It's time to get out the feather duster. I apologize for the Q&A's extended absence. While it may be short, keep in mind things such as questions lack when beginning anew. With your help, the next one can be longer. So send in your questions.

A New Storage Device for GCN

Will there be a hard drive for GCN? I was reading a website that said that Iomega is currently developing a hard drive for GameCube. But then I e-mailed Nintendo and they said it was not offical. Do you guys know anything about a hard drive? -Anonymous

Glen: Iomega is a developer and manufacturer of portable storage devices, including drives and disks. FYI, Iomega worked with Nintendo on a hard drive for the Nintendo 64, known as the 64DD. Its media was based on Zip drive technology. The 64DD was considered by some, a failure in Japan. It was released in December 1999 and was discontinued but a year later in December 2000. The 64DD was ridiculously priced, lacked a reasonable library of games, and simply came too late (it was originally unveiled in 1995). After the dismal Japanese sales of 64DD and its online service, called RandnetDD, the peripheral understandably never saw a release in the United States.

Nothing however has been mentioned about a hard drive or furthermore, Iomega's involvement in one for the Nintendo GameCube. If we hear anything, we'll be sure to post a news story about it. Don't count on it, however. Add-ons are rarely successful and releasing one at this point in GameCube's life would probably accomplish little in terms of sales. If Nintendo planned on incorporating one, it should have done so from the beginning.

GameCube RPGs

How come GameCube doesn't have any RPGs? -Steve

Glen: Skies of Arcadia Legends releases at the end of this month. If you're looking for a good RPG, this would be my suggestion. While I've yet to play the GameCube version, the Dreamcast version ranks up there with my favorite games of all time. If this game had any mentionable flaws on Dreamcast, they may very well be nonexistent on GameCube. OverWorks, the developer of Skies of Arcadia has said it has improved the GameCube version by lessening the frequency of overworld battles, improving the graphics, as well as adding a variety of extra quests. In my opinion, you won't find a better RPG on the GameCube.

Other than SoA, current available RPGs include Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II, Dungeons & Dragons Heroes, Lost Kingdoms I and II, and Evolution Worlds. While I can't vouch for the quality of these games, you still might gain some enjoyment from them. Excluding Phantasy Star Online, you may consider giving them a rent.

Then the remainder of 2003 has the possibility of seeing the releases of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Gladius. And for your not-so-standard RPG there's Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Giftpia.

Furthermore, Namco has said it intends to develop a game from its "Tales" franchise. There is an additional RPG in development by Namco studio MonolithSoft. This is the group responsible for PlayStation's Xenogears and PS2's Xenosaga.

While only speculated, there's also the potential, though highly unlikely, for Nintendo to release a Pokmon game.

I hope that helps. And if none of these RPGs interest you, I suppose there's always PlayStation 2.

Send your questions for next week's Q&A!