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GameCube Launches in North America


CaptainRAVE

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It's finally here and happening. 700,000 units have just become available at retailers today! Nintendo's latest and greatest console has arrived and it's nothing short of breathtaking. Hail to the small purple cube of justice, people - GameCube is here to rock your digital world!

 

The GameCube represents quite a change of pace for Nintendo. It's the first machine ever from the company to not use their trademark cartridge format (although this was inevitable due to the sheer size of modern game) but don't let that disturb you.

 

GameCube uses some pretty fresh technology and has a few powerhouse components under the hood that'll easily keep PlayStation 2 and Xbox on their toes for quite a while. First up is the main MPU (Microprocessor Unit) called the "Gecko" which is based on IBM Power PC technology. The Gecko runs at 405MHz, which may not seem fast compared to the Xbox's PIII-733MHz chip, but because the Gecko is a custom, game-centric chip, it can do some pretty special stuff.

 

Also, Nintendo and Matsu****a put their heads together to create the proprietary 8cm GameCube Optical disc, which has a 1.5GB capacity and is based on DVD technology. ATI were in charge of the graphics processor which can easily handle anything you'd expect to find in a high-end PC graphics card: Multi-texture Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC) to name a few.

 

Sony's PlayStation 2 is over 18 months old and Microsoft's Xbox is a newbie when it comes to delivering reputable, fun games in the video gaming market. Nintendo's GameCube is here to stay and with a killer cast of characters, games and titles on the way, the launch of the machine here in the US marks the dawn of a new wave of Nintendo goodness. Let the gaming commence!

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I was a bit skeptical about the games coming out for the GameCube, but after playing Luigi's Mansion for 7 hours, I've changed my mind. You can call it a kids game, but only under-evolved, unimaginative people would classify it as that. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Resident Evil games come to the Cube...shooting zombies point blank...oh yeah, that's kiddies stuff.

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People pooh-pooh Luigi's Mansion, but they obviously haven't played it. As for it being a kiddies game, a friend of mine would say, "I like to look at it like it's suitable for all ages..." Anyway, I'm not a kid and it has been an excellent game that, even if all of the amazing graphics were removed, could still stand on two legs with it's simple but very clever and challenging gameplay.

 

As always, Nintendo makes excellent games. People can talk smack about 'em, but you can't argue with the hard numbers ( sales of previous games ).

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GameCube May Be Gone By Weekend..... :(

 

Nintendo has said that they believe the original 700,000 GameCubes they shipped to the U.S. for the launch of their new game console will be completely sold out by this weekend.

 

They have promised to increase the production of GameCubes for the U.S. to meet the high demand, and expect to have shipped 1.3 million units by the end of the year.

 

The consoles only went on sale this past Sunday, and made $100 million in their first day on the shelves.

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