E3 Wii: Demos running on Gamecube hardware?

GuruJockStrap · 18 May 2006 at 11:34

http://blogs.ign.com/uchiha5/2006/05/17/18210

I'd be extremely impressed if they were! Some of those demos looked fantastic and if it was Gamecube hardware then its a true testament of what can be eventually squeezed out.

Not only that, but if it looks good on Gamecube hardware imagine what it'll look like on the Wii.

Zefan · 18 May 2006 at 11:36

Sorry but I don't see what those pictures are meant to be explaining. Wires..... great. A circle around a nintendo sign....... :confused:

Oh I had to look again, those are the gamecubes

GuruJockStrap · 18 May 2006 at 11:38

It appears that the Demos at E3 were run on Gamecube hardware, not Wii hardware.

If you look amongst the wires you'll see a Gamecube console.

Zefan · 18 May 2006 at 11:40

I see a black box with plastic wrapping around it - not a gamecube. That could be anything

Can only be good news though if it's true

Wrathamon · 18 May 2006 at 11:46

The box in wrapping doesn't look like a gamecube.

However, the wii-remote development kits were first designed for use with the Gamecube, and several thousand of them were sent out to developers so they could get to grips with the new controller and how to use it before the actual Wii development kits were ready.

punky_munky · 18 May 2006 at 11:57

Basically the games were running on tricked out Gamecubes. Heres the picture to prove it.

Isn't that essentially what the Wii is?

Jabbs · 18 May 2006 at 12:40

I never thought the gfx of any of the wii games i saw were that stunning tbh, no better than a xbox, that was never the strong selling point of it anyway.

Wyrdo · 18 May 2006 at 12:45

punky_munky said:
Isn't that essentially what the Wii is?

Exactly, just a slightly beefed up Gamecube.

Caustic · 18 May 2006 at 12:47

The link no longger works?!? It tries to load http://blogs.ign.com/banned.asp for me.

punky_munky · 18 May 2006 at 12:50

Bit of a non story imo, but what the hell.

MoNkeE · 18 May 2006 at 12:51

wyrdo said:
Exactly, just a slightly beefed up Gamecube.

Slightly? I thought the processor was twice as fast, as was the amount of RAM and the graphics chipset?

-RaZ

Caustic · 18 May 2006 at 12:53

Actually, since the Wii is just a 50% overclocked Gamecube (for CPU and GPU), it could be that the dev kits/test kits are just GameCubes with faster chips in them.

Wrathamon · 18 May 2006 at 12:57

MoNkeE said:
Slightly? I thought the processor was twice as fast, as was the amount of RAM and the graphics chipset?

We won't know for sure until Nintendo finally release the specifications.

The IBM PowerPC ('Broadway') is meant to be a faster version of the GameCube's 'Gekko', there's been various rumours of the speed being 800MHz or so (compared to 485MHz for the GC), but there's also been some rumours that the Wii dev kits are clocked around 1.5GHz.

And who knows what ATI have done for 'Hollywood' graphics chip. The GameCube's 'Flipper' was designed by ArtX (who ATI bought just before the GC's launch) but it would make sense for them to carry on with this core development rather than change to a more standard gfx core, as it did have embedded memory for speed, also ensures the backwards compatibility for GC titles.

Syph · 18 May 2006 at 13:12

It was my understanding the GC was extremely powerful/well designed, barring a ridiculous shortage of RAM: the suggestion being that the rumoured 2/3x speed uogrades to the Wii plus a decent RAM injection provides developers with a fairly nice piece of kit to play with.

I think the graphics on games such as Mario Galaxy and Metroid (whom the developers stated they hadn't bothered with bump mapping or anything, just specular lighting to get it out for release) are noticeably better than the current gen.

Wrathamon · 18 May 2006 at 13:22

Syph said:
It was my understanding the GC was extremely powerful/well designed, barring a ridiculous shortage of RAM: the suggestion being that the rumoured 2/3x speed uogrades to the Wii plus a decent RAM injection provides developers with a fairly nice piece of kit to play with.

Gamecube had 24MB main memory, 16MB audio memory, and the Flipper GPU had 2MB frame buffer, 1MB texture embedded memory for speed.

There were reports that the main memory had been doubled to 48MB for the Wii, but nothing with regards to audio memory or what is embedded in the new Hollywood GPU.

Snow-Munki · 18 May 2006 at 13:53

explains why the console can be made so cheap i suppose.

sub £150 would be great :eek:

Syph · 18 May 2006 at 14:23

Snow-Munki said:
explains why the console can be made so cheap i suppose.

sub £150 would be great

But just how expensive is the Wiimote and Nunchuck? I would imagine they're at least as expensive as a Wavebird (£30) - probably more!

Wrathamon · 18 May 2006 at 14:35

Syph said:
But just how expensive is the Wiimote and Nunchuck? I would imagine they're at least as expensive as a Wavebird (£30) - probably more!

That's the retail price though - £30 for a wavebird. Remember that half of that will be shops profit, if anything raw material wise with it being mass produced i'd be surprised were more than £5!

(On a similar note, with comments in other threads about costs of games being up to £49.99 for the 360 etc... the average wholesale price of a game in 2005 was £23-£24, with the rest being profit for the shop added on top!)

Anyway, if the Wii appears for between £150-£200 i'll be more than happy!

Wang Computer · 18 May 2006 at 15:04

Some of the shader effects in the Metroid Prime 3 demo could not be achieved by a GameCube, regardless of how beefed up it was.

Wyrdo · 18 May 2006 at 15:12

MoNkeE said:
Slightly? I thought the processor was twice as fast, as was the amount of RAM and the graphics chipset?

-RaZ

Well, when I say slightly I of course mean twice as fast!

I don't care how fast it is to be honest, I want one!