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The GameCube On Show!
Nintendo have unveiled their 128-bit machine at the Tokyo SpaceWorld exposition - what was once known as Dolphin is now officially unveiled as the Nintendo GameCube. We've also got details of the Game Boy Advance! Nintendo has abandonded the cartridge format in favour of 8 cm DVDs. Green, grey, purple and red GameCubes were shown off at SpaceWorld, with the retro-feel console being carried like a handbag!
The Nintendo GameCube - Cool Fifties Throwback
Whereas the N64's specs were impressive in their time, the GameCube is set to make developer's lives easier - which means more techically impressive games.
Mario's brother Luigi slides into the limelight!
'In my experience, there have often been theoretical claims of high performance for game hardware, and although people were very impressed by the figures, the actual products haven't even delivered one-tenth of the claims,' legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto told SpaceWorld. 'It is a given that Nintendo GameCube will offer better graphics and higher quality sound, but more importantly it will allow developers the freedom to concentrate on creativity without worrying about technical limitations.'
Link comes out fighting in a 128-bit Zelda demo!
Nintendo spokespersons have been quick to point out that SpaceWorld is a Japan-centric event, and that there is no gaurantee that the products on show there will ever reach Europe. However, online rumours suggest a Japanese launch in July 2001, and a US launch in October of that year. Who knows when it will launch in the UK?
There's loads of the little devils!
A new version of Wave Race, Zelda and Metroid were on display in demo form, and looked absolutely stunning. Pokémon - Meowth's Party and a demo of Super Mario 128 were playable, with the latter showing one hundred and twenty eight of the little fellas running around on screen at once, with about the same polygon counts as their N64 counterparts! We've also seen images of an extremely impressive X-Wing fly by from an as yet un-named Star Wars game.
How did you guess that the Pokemon would be back?
According to a recent press release from Nintendo and a company called Nintendo Conexant Systems, a V90 56k modem will be built and supplied for the system.. 'Dolphin will combine Nintendo's world-class design and beloved franchise characters with the expansion of the world of gaming by an online network,' said one of Nintendo's R&D chiefs at the time. The adpator for this modem, and other cool peripherals, are included below.
Here's what Nintendo's website had to say about this new machine:
'In response to the demand for new types of entertainment from users in the game trade, the scale of games became larger, and frequently special adjustments to software had to be made. This came back to haunt the developers in the form of development costs and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it made software development more challenging. This type of problem, if not solved, could have a dramatic effect on the succeess of the game business.
Metroid looks awesome…
We here at Nintendo decided to focus on solving this issue by creating the Nintendo GameCube with the purpose of realizing the highest level of performance and to enhance the productivity of software development. This is Nintendo's vision of what a next generation game machine should do.
You should see all these Pokemaniacs move around!
Instead of going for the highest possible performance, which does not contribute to software development, our idea was to create a developer-friendly next generation TV game machine that maintained above-standard capabilities. In order to accomplish this, we have painstakingly removed the 'bottlenecks' which hinder an efficient system. We have introduced 1T-RAM technology, which has a minimum of delays, into the main memory and the Graphics LSI Mixed Memory. Also, secondary cache memory with a large capacity was implemented in the MPU. With this combination we have succeeded at creating reliable functionality that can be used with actual games.
Luigi gets haunted
We have been creating a world in which the player can enjoy the feeling of actually touching the 'world' created by the software. In addition, the player can benefit by building a bond with the game and characters in it. The Nintendo GameCube will carry on the 'DNA' of Nintendo games and give birth to a new kind of entertainment that surpasses existing concepts of what great gaming is. The New Generation of Entertainment in the 21st Century starts right here.'
None of these are rendered shots, we're told!
We'll update this guide as more information comes through - keep coming back! Now here's the lowdown on peripherals specifications for the machine, and once again we bring you the full specs, and pretend to know exactly what they all mean
Nintendo GameCube - Proposed Peripherals
The GameCube's controller - including the yellow analogue stick which is a camera-view controller.
The 8cm DVD in place, but it looks like you can fit standard size DVD discs (i.e. movies) in there too!
Digicard - A memory card that includes 4 megabits of flash memory.
SD-Digicard Adapter - This adapter is compatible with the stamp-sized, large capacity recording media, SD Memory Card (64MB) being proposed by Matsushita.
Wireless Controller Wavebird - You no longer have to deal with a cumbersome cord, allowing you a more creative style of play. An RF system is being used. The transmission distance is about 10 m.
Modem Adapter - Compatible with 56Kbps, V. 90
Broadband Adapter - Network connection device to be compatible with the broadband network generation.
Digital Video Cable - Supports the uniform standardized D Terminal which is compatible with the advanced digital broadcasting environment. Nintendo plan to sell a component with three inputs (color coded).
Nintendo GameCube Specifications
Nintendo has stressed that figures listed are all for maximum instantaneous performance and cannot be achieved with the actual game. However, following the conventions in the game industry they are listed for your reference:
Official Name Nintendo GameCube
MPU('Microprocessor Unit')* IBM Power PC 'Gekko'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns Copper Wire Technology
Clock Frequency 405 MHz
CPU Capacity 925 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
Internal Data Precision 32bit Integer & 64bit Floating-point
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak)
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak) (32bit address, 64bit data bus 202.5MHz)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
System LSI 'Flipper'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns NEC Embedded DRAM Process
Clock Frequency 202.5MHz
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Embedded Texture Cache Approx. 1MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Texture Read Bandwidth 12.8GB/second (Peak)
Main Memory Bandwidth 3.2GB/second (Peak)
Color, Z Buffer Each is 24bits
Image Processing Function Fog, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, HW Light x8, Alpha Blending, Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texture Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC), etc.
Other Real-time Decompression of Display List, HW Motion Compensation Capability
*The Gekko MPU integrates the power PC CPU into a custom, game-centric chip.
(The following sound related functions are all incorporated into the System LSI)
Sound Processor Special 16bit DSP
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Data Memory 8KB RAM + 4KB ROM
Clock Frequency 101.25 MHz
Maximum Number of Simultaneously Produced Sounds ADPCM: 64ch
Sampling Frequency 48KHz
System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability 13.0GFLOPS (Peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, HW Lighting Total)
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second (Display capability assuming actual game with complexity model, texture, etc.)
System Main Memory 24MB Sustainable Latency : 10ns or lower (1T-SRAM)
A-Memory 16MB (100MHz DRAM)
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System Average Access Time Data
Transfer Speed 16Mbps to 25Mbps 128ms
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology Approx. 1.5GB Capacity
Input/Output Controller Port x4
Digicard Slot x2
Analog AV Output x1
Digital AV Output x1
High-Speed Serial Port x2
High-speed Parallel Port x1
Power Supply AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A
Main Unit Dimensions 150mm(W) x 110mm(H) x 161mm(D)
Nintendo have unveiled their 128-bit machine at the Tokyo SpaceWorld exposition - what was once known as Dolphin is now officially unveiled as the Nintendo GameCube. We've also got details of the Game Boy Advance! Nintendo has abandonded the cartridge format in favour of 8 cm DVDs. Green, grey, purple and red GameCubes were shown off at SpaceWorld, with the retro-feel console being carried like a handbag!
The Nintendo GameCube - Cool Fifties Throwback
Whereas the N64's specs were impressive in their time, the GameCube is set to make developer's lives easier - which means more techically impressive games.
Mario's brother Luigi slides into the limelight!
'In my experience, there have often been theoretical claims of high performance for game hardware, and although people were very impressed by the figures, the actual products haven't even delivered one-tenth of the claims,' legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto told SpaceWorld. 'It is a given that Nintendo GameCube will offer better graphics and higher quality sound, but more importantly it will allow developers the freedom to concentrate on creativity without worrying about technical limitations.'
Link comes out fighting in a 128-bit Zelda demo!
Nintendo spokespersons have been quick to point out that SpaceWorld is a Japan-centric event, and that there is no gaurantee that the products on show there will ever reach Europe. However, online rumours suggest a Japanese launch in July 2001, and a US launch in October of that year. Who knows when it will launch in the UK?
There's loads of the little devils!
A new version of Wave Race, Zelda and Metroid were on display in demo form, and looked absolutely stunning. Pokémon - Meowth's Party and a demo of Super Mario 128 were playable, with the latter showing one hundred and twenty eight of the little fellas running around on screen at once, with about the same polygon counts as their N64 counterparts! We've also seen images of an extremely impressive X-Wing fly by from an as yet un-named Star Wars game.
How did you guess that the Pokemon would be back?
According to a recent press release from Nintendo and a company called Nintendo Conexant Systems, a V90 56k modem will be built and supplied for the system.. 'Dolphin will combine Nintendo's world-class design and beloved franchise characters with the expansion of the world of gaming by an online network,' said one of Nintendo's R&D chiefs at the time. The adpator for this modem, and other cool peripherals, are included below.
Here's what Nintendo's website had to say about this new machine:
'In response to the demand for new types of entertainment from users in the game trade, the scale of games became larger, and frequently special adjustments to software had to be made. This came back to haunt the developers in the form of development costs and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it made software development more challenging. This type of problem, if not solved, could have a dramatic effect on the succeess of the game business.
Metroid looks awesome…
We here at Nintendo decided to focus on solving this issue by creating the Nintendo GameCube with the purpose of realizing the highest level of performance and to enhance the productivity of software development. This is Nintendo's vision of what a next generation game machine should do.
You should see all these Pokemaniacs move around!
Instead of going for the highest possible performance, which does not contribute to software development, our idea was to create a developer-friendly next generation TV game machine that maintained above-standard capabilities. In order to accomplish this, we have painstakingly removed the 'bottlenecks' which hinder an efficient system. We have introduced 1T-RAM technology, which has a minimum of delays, into the main memory and the Graphics LSI Mixed Memory. Also, secondary cache memory with a large capacity was implemented in the MPU. With this combination we have succeeded at creating reliable functionality that can be used with actual games.
Luigi gets haunted
We have been creating a world in which the player can enjoy the feeling of actually touching the 'world' created by the software. In addition, the player can benefit by building a bond with the game and characters in it. The Nintendo GameCube will carry on the 'DNA' of Nintendo games and give birth to a new kind of entertainment that surpasses existing concepts of what great gaming is. The New Generation of Entertainment in the 21st Century starts right here.'
None of these are rendered shots, we're told!
We'll update this guide as more information comes through - keep coming back! Now here's the lowdown on peripherals specifications for the machine, and once again we bring you the full specs, and pretend to know exactly what they all mean
Nintendo GameCube - Proposed Peripherals
The GameCube's controller - including the yellow analogue stick which is a camera-view controller.
The 8cm DVD in place, but it looks like you can fit standard size DVD discs (i.e. movies) in there too!
Digicard - A memory card that includes 4 megabits of flash memory.
SD-Digicard Adapter - This adapter is compatible with the stamp-sized, large capacity recording media, SD Memory Card (64MB) being proposed by Matsushita.
Wireless Controller Wavebird - You no longer have to deal with a cumbersome cord, allowing you a more creative style of play. An RF system is being used. The transmission distance is about 10 m.
Modem Adapter - Compatible with 56Kbps, V. 90
Broadband Adapter - Network connection device to be compatible with the broadband network generation.
Digital Video Cable - Supports the uniform standardized D Terminal which is compatible with the advanced digital broadcasting environment. Nintendo plan to sell a component with three inputs (color coded).
Nintendo GameCube Specifications
Nintendo has stressed that figures listed are all for maximum instantaneous performance and cannot be achieved with the actual game. However, following the conventions in the game industry they are listed for your reference:
Official Name Nintendo GameCube
MPU('Microprocessor Unit')* IBM Power PC 'Gekko'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns Copper Wire Technology
Clock Frequency 405 MHz
CPU Capacity 925 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
Internal Data Precision 32bit Integer & 64bit Floating-point
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak)
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak) (32bit address, 64bit data bus 202.5MHz)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
System LSI 'Flipper'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns NEC Embedded DRAM Process
Clock Frequency 202.5MHz
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Embedded Texture Cache Approx. 1MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Texture Read Bandwidth 12.8GB/second (Peak)
Main Memory Bandwidth 3.2GB/second (Peak)
Color, Z Buffer Each is 24bits
Image Processing Function Fog, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, HW Light x8, Alpha Blending, Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texture Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC), etc.
Other Real-time Decompression of Display List, HW Motion Compensation Capability
*The Gekko MPU integrates the power PC CPU into a custom, game-centric chip.
(The following sound related functions are all incorporated into the System LSI)
Sound Processor Special 16bit DSP
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Data Memory 8KB RAM + 4KB ROM
Clock Frequency 101.25 MHz
Maximum Number of Simultaneously Produced Sounds ADPCM: 64ch
Sampling Frequency 48KHz
System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability 13.0GFLOPS (Peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, HW Lighting Total)
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second (Display capability assuming actual game with complexity model, texture, etc.)
System Main Memory 24MB Sustainable Latency : 10ns or lower (1T-SRAM)
A-Memory 16MB (100MHz DRAM)
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System Average Access Time Data
Transfer Speed 16Mbps to 25Mbps 128ms
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology Approx. 1.5GB Capacity
Input/Output Controller Port x4
Digicard Slot x2
Analog AV Output x1
Digital AV Output x1
High-Speed Serial Port x2
High-speed Parallel Port x1
Power Supply AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A
Main Unit Dimensions 150mm(W) x 110mm(H) x 161mm(D)
It's quite funny actually, all the captions for the pictures are still in it, I.E. all the sentances on their own...
Well, I wonder what site that was copied off???? Maybe Gamespot?? Daily Radar??? IGN, like my friend Darkness 2k??? d'oh. OR MAYBE HE JUST GOT IT OUT OF HIS OWN A**E!!!!! Or maybe not.
We err, already know and we've known for aleast 2 months now. Try to do something more imaginative.
The GameCube On Show!
Nintendo have unveiled their 128-bit machine at the Tokyo SpaceWorld exposition - what was once known as Dolphin is now officially unveiled as the Nintendo GameCube. We've also got details of the Game Boy Advance! Nintendo has abandonded the cartridge format in favour of 8 cm DVDs. Green, grey, purple and red GameCubes were shown off at SpaceWorld, with the retro-feel console being carried like a handbag!
The Nintendo GameCube - Cool Fifties Throwback
Whereas the N64's specs were impressive in their time, the GameCube is set to make developer's lives easier - which means more techically impressive games.
Mario's brother Luigi slides into the limelight!
'In my experience, there have often been theoretical claims of high performance for game hardware, and although people were very impressed by the figures, the actual products haven't even delivered one-tenth of the claims,' legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto told SpaceWorld. 'It is a given that Nintendo GameCube will offer better graphics and higher quality sound, but more importantly it will allow developers the freedom to concentrate on creativity without worrying about technical limitations.'
Link comes out fighting in a 128-bit Zelda demo!
Nintendo spokespersons have been quick to point out that SpaceWorld is a Japan-centric event, and that there is no gaurantee that the products on show there will ever reach Europe. However, online rumours suggest a Japanese launch in July 2001, and a US launch in October of that year. Who knows when it will launch in the UK?
There's loads of the little devils!
A new version of Wave Race, Zelda and Metroid were on display in demo form, and looked absolutely stunning. Pokémon - Meowth's Party and a demo of Super Mario 128 were playable, with the latter showing one hundred and twenty eight of the little fellas running around on screen at once, with about the same polygon counts as their N64 counterparts! We've also seen images of an extremely impressive X-Wing fly by from an as yet un-named Star Wars game.
How did you guess that the Pokemon would be back?
According to a recent press release from Nintendo and a company called Nintendo Conexant Systems, a V90 56k modem will be built and supplied for the system.. 'Dolphin will combine Nintendo's world-class design and beloved franchise characters with the expansion of the world of gaming by an online network,' said one of Nintendo's R&D chiefs at the time. The adpator for this modem, and other cool peripherals, are included below.
Here's what Nintendo's website had to say about this new machine:
'In response to the demand for new types of entertainment from users in the game trade, the scale of games became larger, and frequently special adjustments to software had to be made. This came back to haunt the developers in the form of development costs and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it made software development more challenging. This type of problem, if not solved, could have a dramatic effect on the succeess of the game business.
Metroid looks awesome…
We here at Nintendo decided to focus on solving this issue by creating the Nintendo GameCube with the purpose of realizing the highest level of performance and to enhance the productivity of software development. This is Nintendo's vision of what a next generation game machine should do.
You should see all these Pokemaniacs move around!
Instead of going for the highest possible performance, which does not contribute to software development, our idea was to create a developer-friendly next generation TV game machine that maintained above-standard capabilities. In order to accomplish this, we have painstakingly removed the 'bottlenecks' which hinder an efficient system. We have introduced 1T-RAM technology, which has a minimum of delays, into the main memory and the Graphics LSI Mixed Memory. Also, secondary cache memory with a large capacity was implemented in the MPU. With this combination we have succeeded at creating reliable functionality that can be used with actual games.
Luigi gets haunted
We have been creating a world in which the player can enjoy the feeling of actually touching the 'world' created by the software. In addition, the player can benefit by building a bond with the game and characters in it. The Nintendo GameCube will carry on the 'DNA' of Nintendo games and give birth to a new kind of entertainment that surpasses existing concepts of what great gaming is. The New Generation of Entertainment in the 21st Century starts right here.'
None of these are rendered shots, we're told!
We'll update this guide as more information comes through - keep coming back! Now here's the lowdown on peripherals specifications for the machine, and once again we bring you the full specs, and pretend to know exactly what they all mean
Nintendo GameCube - Proposed Peripherals
The GameCube's controller - including the yellow analogue stick which is a camera-view controller.
The 8cm DVD in place, but it looks like you can fit standard size DVD discs (i.e. movies) in there too!
Digicard - A memory card that includes 4 megabits of flash memory.
SD-Digicard Adapter - This adapter is compatible with the stamp-sized, large capacity recording media, SD Memory Card (64MB) being proposed by Matsushita.
Wireless Controller Wavebird - You no longer have to deal with a cumbersome cord, allowing you a more creative style of play. An RF system is being used. The transmission distance is about 10 m.
Modem Adapter - Compatible with 56Kbps, V. 90
Broadband Adapter - Network connection device to be compatible with the broadband network generation.
Digital Video Cable - Supports the uniform standardized D Terminal which is compatible with the advanced digital broadcasting environment. Nintendo plan to sell a component with three inputs (color coded).
Nintendo GameCube Specifications
Nintendo has stressed that figures listed are all for maximum instantaneous performance and cannot be achieved with the actual game. However, following the conventions in the game industry they are listed for your reference:
Official Name Nintendo GameCube
MPU('Microprocessor Unit')* IBM Power PC 'Gekko'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns Copper Wire Technology
Clock Frequency 405 MHz
CPU Capacity 925 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
Internal Data Precision 32bit Integer & 64bit Floating-point
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak)
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak) (32bit address, 64bit data bus 202.5MHz)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
System LSI 'Flipper'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns NEC Embedded DRAM Process
Clock Frequency 202.5MHz
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Embedded Texture Cache Approx. 1MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Texture Read Bandwidth 12.8GB/second (Peak)
Main Memory Bandwidth 3.2GB/second (Peak)
Color, Z Buffer Each is 24bits
Image Processing Function Fog, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, HW Light x8, Alpha Blending, Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texture Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC), etc.
Other Real-time Decompression of Display List, HW Motion Compensation Capability
*The Gekko MPU integrates the power PC CPU into a custom, game-centric chip.
(The following sound related functions are all incorporated into the System LSI)
Sound Processor Special 16bit DSP
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Data Memory 8KB RAM + 4KB ROM
Clock Frequency 101.25 MHz
Maximum Number of Simultaneously Produced Sounds ADPCM: 64ch
Sampling Frequency 48KHz
System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability 13.0GFLOPS (Peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, HW Lighting Total)
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second (Display capability assuming actual game with complexity model, texture, etc.)
System Main Memory 24MB Sustainable Latency : 10ns or lower (1T-SRAM)
A-Memory 16MB (100MHz DRAM)
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System Average Access Time Data
Transfer Speed 16Mbps to 25Mbps 128ms
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology Approx. 1.5GB Capacity
Input/Output Controller Port x4
Digicard Slot x2
Analog AV Output x1
Digital AV Output x1
High-Speed Serial Port x2
High-speed Parallel Port x1
Power Supply AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A
Main Unit Dimensions 150mm(W) x 110mm(H) x 161mm(D)
Nintendo have unveiled their 128-bit machine at the Tokyo SpaceWorld exposition - what was once known as Dolphin is now officially unveiled as the Nintendo GameCube. We've also got details of the Game Boy Advance! Nintendo has abandonded the cartridge format in favour of 8 cm DVDs. Green, grey, purple and red GameCubes were shown off at SpaceWorld, with the retro-feel console being carried like a handbag!
The Nintendo GameCube - Cool Fifties Throwback
Whereas the N64's specs were impressive in their time, the GameCube is set to make developer's lives easier - which means more techically impressive games.
Mario's brother Luigi slides into the limelight!
'In my experience, there have often been theoretical claims of high performance for game hardware, and although people were very impressed by the figures, the actual products haven't even delivered one-tenth of the claims,' legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto told SpaceWorld. 'It is a given that Nintendo GameCube will offer better graphics and higher quality sound, but more importantly it will allow developers the freedom to concentrate on creativity without worrying about technical limitations.'
Link comes out fighting in a 128-bit Zelda demo!
Nintendo spokespersons have been quick to point out that SpaceWorld is a Japan-centric event, and that there is no gaurantee that the products on show there will ever reach Europe. However, online rumours suggest a Japanese launch in July 2001, and a US launch in October of that year. Who knows when it will launch in the UK?
There's loads of the little devils!
A new version of Wave Race, Zelda and Metroid were on display in demo form, and looked absolutely stunning. Pokémon - Meowth's Party and a demo of Super Mario 128 were playable, with the latter showing one hundred and twenty eight of the little fellas running around on screen at once, with about the same polygon counts as their N64 counterparts! We've also seen images of an extremely impressive X-Wing fly by from an as yet un-named Star Wars game.
How did you guess that the Pokemon would be back?
According to a recent press release from Nintendo and a company called Nintendo Conexant Systems, a V90 56k modem will be built and supplied for the system.. 'Dolphin will combine Nintendo's world-class design and beloved franchise characters with the expansion of the world of gaming by an online network,' said one of Nintendo's R&D chiefs at the time. The adpator for this modem, and other cool peripherals, are included below.
Here's what Nintendo's website had to say about this new machine:
'In response to the demand for new types of entertainment from users in the game trade, the scale of games became larger, and frequently special adjustments to software had to be made. This came back to haunt the developers in the form of development costs and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it made software development more challenging. This type of problem, if not solved, could have a dramatic effect on the succeess of the game business.
Metroid looks awesome…
We here at Nintendo decided to focus on solving this issue by creating the Nintendo GameCube with the purpose of realizing the highest level of performance and to enhance the productivity of software development. This is Nintendo's vision of what a next generation game machine should do.
You should see all these Pokemaniacs move around!
Instead of going for the highest possible performance, which does not contribute to software development, our idea was to create a developer-friendly next generation TV game machine that maintained above-standard capabilities. In order to accomplish this, we have painstakingly removed the 'bottlenecks' which hinder an efficient system. We have introduced 1T-RAM technology, which has a minimum of delays, into the main memory and the Graphics LSI Mixed Memory. Also, secondary cache memory with a large capacity was implemented in the MPU. With this combination we have succeeded at creating reliable functionality that can be used with actual games.
Luigi gets haunted
We have been creating a world in which the player can enjoy the feeling of actually touching the 'world' created by the software. In addition, the player can benefit by building a bond with the game and characters in it. The Nintendo GameCube will carry on the 'DNA' of Nintendo games and give birth to a new kind of entertainment that surpasses existing concepts of what great gaming is. The New Generation of Entertainment in the 21st Century starts right here.'
None of these are rendered shots, we're told!
We'll update this guide as more information comes through - keep coming back! Now here's the lowdown on peripherals specifications for the machine, and once again we bring you the full specs, and pretend to know exactly what they all mean
Nintendo GameCube - Proposed Peripherals
The GameCube's controller - including the yellow analogue stick which is a camera-view controller.
The 8cm DVD in place, but it looks like you can fit standard size DVD discs (i.e. movies) in there too!
Digicard - A memory card that includes 4 megabits of flash memory.
SD-Digicard Adapter - This adapter is compatible with the stamp-sized, large capacity recording media, SD Memory Card (64MB) being proposed by Matsushita.
Wireless Controller Wavebird - You no longer have to deal with a cumbersome cord, allowing you a more creative style of play. An RF system is being used. The transmission distance is about 10 m.
Modem Adapter - Compatible with 56Kbps, V. 90
Broadband Adapter - Network connection device to be compatible with the broadband network generation.
Digital Video Cable - Supports the uniform standardized D Terminal which is compatible with the advanced digital broadcasting environment. Nintendo plan to sell a component with three inputs (color coded).
Nintendo GameCube Specifications
Nintendo has stressed that figures listed are all for maximum instantaneous performance and cannot be achieved with the actual game. However, following the conventions in the game industry they are listed for your reference:
Official Name Nintendo GameCube
MPU('Microprocessor Unit')* IBM Power PC 'Gekko'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns Copper Wire Technology
Clock Frequency 405 MHz
CPU Capacity 925 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
Internal Data Precision 32bit Integer & 64bit Floating-point
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak)
External Bus Bandwidth 1.6GB/second(Peak) (32bit address, 64bit data bus 202.5MHz)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
Internal Cache L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
System LSI 'Flipper'
Manufacturing Process 0.18 microns NEC Embedded DRAM Process
Clock Frequency 202.5MHz
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB
Embedded Frame Buffer Approx. 2MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Embedded Texture Cache Approx. 1MB Sustainable Latency : 5ns (1T-SRAM)
Texture Read Bandwidth 12.8GB/second (Peak)
Main Memory Bandwidth 3.2GB/second (Peak)
Color, Z Buffer Each is 24bits
Image Processing Function Fog, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, HW Light x8, Alpha Blending, Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texture Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC), etc.
Other Real-time Decompression of Display List, HW Motion Compensation Capability
*The Gekko MPU integrates the power PC CPU into a custom, game-centric chip.
(The following sound related functions are all incorporated into the System LSI)
Sound Processor Special 16bit DSP
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Instruction Memory 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Data Memory 8KB RAM + 4KB ROM
Clock Frequency 101.25 MHz
Maximum Number of Simultaneously Produced Sounds ADPCM: 64ch
Sampling Frequency 48KHz
System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability 13.0GFLOPS (Peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, HW Lighting Total)
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second
Actual Display Capability 6 million to 12 million polygons/second (Display capability assuming actual game with complexity model, texture, etc.)
System Main Memory 24MB Sustainable Latency : 10ns or lower (1T-SRAM)
A-Memory 16MB (100MHz DRAM)
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System
Disc Drive CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System Average Access Time Data
Transfer Speed 16Mbps to 25Mbps 128ms
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology
Media 8cm Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology Approx. 1.5GB Capacity
Input/Output Controller Port x4
Digicard Slot x2
Analog AV Output x1
Digital AV Output x1
High-Speed Serial Port x2
High-speed Parallel Port x1
Power Supply AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A
Main Unit Dimensions 150mm(W) x 110mm(H) x 161mm(D)