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Games Entertainment

Nintendo's Dolphin Becomes The N-Cube 199

Posted by Hemos from the to-the-nth-degree dept.
Xenex writes "Nintendo's next next-generation console, formerly know as 'Project Dolphin' now has an official name - the 'Nintendo Game Cube', or 'N-Cube' for short. Info about the name can be found on IGN's new N-Cube site here. Also a N-Cube FAQ is here, specs here (400mhz PowerPC based), and there is a quick editorial about why the N-Cube will succeed here."
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Nintendo's Dolphin Becomes The N-Cube More

Nintendo's Dolphin Becomes The N-Cube

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  • Sega has also released plans for their next generation system, now called the S-Inanimate-Carbon-Rod.

    Says a spokesperson: "Not only will you get to play your old Sega games, they will now be infused with carbony-funness!"

    When asked for comment, Sony PSX developers said: "Sega? Who? Oh... didn't they have some game with a hedgehog who got voiced by that Urkel kid in its cartoon form? Are we supposed to be worried?"

    Sandidge

  • Apple Cube [slashdot.org], N-Cube...
    What's next? Rubik's Cube? [marskandiser.com]

    Even the samurai
    have teddy bears,
    and even the teddy bears

  • Actually, as any avid vid-game owner knows, the limitation is not keeping the old machine, but how many S-Video ports you've got on the back of your TV. (At our house S-Video ports are a rare-commodity. Trade wars flare up over them all the time.)
  • Oh god, not one of those "quality not quantity" nimrods. I thought you were all shot when Nintendo64 did so crappily in Japan. The thing is, that Sony has nothing to do with "saturating the market." If you don't remember exactly what happened, Nintendo had to come up with the "quality not quantity" bullshit because they were the only ones making games for awhile. Sony on the otherhand, probably had more good games, than Nintendo did. Nintendo was in the same position as Sony back in the SNES days, and it is agreed that SNES was probably one of the most successful consoles in history. The thing is, that approach may lead to a lot of crap games, but in the end, sheer volume makes sure that the library of good games is large. Also, it enables a lot of selection. Nintendo was really hurt in Japan because there weren't any (not good or bad, ANY!) RPGs on Nintendo 64. (Aside from the RPG-pretender Quest64.) Choice is good. "Quality not quantity" is game censorship.
  • Isn't Apple going to make them change it to N-Sphere or N-Rhombus?
  • Hmm..everybody seems to be missing one important point here.Why do you guys think that games are only for adults?My kids enjoy the Playstation but they LOVE the N64.And their friends too.This is the reason that Nintendo won't go out of the market too soon.The Nintendo games are more targeted to kids and try expalinig to your 8 years old that playstation is better when he tells you clearly that Playstation games sucks and all his friends are playing Nintendo games which are far better and not so hard.
  • apparently NCube [ncube.com] shifted focus to multimedia streaming, or something else.
  • Though it seems like they're finally getting over their censorship rants.

    No, not really - they've just watched the success of more mature games and realized that the 10-and-under croud doesn't have the most money, while the 21-26 croud is the most profitible group to pander to. Basically they finally realized that being a "family game company" was hurting them, so they gave up on that and are allowing the rest of the audiance a chance to play games on their system - after all, if they don't, others will, and Nintendo stands to lose big time...

  • The hardware people had to agree to enforce region codes in the DVD spec to get the content people to come along for the ride. Tough luck, but that's the deal. It's also proof that "globalization" as a business practice isn't taken as seriously as people would have you believe. "Globalization" means making shoes and selling fries in China.


    Refrag
  • Certainly I wonder if there's an Apple connection here somewhere.

    The pity is, despite what game editors think, is it's a better piece of hardware to play the same overdone crap.

    5) It's DVD based (but it won't play DVD-movies). Rather, it utilizes proprietary mini-DVDs that can be manufactured cheaply and efficiently


    This sounds very uninteresting already. Looks like a proprietary lock so I can't develop anything, cross-compiled on my PC to distribute. Nothing new there, Nintendo started the NES with everything locked down, so developers had to pay-off Nintendo, who made the cartridges. Obviously Nintendo's strategy is still to make money off game fees and royalties rather than selling the hardware.

    With decent GamePC's zipping out for a pittance, I'm seriously wondering what the future of these are, particularly when the buyer can zip out and get the latest sound and video cards and drivers and spiff up their old box.

    3) It's going to be cheap. Nintendo's next-generation console will retail between $150-200 -- $100 cheaper (minimum) than PlayStation


    At least at this price it won't hurt too much when it's in the back of the garage after 5 months...

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000
  • 'Bits' don't matter. In fact, people who talk about 'how many bits' a console has are idiots. ALL that matters is the quality/speed of the graphics it can generate. Remember, ALL x86 processors currently available are 32-bit processors. But obviously, a PC can do better graphics than a Playstation. And arguably can do better graphics than a Playstation 2, which is, as you say '128-bit'. The point is, the N-Cube will probably be at least as powerful as the Playstation2.

  • I don't really see the lack of DVD playback as a big issue. Adding DVD playback to a game console may be a big seller in Japan (it certainly helped the PS2), where DVD players so far have not sold very well, but in the States and in Europe, DVD players are doing much better. So... why buy a second DVD player (and why should everything be able to play DVDs in the first place? This is a game machine.)?

    If you really insist DVD playback from a Nintendo machine, then Matsushiba (one on Nintendo's major partners in this little project) will be releasing DVD players with the 'N-cube' innards, thus giving you the best of both worlds.

  • I am sorry but Nintendo's image as a gaming console is not as great as it used to be. Sonys' PS2 has a better image than Nintendo but this might help them out we will see.
  • Cool , thanks !!! Do you know how much your friend paid for the remote (with the deal ?).
  • The Power PC is not made by apple, but by IBM... their also making the chip for the N-Cube wih the same technology.. so both companies are partnered with IBM, but not with eachother. I think that then makes a good trademark case for apple considering the similarity of the parducts (both based on power pc tech). - Ryan
  • ok, on the convenience issue, i'll agree with you, yeah it would be nice to have dvd and a gaming console combined. i hear the psx dvd is pretty decent, that's decent, not great. my reason for upgrading to DVD is for quality, i don't mind spending a few more hundred bucks to get both. The nCube will be $150-200, so you could get a dvd player and the ncube for about $350. that's about the price of the psx2 anyway. hell, i've seen dvd players as low as $149. you take the combo, i'll buy 'em separately.

    Erian


    -
  • Why is it that everything Apple deals with is called a "Cube" now? You've got the G4-Cube, now the N-Cube... where will it end?

    Will they release MacOS/Cube to run on the I-Cube?
  • > Besides, the DVD playback on consoles will be crap compared to DVD players.

    Where did you read this ? Reports seem to be that DVD playback on the PSX2 is very good, with two little glitches (one is sound related for very high end sound systems, the other is no remote control yet).

    >and don't complain that you'll have to buy 2 devices, a decent DVD player costs about $250.

    And a console is around $250 - $350, why pay $500 total, when less will do. And I don't want a million things hooked up to my TV anyways.
  • If I recall correctly N-Cube used to be the name of a super computer (manufacturer). It had an N-dimensional hyper cube architecture, hence the name. Every processor in the system had at least one flashing light mounted on the machine, in order to impress potential military customers.
    I never expected them to be sold at toy stores!
  • A cheap frisbee would be a "coaster". Then you could play your favourite titles while drinking a pint of Guiness.

    Whether AOL might sue or not remains to be seen.
  • In the IGN article claiming how the N-cube was going to roll over everything he did even mention the Sega Dreamcast. Sega isn't going away this time and if you underestimate the threat you may be taken by surprised. So what if the dreamcast isn't quite as powerful as the other consoles -- the playstation was as powerful as the n64 (and if you measure power based on pure cpu power or 2d gaming abilty the psx wasn't even as powerful as the saturn.) The DC has a lot of great games and a growing army of loyal fans.
  • it all started with the NeXT Cube, etc.

    Pope

    Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
  • it leaves out all of the x-box specs, conspicuously enough...
  • Sorry dude - if anything, the Dreamcast is increasing in sales as the PS2's US release approaches. With discounted prices as low as $100 and a slew of excellent games, I doubt the DC is going anywhere.

    --

  • 3) It's going to be cheap. Nintendo's next-generation console will retail between $150-200 -- $100 cheaper (minimum) than PlayStation

    Cube: Monosyllabic, easy to say, easy to remember

    N is for Nintendo, which is Japanese for box on the carpet into which you continually shovel money.

    You'd prefer Duodecahedron? Yeah, cool name, but harder to stack.

    Vote [dragonswest.com] Naked 2000

  • Yes sony sold 2,200,000 playstation 2 with 4,000,000 games across 35 titles, but that does not make hurt the playstation per se. Sony's philosophy is to saturate the market with games and let the buyers sort it out. Nintendo is a little more subtle, they create great games that sell alot. Both of these styles work well. I will be definately buying myself a playstation 2 because I believe the programmers who are complaining now will adapt when they get used to the technology.

    IMHO Nintendo learned its lesson with respect to cartrige based games and will do extremely well with the dolphin. Square, Konami, Namco, etc are already on board for the playstation 2 and I trust they will figure the kinks out by the time the Cube comes out.

    My only fear is that the playstation 2 might be overextending itself. I like the playstation because I could just stick in games and not worry about it. I did not have to deal with hardware problems like the ones games on PC have. But it will be nice to have a DVD player for my TV.
  • i tell ya, the N-Cube sounds WAY better than the dolphin. true the "dolphin" was just the working title of the new nintendo box. can't wait till this thing is out!

    Erian


    -
  • hmm.. seems that Nintendo not only doesn't want to pay the license fee to the DVD CCA, but they think the CSS-Auth algorithm is too weak for their software. Someone should mention this to 2600's legal team, that other major corporations won't use the product as it's seriously flawed, and doesn't actually prevent piracy.
  • I think N*Sync will be even more pissed.


    "Blue Elf shot the food!"
  • It will have a DVD drive, but won't be able to play DVDs.

    Yuck.

    Next ...
  • No, but Nintendo still thinks it's 1988. The fact is, most of their core base (preteens/teens who grew up on the NES) no longer want kiddie games. Males ages 18-35 make up the vast majority of console gamers - *and* they've got the cash to buy games... kids don't.

    --

  • Here comes Cobalt, and man, they look pissed! ;>
  • As I understand it, n-cube is the generic name for a type of graph representing all possible bit strings of length n. A vertex (for example 001, where n==3) is connected to another vertex (let's say 011) if and only if the bit strings differ by only one bit position. So, 001 would be connected to 011 since the two bit strings differ only in the second bit position. 011 would be connected to 111, but 111 would not be connected to 001.
    Anyway, an n-cube or hypercube is an efficient way to connect the processors in a massively parrallel supercomputer. As a result, there are already plenty of computers that are referred to as n-cubes. As a result, I'm pretty certain that Nintendo will not end up calling this machine the N-cube because the name is already taken, and defending their trademark would be very difficult.
  • "Nintendo .... create great games that sell a lot"

    You still buying that "quality over quantity" nonsense they were spewing before the N64's release?

    --

  • Well, if you decide to take the job, good luck! Hope you enjoy it.
  • No kids don't but their parents do.And there's always the rental places-pretty expensive but...
  • Steve Jobs lined up a lawsuit against Nintendo immediately...
  • Actually, nCube shouldn't have any problem with the name considering that, for all legal purposes, the system would be called the Nintendo Game Cube. That name should probably be available if Nintendo wants it.

  • Playstation renamed (Score:5)

    by graniteMonkey ( 87619 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @06:24AM (#837010)
    In accordance with Microsoft's "X-Box", and Nintendo's newly renamed "N-Cube", Sony has announced that the Playstation 2 will now be called the "P-Right-Cylindrical-Solid". Sony could not be reached for further comment.

  • "Ran away screaming when I saw their code" would be the decider for me. I wouldn't rely on the Dolphin being a success. It might be, it might not be, but don't bet your career on it!

    On the other hand, it might be fun to taste the games industry for a few years. Please try and talk to some people at the company, IN PRIVATE, before you commit. Very Big Game Makers tend to be Fascist Bastards.

  • DVD drive that can't play movies....hmm...Nintendo afraid of MPAA perhaps?

    which brings me to my next question, while slightly off topic....

    Will the Playstation 2 be enforcing region codes?

  • 'N-Cube' not the official name. (Score:5)

    by ct.smith ( 80232 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @06:25AM (#837013) Homepage
    Per usual, the Slashdot editors forgot to verify the details.

    The site states in several places that 'N-Cube' is just a best guess for the system name. The official name will not likely be announced until Spaceworld (Aug 24). For now, the official name still has yet to be released.

  • That sucks...I don't own a DVD player yet anyway, so it hasn't had any diret realivance on me yet...but the fact remains that I think the coding "feature" sucks.

  • Because, man, if you're not cube, you're just square.
  • Yup. Anticipating lawsuit approach:

    Ein reich, ein volk, ein cube(r)???

  • Not really. The whole "kiddie" thing only comes from the N64 since the majority of the decent games (originally) on that platform came from Nintendo/Rare, and Nintendo itself has always made "kiddie" games. Actually, during the SNES, there were a lot of "adult" games.

    Learn your history! Back in the 16-bit era, there was much moaning about how the SNES had kiddie games and Genesis titles were more "mature." That was the initial backlash against the classic Nintendo school of game design, at least from people who had outgrown the NES.
  • They're not very ergonomic...
    You're not supposed to sit on it.
    ----------

  • Re:On the arrogance... (Score:3)

    by bfree ( 113420 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @08:18AM (#837033)
    perhaps that is exactly the meaning that is meant to be portrayed! Seeing as though it would require about $20 of patent payments to allow the machine decode and play a full on content scrambled DVD perhaps instead they are simply going to let the machine playback non-CSS streams. Some manufacturers have already released non CSS DVDs so perhaps this is Nintendo's way of telling the MPAA and its cohorts that it can go fuck itself if it thinks they are going to hand it any real amount of money to release a player for the titles THEY sell. Console manufacturers (and never forget that Sony is not a console manufacturer but a giant comglomerate who has every interest in making a cheap box that can play their games aswell as thier cds and dvds) make their money from selling cheap hardware and recouping the costs through licensing for game creators, do you think they are going to add more cost to the machine for a feature which will not help them sell a single extra game but will provide someone else with an improved revenue stream.
    I hope Nintendo release a prototype (or the inital Japanese release) with no media support or just mpeg support (pay them some licensing, they are the not-"open" standard video format) and make a big stink over why they will not pay HOLLYWOOD. The average punter will listen if Nintendo says their console would be $20 more to play the HOLLYWOOD DVDs without any change in hardware AND that the people collecting the money are also collecting it on every DVD created (etc. etc.).
    I would not assume that this announcement vis-a-vis DVDs has anything to do with hardwre or software or any other technical or marketing decision......it is simply the start of a negotiation for "substantially reduced" royalty charges (i.e. none), and perhaps the thought of an extra few tens of millions of cheap DVD players out there will tempt the MPAA etc. into accepting the royalty payments from the DVD producers. Perhaps Nintendo will simply buy a special license (then what odds on the Nintendo DVDPlayer for every platform under the Sun).
  • But almost all DVD movies are Hollywood movies. Remember that you need to pay 10kUSD to the DVD CCA for a licence to CSS before you can burn movie DVDs. Unless you're going to sell a lot of DVDs, which most independent filmmakers aren't, this is cost-prohibitive.

    Also, I suspect that the N-Cubes sold in the US (region 1) will not play French movies (region 2).

    There is arrogance involved here, but it's not on the part of the journalists.

    --

  • Faugh! My Atari 2600 was more fun (Score:3)

    by rho ( 6063 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @06:43AM (#837040) Journal

    What's up with consoles these days? I had more fun playing 2600 games than most of the things out there today. The last game I bought with re-playability was Perfect Dark, which is basically a revamped Goldeneye. Everything else has been spotty at best.

    What happened to those 80's game designers, anyway?

    I might buy a PSX2, but that might be my last game console. I'm just not seeing a reason to continue to sink money into pointless hardware. The Internet is more interesting.

  • ArtX? (Score:5)

    by Hard_Code ( 49548 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @06:44AM (#837041)
    3) It's got a brutally powerful custom 3D graphics chip [called Flipper] from ArtX, which works intimately with the Gekko processor for maximum efficiency. Developers working on the console are allegedly having no problems pushing nine million polygons at 60 frames per second with preliminary benchmark tests.

    The very same ArtX as this [arstechnica.com]?
  • In other news, the descendants of the Greek thinker Euclid have filed lawsuits against Nintendo, Apple, Rubik, and anyone else who has ever used a cube shape for any reason.

  • I don't see how this is going to be all that great. I mean, its big Oh of n cubed. I mean there isn't much worse other than big Oh of n factorial.

  • It does suck, but they probably are required to "enforce" it.

    You won't like this, but the US version of the PS2 will have the DVD playback stuff in the hardware ...
    For more info, check the PS2 FAQ [ign.com].
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • my gaming-nut friends tell me that the signal to noise ratio is substantially better with other platforms.

    You're right, they are nuts. Actually, Nintendo consoles usually have a much better S:N ratio than the other consoles - but also, they often have far fewer games. Say that we can quantitize the Nintedo as producing one excellent game (signal) for every four poor games (noise). Say the PlayStation gets only one good game for every 10 games. (IE, S:N is 1:9, but that makes it a nice 10% good, 90% "other.")

    The problem is that the PlayStation will have 100 games in a certain time period, while the Nintendo may get around 20. 100x10% = 10, 20x20%=4, so by this "example" the PlayStation has 10 good games and the Nintendo only has four...

    This is, of course, an over-simplification, but there are many really bad games for the PlayStation - far more than for the Nintendo. There are just more games for the PS. Nintendo needs to get back some of the developers they managed to lose, most noticibly Capcom and Squaresoft. Some of the best SNES games where by those two, and their "defecting" to the PlayStation was a real hurt to the N64's success.

    Not to mention that the great hardware of the N64 was severely hurt by the really crappy media used to store games - something like a max space of 350MB. Final Fantasy VII was something like 1.5 GB, spanning 3 CDs. VIII approached 2 GB with 4 CDs if I recall correctly. But these were "cinimatic" games, so the CG probably hurt them - then again, MGS which contained very few CG sequences and was mostly done through an ingame rendering system weighed in around 1 GB on 2 CDs with all the audio it had, not to mention the superior music.

    The bottom line is that even if the tech specs seem superior, a console is only as strong as it's weakest link - it remains to be seen if the Dolphin will be as good as the PS2, the X-Box, or the Dreamcast. There are many things that go into a good console, the hardware is just one variable among many.

  • History, shit I was playing the games back then! Sure some of the SNES games were a little kiddie (especially at first) but since the SNES had the shear bulk of the games, a lot of mature games came out too. First of all anything from Square Soft. Sure some of them (Chrono Trigger) had a younger image (though CT was far from kiddie) but there is a difference between image and actual game-play. You also had a lot of horror games, a lot of fighting games, combat sims (Iron Eagle and Urban strike), the list goes on.

  • SNES corrections (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The SNES hardware was better than the Genesis in many aspects, except one important spec: CPU mhz. The SNES's CPU was dog slow. It caused the imfamous "slowdown" in many early SNES games. The CPU for the SNES was chosen, mainly for legacy reasons, as it is the upgraded version of the 6502, which was used by the NES.

    The SNES patched its slow CPU problem by including fast DSPs inside many SNES cartridges. This made SNES games expensive at the time. Hell, when the processor inside the cartridge for Super Mario Kart over twice as fast as the CPU in the SNES... your system wasn't designed very well.
  • Because it's made by Nintendo. Ever since the SuperNintendo, Nintendo has been release under-powered, under-featured consoles that nevertheless sell like crazy. The reason? Marketing and Mario.

    This things going to have a DVD that doesn't play DVD's (how...useful), no built in harddrive like the x-box (though, how necessary this is is certainly up to debate), and from the look of the specs, no built in modem/ethernet card for on-line play. And it won't matter a bit, because MarioWorld 128, DonkeyKong Word 2, or whatever they'll call all those titles will be available, and half the country will want one anyway.

    Not that the Dolphin will necessarily be a bad thing, however. SuperNintendo and N64 certainly had their share of good games, and there's no reason to think Dolphin won't either. Still, you have to wonder what the console gaming field would be like had Nintendo simply put more power into their gaming consoles. Coming of the NES, Nintendo literally ruled the console market, with Sega shooting themselves in the foot and others like Atari not really a threat. Had Nintendo beefed up the hardware for the SNES and N64, you might not even be hearing about Dreamcast, PS2 or XBox.
  • It's nice, but if it only had more memory...

    Some things never change. Speaking of which, no surprise to see Nintendo is still hanging onto the proprietary media for "counterfeit crotection." Sure, that and crotecting the high manufacturing prices they've enjoyed throughout the cartridge era.

    By the way, I thought the Game Sphere was a promising idea that was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.

  • I can't wait till Apple sues them for using the cube shape...
  • Umm...if they're playing games, they're obviously not a "non-gamer". Everyone plays games wether it be politics, golf or UT. It all caters to entertaining your mind.

    I 4 1 am one of those first person gamers - UT, Qx, DOOM][, Descent, etc... and I LOVE Mario Kart!!! It is living room deathmatch for the whole family - no blood/guts and the computer cheats in the not so skilled players favor so they aren't completely left behind in the dust.

    This is where the "set top box" always lacks - no user customization or creative input i.e. you can't add new levels designed by the amazingly creative minds that design for Q/UT/DOOM and you are stuck with whatever the N developers make. (mario paint doesnt count so don't even bother).

    They definitely need to allow for multiple display o/p...cramming 4 people on one 25" TV is a pain.

    Feature wise, set top boxes always lack so I will most likely purchase a computer upgrade instead of an N^3/PSX2/etc... and yes I realize they are great for the computer illeterate (if that even makes sense).

    --Clay

  • Personally my bets are on this for Nintendo's official announcement:

    "We have no official announcement on 'Dolphin' at this time, but look, a Squirtle-shaped N64!"

    (Sorry, been in this business way too many years now.)
  • On the other hand, it might be fun to taste the games industry for a few years. Please try and talk to some people at the company, IN PRIVATE, before you commit.

    The person I was having the beers with went to this Very Big Game Company after working for me on Mac stuff three years ago, and is now big in their PS2 world, so I'm getting the pretty straight dope here I think.

    Very Big Game Makers tend to be Fascist Bastards.

    Very Big anything tend to be Fascist Bastards ... the advantage to being a T&L head is that if you get pissed off, NOTHING ships until they find a replacement, which tends to tilt the negotiations in your favor depending on how replaceable you are. Presumably a Dolphin lead would not be replaceable quickly or cheaply :)
  • What happened to those 80's game designers, anyway?

    Look here. [dadgum.com]
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Re:Faugh! My Atari 2600 was more fun (Score:3)

    by The_Messenger ( 110966 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @06:59AM (#837093) Homepage Journal
    What happened to those 80's game designers, anyway?
    Well, the half that isn't employed by McDonald's Coporation (or a subsidiary) is reportedly working on a TI-83 port of "Drug Wars 2: Extreme Doobiesmack".

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • .. its call because too many people work in cubicles ...

    do i hear office revolution ? or am i just reading too much dilbert ?
  • Nintendo afraid of MPAA perhaps?

    Or the DVD (Forum | Consortium). The site mentioned that in order to play DVD movies, Nintendo would have to give them $20 for every unit sold -- too much for Nintendo.

  • I hope they don't screw up. (Score:3)

    by Frijoles ( 16015 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @07:23AM (#837097)
    One of my biggest gripes with the N64 is that every damn game seems to be using the 3D landscape, run-around-as-mario-or-link camera view. I hate that. It looked cool for about two seconds.

    I really enjoyed the old Zelda games. They were great. I still play them. But when it hit the N64, they lost something they once had. It was now a question of trying to jump through hoops and it was no longer fun.

    I hope this new system returns to the old camera views, ease of use, and great storyline.
  • DonkeyKong Word 2

    ...and you thought that stupid paperclip was annoying. Just wait until you have a giant ape constantly throwing barrels that roll along your lines of text to kill your cursor and delete your file if you don't hit the "jump" button just before it hits.

    ---
    Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not a turnip.

  • As per the specs page [ign.com] on cube.ign.com [ign.com]:

    Software Medium

    1. Matsushita unique mini-disc DVD technology
    2. Multiple gigabyte storage capacity
    3. Enhanced counterfeit crotection

    When one says mini-disc, and they don't mean sony, then they mean 77mm, like the "three inch" CD/CD-R format.

    You most likely will not be able to fit a full-size DVD into the box in any case. If you could, then you could load a DVD player software app (if someone wrote one and got MPAA licensing) into it and play one in software. It doesn't look like it's that kind of party.

  • Yes I know some of the replies already mentioned this, but I agree with the editorial's opinion that making this console NOT be anything but a game playing machine is a good thing too. It allowed them to reduce the cost of the machine itself by not having to conform it to any standards. (according to them, it'll be approximately $100 cheaper than PSX2) Plus the fact that Nintendo always follows this pattern. They have always been the last out to market for each generation, but always put out a Technologically superior product. The thing they MUST get going this time around is the Game developers. In my memory, the PSX had tons more titles than the N64. Nintendo needs to make huge incentives to the developers to make more games.

  • Wow, that's really nasty. It reminds me of some recent stuff with NVidia.

    I don't think that the chip is going to suck so much slime down when it makes it to the Dolphin, though. For one, you only have to make NTSC res on a low-cost box like Nintendo specializes in producing. I suspect the price will be closer to $150 than $200, so they can capture all the people who don't want to spend $300 on a PS2.

    The NES was lower-powered than its competitor, the SMS (Sega Master System.) This was true in the case of SNES vs. Genesis, but the SNES had far more advanced hardware. Consider the SNES the Amiga of video games, except that it was successful for a longer period of time (at least, in video game years.) The N64 was the most powerful system of its generation, which can more or less be considered the fourth major generation of video games. Now in the fifth generation, I think Nintendo would like to take the bottom end of the market, but they do have a standard to uphold.

    I personally think Nintendo would have dropped them if they couldn't deliver.

  • Questions of timeframe. (Score:3)

    by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @07:26AM (#837105)
    Because it's made by Nintendo. Ever since the SuperNintendo, Nintendo has been release under-powered, under-featured consoles that nevertheless sell like crazy.
    ...
    Had Nintendo beefed up the hardware for the SNES and N64, you might not even be hearing about Dreamcast, PS2 or XBox.

    I question these comparisons, as the N64 was released _years_ earlier than the systems you list above.

    In my experience, Nintendo has usually waited six months to a year after Sega released a platform and then released a platform with superior hardware that blew them out of the water.

    Rememeber the Sega Genesis? It made the NES look very shabby, until Nintendo rolled out the Super NES as *their* entry into the 16-bit arena.

    The N-64 was Nintendo's first-generation 3D console, designed to compete with the Playstation (Sony's first-generation 3D console) and Sega's Saturn.

    Now we're seeing Nintendo's next-generation 3D console, designed to blow away the Dreamcast and the Playstation 2 - and it just might do it. 16 megs of _embedded_ _SRAM_ means no memory bottlenecks in the graphics subsystem, and T&L at 0.18 copper (migrating to 0.13) should take care of geometry.

    Again, it looks like Nintendo is releasing _superior_ hardware about 6-12 months after the competition.

    Nintendo's achilles heel has always been game quality, as opposed to platform capability. There are good games for Nintendo machines, but there are also many mediocre ones, and my gaming-nut friends tell me that the signal to noise ratio is substantially better with other platforms.
  • Early Japanese PlayStation 2's had a "bug" in that you could circumvent the DVD region locking. If it wasn't done by default, you could type a secret key sequence to disable the region locking.

    This actually prompted Sony to issue a recall, even though there were no functional defects with the unit. That was possibly the first time in history that a product has been recalled because it had too many features.
  • )
    History, shit I was playing the games back then! Sure some of the SNES games were a little kiddie (especially at first) but since the SNES had the shear bulk of the games, a lot of mature games came out too. First of all anything from Square Soft. Sure some of them (Chrono Trigger) had a younger image (though CT was far from kiddie) but there is a difference between image and actual game-play. You also had a lot of horror games, a lot of fighting games, combat sims (Iron Eagle and Urban strike), the list goes on.

    The general feeling many people had at the time was that SNES games were "too brightly colored" (and therefore too kiddie) and Genesis games had a darker, edgier look. I don't agree, but that's how it was.
  • Won't Ncube [ncube.com] be pissed?

    They make servers for streaming live media (at broadcast quality).
  • As I remember it, the reason Genesis games had a darker, edgier look was because of the Genesis's ridiculously small color palatte. (64 onscreen out of 512 compared to the SNES's 256 on screen out of 32768)
  • Firstly, the "N-cube" has a DVD drive like PSX2, but doesn't play DVDs... Secondly, the new N box will have a similar price point to the PSX2, but without the extra selling point of the DVD player. I know this seems like the same point, but for ME at least, this has been a big seller to my wife. =) I'm sure I'm not the only geek who's getting away with a PSX2 on the grounds that "Well, we don't have a DVD player yet..." Lastly, the marketing for the Dolphin/N-Cube has been pathetic up until now. Nintendo seems to be really focussing on the Gameboy Advance to the detriment of the console system. I'm looking forward to the new Nintendo console because as a whole I've found that Nintendo games tend to be more family and friends oriented -- ie. they play to non-gamers. Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Golf (see a trend) are all games that appeal to people who don't usually play video games. I just hope the thing doesn't falter because Nintendo is relying on its name to carry the box, er, cube, through a couple of rather big selling holes...
  • Since it's got a PowerPC in it, it might be able to run Linux - Then you could play CDs on it - Would be cool to be able to pop in a "DVD Player Cartridge" and convert it from a game machine to a DVD player. Now to get Linux on a BootProm....
  • They have always been the last out to market for each generation, but always put out a Technologically superior product.

    Always last to market?

    If memory serves correctly Nintendo beat Sega to the US market with an 8 bit system by about 2 months. Nintendo was just in time for the Christmas rush of that year. It took Sega YEARS to make up for it. Even though the Master System was technologically superior to the NES, the NEW got a HUGE boost that year.

    LK
  • They are control freaks.

    When they could get away with it (back in the NES days), they locked developers into contracts so they could only make NES games. Even now, I believe they don't allow straight ports to their platforms. If you want to bring one of your popular games to a Nintendo platform, you have to add at least one special Nintendo feature, so Nintendo can claim that their version is special and unique and worth paying for a second time even if you've already got the original.

    They also insist on being "the family video game company", and not having any games that hurt that image. They will tell you that a feature of your game is unacceptable, and you must change it or you can't release. The guys at id Software had a terrible time getting Wolfenstein released for the SNES (I think it was the SNES). They demanded a bunch of goofy changes ("can you change the dogs to rats? It's wrong to shoot dogs.") and generally made a nuisance of themselves.

    That kind of thing wasn't uncommon, either. They are a royal pain in the ass.

    They'd have to completely change the way they work to even have a chance at getting their old developers back.

    ---
    Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not a turnip.

  • Thoughts on Nintendo's kiddie reputation (Score:3)

    by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @08:58AM (#837118)
    I see a number of posts putting down Nintendo for being a kiddie machine. Let's stop and think about this for a minute. Nintendo started out in the console business by targeting kids. They were right on target, IMO. They did things like "little tiny guy defeats huge, mean boss." They had long, repetitive segments in games like the original Zelda. Cartoony graphics aside, those kinds of things are perfect for kids, and more, often than not, annoying to adults.

    As the Nintendo kids grew up, they eschewed Nintendo-style games as being for children. It was a weird teenage backlash, though, as the perceived requirements for "adult" games were superficial: gore, more techie stylings, dark graphics, plots involving evil corporations that kidnap princesses instead of goofy cartoon guys who kidnap princesses. So when someone puts down the N64 as being for kids, it's hard to take them seriously. Most games on other systems with more of a pseudo-adult feel have the same type of gameplay, but they have what I suppose are viewed as edgier graphics. It's not like there are many video games that really do target a more intelligent market, in the same way that a good many novels (written by people other than Danielle Steele) do.

  • Unfortunate name (Score:3)

    by scrytch ( 9198 ) <chuck@myrealbox.com> on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @06:29AM (#837126)
    I think nCUBE [ncube.com] might have a slight problem with the name.
  • A few companies are making them. Here's one [ps2speaker.com]. A friend of mine preordered his PS2 through EB and got a deal on the remote.

    -jpowers
  • The game industry has been in a slump for most of the last decade. I think it is finally starting to recover with the console market, although people still insist on rushing out to buy hyped-up games like Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, or Resident Evil, despite the fact that they plainly suck.

    Here's a game which is as fun as anything that ever came out in the 80's: Rayman 2. The Dreamcast version, especially, is gorgeous. The gameplay is fun and unique and never gets stale. The cinematics are amusing enough that you don't constantly skip them. Most importantly, it runs at full (60fps) framerate, something most developers seem to think is not important...

    Another good one that I played at E3 is Jet Set Radio (supposeldy the name will be changed to Jet Grind Radio for the US). Very unique gameplay, and art that gets away from the horrible polygonal look that games have suffered from ever since the industry became obessed with 3D.
  • Except for the fact that Cobalt are suing Apple first for cubeness...

    Slashdot article [slashdot.org], ZDNet article [zdnet.co.uk], Cobalt press release about settlement with Cube Computer Corp. [cobalt.com]

    I think I'll have to patent the remaining Euclidean solids... I want some money if someone tries make an icosahedron-shaped computer.
  • This is a rather serendiptious posting -- last night over beers I was apprised that A Very Big Game Maker (not that I should probably say who, but I live in Vancouver, figure it out for yourself) is planning to commit bigtime to Dolphin, as in hoping to have at least three games shipping at launch ... and they have no tools and libraries team yet, and I should sign on and head it up.

    I, however, have been a Mac programmer for fifteen years (earlier this spring I was offered the chance to port said Very Big Game Maker's T&L suite to the Mac ... and ran away screaming when I saw the code) and have won a large number of awards for my various Mac products, so therefore I'm more inclined to learn NeXTStep, er, OPENSTEP, er, Yellow Box, er, Cocoa instead for the brave new OS X world. But if Dolphin goes big ... being The Man for it at this Very Big Game Company would be a pretty cool position to be in.

    So, so, so. What would all of YOU do if you were me?

  • On the arrogance... (Score:4)

    by Docrates ( 148350 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @07:33AM (#837142) Homepage
    ...will develop, manufacture and supply to Nintendo a proprietary DVD disk drive for incorporation into the Cube. Note that a DVD disk drive does not guarantee that Cube will be able to play Hollywood DVD movies.

    will it play independant films? or how about french movies? note to journalists: not all movies are hollywood movies...

  • I would not be surprised if it took a hacker almost a year to crack Nintendo's new system. Just like the Dreamcast over the summer, a bunch of crackers finally reversed-engineered the DC and made it playable with normal CDR's instead of Sega's GD-ROM.

    Now, I'm speculating here. So everything from here on is what I heard from various sources on the net and in magazines (probably all those sources related to IGN) and what I'm picturing what the N-Cube will be.

    The N-Cube would be base on a new technology to deflect piracy on the new system. In helping with this is their new mini-DVD format. I'm guessing its the size of those mini-CDs you might see in an import section of a store. (You see the mini-CDs a lot for Asian music sinlges.) Though, I also heard that the mini-DVD may be in a case... sort of like the MiniDisc. That's my guess.

    Now with that idea in mind. And this N-"Cube" shape (assuming), wouldn't it be nicer for Nintendo to create a mini-DVD drive instead of putting a full size DVD drive (which wouldn't even play movies)?

    That will help Nintendo out for piracy since there won't be any mini-DVDR burners out there. Not only that, no one would be able to insert a normal DVDR in the player. (ala Dreamcast: Uses GD-ROM, though a CD-ROM can be used, too.)

    But will be the new Nintendo system be un-crackable? Don't know, will have to ask the HK black market for that one. Anyway, also more heard information about Nintendo's new system. Matsushita is developing the drive for it. Also, Nintendo would be licensing their technology (maybe a year after N-Cube is released) back to Matsushita to develop a "home entertainment system". That's DVD playback and N-Cube playing included.

    Only then I could think that N-Cube could be cracked and by then maybe DVDR will be cheaper. But, Nintendo's counterfeit protection isn't limited to the mini-DVD. They're doing some funky stuff internally with the system. I don't know much about security, so I'll leave it at that.

    Though, I can say it will be fun watching everyone trying to crack Nintendo's new system. I guess that's how we progress in the technological age :)

    ---
    neafevoc

  • this isn't necessarily better. for n less than 8, n^3 is less than n64 anyway.

    -----
  • Knowing how determined hackers are about the PlayStation, and considering that a CD-R drive was unheard-of in the consumer market when the PlayStation came out, I wouldn't worry about this. In a few years, the PlayStation 2 will still be going strong despite the influx of new 256-bit and 512-bit video game systems from Sega and Nintendo, due in no small part to the high availability of DVD copiers.
  • Because it's made by Nintendo. Ever since the SuperNintendo, Nintendo has been release under-powered, under-featured consoles that nevertheless sell like crazy. The reason? Marketing and Mario.

    Which are exactly the reasons I'll buy one. I have two boys, 8 and 3 years old. Let's face it, Nintendo has more to offer young kids. We have a SNES now, specifically because of the Mario games. Mario and Pokemon will drive the purchase of the next console. What does PSX (1 or 2) have to compare?

  • Does the graphics chip smack of DirectX or what? (S3TC is the standard Direct3D texture compression mechanism) Although texture compression is a great idea. If you've ever seen those Unreal-S3TC screenshots you'll know what I mean. Lastly, 16MB of SOUND RAM! That's got to be a typo.

  • The original "N32" was the PlayStation, which was originally a Sony addon for the SNES. When Nintendo killed the PS project, Sony developed a version called "PlayStation-X" that was designed to be independent from the SNES. That's the PSX that killed N64.

    And yes, the AltiVec unit in some PowerPC processors (is it in Gekko?) can crunch 128 bit vectors, making the G4 Cube a 128-bit system.

    But doesn't the name of the core of the N-Cube remind you of the name of the core of Mozilla?
    <O
    ( \
    XGNOME vs. KDE: the game! [8m.com]
  • Not really. The whole "kiddie" thing only comes from the N64 since the majority of the decent games (originally) on that platform came from Nintendo/Rare, and Nintendo itself has always made "kiddie" games. Actually, during the SNES, there were a lot of "adult" games.
  • It's a shame: N-Cube sounds OK in an apple sort of way, but if it had been called dolphin, then when it was shut down it could have said
    So long and thanks for all the frag
    I guess it's not the kind of thing that Arthuer Dent would buy anyway.
    - Derwen

  • So now we have the N-Cube and the X-Box. How boring. In the form of cubes and boxes, these consoles are useful for little other than being consoles. Why not more fun and interesting shapes? Maybe Sega or Sony can be more creative. The S-frisbee would be great. Power outage leaves you unable to play video games? Try playing with the frisbee outside! (Gasp!) Just imagine the marketing possibilities of such a device.

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