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'Q' Plays US GameCube Games
Bodero writes: "Lik-Sang is reporting that Panasonic's 'Q', the Japan-only GameCube/DVD Hybrid, can be modded to play US GameCube games much in the same way that the Japanese GameCube can be. This does not, however, allow it to play region one DVDs as of yet, but keep your eyes out. It's a shame Panasonic chose not to release it to North American store shelves, but the import will soon work just as well."
Why is it Japan keeps getting these cool Japan only products? I mean, why sell a diffrent inferior version for the rest of the world? Doesn't it cost them more to R&D a diffrent U.S. product? Why not sell us the good stuff?
Panasonic is set to lose a _lot_ of money after these new developments. Is there any real point in only releasing it in one place only for it to be ripped apart and distributed abroad when they could make their own profit if they played their cards right?
Why do companies play these games? You can look at the cool products that they sell in Japan or Europe but they won't import them. Do they sell them for more with the exclusivity factored in? Bah... I didn't want anyway, nope wouldn't take one if they gave it to me now. Yeah, maybe if we don't want them, imports will start right away.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
then whoever puts out information on how to mod it out, or anyone who sells mod chips of any kind will get sued! :-(
Derek Greene
Then M probably plays PSII games.
Which means 007 himself must be left with the x-box. Ouch.
The reason is simple, marketing. Advertising and promoting a product costs alot. If products were released in NA and Japan at the same time, that would mean twice the marketing budget for a product that hasn't proven itself yet. By doing a release in Japan first, they can do to things: 1) They make sure the product is cost feasable enough to market in the US, and 2) They can use the revenues coming in off of the Japanese sales to drive the US marketing effort, which is guarenteed to be much more expensive.
Another reason alot of stuff isn't released in the US is because marketing studies (and common logic) dictate alot of stuff thats succesfull in the techno-gadget culture of Japan isn't as successfull this side of the Pacific. Don't forget, the /. , gadget buying crowd is in a vast majority over here, but not so over there. Everyone and their dog has a cell-phone-PDA-GPS-wearable-pc-doohicky!
Oh wait, I thought you meant this guy.
You'd think he'd have better things to do, like bug Jean-Luc.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
Does this modification work for european games, too?
This would be interesting, because Europe and Japan share the same DVD-Regioncode (RC2). So, while this won't help american players much, it might be very interesting fo european ones.
I am a student in Japan on exchange right now and got one of these things. It is really cool. Anyone who is serious about gamecube should get one. Glad it can be modded so I can get games in english too on it. Don't care about the dvd region. Now I have a machines to play my region 2 transformers box set and morning musume dvds
My girlfriend was disappointed that the gamecube could not also function as a DVD player.
Perhaps I can get her one of these, and take my gamecube back here, into my lair, with my computer! Where it belongs! Grahaha
Away from the vile, fuzzy television.
Juln
If anyone is lazy enough to not read the article, here is a link that should of been posted in the blurb [pictures of the Q's guts]:
= Opened+Q&inc=qmod.inc
http://www.lik-sang.com/catalog/master.php?navbar
Take a look at this link to a Panasonic sweepstakes where they are giving away actual Nintendo Gamecube units with an additional TV/VCR/DVD Combo unit. Why aren't they promoting their own 'Q' units, which combined this technology into one unit?
Watching Cowboy Bebop in your jammies and eating a bowl of Shreddies is *not* "getting on with your life".
What you do in your spare time is your own business, buddy. Seriously though, people are getting on with their lives by not letting themselves be terrorized. You are simply feeding the media frenzy.
Does anybody know what sort of processor the 'Q' is using? Is it the custom-designed PowerPC that IBM did for Nintendo, or is it something else? And if it's not, will this affect gameplay in any way?
First winter rain-
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat.
-Basho
It's a shame Panasonic chose not to release it to North American store shelves, but the import will soon work just as well.
Please try and get your facts straight. I was previously reported on all the gaming websites that Nintendo didn't want the Panasonic DVD-Cube coming to the U.S.. Nintendo intended that the Gamecube be solely a video game console, not a Console/DVD player here in the States.
My understanding from an article I read earlier was that Nintendo did not want compatible products released in the US market before the Xmas season. Supposedly they feared it would cause confusion in the marketplace, and wanted some time for the GameCube to establish itself before the brand was diluted by compatible units. I believe there will be an American version of this device in the near future.
Really, I don't think a DVD player is really a
selling feature of a console for most people.
Sure, the DVD playback feature on my Playstation 2
is nice. I suppose that on a system the size of the Game Cube, DVD player capability coupled with a portable screen like Interact would make a good system for a road trip.
However, my consoles are in the living room. In my place there are 5 different machines capable of playing DVDs. After a while, the DVD feature isn't a big deal.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Short answer: Nintendo fears american warez kiddies.
Long answer: Most of the copy protection surrounding the Gamecube revolves around its 3 inch DVDs. The reason Nintendo picked an odd (but still standard) is the complete lack of blanks at that size. This will, for a little while at least, keep the Gamecube from having games copied, as DVD-R blanks won't fit in the machine.
Now we have the Q, which is a Gamecube modified to play DVD movies. DVD movies come on 5 inch discs. There are blank DVDs that are 5 inches. What will inevitably happen if the Q is released here is that warez kiddies will copy 3 inch Gamecube discs onto 5 inch DVD blanks, and run them on a modchipped Q. The whole bet Nintendo is hedging is that 3 inch blank DVDs will not be available for a while, and when they are, they will be prohibitively expensive to keep piracy at a minimum for a few more years, which is the expected lifespan of the GC.
-Lx?
Not that I don't think this thing is really cool, but the name Lik-Sang rang a few bells in my head. I have not dealt with them directly, but I have heard a number of reports, many of them on XBoxHacker.net, of Lik-Sang screwing up orders and shipping faulty equipment. One story had Lik-Sang shipping a faulty device out to a customer, who then sent it back only to have his same device returned to him.
Once again, I cannot stress enough that I have not dealt with Lik-Sang ever, but that I have heard enough tales from dissatisfied customers that I would exercise a lot of caution with their products or reports.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
I didn't see any mention in the article, but that's probably because Japan is also region 1, isn't it?
Duh.
You think "no va" is bad? What about these complete nonsense product names from Japan:
Walk Man (for a tape player)
Hello Kitty (why is a cat named hello?)
Sailor Moon (which has nothing to do with sailing)
Angelic Layer (where angel apparently means doll)
X (for a non-porn film)
Linkle Liver (Sega RPG.. this name is just bizarre)
Violence Jackoff (clothing store)
...should I go on?
Being 3 inches is only one countermeasure against piracy. In addition to (probably circumventable) encrypted headers, the discs also have two layers (can't burn that) and spin backwards. That's a hell of a mod-chip you're talking about. :^)
Nintendo's reasons for keeping the Q in Japan are to compete head-to-head with the PS2 (which, if you remember, sold very well in Japan as a reasonably-priced DVD player, not really as a game system) and that, as has been brought up here numerous times, in the US, the GameCube is a small, cheap gaming powerhouse, nothing more, nothing less.
If it brings me Rogue Leader and Pikmin, I couldn't care less if I need to play movies on some other device. Where's you're UNIX spirit eh? Do one thing and do it well.
The other day my buddy took me out to the San Jose Berryessa flea market to show me some of these. I don't know what kind of breakdown we've had in customs, but it looks like more and more knockoff's are going to start pouring into the states. Although this piece of hardware isn't a knockoff, it shouldn't take too long for these to be snuck through customs.
I'm pretty certain that Panasonic is not gaining any funds from liscensing GameCube games because Nintendo would probably have something to say about that. Then this is either a product that will 1. fail horribly or 2. costs quite a bit more than average (see #1).
suddenly I feel very tired
and you have yourself a Q...
then use your own GC 3" piece of crap to dump the warez onto DVD-R (or cd-r).
they won't release that version here because that means there is greater possibilty to pirate the games here. Japan, apparently, doesn't have quite the piracy problem that the US does.
Japan is cool, and you are not.
Q is consist of 2 component, dvd player; and Nitendo GameCube. They are totally seperated. You need to select from the panel that you want the DVD function; or the GameCube function. ie. it won't detect what you have inserted. It kind of disappoint me..
Just remember what happened to their 3DO system in the US: Crash'n'burn. Not that it didn't die everywhere else as well, but I think they're afraid of expending so much just to make another failed game system. Still, I'm not sure why they're so worried, it's not like they're making a KILLING in other fields.
[insert witty comment here]
even more info right here