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Editorials 
GameCube Opinions: The Format
- By Rob
Schlicht
Well, it’s been a few weeks since Dolphin was finally put in his big, cubic aquarium. Along with the GameCube’s debut came his diminutive little brother, Game Boy Advance. From 2 AM to 5 AM Thursday morning, every Nintendo site on the Internet was singing the praises of Nintendo. Then, a few days later, sites began posting members various thoughts now that the systems were unveiled. Surprisingly, many sites contradicted what they had previously said, and began unleashing waves of criticism on the machines. I’m not here to try and gain attention by rattling off concerns I have over the NCube and GBA. I’m here to tell you what I honestly think about them, which is overwhelmingly positive with only a few minor doubts. GameCube-The Format
Already, many people have been crying over the Mini-DVD’s that Nintendo’s opted to go with. Nintendo decided on going with this format, and it’s a good idea. Because of their small size, the GameCube is smaller in size itself, and regular-sized DVD’s and CD’s won’t fit in the system. While that is disappointing, it’s actually very smart business sense. Nintendo’s doing this to protect themselves. If this wasn’t done, people could take a copy of Metroid, pop it in their computer, and use a DVD-RAM drive to burn a copy. Then, all it takes is one computer nerd with spare time to make a mod chip, and suddenly, Nintendo is in real danger from pirated games for the first time in history. Although I wasn’t really angry when Nintendo announced that it’s console would not support DVD Movie Playback, I was more disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to pop an audio CD in and listen to some music, or even an MP3 CD. After all, DVD Playback would add a minimum of $50 to the cost of the system, just in royalties, while Audio CD support would cost nothing extra. It’s not a real big deal. I have a CD player, so this isn’t going to make or break my music collection, and I’m guessing most of you do too, probably in the computer you’re reading this on.
It’s a little disappointing that Nintendo has traded a very expensive means of piracy (look at the prices on DVD-RAM) for a machine that would be much more convenient to consumers, but I understand their concerns. Nintendo games are the best in the industry, and I would want to receive every penny for them possible, after the work put in. So you can see why they’re so concerned, especially after how quickly PSX CD’s where “archived”, and now even the Dreamcast GD-ROM’s format has been uncovered by pirates. Nintendo’s taking no chances with normal DVD’s now that DVD-RAM is being made available to all consumers.
The chief complaints being made right now are that the mini-discs will cost too much for developers, much like the cartridges for the N64, and that their capacity will be far too small. I don’t know how difficult this is to understand, but many people just don’t think about it right away. PSX CD’s and PS2 DVD’s are proprietary, as well. The DVD you pull out of Final Fantasy X isn’t the same as the one you’ll get when you buy a copy of The Matrix. They’re the same size, but they have different encoding and encryption, so you can’t put Final Fantasy X in your Panasonic DVD Player. And you didn’t think that PSX CD’s were black underneath instead of reflective just because it looked “cool”, did you? These mini-DVD’s are the same way, they just don’t have as much in the way of capacity.
Which brings me to another point. The capacity these guys are going to have is about 1.53GB per disc. Sony’s have 4.7GB, and while that may seem like a lot, (and it is), no game has been developed yet that needed even half of that storage. Even the high-end PC games don’t need more than 1GB. Sega’s own GD-ROMs have just over 1GB of room on them, and look at the games that have been created so far. Many of them are incredible, yet very few require a second disc. And whether or not you knew it, Japan’s entire PS2 launch lineup were on normal 650MB CD’s, not 4.7GB DVD’s. The mini-discs are going to be very cheap, and if they need to use two to fit the whole game in, they will.
Besides, won’t it be cool to actually be holding one of those tiny discs you always see in the movies?
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| "Whether or not you knew it, Japan’s entire PS2 launch lineup were on normal 650MB CD’s, not 4.7GB DVD’s." |
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