NINTENDO ON THE COUCH.

GAMECUBE: [gcubecon] Those lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Nintendo's new beast in their behind-closed-doors conference room came out with seemingly mixed emotions: I for one was very impressed with some of the software tasters on show, but was less sure about the specifications of the Gamecube. The specs run something like this:

- 405 mHz IBM 'Gekko' chip - A 'revolutionary' (really?) ATI graphics co-processor with SRAM - 4omb of internal memory - Optional broadband and conventional modems - Optional Wavebird controller for wireless communication with peripherals - Proprietary 1.5GB Matsushita optical disks for game storage

All appears to be fairly neat, huh? Well, I hate to rain on the parade, but there are some points that I have to bring up (journalistic integrity and all that jazz). Firstly, why are they using the Matsushita disks? Don't they learn? They were stung with the N64 when they failed to switch to the cheaper, easier to make and use CD media form, stubbornly sticking to their cartridges. Now, after the runaway success of the PlayStation2 with its DVD playback capability they move to yet another form of proprietary disk. Hmmm. Secondly, why when the Microsoft X-Box has been hailed as revolutionary due to the inclusion of a permanent hard drive which games can use have Nintendo, whose Gamecube is being released after the Gamecube in October 2001, in their own words 'not considered the possibility of a hard drive'. Lastly, Nintendo are taking a different approach with their package and you have to ask if they have their priorities right. They have hyped the 'Wavebird' board which allows for wireless controller use (a neat feature, yes, but a major selling point?) while saying almost nothing about their plans for Gamecube connectivity for multiplayer gaming, a major feature, other than 'accessories will include a 56K modem and (future) broadband modem'. Another possible tactical error there, one might think.

[gcubegba]

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