Posted
by Matt Cox
April 4, 2005 at 1:43 p.m.
Game Boy Cubed?
You know, I was sitting on my couch, playing Wipeout on the PSP the other day thinking that Sony will eventually dominate the handheld market once they get original titles and AAA franchises. Nintendo should be quaking in its boots. But then I thought, wait, Nintendo already said they are releasing a more advanced Game Boy to succeed the GBA (No, the DS is NOT the GBA successor N has said repeatedly.) Will it come this year? Next? If the PSP keeps selling at this lukewarm pace all year, don't count on seeing the new Game Boy this year. Of course, I still think Nintendo's going to take the E3 crown this year if my prediction is correct:they will unveil not only Revolution, but also the next Game Boy.So anyway, I popped out Wipeout to put in Lumines and I just stared at the cute little UMD disc saying to myself "that's just about the size of a Gamecube disc:"...And then I got a shiver down my spine.Nintendo justified the small discs by hyping up lack of loading times, which proved to be very true. But really, there had to have been a greater purpose. That's right:it would totally make perfect sense to release a handheld that plays Gamecube games. And oh wow how that would totally trump the gaming end of the PSP. It would be dual analog, same amount of buttons as the GCN, tray-loading to get the discs in, bigger screen, WLAN, etc. I froth at this possibility. It would have an immediate library of about 1000 games and developers more willing to jump on (or back on) since they are already familiar with the exact specs of the system, seeing the added hardware numbers essentially adding to GCN appeal.I dunno. I am half dreaming this would come true and half thinking this could really be a possibility.
Comments
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JackBurt0n (anonymous) says…
While I would really like this to be true (portable RE4...*drools*), it makes WAY to much sense for Nintendo to actually go through with it. Just my take as a very jaded Nintendo gamer over the years.
-Jack
gamer (Matt Cox) says…
It does go strictly against the new philosophy of less is more...but I think this would be a great trick up their sleeve.
ichikuo (Hanluen Kuo) says…
It would be a great trick but the possibilities of the next GB being Cube compatible are pretty slim. I have no reason to back that theory up, I just for some reason can't see it happening. I can see, however, Nintendo showing the next GB this E3. It is a crazy thought though. Did you guys ever see the mockup of what the DS might have been? It was completely fan designed but it was a portable Cube playing handheld.
JackBurt0n (anonymous) says…
Heheh...yeah, I remember those...but I especially liked the ones with the 15 or so screens that flipped out of the other ones and looked like the GBA SP. Classic.
-Jack
quinn (Patrick Quinn) says…
Mr. C:
Sorry to go off-thread, but The Gamer appears to be the appropriate place for this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/art...
(Registration free and req'd)
It's a story about a "game jam" associated w/ the resurrection of the Atari 2600.
Apparently, Atari is cool again. Who knew?
gamer (Matt Cox) says…
What's cool about the atari competetion is that it makes the designers focus purely on the basic form of fun - gameplay - an art that is fading monthly. Good find, Quinn.
bullfrogj3 (anonymous) says…
Using Game cube discs on the next game boy sounds like a great idea, but it will never happen. The Big N and everybody else in the videogame industry don't make money off of hardware sales, they make money on software. Another problem would be with backwards-compatibility. The unit would require two ports, one to accommodate 'Cube discs, and another for gb/gba/ds games. With a back catalog of games reaching into the thousands (if not tens of thousands) of games already produced for gb/gba/ds, they cannot afford to ignore that market. But then again, Nintendo seems bent on burning their loyal customers with inept business decisions, so I guess anything is possible.
gamer (Matt Cox) says…
Bull- I thought about that when thinking of possible negatives. Actually, it was my first thought...that it makes no business sense from a software point of view. BUT, Nintendo is the only one that makes money on hardware, even at the $99 price point. But definitely not enough to warrant a huge company to bank on those sales alone. But I am willing to ignore that if you are as excited about the idea as I am :)
Oh, and the DS has two slots...one for the DS cards and one for GBA games, so they could make 2 slots if they really wanted to.
scoville (anonymous) says…
Hey guys,
There is a new game by the guys who made "ilovebees" called ourcolony. Matt has created his own colony and we'd like as many people as possible to join us.
Go to http://www.ourcolony.net and enter 'play' into the empty field. When you're in the lounge, go to 'Join Existing Colony' and enter 27011648
JackBurt0n (anonymous) says…
Lies. All lies. Why don't you join a colony that actually has done this sort of thing before? ARGolonists. We're doing pretty well so far. Plus we have lots of resources that most other teams don't since we've all played ARGs before, like Ilovebees.
If you want in, our password is 96292816.
-Jack
gamer (Matt Cox) says…
Not sure what the lies comment is all about. It's not the same guy who started ILB, but it's the same company marketing push.
As for "Our Colony," it's practically impossible to catch up to the teams that continually register fake usernames. Especially those with built-in communites in the thousands like ...oh wait...TeamXbox disappeared. Huh.
Jack, maybe part of the fun is NOT to simply add a username to a team that will figure it out for you and to forge a new team that has a better chance of working together. It's like saying "Come buy a PS2 since it's been around longer and has more units sold."
Of course, the point system rewards more usernames, so it's kind of moot. It doesn't matter. The colonies aren't tied to anyone material, so the winning team that is probably in the 100s of members won't win anything that big. Maybe as big as a free plane ticket to the Xbox 2 World Premeire in the 12th at MTV.
JackBurt0n (anonymous) says…
Yeah, i know. I was a little harsh. My bad. But yeah, I worked with those guys a lot on ILB, so I feel pretty comfortable working with them, especially so far. I do wish all of the other teams luck with it. The main thing *is* teamwork, so we all do need to work together. I'm glad they're finally cracking down on the teams that had trillions of points. Gives all of the other teams a chance to actually do something. But nevertheless, it's fun, and some of the puzzles have been real stumpers so far.
-Jack