The Nintendo GameCube was a bizarre little console, one which had all types of wacky add-ons and peripherals launched for it over time, from LAN adapters to Recreation Boy Hyperlinks to bongo drums. One factor I by no means knew about till in the present day, nevertheless, had been the corporate’s plans for an official LCD display screen.
- Off
- English
By way of Go Nintendo, Adam Doree has uploaded an uncut video of a presentation Nintendo made at E3 2002, that includes Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and Invoice Trinen. On this video, after the crew had spent ages speaking about Wind Waker and Metroid Prime, Iwata reveals that they’ve one final shock to debate: a first-party LCD display screen, designed to connect to the highest of the console and make it even extra moveable than it already was (the GameCube, famously, included a carrying deal with on the again). I’ve set the video to autoplay at the start of the dialogue concerning the display screen:
I by no means knew this! Positive different corporations have stepped into this vacuum over time, releasing varied screens of various high quality, however it might have been very cool to get an official Nintendo monitor.
It measured simply 5 inches throughout, with a 4:3 ratio, and a decision of simply 320×240. Which sounds dangerous by 2023 requirements however this was 2002, so for the time they weren’t horrible, as you may see within the footage above, the place Mario Sunshine appears to be like simply fantastic! It’s additionally fascinating listening to Iwata say it was peripherals like this that particularly satisfied Nintendo to put in digital output—itself a forgotten but amazing aspect of the hardware—for the GameCube.
Iwata even reveals that he had met with Sega’s Yuji Naka—in happier times—about Phantasy Star On-line, and the pair mentioned whether or not they might take that title and “make it a transportable recreation” to take advantage of this display screen. None of which ever got here to move, in fact, nevertheless it’s nonetheless neat imagining a GameCube period the place you can have grabbed your console by its deal with, taken it to a associates home and performed Mario Kart Double Sprint by yourself little official Nintendo display screen.
Comes with twelve totally different programs comprised of an enormous variety of classes, and each will assist you study extra about Python itself, and might be accessed if you need and as typically as you need eternally, making it excellent for studying a brand new talent.
Simply because I’m solely studying about this in the present day doesn’t imply there isn’t different stuff on the market concerning the display screen; here’s a 2002 write-up on IGN about how nice it looked, for instance, whereas its listing on Console Variations speculates that the excessive price of LCD screens on the time made it too costly to launch. The video beneath, in the meantime, has a very good linger on footage of the display screen alongside some audio system, a part of essentially the most 2002 gaming setup conceivable.
UPDATE: Thanks to Spindash on Twitter, there’s extra! Satoru Iwata quietly revealed years later that the monitor had secret, glasses-free 3D capabilities that Nintendo “stored secret”, together with the trivia that the Phantasy Star On-line figures seen in among the show items ended up getting stolen off the showroom floor!