So who else is praying for a portable gamecube?

[GwymWeepa]

Alright in an interview with Miyamoto he's quoted as saying:

"Yeah. However, the next step for portables is certainly a high-powered GBA. This isn't the successor. We feel that the DS can do things that the Cube and the GBA can't."

Considering the psp, its price-point and powerlevel...I think the next gameboy has to be gamecube level to compete, and from what I've read in places the gamecube has a lower power draw than the original psx...with modern fabrication techniques, wouldn't it be possible to perhaps have a single chip gamecube that could fit in a handheld without elaborate cooling and have decent power draw enough to last a few hours on more modern batteries?

Btw the interview can be found here: http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=8045

Edit: Btw I mean having the innards pretty much identical to gamecube, but not have it actually be the console in handheld form, fully backwards compatible. It wouldn't be a gameboy if it could play gamecube games, Nintendo has a destiny decreed by god to rehash games, having a different software medium will guarantee millions of sales for Mario Sunshine, Zelda WW and Metroid Prime ports (and whatever else).

 

[digitalwanderer]

Pffft! I already got one, a car power adapter and our Gamecube hooks right up to the VHS player built into me mini-van. (And it sounds REALLY good too on the surround sound system in there, but it's weird driving with it loud. :? )

 

[Fox5]

Come on nintendo, shrink gamecube to 90nm!

 

[PC-Engine]

I think the successor to GBA will be as about as powerful as GCN, but it won't just be using a die shrunk GCN chipset. There are things in the GCN chipset that just doesn't need to be carried over to a portable because it'll just take up die space. The chipset in GCP will have about 16-32 MB of eDRAM and will probably be a single chip using 90nm fab tech.

 

[McFly]

Nintendo: "You want a portable gamecube?"
Fanboy: "Yes!"
Nintendo: "Here it is, enjoy."

Fanboy plays for one hour ... then the PGCs battery is empty.

Fanboy: "What? Only one hour battery life? What a joke!"
Nintendo: "But you asked for one and that's what you got."

---

Have in mind, a portable gamecube would play gamecube games, so many games would constantly access the disc and we all know that that's bad for the battery, not to mention the GC game resolution color LCD that is big enough for you to read the texts made for a TV sized screen.

Of course a handheld based on the gamecube, but without being able to play GC games would be a different story.

Fredi

 

[GwymWeepa]

Of course a handheld based on the gamecube, but without being able to play GC games would be a different story.

Fredi

That's what I meant, shoot I even figure they'll stick with carts, as stupid as that would be lol.

 

[Fox5]

Of course a handheld based on the gamecube, but without being able to play GC games would be a different story.

Fredi

That's what I meant, shoot I even figure they'll stick with carts, as stupid as that would be lol.

Why stupid? At this point in time the gamecube's disk drive would probably use more power than the rest of the system.
But is there really any point in a portable gamecube if it can't play gamecube games? Surely it would be easier/cheaper/better just to come up with some similar hardware.

 

[PC-Engine]

I think the GBA successor should use Dataplay discs.

 

[Fox5]

I think the GBA successor should use Dataplay discs.

Ok, so then the disks are as small as carts, but max out at 250MB, or 500MB if double sided. I think by the time the next gameboy comes out carts/flash drives/whatever will be well beyond 250MB.

 

[GwymWeepa]

Of course a handheld based on the gamecube, but without being able to play GC games would be a different story.

Fredi

That's what I meant, shoot I even figure they'll stick with carts, as stupid as that would be lol.

Why stupid? At this point in time the gamecube's disk drive would probably use more power than the rest of the system.
But is there really any point in a portable gamecube if it can't play gamecube games? Surely it would be easier/cheaper/better just to come up with some similar hardware.

Well stupid for the same reason why sticking with carts when the era of optical disks had arrived during the 32/64 bit wars...unless they can have some marvelous technology that allows at least a GB of space for relatively cheap cost, the PSP will get the lion's share of support. As for sticking with the gamecube architecture, it would be very well known, to have another architecture just as powerful would probably mean a learning curve for developers and it may be too much of an investment when PSP has become the industry standard. May as well stick with something people know. Now, that's just from my perspective, what would I know.

 

[GwymWeepa]

I think the GBA successor should use Dataplay discs.

Explain or link please, I'm curious!

 

[PC-Engine]

I think the GBA successor should use Dataplay discs.

Ok, so then the disks are as small as carts, but max out at 250MB, or 500MB if double sided. I think by the time the next gameboy comes out carts/flash drives/whatever will be well beyond 250MB.

Well the Dataplay discs produced in volume are at 500MB right now and sell for a mere $5

In one or two years it'll be up to 1 GB for around the same cost. However if 1GB Matrix ROMs are cheap enough by then, then Nintendo should go with whichever format is cheap.

Explain or link please, I'm curious!

http://www.dataplay.com/

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118108,00.asp

 

[GwymWeepa]

I think the GBA successor should use Dataplay discs.

Ok, so then the disks are as small as carts, but max out at 250MB, or 500MB if double sided. I think by the time the next gameboy comes out carts/flash drives/whatever will be well beyond 250MB.

Well the Dataplay discs produced in volume are at 500MB right now and sell for a mere $5

In one or two years it'll be up to 1 GB for around the same cost. However if 1GB Matrix ROMs are cheap enough by then, then Nintendo should go with whichever format is cheap.

Explain or link please, I'm curious!

http://www.dataplay.com/

Very interesting...thanks for the link, I was too lazy to search, my apologies.

 

[PC-Engine]

No problem. Here are a few interesting quotes:

A disc capable of holding 750MB of data is already available in sample quantities to device makers and a commercial launch is anticipated around the end of this year or in early 2005, says Bill Almon, president and CEO of DPHI.

Looking ahead, DPHI is also working on a 2GB version that is expected to be available in late 2005 or early 2006, says Davies. Further ahead still, the company is considering a blue-laser-based version that will be able to hold 7GB of data.

As you can see the tech is very promising. Also Ritek is one of the top optical disc manufactureres who are making them. If Nintendo thinks 750MB per disc is not sufficient then they can always use two or wait for the 2GB version. BTW the 500MB discs are currently produced in volume.

 

[GwymWeepa]

No problem. Here are a few interesting quotes:

A disc capable of holding 750MB of data is already available in sample quantities to device makers and a commercial launch is anticipated around the end of this year or in early 2005, says Bill Almon, president and CEO of DPHI.

Looking ahead, DPHI is also working on a 2GB version that is expected to be available in late 2005 or early 2006, says Davies. Further ahead still, the company is considering a blue-laser-based version that will be able to hold 7GB of data.

As you can see the tech is very promising. Also Ritek is one of the top optical disc manufactureres who are making them. If Nintendo thinks 750MB per disc is not sufficient then they can always use two or wait for the 2GB version. BTW the 500MB discs are currently produced in volume.

Btw, how's the transfer rate on these things, and how do they compare to cart media used in the gba and DS, and the UMD found in psp?

 

[PC-Engine]

Sustained Transfer Rate: 0.79 MB/s

Burst Transfer Rate: up to 10 MB/second

 

[wazoo]

If you ask for GC level handheld, the GBA2 will most likely be there to answer your prayers.

If you ask for a handheld where you can put your GC games. Stop dreaming. This is Nintendo. They want you to rebuy all their GC software next time on the GBA2.

 

[jvd]

If you ask for GC level handheld, the GBA2 will most likely be there to answer your prayers.

If you ask for a handheld where you can put your GC games. Stop dreaming. This is Nintendo. They want you to rebuy all their GC software next time on the GBA2.

No diffrent than sony and its psp that is any company though . Music biz with 8 tracks to tapes to cds . Or the movie industry with vhs - dvd to blueray/hd-dvd


Anyway they could make a portable gc right now if they wanted to , but i'm sure they will wait till they can get acceptable battery life and costs

 

[Blade]

Yeah, it's all about battery life and cost.

Nintendo wants to sell their hardware cheaply, make a profit, and give you at least 5-7 hours of play-time per charge. Until they can produce a GCN-level handheld with a 5+ hour charge lithium battery for $~125 (MSRP: $150~) it's not going to happen.

 

[Clashman]

Could you do something like have a 64 mb buffer built in, that would prefetch data from a GC disc so that the disc wouldn't have to spin for large amounts of time? That way the system would be reading the game off of a flash buffer, and not the GC disc itself. I really don't know much about the inner workings of the GC, and so was just wondering if something like that would be possible.