this system, who gives a damn if it sold 9 million units in the world, it sold 500k in japan)
Nintendo however has the money to pull an N64, N64 did way worse than dreamcast however, Nintendo has gameboy to fall back on, Pokemon, etc etc so if N64 didnt sell Nintendo didnt lose money but gained it.
Sega just had Dreamcast and nothing else, Dreamcast was losing money and Sega was and maybe still is on the verge of going out of business.
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The Sega Genesis only sold 16 million systems.
Poorly? 10 million systems in 2 years?
Sales werent the problem, Its lack of third party support, Third parties dont like to develop for multiple consoles anymore, and Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all had more money than Sega.
For the same Reason Microsoft Dominates the PC, and Apple is in the position they are in, is the reason why Sega couldnt survive, Sega had less money than everyone, even a few developers like EA have more money than Sega.
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> Too bad IGN, Nintendo, and your "relative" have
t em &id=2408
> no facts to back that up. In our area, the XBOXES
> are outselling the GCN at LEAST 3:1, with EB going
> through entire shipments of 10+ in a day, while
> GCN shipments of the same size take about two
> days, if not a little more.
And where are your facts? eh?
everything I've seen and heard says that the gamecube is selling excellently and the xbox is selling well but notvery well. the gamecube sold out in about 3 days, and nintendo had to increase shipments of another 200,000 boxes to the us, with an estimate of 1.3 million by Christmas.
http://www.cube-europe.com/news/221101a.html
Oh, and by the way, GameCube had the BIGGEST LAUNCH EVER! that's right, bigger than the xbux
http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=i
so, uh, neener neener neener!
Spashdown
Splashdown is the name of it
Mpeg1
Spashdown Trailer
Movie 2 Spashdown movie
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Although, it's not really important. Cubes did sell better at the Toys R Us in my town. A woman behind the couter told be that all the xboxes were gone in about 6 hours, yet the Cubes were going to be finished off in less then 2.......moreover, they had a larger shipment of Cubes.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Cmdrtaco might not think the Star Wars game is very fun, but Cliff and I do. Cliff is busy destroying towers right now, in fact -- this game is making me want to buy the GameCube and glue the lid shut ...
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Having an ATI GPU doesn't give me worm and fuzzies. Everybody has driver problems but ATI's problems are bad enough that people yawn at the new Radeon even though some say its as fast or faster than the Geforce 3.
Maybe they spent so much time on the Flipper, the PC chipsets played second fiddle.
Jesus saves....And takes 1/2 damage.
What? You think nothing can be Easier than DirectX now? Now you think No company can compete with Microsft here?
Nintendo has been making DirectX like software since before Microsoft even created Windows 1.0.
Who do you think is better at making development software, Nintendo whos been doing it for 20 years, or Microsoft?
Redstorm and all these PC companies love Microsoft, but their games arent as good as alot of Japanese game companies.
Sure Microsoft will have the support of all American developers, but the Japanese developers prefer the game cube.
Just like some people prefer Linux over Windows.
The reason Gamecube is the easiest to program for, is if you look at the games, all of them look good, theres not a single ugly Gamecube game.
Look at Xbox or PS2 and i can find some games which look like shit, worse than Dreamcast, these games show that the system is hard to program for.
Dreamcast game was easy to program for too thats why the standard dreamcast game looked pretty good.
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As long as they both sold out, it's pretty hard to guage which has greater demand at this point, so stop spreading your Microsoft-bashing FUD.
The PS1 became popular because it had a simple API set that was easy to develop for. The games looked like garbage, but there were a lot of them, and they could be copied if you had 20 bucks for a mod chip.
/ATi Hardware. Nintendo claims that delopers are going to be able to port games to the cube quite quickly....I belive that. If anything, xbox games will be fast ports. From what I hear the move from Direct X 8.x to openGL is not that hard to make now that Direct X has matured.
The PS2 is a lot harder to develop for, however I guess developers have figured out the guts and made well needed tools by now.
The only thing that is really selling the PS2 again is games. It can play the old ugly PS1 games and I got a jump start in the next-gen market. Developers have phisically had muuuch more time with the PS2 on the market.
However, Game Development for the xbox and Cube should be fairly rapid. Developers already have tools for Direct X 8 and Open GL games, and many developers are also use to the Nvidia / Intel hardware and the IBM
Unfortunatly, Sony scrapped the one thing that made the PS1 so popular. Now they are just riding on a brand name, the heat of an old console, and the obviouse advantage of a jump start in the next gen market.
Don't get me wrong, the PS2 is going to sell well, but Sony is kind of screwing their future if you ask me. Ine about 3 months there is going to be a ton of xbox and cube titles.... things are going to get intese. When Super Smash Brothers, Zelda, and Metroid Prime come out we are going to see a jump in Cube sales for sure....trust me.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
so stop spreading your Microsoft-bashing FUD
Umm.. dude, this is slashdot...
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
I haven't seen a GC in the flesh so I didn't realise it had a fan. What's the noise level like?
Slightly OT, but please read before moderating.
I would like to see a "consoles" category on Slashdot. That way, all of these articles about the Gamecube and Xbox could go in their own category, which users could then remove from the front page. Right now, they are in the generic "technology" category, which contains many other articles that might be interesting to those of us who couldn't care less about the latest console hack.
Thanks--
If you have already purchased (or have been given) an Xbox or a PS2, simply bring it outside of a video game store, with a sledgehammer, and tell everyone how boring, crappy, and slow the system is, and how you are not going to give Bill Gates any more of your money. Then smash it to fucking bits.
Just so you know, Bill Gates doesn't make a cent off of SONY'S PS2. Not one.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
For another look at the ongoing console wars from someone who actually runs a gameshop for a living you should check out this commentary on the relative success of the Gamecube v. Xbox at the Acts of Gord.
I dont think Nintendo is targeting kids with these ads.
Let Slashdot be the judge.
Zelda ad 1
Zelda ad 2
Zelda ad 3
Luigis Mansion
GameCube
Xbox commercial
Xbox2
Xbox1
Xbox site Has the rest
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Please, you arent a programmer compared to guys like Miyamoto who have been programming games for the past 20-30 years.
IF you are truely better than them then prove it in your games ELSE shut up.
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super monkey ball is quite simply one of the most fun and addicting games i have ever played.
you have the main game, where you move your monkey (in a ball.. super.. monkey ball) around the screen to the end. you basically tilt the board and make the monkey move around.
more than this, you've got monkey fight, which is incredibly simple and incredibly fun, bomberman-level fun, monkey target, where you launch your monkey and attempt to land on some targets in the ocean, monkey race, where you race other monkeys around a track, and then three unlockable games, monkey billiards, monkey bowling, and monkey golf, which is 18 holes of miniature golf.. this game has seven games built into it, and i can not stop playing it.
i bought tony hawk 3 and rogue squadron 2 at launch, along with super monkey ball, and i have played them a combined total of an hour and a half. super monkey ball? probably 20 times that.
i realize this comes off as rambling.. but dammit, this game rocks. ign review aqui.
the most addicting, and best (imo) game for the gamecube yet.. made by sega. no surprise.
hmm. i bet this is offtopic..
What, exactly, is your point with this statement? Let's think, just for a little bit, about whether what you said changes anything-- [thinks, thinks some more, comes to a conclusion]. NOPE! It's still an entirely accurate statement.
Just because Company A doesn't produce as much as Company B doesn't mean you ignore that Company B sold FAR more units at retail than Company A did (even if both sold out). While the numbers don't show all sides of the issue, it does show that Nintendo indeed sold twice as many units as Microsoft did. No FUD in there. I'm not afraid. I'm quite certain. And there's no doubt.
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
lots of interesting stuff they had in the x-box breakdown. The 2 blank slots for ram for instance and wondering if u could solder some in, the possibilites for replacin the HDD...it was a pretty neat look at a new type of console game.
Speaking of which... I'm surprised that no-one's mentioned yet that the reason for those extra banks is because that's where the debug RAM sits. If you're developing for any hardware, it's nice to have a chunk of space for your ICE, etc etc, to run in.
Simon
Coming soon - pyrogyra
N64 was hard to develop for on purpose, Nintendo didnt expect competition from Sony and wanted the most powerful System possible to compete with Sega.
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> The Star Wars game wasn't very fun.
Did you turn the system ON??! Because the Star Wars game I have for my Gamecube is nothing short of spectacular, beautiful, AND fun.
To each his own, but IMHO Star Wars: Rogue Leader is superb!
--- witty signature
SW Rogue Leader is an amazing game. The PS2 and xbox have SW Starfighter which doesn't even rate compared to the experience of Rogue Leader. Rogue Leader is a great example of a beautifully designed and executed game. It proves the gamecube is fully capable of competing with the other two consoles (even though Nintendo isn't hyping the specs of their new machine). If you want to reexperience the attack on the deathstar, you can do it right out of the box with the gamecube and a copy of SW Rogue Leader.
Then... make sure you play it with the component cables... so you get the progressive graphics. WHAT a difference: rock solid stars in the background, crisp graphics, smooth images as you swoop around the world. Amazing.
= Joe =
same here - the best buy has tons of XBox and PS2 consoles, zero gamecubes. sold out.
-sam
burn the computers. go back to the abacus.
As has been pointed out, Nintendo put twice as many boxes on the shelves as Microsoft did, so you have to expect it to sell twice as many units--which is exactly what it's doing since both are selling out. While that does make your statement correct, it also means that this is in no way an accurate measure of consumer demand. Demand could be greater for the Xbox, and it would still be outsold 2:1 by Gamecube until MS gets more boxen on the shelves of retail outlets.
.Net strategy. They will make money through the $20/month subscription to MSN.
.Net.
And none of that supports your assertion that Xbox will be dead in a year. What so many people fail to remember is that Microsoft can afford to bleed money for several years on their Xbox division, and still remain a very, very profitable company overall. The problem with Sega was that they couldn't financially afford to play with the big boys anymore--that, and the fact that most gamers held onto their PSXs and/or N64s while holding out for the PS2.
Sega counted on the Dreamcast becoming a hit because it was going to be out so long before the PS2 that gamers would jump on it. And some did, and loved it. But the vast majority of people are not hardcore gamers willing to spend lots of money on getting every game console under the sun. The vast majority of console customers are average teenagers, twentysomethings, and parents who buy them for their kids. And most of them already had Playstation or N64 machines they were pretty happy with. And when they read about how this new Sega Dreamcast is coming out that has much better graphics and will have more realistic, cool games that the PSX or N64 can't do, they'd consider maybe shelling out the money for it--until at the end of the same article they see that Sony claims the PS2 will be out within a year of Dreamcast, and that it has this incredible Emotion Engine chip that will make things look completely realistic and have games that will be totally revolutionary.
Now, I remember clearly at the time that that's what happened in every article or TV spot discussing the Dreamcast--it's great, it's so much better; and the Playstation 2 will completely kick its ass and bring us to a new dimension of gaming realism, and be out within a year of Dreamcast. Now, we all know that most of that stuff was just Sony hype, and the PS2 isn't revolutionary, and came out a lot later than Sony originally said. But hindsight is 20/20, and people went by what they read and saw and heard, and by Sony marketing hype like Emotion Engine. Since Sega couldn't afford to bleed money like Microsoft can, they had to withdraw with their tail between their legs when sales didn't meet projections.
Now, Microsoft can and will happily bleed money if necessary. Why? So that they can get their box into every household they possibly can. And it will be a lot of households, especially once the price drops 6 months to a year from now. You see, the Xbox has one advantage that neither the PS2 nor the Gamecube has. It's just a PC with some proprietary connectors. As such, it's more versatile than the competition, and it has a much longer usable life.
See, right now Microsoft is downplaying the PC aspects of the Xbox, so that it will appeal first to the gaming market. MS wants it to appeal to kids, their parents, and dumb college kids who'd buy a Playstation instead of PC, for the gaming and entertainment/DVD features. In that respect it and the PS2 are perfect--Little Johnny gets a game station and his parents get themselves a DVD player; Johnny Fratboy gets a game machine and DVD player in one. The fact that you can buy a separate DVD player for the price delta between the Gamecube and the Xbox or PS2 doesn't matter, because Johnny Average wants one easy box instead of two that might be more complicated. Flashing 12:00 syndrome, and all.
Once it saturates the gamer market, and gets into a lot of homes already, Microsoft can suddenly unveil Phase 2. You see, if Microsoft had wanted to make their console more console-like and less PC-like they easily could have. In fact, they had to know that hardwar enthusiasts would start ripping them apart and turning them into PCs just like they did with Netpliances and all the other webterminals that were essentially PCs. And if people do that, it costs them money since they lose $ on the hardware, selling it at such a low price point. MS knows this, they are not stupid when it comes to business. They would have changed it to make it less PC-like and more unhackable, unless there were a reason to keep it PC-like. I mean, it even has what are essentially USB connectors with a different shape and slight changes, which certainly makes it easy for hackers to find a way to hook up keyboards and mice. They will, sooner or later.
But you see, this is Microsoft's Phase 2 for the Xbox. When the gamer market is saturated, they roll-out their own inexpensive keyboard and mouse and start not only appealing to a new market of Net users and people who need a PC, but also they already have a huge installed base of gamers who might not have bought a complicated computer thingy in the first place to play their games on, but now who figure "I need to use the Internet or get a computer anyway, so why not just shell out $40 for the Xbox keyboard/mouse and see if that's good enough." It will be integral to their
By starting the marketing as a game box, and then turning it into a PC that only works with their service second, they maximize their use of both markets, and get an MSN terminal into a lot more households than would have ever, ever, ever bought a crappy Netpliance or WebTV. Then they rake in the $20/month subscription fees for MSN. Oh, and for just $5/month extra, you can use their slick new network-enabled word processing suite on your Xbox, too, so that you can not only use MSN and the Interney and send and get e-mails, you can also write all your serious stuff and have it sent over the Net straight to your work or school. Brilliant. A few Linux hackers will get their OS running on it and cost them a comparatively small amount, but Joe and Jane Average will happily use their Xbox game console/Internet terminal/Hailstorm-driven word processing networked dynamo.
It's clear by how PC-like the Xbox remains, despite all the easy ways they could have modified it, that their intention is eventually to have it take over the function of a PC. And it fits in nicely with
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
It wasn't fun? *sigh* Note to self: CmdrTaco != Good Game Reviews! ;-)
Xeph
Meanwhile, I sold both of the computers I built this year, and Dell still has thousands unsold in their warehouses! Woo hoo! I'm more successful than Dell!
Dumbass.
If it ain't broke, you need more software.
I never challenged the 2:1 figure, but rather the inference you could take from it. The original poster claimed that the 2:1 ratio was due to the fact that the gamecube was more popular. When both systems sell out on the same day, you can't make such an assertion. If inventory levels had nothing to do with it, I'd agree and say that Gamecube was more popular.
And yes, the systems did in fact sell out on the same day (as backed up by Nintendo/Microsoft press releases and most news reports). The fact that you may see some in store is due to the fact that both companies are still manufacturing them and attempt to replenish inventory levels.
And lest I get labeled some kind of zealot... I'm not fond of Microsoft either. Hell... I'll buy an Xbox as soon as I can install linux on the thing!
since the xbox is x86/dx8 based, how long do you think it would take some developer to write a wrapper that would allow you to play xbox games on your PC?... i bet this will happen relatively soon.
--- sig moved for great justice.
Not really. Domestic sales are still important to the Japanese software developers, who are widely regarded as the most important in the console market.
Hardly. I don't know if you've been following Sony's first party development recently, but they've been churning out a lot of great and in some cases innovative stuff, including GT3, ICO, Ka, Wipeout Fusion, Jak & Daxter, Twisted Metal Black, Frequency, Parappa, Ape Escape, Sky Oddyssey, Wild Arms, Dropship, WRC, and plenty of others.
On the technical front, obviously Nintendo's machine is more powerful. Moore's Law pretty much dictates it. But when was the last time the most powerful console won the race? It didn't help the N64 against the PSX, did it?
But PS2 has a lot of exclusive games or games with a long delay before they release on other platforms that will sell systems. FFX, Devil May Cry, MGS2, GT3, GTA3, VF4, Silent Hill 2, State of Emergency to name a handful of them. Because of their position last generation, and their huge advantage in installed userbase this generation gives them a lot of sway with third parties.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
If you've got 5 people there, it's too bad that 2 of your 3 GameCube games are single player. And, that WaveRacer game seems ok to me so far, but nothing to get overly excited about.
If you want to have a better impression of the GameCube games out there, you should have picked up Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 (up to 2 players) and (I kid you not) Super Monkey Ball (up to 4.) I've got five games for the GameCube and these two are the ones I've played the most by far.
Super Monkey Ball is just nuts. Learn the patience to balance a monkey in a hamster ball on a tiny little platform. The party games are the biggest attraction. Ever since The Wizard of Oz, people have dreamed of flying monkeys, and with the "monkey target" party game, you can finally realize it like never before. I'm not kidding, me and my brother couldn't get enough of trying to glide our monkeys onto those targets.
I do sympathize though, I loved DOA2, and I'm sure DOA3 is a hoot.
-- dR.fuZZo
Dreamcast sold 10 million systems. Where is it now?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
So why would they buy them for PS2?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
DUH!
He was a programmer, then a designer, then a producer, and now hes a supervisor.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac