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Those Nintendo didi discs have come under heavy fire recently especially from those in the Sony camp and so I ask why?
The major fault is it's size, nothing compared to a DVD. But you'll never fill a DVD anyway and it will be a while until you fill an Optical Disc. 1.5GB isn't that low!
And anyway, as Optical Discs are cheap anyway (approx £35 the games will cost), then they can always have more than one. Another advantage of this format is its price much less than the DVD games which retail at about £45!
That of course isn't it, the Gamecube has virtually non-existent loading times and why? Yep you guessed it, the discs. As they are a shocking 8cm, the laser doesn't need tot ravel far to read the data and so some games have unnoticeable loading times, and those that do are very very short.
The size of the disc also helps in the console's size, it is tiny, about 10 CD's stacked up - go on try it. About the same size of my alarm clock it really is amazing but if the Discs were bigger, then the Console will need to be.
And finally, piracy! Ok, the discs may still get copied but it isn't as easy to do as the PS or Dreamcast. They are a completely new format for starters. Also, on the Optical Discs there are little holes that the discs require so the Gamecube can read them and, if a copied disc doesn't have them, then they cannot be used.
So Piracy, Price, Size and Loading are all things that will benefit Nintendo and are all thanks to the Disc and even though they are small in comparison to DVD's they are a very clever and wise move by the big N.
Dringo
The major fault is it's size, nothing compared to a DVD. But you'll never fill a DVD anyway and it will be a while until you fill an Optical Disc. 1.5GB isn't that low!
And anyway, as Optical Discs are cheap anyway (approx £35 the games will cost), then they can always have more than one. Another advantage of this format is its price much less than the DVD games which retail at about £45!
That of course isn't it, the Gamecube has virtually non-existent loading times and why? Yep you guessed it, the discs. As they are a shocking 8cm, the laser doesn't need tot ravel far to read the data and so some games have unnoticeable loading times, and those that do are very very short.
The size of the disc also helps in the console's size, it is tiny, about 10 CD's stacked up - go on try it. About the same size of my alarm clock it really is amazing but if the Discs were bigger, then the Console will need to be.
And finally, piracy! Ok, the discs may still get copied but it isn't as easy to do as the PS or Dreamcast. They are a completely new format for starters. Also, on the Optical Discs there are little holes that the discs require so the Gamecube can read them and, if a copied disc doesn't have them, then they cannot be used.
So Piracy, Price, Size and Loading are all things that will benefit Nintendo and are all thanks to the Disc and even though they are small in comparison to DVD's they are a very clever and wise move by the big N.
Dringo
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It's obvious that me, Wookiee and Bonus know the facts, where as you lot only know what you have been told.
Dringo wrote:
> That isn't what Nintendo said at E3 as the laser doesn't have to
> move out as far duet o its small size decreases the loading times.
Overall, that's true, of course - the head cannot move as far.
However, a well-constructed game on an optimised disc would render seek-timed irrelevant on all formats, as the head would generally move across the disc in small increments, practically eliminating load times.
In fact, load times are more to do with data transfer rates than seek times. i.e. it doesn't matter how long it takes to locate the data (that is usually less than a second on any optical drive), but more to do with how quickly the system can read the data from the disc once it has found it.
Just as a completely imaginary example - on its smaller disc, the GC drive may locate the data in half a second, and take ten seconds to load a 30Mb data file. PS2's DVD may take 1.5 seconds to locate the data, but only take 5 seconds to load a 30Mb data file. Result: faster load times on PS2.
> That isn't what Nintendo said at E3 as the laser doesn't have to
> move out as far duet o its small size decreases the loading times.
Overall, that's true, of course - the head cannot move as far.
However, a well-constructed game on an optimised disc would render seek-timed irrelevant on all formats, as the head would generally move across the disc in small increments, practically eliminating load times.
In fact, load times are more to do with data transfer rates than seek times. i.e. it doesn't matter how long it takes to locate the data (that is usually less than a second on any optical drive), but more to do with how quickly the system can read the data from the disc once it has found it.
Just as a completely imaginary example - on its smaller disc, the GC drive may locate the data in half a second, and take ten seconds to load a 30Mb data file. PS2's DVD may take 1.5 seconds to locate the data, but only take 5 seconds to load a 30Mb data file. Result: faster load times on PS2.
The laser takes seconds to move to the outside of the disc, and it does this whilst the OS is booting. The DVDs and ODs are the same density so the access speed is faster. Actually, it needs to travel further on a GC disc as the radius is smaller at the outer point necessetating more lines so it takes longer to move.
You are being brainwashed by Nintendo, the fact is that the loading times are virtually identical.
You are being brainwashed by Nintendo, the fact is that the loading times are virtually identical.
That isn't what Nintendo said at E3 as the laser doesn't have to move out as far duet o its small size decreases the loading times.
Right. That's suicidal, as you know. The N64 is a case in point.
applies.
Applies or matters?
i doubt the cost/storage ratio applies to nintedo, what with the carts an all.
Damnit Dringo!
The OD doesn't increase loading time at all. The laser still has the same distance to travel on a DVD, and if you'd played a PS2 DVD game you'd see the loading times are equally non-existant.
You say that they'll never fill a DVD but the same thing was said about CDs you know, because previously epic adventures had been but on to 8mb cartridges.
Finally, the price. The OD would need to be a third of the price to equal the cost/storage ratio and considering it is specialist technology I doubt they will be.
And yes, I do know a lot about this because I spent a whole day researching it.
The OD doesn't increase loading time at all. The laser still has the same distance to travel on a DVD, and if you'd played a PS2 DVD game you'd see the loading times are equally non-existant.
You say that they'll never fill a DVD but the same thing was said about CDs you know, because previously epic adventures had been but on to 8mb cartridges.
Finally, the price. The OD would need to be a third of the price to equal the cost/storage ratio and considering it is specialist technology I doubt they will be.
And yes, I do know a lot about this because I spent a whole day researching it.
Sorry i mean i know DVD's are expensive i know which is why i said they cost a lot! Oh and the optical disc is designed for 1 purpose and Nintendo liek teh GBA carts distribute them.
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