N-Sider Q&A
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October 24th, 2000
Hi!
First, thanks for posting the article!
second, the n-sider analysis was saying that according to the Miyamoto interview there could be 6-7 internally produced games at launch. But I think, in reference to the structure of his sentence, that he was saying there could be 6-7 games at launch, but was implying the extra 2 games would be 2nd party, not internal.
just a thought -Adrian
Pete: It's possible that's what Miyamoto meant. The term '2nd party' is a bit broader now, because you have HAL, Mobile 21, NDCube, etc. that probably have to answer to Miyamoto at some point as well. However, if what Miyamoto-san says about the NGC ease of development (easier than the Famicom/NES) is true, then yes, we can see 6-7 games early on, but honestly, Nintendo would probably spread out those games even if they were finished by next June.
Hello,
Just curious, but what is wrong with Nintendo simply using more than 1 disc for their games? Square made games using 4 discs with the PSX and no one complained. Think of it as a plus: a tiny disc that you can carry in your pocket, and, if needs be, carry 2 or 3. Personally, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Great article though.
-Alex
Pete: Thanks for the comments on my Size Matters article. Personally I don't think it's a big issue. Developers might have a bit of a problem using multi-disc games. I just thought one of the knocks on the smaller NGC disc was the fact that 'CG' intensive games (read: RPGs) would require multiple discs, when developers could just use a different type of video compression-- I used MPEG-4 as an example-- and achieve the same effect, with similar quality on one mini-DVD.
Hello,
I have a question about the upcoming Gamecube:
What is the releasedate of the console for Europe and what is it going to cost?
I know you have answered this question a million times but please,once more...
Pete: Being realistic, hopefully Nintendo will be able to get NGC out in Europe before Christmas 2001. I think the big N is starting to acknowledge the importance of the Euro-markets, and if they do delay into 2002, they might have problems against XBox, let alone PS2. I suspect NGC will be about $200 US at most, so that comes to about 138.38 pounds in the UK.
G'day to all the guys and gals at N-Sider, The NGC looks and sounds great, i'm impressed with the bold appearance of the console and i'm beginning to like the unique controller each time I look at it. So on the hardware side of things, I reckon that Nintendo have out-done themselves and they're more than upto the challenge against the so called "Power of the PS2."
However, on the software side of things, 1st and 2nd party games are bound to be big sellers but what about the 3rd-party developers? I've read countless developer interviews all over the net and when the question, "Have you got NGC devkits yet?", the answer is always, "No, we're still waiting, all we have are emulators."
Capcom and the other big developers may have them but what about the rest? Microsoft are sending out Xbox devkits by the hundreds already and that means developers can start on Xbox games earlier, whereas they're still waiting for the NGC kits. But, on a better note, in a recent article from the MSNBC website, it's been said that Squaresoft have actually quietly knocked on Nintendo's door and have asked for ONE devkit, which i'm sure they've received!! Can you please tell me if this is true!!?(source: TendoBox)
Thanx guys/gals, you rock!!
Van.M. Down Under
Pete: I think it's safe to assume that since Space World, Nintendo has gone out and spoken with 3rd party developers (I'm not just speculating here, either). There will be that Gamecube Developers Conference next month in Seattle for US developers, so I think that the likes of Konami, Capcom, etc. probably are just getting their kits now. As for Square, no one really has any idea what Square is thinking or what Nintendo would have to do to 'lure' them back. I would think if Miyamoto went to Square and demoed the NGC hardware to them personally (which he said he would do for major RPG makers), that it would go a long way in mending relations between the two former allies.
Hello guys. Your site is GREAT!! This is not a question.Its only a petition: please, when you put your FAQ CUBE SITE, explain everybody the polygon pushing power of Gamecube, and how this machine move more polys than psx2. What happen is that Nintendo gives REAL PERFORMANCE NUMBERS, and SONY gives TEORICAL, HIPOTETICAL NUMBERS (indeed, not real). Im tired because a lot of biased psx2 fans says psx2 moves 20 mill/polys with all fx (fsaa??) and GC moves 12 mill withs effects too. We cannot compare pears withs apples. The 12 mill from cube ARE REAL !!! because the machine has no bottlenecks, meanwhile, if you apply an IA ENGINE, A PHYSICS ENGINE, and everything you need to play a game... the psx2 wont see 20 mill polys in ALL its life, besides... where are the necesary ram to move them??
Please, Sony, be serious...
A spanish fan. Thank you !!!!
Pete: For starters, I believe Sony's poly counts (even the 20 mpps with effects) do not take into account game AI/physics. So the actual poly max for the PS2 might be lower, but it's such a complex piece of hardware that no one could probably say for sure at this point. We do know that the cut-scene poly models in Square's The Bouncer employ roughly double the amount of polygons as their in-game counterparts. Personally, I think in the end that the Gamecube will be able to surpass the PS2 comfortably in most areas-- polygon count included.
Is it just coincedence that the clock speed for the graphics chip (202.5mHz) is exactly 1/2 the speed of the main processor (405mHz)?
-Pezmaster
Pete: Well the Gamecube's sound DSP processor runs at 101.25 MHz, which is exactly half of what the Art-X graphics chip runs at. So that likely is no coincidence...
Dear ummmmm....mad goat of the website, I was wondering if the Cube would have the ability to use NURBS. I remember this was a big subject last year but died. Could you find out?
-TEX81
Pete: Well, I asked Nintendo about it, and they weren't too forthcoming. The Gamecube does have some serious horse power and should be able to render NURBs, but the spec sheet as it stands makes no mention of NURB rendering capabilities specifically hard-wired into the machine. For those of you who have no idea what NURBs are, take a look at the above shot of Godzilla. They're basically curved surfaces that artists use to create realistic and smooth CG visuals (as opposed to polygons).
i have the divx codec on both my internet computer (p2-266 64MB ram), and my editing computer (p3-500 512MB ram), the point is thta even though what iw atch is highly compressed usualy i have very little trouble with the codec.. my editing computer gets NO slowdown at all.. even on my own stuff which i encode at near perfect details rates, my net computer gets soem slowdown on these.. but still not much... considering it is a p2 266 (the early kind.. before the high L2 cache)....
my point is that most of the slowdonw comes from harddrives with a low sustained data rate (IDE) where as if i was running scsi (which has a very high sustained data rate) i would not be running nearly as slow...
I multi task when i watch mp4 movies too and check my processor ussage and it's not even up there...
my main point is this...
gamecube should be able to kick out some impressive Divx support
Pete: Thanks for the insight. I'm not sure if Nintendo is planning on having some kind of set video compression on the NGC or if developers will be able to go their own route. DiVX/MPEG-4 is one possibility.
Hey guys I gotta question and I need your honest opinion I have a freind lets call him ....... JAckass . And Jackass is a person who thinks he know every thing about video games so I wanna see if he's lying or not I will give you questions and please answer them
1. Which is better Playstation 2 or Gamecube?
2. Is Gamecube out for game designers?
3. Is GAmecube out in Japan?
4. Has Gamecube been played to its full potiential?
5. Will Gamecube have a rumble pack?
-Vcool
Pete:
1.) Depends on which games you want. Of course I'm leaning towards NGC.
2.) Yes, the Gamecube is stalking developers. Seriously though, Nintendo took great care to make the NGC easy to design for, and this will not be lost on the development community. It also appears Nintendo is getting more aggressive and finally approaching 3rd parties themselves.
3.) No, the Gamecube will not be out in Japan until July 2001.
4.) Well it's a new system-- even Nintendo's internal teams haven't had the final hardware for more than a few months, so they're obviously only scratching the surface right now.
5.) The Gamecube has rumble functions built-into its controller.
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