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"GameCube Emulator - Dolphin"

Sorry if a similar thing has been posted, had a quick look and couldn't see a similar topic.

Well in short a Gamecube emulator is now available for your PC, its been around for quite sometime and there are a number of games already that have been emulated successfully.

Not very good news for Nintendo as it could allow anyone with a PC to experience some of the Gamecubes games. Other consoles suffer badly from the use of pirated software or 'backups' but for them people still need to own the console which makes this a more serious problem in my eyes.

Guess the good part about it all is that it requires a high end graphics card and high spec processor to work and even at that it still only runs at 3 to 7 frames per second.

But how long is it going to remain like that? How long before they manage to utilize aspects of the PC's architecture to allow the games to run as well as they do on the gamecube?

Its pretty common these days to expect emulators for most of the consoles but thats usually when they are on there last legs or have already been replaced by a newer console. Just wondering what the Ninty folk think about all this..

i understand that the system behind gc discs is fairly different to standard dvds. although they are the same size as mini-dvds their architecture, standards and other crap is totally different. it could take years, even decades for a decent emulator to come out.

Erm, it won't. Have you tried playing a recent game on below 20FPS?

They also say it probably won't make any effect on the sales.

Games TM has a small feature on it- they reckon even the most souped up PC can only manage 7-10 FPS on stuff like Sunshine. Sounds fun. Not.

Strafio wrote:
> But how do they read the Gamecube mini-disks?

It wouldn't work on my laptop anyway as it has a "female" disk drive and little disks get lost inside :(

GC discs are literally just mini DVDs. Hence all you need is a DVD drive. Because optical drives like CD ROMS, DVDs etc are digital, they don't need to be continual. So you can get any shape of media, in fact I've had CD ROM business cards.

Not only that, but the GC uses 8 cm discs, which if you open your DVD drive, you'll see there is another smaller tray bit in the middle. You used to get mini CDs.

I had a PC emulator for the N64 - Still do.

It rocks :) And I managed to finally get Sin and Punishment.

Anyways, I only did it after I couldn't buy the games on the highstreet. I'm not naughty :P

I remember when Perfect Dark came out that someone said they had an emulator that ran N64 games fine.
So it's not a new thing.

I argued that a PC keyboard just wouldn't play it right anyway. :-)

Strafio wrote:
> But how do they read the Gamecube mini-disks?

Pretty sure that a PC drive will read the disks. Know before I bought my GC I got a free disk the size of the GC one with PC stuff about the GC on it.

I think that the games are ripped of the disks and available to download though of some dodgy sites out there.

I've seen screen of Mario Sunshine and it does look like a decent quality but I would imagine though that due to the crappy frame rates that it dosn't play too well.

Emulators for modern consoles are awful. Trying to configure controls to work with them on top of putting up with naff frame rates (even on a high end) system just made it pointless. Some also have a set border which cuts the game screen off leaving you with only half a bloody game. Its best to stick with the real thing if you are that interested.