Under the hood of Gamecube

Okay, we already know that this costs 100 dollars retail price right? I imagine it costs Nintendo 60 - 70 dollars more than 100 dollars. The profit is made on Games. Now if PS2 could ever look this good. Nintendo used every popular way to fit everything into a small box. So I did see a cooling fan on the right side checkered opening on the Gamecube. Xbox, PS2, and Dreamcast also have one. One thing I know from building PCs....you can extend the life of your hardware a lot by adding a system fan. Nintendo wanted to ensure that the Gamecube wouldn't overheat thus not freeze like Playstation. The guy who wrote the page admired the flip-top mini-disc drive! It looks like Gamecube was inspired by Dreamcast and that makes me wonder how much Dreamcast inspiration went into Gamecube? A lot. Nintendo's R&D3 also knew how they could excercise the graphics to the limit for 200 dollars. When Nintendo chose IBM and gave the silicon manufacture giant one billion dollars to make a 485 MHz CPU - they've got something pretty darn nice in return although that's not all..... they've brought Panasonic, ATI/ArtX and the less famous Factor 5 into the picture too to create "Project Dolphin". Remember, Gamecube was $179 at launch and the rest would be made up by selling software. We all found out what the expansion port was used for!



CPU heatseek of the Gamecube My server
Disc drive cable connecting to motherboard below My server
Gamecube motherboard bottom My server
Gamecube motherboard Top My server

Now the second part is a little difficult. Nintendo makes a special Gamecube called the "NPDP Gamecube" In place of the minidisc drive is a cartridge which developers can put their data on. It is rewritable too. This gamecube also comes with 48MB of RAM instead of the normal 24 MB. I think I heard on the site that the NPDP cartridge can hold 4 1.8 GB normal disc images. This is essentially only a developer's kit in case you were wondering.

NPDP Gamecube My server
NPDP cartridge My server

I finally found a picture of the Gameboy Player made by Intellegent Systems, a 2nd party of Nintendo. It allows Gameboy Advance to be played on the TV. This one is made for Nintendo 64.

Gameboy Advance hardware for N64 My server | 132 KB
Gameboy Advance hardware for N64 My server | 154 KB
Gameboy Advance hardware for N64 My server | 154 KB