I just realised, how are pirates gonna copy GC software if it is on those special mini discs? Hmmm, I guess that's good or is it? dun dun dun

there will always be someone some where that figures out how to copy games. i'm sure in hong kong or other parts of asia they are hard at work on it. :)

p.s. I am strongly against piracy.

yeah pirates are smart people

i'm against other people pirating, it's bad

but i don't mind cos i can't afford to buy full price games

Pirates will still copy and sell games once they crack the encryption, but it will keep people from doing it themselves. That was the biggest pirating problem with the PSX. Once DVD burners and media become affordable we will see a lot more PS2 piracy, but the mini DVDs will probably be hard for the home user to find and copy for themselves. Nintendo was very smart to do things this way.

of course it might hurt sales. the ps1 proved that even with piracy a system can be very successful. not being able to try games out or provide copies to friends could hurt Gamecube if dvd copies of the ps2 become more likely and affordable.

Back during the SNES times they sold units in Asia that basiclly plugs into the SNES console. On the unit there is a slot for the game cartridge and a slot for a floppy disk. This allows you to make a copy of the game onto the floppy disk and then play off that.

Maybe they'll follow a similar approach?

they have one of those for the N64 called a Doctor 64 or something like that.

Dr V64 or something like that, uses zip disks. I had one, sold it when I got tired of my N64.

there is already planning a dvd version of the gamecube that is planned to come out around the same time the gamecube does. so it'll read both real dvds and nintendo's gamecube dvds which are just smaller versions of dvds and have less space on them, kinda like a mini cd vs a regualr cd.

dvd copiers are becoming more popular and cheaper so i think you can figure the rest out.

they just have to trick the dvd gamecube into thinking the copied game is a movie dvd (or audio dvd?) so it'll boot, kinda like how copied dreamcast games trick the dreamcast into thinking they are audio cds.

or maybe a specialized device will come out that will basically be a huge harddrive to store them on. kinda like how there are backup units for the n64 that run the roms off a cd drive.

The Dr V64 used CD-roms with cart images. There was a completely different 'backup' device for the N64 (called the Z64) that used Zip discs. Just setting the facts straight; no endorsement of piracy is implied!

I also think the Gamecube minidiscs are a good idea--reduces piracy and it also gets away from the cost and manufacturing inventory issues of carts. Makes the system much more appealing for developers!

You missed the most important point; they look sooooooo cool! ;)

something like this??:

http://www.easybuy2000.com/store/?ca...eboy%20advance

saw that in the other bargains forum...

I will agree that piracy will be possible with the Gamecube. Most of the people I know that do it for the PSX only do it because its easy. If they had to buy something like an expensive add-on device or find special mini DVD-Rs they probably wouldn't bother. I have never known anyone that went to the trouble to buy pirated games on the net. I think the Nintendo design will still eliminate the average Joe from cheating and any reduction helps Nintendo.

don't they hold a lot less data which might be a major limitation over the full dvd based systems like PS2 and XBox.

The full dvd based gamecube is not coming out at the same time from what i have heard and it will cost more since it is a standalone dvd player that adds the gamecube console capabilty to the unit. I believe the price was around 349 for it. so it will be more expensive than the PS2 or XBox.

No limitation at all. Some games may need multiple discs, but that never bothered the CD game market. Nintendo is not really big on CGI type cutscenes anyway. They do their cinemas with the game engine and I'm betting most of their games will fit on 1 disc. Dreamcast GD-Roms were only 1 gig and that didn't limit them. 1.5 gigs is plenty for games without hours of cut scenes.