NINTENDO GAMECUBE CONSOLE
AND PORTABLE GAME BOY ADVANCE UNVEILED
Systems
Set New Interactive Entertainment Standards
Nintendo,
the company that revived the entire video game
industry in the 1980s, opened new worlds of video
game play today at the Spaceworld trade show in
Tokyo by simultaneously unveiling the new
Nintendo GAMECUBE console and the portable
Nintendo Game Boy Advance. While each system will
be the most powerful in its category, they have
been designed to work together to provide a game
play experience that is unprecedented and totally
unique to Nintendo.
Game
Boy Advance is powered by a 32-bit processor
developed by ARM, Ltd. in the United Kingdom. Its
screen size increases by 50 per cent, and screen
resolution is up 60 per cent thanks to a new,
reflective TFT colour LCD using a high contrast
white panel. Its processor runs 17 times faster
than that of the Game Boy Colour; it's capable of
displaying 32,000 colours simultaneously; boasts
PCM sound playback for infinitely improved audio;
and with a special cable, allows up to four
machines to be linked for full, four-player
action.
Game
Boy Advance will be available in Japan in March
2001, and in North America and Europe next July.
The system will retail for approximately 9800 yen
in Japan (or $90), while Western Hemisphere
pricing has not yet been announced. Ten titles
were demonstrated at Spaceworld, including the
eagerly anticipated Mario Kart Advance. Game Boy
Advance also is fully backward compatible
allowing the system to play all existing Game Boy
and Game Boy Colour titles.
"Our
current Game Boy Colour holds a more than 90 per
cent share of the portable video game market
around the world, and in fact, is selling better
now than any other time in its 11 year
history," says Peter MacDougall, Nintendo of
Canada's, president. "The industry has
always wondered when someone would invent a
'better' Game Boy. Well, now we have."
Nintendo
GAMECUBE sets new technical standards in a
compact (6"x6"x4.3"),
transportable housing. It features a highly
customized, 405 Mhz, copper wire central
processor from IBM; a revolutionary graphics
co-processor from ATI with Mosys 1-T SRAM memory
embedded directly onto the chip; and 40 MB of
memory, including one of the largest
implementations of static memory in consumer
product history. This integrated design creates
the fastest and most efficient video game system
ever brought to market.
Storage
media comes in the form of a small (8 cm
diameter), 1.5GB proprietary optical disk from
Matsushita. Accessories will include a 56K modem
and (future) broadband modem; the 'Wavebird'
wireless RF controller; (2) Digicard slots for
either 4MB flash memory cards or a 64MB
SD-Digicard adapter; and a variety of high speed
ports and both analog and digital AV outputs.
Nintendo
GAMECUBE will launch in Japan in July of 2001,
and in North America in October 2001. "In my
experience, there have often been theoretical
claims of high performance for game hardware, and
although people were very impressed by the
figures, the actual products haven't even
delivered one-tenth of the claims," says
Shigeru Miyamoto, the master Nintendo game
designer. "It is a given that the Nintendo
GAMECUBE will offer better graphics and higher
quality sound, but more importantly it will allow
developers the freedom to concentrate on
creativity without worrying about technical
limitations."
Dozens
of developers around the world are in possession
of tools to create Nintendo GAMECUBE games, and
dozens of titles are in development. Exact games
will be announced closer to launch, but will
certainly include some of the household names
that have propelled Nintendo to sales of over a
billion video games worldwide in only a decade
and a half.
The
systems not only excel in their own right, but
connect to offer a continuous, transportable form
of interactive entertainment. The two
cutting-edge technologies combine in a number of
ways: * Games can be created to allow data
transfer in either direction between the systems.
As a result, designers can develop games that may
be played on either device;
*
The Game Boy Advance portable system can be used
as a discreet controller to direct action on the
Nintendo GAMECUBE;
*
While the Nintendo GAMECUBE runs on normal AC
power, Game Boy Advance can be powered by
disposable batteries or rechargeable batteries;
*
Modem accessories for both systems can connect
players to the Internet or each other to exchange
data, post scores, download characters, and for
head-to-head play.
"For
several years, virtually every advance in our
industry has focused solely on improving the
'look' of games. While our new Nintendo GAMECUBE
and Game Boy Advance not only will create the
best looking games, more importantly, they will
transform how players think about
interactivity," explains MacDougall.
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