Nintendo GameCube

As the name might suggest, obviously it is simply a gaming console shaped like a cube. Very compact and came in two colors, indigo and black, a Japanese version of the Game Cube was released in orange. A limited Resident Evil 4 version of the console came in platinum and black. It is quite evident that this console was designed to be a “carry anywhere” type of unit, with a carrying handle and all.

The game Cube was the least expensive of the sixth generation consoles (Playstation, Dreamcast and the Xbox), which was a big plus for the consumers.  Different from its kin, the Game Cube uses a different storage system, the Nintendo Game Cube Game Disc. Considerably smaller than the 12cm CDs or DVDs used by other consoles, its only 8 centimeters in diameter or 3 1/8 inches. With a capacity of 1.5 gigabytes and are encrypted with a key most DVD players will not be able to read. Though it is read like any normal CD or DVD, the move to put in a bar code was to protect their titles from unauthorized copying.

The Game Cube does not have a built-in DVD playback capability that turned off most consumers and preferred the Playstation to it. Nintendo later licensed Panasonic to produce a variant called Q that could play DVD movies but never made it to the world market and was only released in Japan and production was discontinued after a few months of its release.

The game cube has four controller inputs, controllers with the traditional buttons and pads, directional pad, two thumbsticks, and eight buttons: A, B, X, Y, Z, L, R, start and pause buttons. Coupled with a superior graphics engine and ProLogic sound, the Game Cube is armed for a full on gaming experience.

The strongest suit of the Game Cube is its connectivity to its portable little brothers, GBA, GBA SP and the Micro. Although in the Micro you still needed to purchase an accessory cable to plug it in. Once plugged in, your handheld console practically becomes your controller, information related to the game depending on the titles being played are displayed on your console and you can save games onto the Game Cube from your handhelds. 

While their competitors focused more on the online gaming capabilities, Nintendo pushed their connectivity with their portable handheld consoles. Although they released network adapters for the Game Cube, they did not as much promoted it as their competitors, due in part of the limited titles that really needed the function.

Overall, the Game Cube is a mighty machine; its only drawback is that it does not have DVD movie playback capability. Which we all know what made the Playstation and all its kin skyrocket to where it is.

Game Cube Specifications

• MPU ("Microprocessor Unit")* : Custom IBM Power PC "Gekko"
• Manufacturing process : 0.18 micron IBM copper wire technology
• Clock frequency : 485 MHz
• CPU capacity : 1125 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
• Internal data precision : 32-bit Integer & 64-bit floating-point
• External bus : 1.3GB/second peak bandwidth (32-bit address space, 64-bit data bus 162 MHz clock)
• Internal cache L1: instruction 32KB, data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)
• System LSI : Custom ATI/Nintendo "Flipper"
• Embedded frame buffer : Approx. 2MB sustainable latency : 6.2ns (1T-SRAM)
• Embedded texture cache : Approx. 1MB sustainable latency : 6.2ns (1T-SRAM)
• Texture read bandwidth : 10.4GB/second (Peak)
• Main memory bandwidth : 2.6GB/second (Peak)
• Pixel depth : 24-bit color, 24-bit Z buffer
• Image processing functions : Fog, subpixel anti-aliasing, 8 hardware lights, alpha blending, virtual texture design, multi-texturing, bump mapping, environment mapping, MIP mapping, bilinear filtering, trilinear filtering, anisotropic filtering, real-time hardware texture decompression (S3TC), real-time decompression of display list, HW 3-line deflickering filter.
• Sound Processor : custom Macronix 16-bit DSP
• Instruction Memory : 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
• Data Memory : 8KB RAM + 4KB ROM
• Clock Frequency : 81 MHz
• Performance : 64 simultaneous channels, ADPCM encoding
• Sampling Frequency : 48KHz
• System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability : 10.5 GFLOPS (Peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, HW Lighting Total)
• Real-world polygon : 6 million to 12 million polygons/second (Peak) (Assuming actual game conditions with complex models, fully textured, fully lit, etc.)
• System Memory : 40MB
• Main Memory : 24 MB MoSys 1T-SRAM, Approximately 10ns Sustainable Latency
• A-Memory : 16MB (81MHz DRAM)
• Disc Drive : CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System
• Average Access Time : 128ms
• Data Transfer Speed : 16Mbps to 25Mbps
• Media : 3 inch NINTENDO GAMECUBE Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology, Approx. 1.5GB Capacity
• Input/Output : Controller Port x4, Memory Card Slot x2, Analog AV Output x1, High-Speed Serial Port x1, High-speed Parallel Port x1
• In select models - Digital AV Output x1 ( click here for more information), High-Speed Serial Port x2
• Power Supply : AC Adapter DC12V x 3.25A
• Main Unit Dimensions : 4.3"(H) x 5.9"(W) x 6.3"(D)