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I had to laugh when during the livestream they were going through each of the innovations of their past systems, and the only thing they could mention about the
by dcw303 10y ago
I had to laugh when during the livestream they were going through each of the innovations of their past systems, and the only thing they could mention about the Gamecube was that it had a handle :)
But overall I think they continue to show real innovation in gaming. They're the only company who puts so much effort into maximizing their software with the uniqueness of their hardware.
- derefr 10y agoIn HCI terms, the Gamecube didn't do much. But it was Nintendo's single largest leap in architecture and hardware power—it sticks out above their console "power curve" trend-line quite strikingly. The Wii was basically just a higher-clocked (~2x CPU and GPU) Gamecube—much more like the XBO S or the PS4 Pro are for this generation, than like the architectural reinventions Nintendo usually gets up to. The fact that it seemed like a whole new console with new capabilities for games, is more than anything a statement of how much untapped potential there still was in the Gamecube's architecture at the end of its life, that Wii developers went on to find.
- pvg 10y agoWouldn't the biggest leap in power be the N64?
- jzwinck 10y agoI would say it was the original Famicom or NES, which came hot on the heels of Nintendo's first hit electronic games, Game & Watch: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch The NES was a phenomenal breakthrough, a paradigm shift. Which is not to discredit Game & Watch, which brought Nintendo forward from an era of making playing cards. I had several clones as a kid.
- pvg 10y agoWell, yeah but that's handheld vs console, etc. Then we'd get into even sillier comparisons of nintendo card games vs mechanical games vs electronic games. In the console space, SNES->N64 seems like the bigger jump qualitative jump to me. You can do 3d, vs you can't.
- derefr 10y agoThe SNES lasted a while in the market, and—almost uniquely among consoles—it ramped up in power over its lifetime by putting coprocessors like the SuperFX into game carts. By the end of its lifetime, the "system" of the SNES + a cart like Starfox, was much closer to the N64 than the base SNES, making the N64 much less of a shift than it seemed. Interestingly, if you think of the PSX as descending from the SNES architecturally, it's nearly identical to the end-state of "SNES + SuperFX GSU-1", but with the one added feature of DMA-streamed block IO from the CD device. (Thus why the FF7 demo on the N64 used polygonal backgrounds, while on the PSX you get pre-rendered backgrounds. Each version plays to its console's strength. Makes you wonder what would have been possible in an alternate world where the N64 had a CD drive as well as its better polygon-pushing abilities.) This also means that the PSX->PS2 likely represents the largest single-generation leap in power of any console: it was a catch-up from "basically a SNES" to modern-for-the-time hardware, representing a literal 10x jump in CPU and GPU power.
- pvg 10y agoMaybe 'closer' but still 'ridiculously far'. You weren't going to coprocessor your way to a Mario 64.
- derefr 10y agoI wouldn't call that 'ridiculously far'—it's "only" a 3x difference ;) The SuperFX GSU-1 clocked at 21MHz; the N64's RCP is 62.5MHz. (There's also an order-of-magnitude CPU power differential, but Mario 64 didn't use the CPU for much anyway.) Now, given that the SuperFX's lifetime was short and its capabilities were likely never fully explored/exploited in that lifetime; and given that the SNES's on-cart coprocessors could completely override the console processor and just bang bits onto the video-output lines themselves (like the Super Gameboy does!); and given that the only thing stopping devs from sticking even more powerful chips into carts was cost (and even then, some producers just didn't care, and stuck ridiculous ARM7 cores into games like Megaman X3 for no useful reason at all...), I really do believe you would have seen something very much like Mario 64 for the SNES if it had lived just one more year. (Heck, I bet that we know enough about the hardware today that someone from the demoscene could pull off a Mario-64-alike on a cycle-accurate SNES (with SuperFX) emulator. That'd be a fun competition.)
- eltoozero 10y agoDolphin EMU really highlights how strong and under-appreciated so many of the GameCube gen games are: Viewtiful Joe, F-Zero X, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Sunshine, Pikmin, Wind Waker, and especially the Metroid Prime series are outgrageously good games. Hard to think of any real bombs in that entire library TBH.
- inDigiNeous 10y agoOh man, games like F-Zero GX, you just don't get this stuff on Sony or Microsoft consoles. Also Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros Melee! Stuff of legends. 4 player support on the same couch? Damn. Gamecube might have been the best console from Nintendo in my view.
- 72deluxe 10y agoYes F-Zero GX after coffee was fun. So so fast. I have sold my Gamecube but hold the Wind Waker in my heart as a game I could play and play. I simply loved sailing around in that little boat in a happy cartoon land. It's the one game my wife would happily watch me play for hours on end. Wario World was also very good but I never completed it - kept getting stuck on the magical mirror level
- vanderZwan 10y agoI used to live about ~20 minutes out of town by bike (Netherlands). My friends used to say that the biggest problem with coming by to play F-Zero is that the bike ride home always felt so ridiculously slow afterwards.
- qguv 10y agoDolphin is a very good emulator that can absolutely handle F-Zero. No need to hold the game in your heart, just play it on your PC!
- cannam 10y agoF-Zero GX I still play quite often (agonisingly badly, but at the moment I'm still a bit better at it than my kids are). I'd love to see another F-Zero. Also of course the two excellent Zelda games. What a fab console.
- Narishma 10y agoI agree with your point but the Xbox One S and PS4 Pro are nothing alike. The equivalent of the Xbox One S is the PS4 Slim. It's mainly just a shrunken Xbox One. The slight GPU frequency increase is nothing to write home about and certainly not in the same league as the PS4 Pro.
- flukus 10y agoFor the gamecube I'd say the controller, plus some unique sound features (a dynamic midi thing). This is still my favorite controller, each button was easy to hit from the home position and no one (looking at you konami) reversed the confirm/cancel button standards.
- minimaxir 10y agoThe GameCube was the first device to use a second-screen experience, with the GBA Link! (yeah, yeah)
- objclxt 10y agoThe Dreamcast had second screen gaming and that was released three years before the GameCube. There may well have been other devices doing it before then as well. But Nintendo weren't the first.
- pryelluw 10y agoYou mean the little LCD in the controller?
- thomasfortes 10y agoYeah, in the memory card more precisely, not so pretty, but the idea was there.
- pryelluw 10y agoYes, I had those little bricks as well. They were quirky but cool.
- 0xcde4c3db 10y agoAt least until the battery (surprisingly quickly) ran out and caused the thing to BEEEEEEEEP every time you turned the system on.
- pryelluw 10y agoWhy did you bring that up? I had already blocked that memory... D:
- codesushi42 10y ago
- overcast 10y agoGamecube was all about the controller. Besides the PS4 controller, the Gamecube is still the most comfortable controller ever. Buttons all felt great as well.
- ekianjo 10y agoI kind of prefer the Steam Controller honestly. After getting used to it even the DS4 feels akward.
- Crespyl 10y agoFor any kind of pointing/aiming/selection task, the SC is hands down the best I've seen (arguably even more comfortable than mouse/kb for some things). Where it fails in comparison to other controllers is button-feel, IMO. The shoulder buttons for example, compared to those on the DS4, feel very clicky/hollow (actually I think this is true of everything other than the face buttons) and can be distractingly loud. The DS4 buttons manage to feel soft/gentle while still being precise (and quiet). My uses tend to be almost entirely centered around pointing/aiming, so I absolutely love the SC and use it heavily, but I'm really looking forward to a second revision.
- delecti 10y agoMaybe I'd get used to it, but based on only a half-dozen hours or so, the "D-Pad" on it is possibly the worst directional input I've ever used, and the analog stick sticks out too far. The controller body is great, and everything else is fine, but directional inputs are probably the most important feature.
- kibwen 10y agoHaven't watched the presentation yet, but I believe the GCN might have been the first console to come standard with "analog" shoulder buttons (dutifully demonstrated by its use in Mario Sunshine to control the spraying power of the backpack). EDIT: Oh also, the Wavebird controller was the first wireless first-party controller.
- thomasfortes 10y agoSega Dreamcast had analog triggers and came before gamecube.
- ajmurmann 10y agoThe Saturn 3D pad also had analog triggers. Not sure if anything actually used then though.
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- chalupa-man 10y agoThe PS2 beat the GCN to market by a year and had not only analogue shoulder buttons, but analogue face buttons too. Even the d-pad was analogue -- everything except Start/Select/L3/R3. It wasn't very widely used, and causes some problems in porting games that relied on analogue face buttons (like Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3).
- vanderZwan 10y ago> "analog" shoulder buttons I think they also introduced the "click" if you pushed all the way down. Such a satisfying, IBM Model M-esque feeling.
- ekianjo 10y ago> They're the only company who puts so much effort into maximizing their software with the uniqueness of their hardware. You can hardly say that for the WiiU...
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoThe different game modes introduced through the hardware, namely the gamepad, seem quite revolutionary to me. Who else has been doing that (other than Nintendo with DS to some extent)?
- nfoz 10y agoThey were only cherry-picking specific innovations that influenced the design of the Switch.