Nintendo Announcements

Nintendo used Spaceworld as a venue to finally unveil its next generation console and handheld. The system formerly known as Dolphin has been rechristened as the Nintendo Gamecube. The Gamecube is built around a 405 Mhz, copper wire central processor from IBM, an Art X developed graphics processor, and 40 MB of memory. As many had speculated, the Gamecube will use an 8 cm, 1.5 GB proprietary optical disc. Gamecube will not feature a hard drive, instead utilizing flash memory cards. "In my experience, there have often been theoretical claims of high performance for game hardware, and although people were very impressed by the figures, the actual products haven't even delivered one-tenth of the claims," said Shigeru Miyamoto, "It is a given that the Nintendo Gamecube will offer better graphics and higher quality sound, but more importantly it will allow developers the freedom to concentrate on creativity without worrying about technical limitations." Nintendo also revealed details about the upcoming Game Boy Advance. The new handheld is powered by a 32 bit ARM processor and features a reflective TFT screen that is 50 percent faster than the current Game Boy Color. Game Boy Advance ships in Japan in March 2001at a price of around $90; it will arrive in North America and Europe next July. The Gamecube is expected in Japan in July of 2001, and should make its way to the rest of the world by October of the same year.