Problems with the GameCube

[NateTheGreat]

ok. hehe that's a little better explained. I originaly thought u just wanted the smaller case (for ds and psp) but thx for clarifying that.

Thanks for catching my confusing words; I hate when I don't make sense.

And I agree that for some reason there were a lot of GC games that lacked voice-overs.

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of PS2 games that have this problem, but it did seem to be common in GC games. I also strongly dislike when characters talk some gibberish, unless it's like an alien language, like in Halo.

I think if the next gen consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) want to really be next gen, they need to put voice-overs in 99% of games. Or maybe some kind of speech recognition system that will read the words, although I don't want it to sound like a robot, which a lot of text-reading systems do.

 

[Dark Void]

lol. too true. and i really think that it makes the game more enjoyable, especially when its an RPG lol.

 

[Ezekiel86]

What!? Are you joking, the PS2 had Xbox had many more problems.

The PS2 did and still does have a laser problem which over time, kills your PS2; a friend of mine went through three PS2s in one year!

The Xbox, as all of us know, had a bad first batch and it's other batchs weren't always good either; I had to get a new one because mine simply wouldn't boot games and it was like two years after the Xbox had launched.

As far as I know, the Gamecube had no major recalls or problems at all.

I wasn't specifically pointing to defects of the GameCube, mainly things it didn't do which it should have. Having said that, in terms of defects it was probably the sturdiest, most reliable console of the current gen. I have heard of a few problems with the PS2 and Xbox, but never any with the GameCube. Nintendo seem to have a thing for manufacturing sturdy consoles, hell look at the N64, those things (and its cartridges) could survive an atomic bomb. My mates N64 has been through just about everything a console cud go thru (including, but not limited to: dropped off a table, had heavy stuff fall on it, dropped onto hard surfaces, had its cables chewed apart) yet the thing can still fire up on first time, never seen any other console do that

Now, as for these things being called problems, some of them aren't.
The console was not backwards-compatible
Yeah, I definitly agree with you here; thank goodness Wii will be backwards compatible.

In my opinion its one of Nintendo's worst problems. Another poster (forgive me for not mentioning your name, but you know who you are) mentioned that if the N64 used discs the GameCube could have been backwards compatible, I totally agree, but it would have been nice if they released like an attachment for your gamecube to sit on (turn any nintendo console upside down and you'll see a multitude of unused ports) and ur cartriges could plug into the side or something, or even make the thing compatible with ROM images burnt onto discs or something... naturally those against piracy might have something to say about this... although its not technically piracy if you can't buy the things anymore is it?

Lack of built-in networking
While the Gamecube didn't have a built-in modem, neither did the PS2. Haha, the PS2 even today still needs a multi-tap just to have 4-player split screen. Also, while I too get annoyed by playing split-screen, I'm not rich. Thus, I don't have the money to buy another TV and it's very difficult to find a friend with a small 13" TV these days.

The PS2 might not have have had a modem but the fact it could connect with another PS2 through CAT5 or Crossover cable was enough (Afterall, we're not specifically talking about modems here are we? Just networking hardware in general ). At the time console-to-console networking was a pretty impressive feat, and by not having a modem and connecting directly to another console meant that you dont have high ping times to worry about (colloquially referred to as 'lag' in online multiplayer gaming). I would have been more than happy if Nintendo included hardware like this. As far as having another TV goes, you can buy small foldout LCD screens for the PS2 (and I think Xbox might have one too). I dont believe they were too expensive either (if you could afford your own PS2 with a few games, you should be able to afford one of those). From what I've seen it makes your PS2 look like a laptop, so you can drag it along, link it up with another PS2 and do some networking. If only it was that easy with the GameCube

Absence of a DVD player
I agree with you here. It would have been nice if Gamecube had had a DVD player, especially because it would have been such a small DVD player for it's time.

It would have made the console alot more attractive to causal gamers and people needing DVD players (like me back in the day)

Specially designed optical media
I don't see a problem with this. Are you upset that the DS and PSP don't have DVD discs? I'm not. I liked how small they were because the carrying case I bought for them was around their size, but it didn't have any advantage either.

You sort of sound like you're in support of illigally copying games, which isn't a bad thing persay; I have a modded Xbox with Half-life 2 on the hard drive because I don't want to not be able to play that game if it gets scratched. However, the fact that it was easier to do this on the Xbox and PS2 isn't that appealing to many people because it's still pretty difficult to mod a system without somehow screwing it up. Hopefully someday, the console makers (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft) will allow us gamers to save games to the hard drive of their consoles, which is already possible and completly legal on the PC.

My point was in part about how the types of disc the GameCube used could have driven its retail price up, since the discs require special hardware to manufacture and cant be mass produced with the rest of the DVD optical media. This could have potentially been offset though by the fact the GameCube SDKs (software development kits) costed about $2,000-3,000 for a company, while PS2 SDKs costed somewhere around $40,000 - 50,000, which could have balanced the price. Which also makes you wonder if they used normal DVD discs, would GameCube games be cheaper still?

I neither support nor oppose illegally copying games. Even if I was copying games I would still buy some if they were reasonably priced (I refuse paying $100 just for a game unless its friggin good and by friggin good I mean of Half-Life status). I've heard some talk here and there about it being legal to make backup copies of your games, and I'm all for that. Modding a console might not be easy but its still possible, and the modders seem to have a pretty high success rate, so its still relatively do-able. Plus, theres nothing like the feeling of owning a real copy of a game, so if the game was really worth it I'd buy it anyway. If I dont buy it, its probably because it wasn't worth spending $50/70/100 on it.

As far as the MiniDiscs go, I largly agree with your later post "i just want to play the game". however, if I were to extend it I would say "I just want to play the game but not at the expense of content". I know the GameCube games werent lacking anything, but those storage restrictions might be what caused us GameCube gamers to miss out on games like Star Ocean: Endless Story (on PS2 which used 2 Double-Layered discs i am pretty sure).

I agree with your point about saving games to the onboard storage device. It would really help preserve our discs by reducing the risk or accidents/damage.

it's been nice debating this out

 

[Diomedes]

dont forget about the resident evil 4 incident

 

[WiiGamer24]

1. The console was not backwards-compatible. This is something that really irritates me about every nintendo home console- the fact it can only play games of its generation. I heard the 64 was supposed to play SNES games and I was quite cut when i found out otherwise... That was definitely a good point of the PS2, that you could play all your old fav PS1 games on it, and the Xbox360: all the Xbox games still work on it.

This was a bit of a problem but it would of been hard for the GC to be backwards compatible considering the N64 used cartridges. However a GB style add-on for N64 games would of been nice. With the virtual console and GC compatibilty the Wii won't have the same problem.

2. A Lack of built-in networking hardware. Although not a major design flaw as some other aspects were, it still made some kinds of gaming awkward. For instance, the only way you could play a multi-console game would be to go out and buy a modem (and for me the only option is to order a modem from Nintendo Australia, and anyone I want to play with has to do the same- too much hassle). I don't know about other people but doesn't split-screen gaming just get plain irritating after a while, especially with 4 players? Additionally games with higher levels of detail had to use lower-resolution textures in these modes and even had to drop some things completely from some games in multiplayer mode. For instance, a multiplayer Resident Evil 4 would be impossible on one console- generating that level of detail for 2 screens would cause some serious drops in framerate for the console. Besides, how satisfying would it be hunting down Garradors, Novistadoors and plain ol' Ganados with a teammate?

Meh, the PS2 only had a few more online capabilitys than the GC. The only this gen console good for online gaming was the X-Box. The Gamecube had a lot of good multiplayer games, so yeah, it should of been online. Anyway the DS has rectified this and the Wii will have good online capabilitys.

3. Absence of a DVD player. Its probably been covered before, but by not including a DVD player, Nintendo had effectively aleinated anyone considering buying the console as a cheaper solution to wanting a DVD player (lets not forget back in 2001/2002 DVD players weren't cheap). I am aware that including a DVD player would deviate from the idea of the console being "purely for gaming" but I dont believe it was a very intelligent move. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, without having a DVD player meant less justification for buying a console.

This was a problem, Nintendo should of made a GB player style add on for DVDs. It didn't really affect me though, I'm happy playing DVDs on my Laptop or DVD player.

4. Specially designed optical media. The DVD MiniDisc idea seemed cool at first, but I really don't see what they accomplished by choosing this format as a medium. I think I read somewhere that it was supposed to be a format very hard to duplicate as opposed to the PS2/Xbox standard DVD discs, which is sensible because that way the manufacturers won't be short changed by cheapskates. However, let's not forget that these discs would require specially made machinery to create them in the first place: they would then work out to be more expensive than normal DVDs since they cannot be mass produced with the rest of the DVD optical media.

Getting back to the cheapskate point; some people probably found that an appealing aspect of the PS2/Xbox - the fact you dont really need to buy any games at all- just copy them, which may have made the console look more attractive since all they had to do is get it then copy off friends/video shops. Naturally not everybody did this, since it also required a MOD chip, and I know lots of people who still prefer to buy their games rather than copy them, still it would look nice to have that option open from a consumer perspective.

Lastly, although the DVD MiniDiscs hold 1.5 Gigabytes it sadly just doesnt seem to be enough. The Xbox/PS2 discs could hold a grand total of 4.7 (single layer) or 8.9 (double-layer) Gigabytes. This would have pleased the developers of the time, since they could throw all the levels, pre-rendered movies and music on, not to mention those delicious little extras like "behind the scenes" or "making of" or "interview with the developers" videos without having to worry about storage restrictions. One upside of the GameCubes discs though is the very fast loading times. I have not seen a PS2 or Xbox game load nearly as quickly as a GameCube game.

I don't see this as a problem at all. 8cm discs prevent piracy, are quicker and easier to carry around. Also 8cm make the GC smaller. Storage capabiltys didn't appear to be much of a problem as a lot of a GC games were longer than a lot of X-Box and PS2 games, how long a game is normally depends on the developer, Nintendo could of made WW a lot longer but they didn't.

 

[rodent]

i think it was a lack of games. sure they had some good ones, but it really did not have some defining games, like halo 4 the xbox, and gta3 for the ps2

 

[rodent]

the wii wont have 2 worry about that because of loz twilight princess

 

[Ezekiel86]

dont forget about the resident evil 4 incident

Resident Evil 4 incident? what happened?

 

[WiiGamer24]

i think it was a lack of games. sure they had some good ones, but it really did not have some defining games, like halo 4 the xbox, and gta3 for the ps2

What do you mean it didn't have defining games? Resident Evil 4, Zelda: Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash, Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Twilight Princess (will be), Super Smash Bros Melee, Pikmin 2, F-Zero GX, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, Paper Mario, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Four Swords Adventures... OK I got a bit carried away there. A lot of those titles weren't definining games, but a lot of them were (Smash Bros, the Zelda games, and the Metroid games were certainly defining). The Gamecube had the best exclusive games, the only thing it lacked in the game department was third party titles.

 

[NateTheGreat]

The Gamecube had the best exclusive games, the only thing it lacked in the game department was third party titles.

That and multiplayer. While Metroid 2 had multiplayer, I heard it wasn't well developed and I know it wasn't even online!

Now, Halo is a defining game for Xbox because of story, gameplay, graphics and online play.

GTA for PS2 is defining just because it is soooooooooooo masive and gives you sooooooooooooooo much freedom.

So, while GTA didn't have the multiplayer (although it actually did have two player but not a lot of people played it), Metroid would have had such a huge following if it had had good online play, in my opinion.

 

[Diomedes]

The resident evil 4 incident was when the developers had crammed in sooo much data on the 2 cd's that they could not include more special things.
This i mean the ada missions, new guns and new costumes. This instaed was put into the PS2 version.
But dont you worry, they downgraded the gameplay, loading times and graphics on the PS2 version. So the GC version is WAAAY better.
(it would have been better if the special things were included )

 

[WiiGamer24]

That and multiplayer. While Metroid 2 had multiplayer, I heard it wasn't well developed and I know it wasn't even online!

The Gamecube had lots of good multiplayer games. Donkey Konga, F- Zero GX, Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Mario Golf, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Power Tennis, Metroid Prime 2 (wasn't great but it had it), Super Smash Bros Melee, 1080 Avalanche, Kirby Air Ride thats just to name a few exclusive multiplayer games. The only thing that let the multiplayer games down is the lack of online. Oh and Metroid Prime 2 wasn't fantastic in the multiplayer experience but it was one of the best games ever in the single player department. Which made it a defining game.

P.S: I thought it was worth noting that 1080: Avalanche, Kirby Air Ride, Mario Kart Double Dash, Phantasy Star online, and Mario Kart Double Dash could all go online. There may have been a few more which could too.

 

[Ezekiel86]

The resident evil 4 incident was when the developers had crammed in sooo much data on the 2 cd's that they could not include more special things.
This i mean the ada missions, new guns and new costumes. This instaed was put into the PS2 version.
But dont you worry, they downgraded the gameplay, loading times and graphics on the PS2 version. So the GC version is WAAAY better.
(it would have been better if the special things were included )

ohhh right right i getcha now. I was really cut when i found out the PS2 version was getting all the cool extras. I guess they still had downsampled graphics to contend with but hey, graphics aren't everything now are they? or maybe for a game like this they actually matter somewhat. Either way, this wouldn't have been a problem if the GameCube just used normal sized discs

 

[Diomedes]

ya right graphics aint everything. I just tried to make GC's version seem better

 

[Jamma]

Yeah I agree the GC did miss out on the big online console gaming boom and while Microsoft allready through the PC had experience in that so their online play was the best of the three. Sony got experience from their first foray into it so the only company that will have no experience in this will be nintendo and it will be hard for them to get it right first time. The lack of DVD capabilities stopped some people I know of from buying it so they were wrong in not putting that in but the GC was still a good console I enjoyes it XD