I was rooting through things to pack earlier today and found a little booklet titled "Gamecube Secrets Exposed", which I got free with N64 magazine (now NGC) four years ago. I read it in the bath, and it was very interesting!
There certainly were a few odd things in there - Photos of a Gamecube with no ATi badge, a console with a window in the lid that revealed the spinning disc within, the original controller with the bean-shaped B button... And a few interesting articles, too.
Standard Memory Unit
"The basic unit for saving your position will be the 1/2 MB Digicard. That's only twice as big as the official N64 card, but it's still enough to save the basics. At launch there will also be an SD-Digicard Adapter, which uses the increasingly popular SD technology to cram up to 256MB on a card, though the standard unit will be more like 64MB. The unit is devised by Panasonic and uses flash memory, which means you'll be able to access your data very quickly and it will be thoroughly reliable. Devices like digital cameras are starting to use the SD format already. This is the legacy of the 64DD, which means you'll be able to create your own tracks for racing games, arenas for deathmatching and other intriguing compositions."
Huh. I don't think the SD adaptor ever saw the light of day. Not in the west, anyway. And besides, SD cards have really disappeared now... Memory Stick Duo seems to be beating the balls off SD. And as for custom shat like that in games... Heh. Must've been a sore disappointment to people who bought Gamecubes because of the modding capabilities. All that I can see for the GCN as far as homebrew goes is a group of people who've managed to get OSX running on the console.
Digital Cable
"SCART just now cutting it any more? S-Video just that little bit too fuzzy? Be very happy...
Also some time around launch, Nintendo will be providing a digital video cable, so that you can plug your Gamecube directly into a digital telly via the industry standard D terminal. This may be out of the reach of most at the moment, but the word on the street is that digital television is on the rise. As this is a digital medium, there'll be effectively no loss in image quality between Gamecube and your digital TV. Compare images from a standard N64 out-of-the-box RF lead with SCART to see what we mean about this."
I have NEVER seen a cable like this for the Gamecube. Our TV (Panasonic, 16:9, huge screen) has a D terminal, so I was looking forward to something like this. I couldn't even find a third-party one in Dixons or anyplace.
Loading Times
"Surprisingly, loading times make a huge difference to how immersive a game can be - they really get in the way and annoy. However, Gamecube will feature practically no loading times whatsoever (which would be unavoidable if GCN used CD-ROMs)."
Pretty accurate... For games exclusive to the Gamecube. SSBM, Tales of Symphonia (well, not exclusive anymore but hey), Star Wars: Rogue Leader... All these games I've played have loading times of less than one second as far as I can tell. However, playing ports like Tony Hawk's Underground, TimeSplitters 2 and Soul Calubur II shows that, well, Nintendo aren't sloppy and live up to their word sometimes. Sort of.
What colours will Gamecube come in?
"The original came in a fairly pleasing but somewhat Fisher-Price purple, though thankfully since then Nintendo have come up with a few more colour options, all of which will be available at launch. These are: purple, pink, charcoal, silver and gold."
Purple and black (charcoal?) were available at launch. Platinum (silver?) arrived a while later, and I've never seen a pink or gold Gamecube. Japan, however, has special edition GCNs for different games - I've seen someone with a Fire Emblem one, and plenty of orange ones for sale on eBay. Seems the only option is shopping online at colorware.
And then there were the much-hyped games.
Tekken
"Not definite, but Namco are reportedly keen to bring Tekken to GCN - and if rumours are to be believed, the fantastic Soul Calibur, too. Tekken 4 is about to hit arcades and the PS2, so it's possible that Tekken GCN could be a version of that."
Oh, gawd. Tekken on the gcn would've been great, but hey, Soul Calibur is miles better and the Tales series miles better than that. I'm not bothered, but come on. Seriously.
Raven Blade
"After the RPG desert of the N64, it looks like Nintendo aren't going to relent until their console is swamped with them, what with a lineup like Zelda, Kameo: Elements of Power, Phantasy Star Online and possibly Harvest Moon and Final Fantasy. Raven Blade is proper swords 'n' sorcery. ... The environments are huuuuge. 2002 is about as close as Retro will get to a confirmation date."
This one looked like it could've been very good. The visuals were great and the GCN needed more RPGs. Shame really.
Thornado
"...announced for N64 before it was launched (presumably as a launch title along with other no-hopers such as Robotech). Thornado started off as a Turrican update before Factor 5 realised that they didn't have the licence to do anything with Turrican. Instead, Thornado will be an entirely original first-person or third-person shoot-'em-up. The developers have released something, though: The theme music, to showcase Factor 5's Musyx system (the sound software employed on the Gamecube). Expect more next year."
I think I'll look for this music next time I'm online. It sounds interesting, and I think I should look for details as to what happened to this game also, I think!
Also: "...[LucasArts has] given Bioware the licence to produce a Star Wars RPG." Looks like this one ended up on another console...
Kameo: Elements of Power
"Superficially sounding like a marriage of Pokemon and Zelda, Kameo is actually an interesting take on the traditional RPG, with 60 monsters to collect and battle. Here's the thing: Depending on your skills in the scrapping department, the creatures will evolve differently, so they could transform into a giant of a beast like a minotaur or a slightly camp plant creature. Best of all, female lead character Kameo can become the creatures herself, opening up the way for massive exploration of the levels. Kameo turned up unexpectedly at E3 and could be released in 2002."
Oh, Rare. Seems that this one's been pushed ahead to the Xbox 360 now. I don't really know what to think about this one other than the fact that it would have certainly upstaged Starfox Adventures.
Duke Nukem Forever
"The aptly titled PC version is really, genuinely, definitely nearing completion. Infrogames are keen to offset development costs by bringing Duke's latest opus to every console ever created. Strangely, though, no version other than the Gamecube one has been confirmed, which suggests that they're maybe trying to squeeze into the gap marked "Adult" before the likes of Perfect Dark 2 arrive. Autumn 2002 would be a good bet for this one. Or maybe autumn 2003."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Man. I don't even know anything serious about this game anymore. The last DN game I played was Duke Nukem 2. You know, the one where he has the radioactive tooth that he uses to escape from an alien prison.
And then there were the rumours.
Nintendo museum brings classic SNES titles to GCN
"Likely. Sick of money lost from SNES emulation online, Nintendo are set to release a series of classic games on Gamecube discs. Like the Namco Museum collection on Playstation, the Nintendo Museum games will build to form a collectable library of Nintendo nostalgia."
Unfortunate, this. I was rather looking forward to having Super Mario RPG and others on the 'cube, but maybe it wasn't meant to be.
Joanna Dark to appear in Super Smash Bros Melee
"No. Someone knocked up a fake character select screen and within days it was all over the net as proof that icons such as Jo Dark, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker were playable characters. Don't be surprised if Sonic the Hedgehog crops up though."
Supplied screenshot shows: Shiek, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Pit (Kid Icarus), Ganon, Conker, Battletoads, Peach, Ness, Mario, Samus, Link, Luigi, Skull Kid (Zelda: Majora's Mask), Mewtwo, Banjo, Bowser, Fox, Captain Falcon, Ice Climber (yes, just the one), Sonic, Kirby and Joanna Dark. Seems to be a pretty good lineup apart from that one character who has nothing to do with Nintendo in the first place and those two characters who are copyrighted by a different company completely. One of whom is completely unsuited for a fighting game, being native to FPS territory. But hey, whatever.
Fifteen games confirmed to be in development right now:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Fifa 2002
ISS 2001
Conker's Bad Fur Day 2
James Bond game
Disney Sports
Daytona USA
Rainbow Six
Egyptian-themed FPS by Saffire
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Resident Evil Zero
Tekken
Soul Calibur
Fortress
Army Men
I count four games from that list that actually made it: Fifa 2002, "James Bond Game" (the awful Agent Under Fire and the abysmal Nightfire), THPS3, Resident Evil Zero and Soul Calibur. Four out of fifteen (or five, depending on how you intepret the James Bond one). That's not too good.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Playstation, GBA, PC.
Fifa 2002 - Released.
ISS 2001 - Don't think so.
Conker's Bad Fur Day 2 - Turned into Conker: Live and Uncut on the Xbox.
James Bond game - Two turned up.
Disney Sports - What the hell.
Daytona USA - No...
Rainbow Six - Nope.
Egyptian-themed FPS by Saffire - what
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - Yes. Fun it was, too.
Resident Evil Zero - You bet.
Tekken - Never.
Soul Calibur - More like Soul Calibur 2.
Fortress - No...
Army Men - Nein.
Looking bad on things, the GCN seems to be something of a flop to me and I often regret not purchasing a PS2 or Xbox. I think I mainly got a Gamecube because they were so cheap. But, all in all, I got my Tales, my Zelda and my SSBM, so I'm a happy guy. Problem is, I could've been so much happier by the looks of things. Now I think it's PSP time.
Hahahaha, oh ***, that's awesome. If you have a scanner, scan it in as I want to see it. I don't think I've even heard about it. All I got was a GC size disc that plays in your computer.
I left the booklet at home in France. :/ Even still, that wasn't all of it - There were articles like "Mario and Sonic to star in game together" and plenty of coverage on PD Zero, Donkey Kong racing and the like.
lol... yea.. I always wanted to see a Mario and Sonic Game. Don't know how they'd go about it. I loved both games, but mixing them together would be hard. You'd have to have one in a different element or switch the elements which would be akward. I don't see it happening. There would be too much change.
Wrong they were.. Wrong they were..