Nintendo GameCube Pre-Reveal Information | Everything we knew about GameCube Part 1 (1999)

Nothing got me more excited than following up all the information and rumours leading up to a console reveal. The drip-feed of information, the rumours, the pre-release screenshots and promo footage - it was a magical time. With the 6th generation of consoles looming, Nintendo had a lot to prove. Moving from the Nintendo 64, it had lost a lot of market and mind share. 

So I thought it would be interesting to have a look back at everything GameCube prior to it's release. I have spent hours collecting everything from wild rumours, off-hand comments and official information will be here to get a wider perspective and to really give a perspective of Nintendo from 1999 to it's official reveal at E3 2001.

The first ever information about the GameCube that I could find from Nintendo was made on the 3rd March 1999. Nintendo probably had to make some announcement following on from the PlayStation 2 unveiling, stating: "We are developing a more advanced videogame system, but we are not providing any specifics at this time".

Things were quiet, but E3 was scheduled for starting on the 13th May 1999 and people were getting hyped for the next gen machines. Nintendo didn't have anything planned for GameCube for E3 of that year, but that didn't stop them from running a pre-E3 conference detailing some information about the new console.

Nintendo's Executive Vide President of Marketing and Sales, Peter Main, was running the conference and started off announcing the planned worldwide release by the end of the year 2000 under the codename 'Dolphin'. The exact reasoning behind the name Dolphin has always been speculated, but even during this conference, NoA Chairman, Howard Lincoln also admitted he did not know why, joking it's probably because they liked Dolphins.

The conference continued to go into great detail about the machine on a technical level. Powering the console was a 200 MHz graphics chip by ArtX, headed by Dr. Wei Yen - the man primarily responsible for the N64 graphics chip. Nintendo had an agreement with IBM under a $1 million contract developing a 400Mhz, 0.18 Micron chip at Burlington, Vermont. As for the memory, there were no specifics on size, but it would be DRAM technology with a bandwidth of 3.2GB/s.

One thing that got the crowd erupted in applause was when it was announced Dolphin would not be using cartridges - a huge contention for the N64. A collaboration with Matsuhita was announced for DVD technology with enhanced counterfeit protection. Also the machine would be network compatible for online gaming, but he did not go into any specifics regarding this.

Not only did we get specifics of the hardware, Nintendo also divulged some of the software developers making games for the system.  Those teams include Rare, Retro Studios, Left Field Productions, and Nintendo of America's newly formed internal development house, NSTC (Nintendo Software Technology Corporation). Also, Acclaim Entertainment and Titus Software confirmed months ago that they have every intention of fully supporting the system. Finally, developer Factor 5, which is licensing its sound tools for Dolphin development, is also in the works with Thornado, a 3D adventure title.

Things once again went quit until news surfaces on the 4th August, when IGN tried to collate information for the new machine. Shigeru Miyamoto had praised the performance of the Gekko processor, stating he "can see an opportunity to take game designs to a new level". 

According to NEC's associate vice president, systems integration, Junshi Yamaguchi, the Nintendo graphics chipset will use as low as 8MBs and as high as 16MBs of on-board embedded DRAM. No information given on the sound chip of the machine, but it will have MPEG-2 playback. 

Dolphin's Gekko chip size

Rumours had started circulating around the time about Gameboy and Gameboy Colour compatibility that would connect with the GameCube via Infrared technology. A number of developers were also rumoured to be developing for the machine. Rare was speculated to have multiple sports games in development in addition to a 'multiplayer RPG' in the works. Factor 5 had the confirmed Thornado (cancelled) game planned as well the Nintendo 1080 snowboarding team have also confirmed to be working on a sequel. Other teams who are reportedly supporting the GameCube were: Looking Glass Studios, Capcom, Midway/Atari Games, Boss Game Studios, Konami and Ubisoft.

Although we had a lot of information about the actual machine, nothing had been said about the controller. According to Nintendo sources at IGN, the new controller will continue to use analogue controls but will also feature analogue buttons. Obviously this was not the case, a major selling point for  the controller was it's analogue triggers, giving some merit to these sources in addition to them correctly predicting built in force-feedback.

Around the same time Nintendo announced DVD capable GameCube's, though no release date was given for these machines. Howard Lincoln spoke highly of the innovative business decision of converging a videogame machine and a movie player - something the Sony PS2 would later capitalise on. Matsushita or Panasonic were the 2 announced to have their own branded GameCube's, though only Panasonic's version would release under the name Panasonic Q.

IGN Put together a mock-up of Dolphin's DVD size

On the 4th October, the Reuters news service has reported that Nintendo officially confirmed Spaceworld as Dolphin's public debut in August 2000. Whilst this was good news, this meant there was only 2 months from the reveal, to it's planned October release date. People were right to be worried, but attention was quickly turned to the new Next Generation Magazine which launched the next day which reported that Factor 5's new game for the Dolphin was going to be a Turrican sequel. 

Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, went on to insist that the Dolphin was still on track to be a mass-market machine back on the 13th. Yamauchi's interview with the Japanese Yomiuri Shumbun also went on to reveal that a 40,000 Yen machine was too expensive to be aimed towards children, taking a slight jab towards the competition with Sony's PS2. The Nintendo president further reiterated the company's intention to keep the Dolphin launch within 2000. "We would like to release the Dolphin closer to the PS2," he said, "but since we're aiming for the Christmas 2000 shopping season, I don't think the time difference is that big of a handicap."

Spin Magazine Dolphin mock-up (09/99)

Next came information from overseas, this time with a pretty in-depth interview with Nintendo of America president, Howard Lincoln in Edge Magazine releasing on the 18th October. He reassures we will see more of a focus outside their established IP's, saying; "I'm hopeful we will see more RPG's". Alongside this, there will be plans to expand market share in the sports genre too from Nintendo, and third party publishers, something which is seen as more viable and enticing due to the switch to DVD media.

He next went on to speak about the nature of the machine being easy to develop for, before commenting about their online strategy for the console - or lack of one. This early trepidation behind the console and it's online capabilities would plague the machine later in the consoles lifespan. Howard emphasises the importance of online gaming, but needs more time to revaluate their strategy. Already things aren't going to plan, with their online strategy being planned to announce sometime after E3, but "things didn't work out, so we're still working on that".

Despite this however, a day later was the announcement of NEC planning to construct a new fabrication facility to build the graphic chip and DRAM that Nintendo will use for the GameCube at Kyushu. Construction of the new facility will begin in November and operations should begin next August. NEC has received a $2.8 billion order from Nintendo.  "Development of the system and its software is going along smoothly," Nintendo stated on the 22nd, "we think that we will be able to show you some amazing things at the next Spaceworld".

Thornado Mascot 

The following week, Nintendo's flagship developer; Level 5, gave IGN a music song from their upcoming GameCube exclusive, Thornado. The game never did see release after a lengthy development for the N64, before switching to the GameCube.

Even as late as the 10th November 1999, it was still unconfirmed by Shigeru Miyamoto himself large the size of the discs were going to be, with Nintendo looking into incorporating DVD-RAM technology into the GameCube.

More music related information surfaced a couple of days later, this time from Codemasters. They were talking exclusively about their upcoming MTV Music Generator, and how the successor to the game won't make its way onto the N64 due to the cartridge format. Codemasters had their eyes set on the dolphin - but not exclusively so, as they went on to confirm they were looking at all major next-generation hardware.

In contrast, another major UK developer, Team 17, announced they would be excluding the Dolphin in a statement made on the 16th. "They're not particularly prolific at developer relations in our experience. We haven't a long history with them - and we see the PS2 and Xbox as potentially the way forward.".

The last news worthy story to come out from a developer regarding the dolphin was, Rocket: Robot on Wheels developer Sucker Punch has given the word that it is underway with a next-generation project and Dolphin seems to be favourite. This next generation title would be Sly Cooper, which would later work an agreement with Sony to make it a second-party exclusive title.  Again, these early signs really did create an impression that Nintendo at this time, were not the most approachable partner.

This didn't stop Nintendo going on to change people's perception about the company, and it's third party relationships on the 9th December. According to software engineering manager Jim Merrick, Nintendo has "a number of developers, first, second- and third-party working on Dolphin" and companies have received development material from Nintendo. Jim was confident in stating that the Dolphin would beat the PS2 in all aspects, and would continue Nintendo's "four controller policy". Any other technical question about the machine was quickly dodged, including the RAM size of the machine and concrete deadlines.

Early design made by IGN for their Dolphin news stories

Rounding off the last bit of news came from 28th December, 1999. In an interesting foreshadow to the final design of the GameCube, was Nintendo's trademark of the 'Star Cube'. It's unknown if this was going to be a placeholder name in the meantime, but publications and forums ran with this name. 

And that's it for the year 1999 for GameCube news. Interestingly, a lot more information came out that I initially expected. A huge dump of technical information gave a huge boost in confidence, and the switch to DVD technology - albeit in a yet undisclosed size - was more than enough to get people excited. In part 2, we take a look back at the GameCube up until it's official announcement at E3.