"The Glory of Gamecube”   
By:  Darklord007   

        “What is Gamecube?”  Gamecube is the future of gaming.  Gamecube is Nintendo’s next generation console with mission to “seek and destroy” all other consoles in its path.  I guarantee you that Gamecube will eventually pull Nintendo ahead of the competition because of its genius design and compatibility to evolve with the changing technology of today.  This Christmas season, if you don’t have a Gamecube, you just don’t have anything.   
         
Let’s see how Gamecube measures up to the competition.  The first and probably most disliked company by Nintendo fans is Sega.  Nintendo and Sega have been locked in combat for some time now.  When the company started, it released the Sega Master System, which sold a competitive amount of units as compared to the original Nintendo.  After the Master System came Sega Genesis.  Sega Genesis was immensely popular and sold more units than even the Super Nintendo when that system came out a few years later.   

After Sega Genesis was the Sega CD.  Sega CD was a primitive CD based system (basically a SNES on disk.)  The idea bombed though because there was low demand at the time for a CD based system.  Sega’s next big scheme was Sega Saturn.  It was built primarily to challenge the original Playstation and the soon to come Nintendo 64.  Even though it had a great “arcade” feel, it was a big waste of Sega’s money and it flopped.  After the failure of the Sega Channel (which charged an outrageous amount of money for a simple service), Sega kept quiet for a couple of years saving up money and planning carefully their next “attack” on the gaming market.   

Now Sega has released the Dreamcast featuring an uninspired “pinwheel” logo.  It has already sold more units than the Nintendo 64.  The reason Sega Dreamcast has done so well is because it’s a simple machine that can connect to the Internet.  It also has neat peripherals like the VMU, which is like a memory card and Gameboy all rolled into one.  The way it works is that it hooks up to your controller slot and you can download Dreamcast games (or parts of games rather) to your VMU.  Then, whenever you feel like a little Virtua Fighter 3 away from home, just take out VMU and pound away.  Also take into account how easy the machine is to develop for, and you’ve got an instant hit.   
         
The main reasons Gamecube will beat Dreamcast though, is that it is 200 MHz faster (400 MHz as compared to 200 MHz), even easier to develop for (which was one of Nintendo’s goals on the project), and it will be much “fresher” by the time October 2001 rolls around.   
The next challenger to take on the big boys at Nintendo is Sony.  Chances are you own something from Sony. They make just about anything that uses electricity.  In 1995 however, Sony decided to enter the videogame market.  Their first system (the Playstation) was the biggest thing since video games itself.  To date, it has sold more units than any other system out there.  The Playstation was relatively easy to develop for which put it ahead of the much more complicated Nintendo 64 at the time of it’s release.  It also featured what I think is the best design in a controller ever.  It was small, easy to learn, and cheap.   
         
Now, Sony has released the big brother of Playstation, Playstation 2.  The Playstation 2 runs at 300 MHz, has Internet connectivity, and can play DVD’s.  Right now, it has a price tag of three hundred dollars.  Now let me critique on PS2 a little bit.  Chances are, you already have a DVD player and don’t want a lower quality one like on the PS2.  Also, chances are that you don’t want a system that has a low selection games for it which is how the PS2 will be.  I would say out of all of Gamecube’s competitors, the PS2 is probably the hardest to develop for.  This means fewer games.  Gamecube will beat the Sony Playstation 2 easily because it is extremely easy to develop for (think all of the good third party developers’ games plus Zelda, Mario, and Goldeneye2) and it will probably be the exact same price (if not cheaper) by November 2001.   
         
The last competitor to Gamecube will be Bill Gates and Microsoft coming out with their first game unit ever now referred to as X-BOX.  The X-BOX has a green circle logo with a giant “X” on it.  It’s an improvement from the Dreamcast, but still not as good as the Gamecube logo.  The machine will probably run faster than five hundred MHz and will probably generate billions and billions of pixels more than the Gamecube.  There are even rumors that certain “select” machines for programmers and reviewers will be able to play all types of media (DVD’s, CD’s, mp3 CD’s, Playstation discs, etc.)  Most machines now though are just going to be DVD and CD compatible.  Even if some of these “rumors” are true and the machine is faster and can connect to the Internet, it doesn’t matter.  When it comes right down to it, it’s all about the games.  To win the gamewars you need some third party developers on your side.  Many developers just won’t develop for Bill Gates.  The machine he built is complicated and hard to develop for just like the PS2.  There is good evidence of this in a recent interview IGN had with Silicon Knights (the company coming out with Eternal Darkness.)  They’ve seen the X-BOX and frankly, they aren’t impressed.  They say it’s “complicated” and “too hard to produce games for”.   
         
As you can see, Gamecube is clearly going to win the gamewars.  If you still don’t believe me though let me add to Gamecube’s immense glory with a little bit of info.  The Gamecube will hook up to your cell phone or Gameboy (kind of like the VMU), and it will be very portable for a machine of its type (despite the pictures which make it look huge, the Gamecube is smaller than the 64.)  In addition, the makers of the most powerful computers in the world, IBM, made the processor.  If you’re worried about the controller, it’s going to be the force feedback type like Playstation’s and will still come with all the great features of the 64 one.  Now ask yourself, “ Is Gamecube not the most ingenious design in a system you’ve ever seen?”   
         
Now that you’ve been exposed to just some of the “glories” of Gamecube, I look forward to the time when you and millions of others buy a Gamecube and restore Nintendo to the “throne” of the gaming market.  May you all prosper in your gaming endeavors.   

-  Darklord007 is the webmaster of this site, but also happens to do a little writing on the side.