PlayStation Classic was originally an addon for the SNES Classic.

[Vaeran]

Originally Posted by ShakeWell

Market isn't right for a GC Classic yet.

But just think how adorable a tiny Gamecube would be!!

[ShakeWell]

V adorable.

[Phantoon]

Originally Posted by estragon

I think it's extremely unlikely that people testing games on it to check out the emulator or whatever were involved in making licensing or game selection decisions at all.

This seems like two basically unrelated issues.

I'm not saying there's a relationship at all.

What I'm getting at is that if you're making this sort of a thing with a deadline I'd guess you test to a shortlist of every potential game, while the legal department fight to get permission off the copyright holders. So the product manager picks the shortlist, then programmers and testers deal with the hardware/ emulation while the lawyers argue royalties and so on. If the IP holders agree, you don't then have to then start testing it. You can pick your games right up to the deadline that way.

The list is interesting though. Harry Potter being on it - that sounds like a nightmare to re-licence to me. Gran Turismo has a ton of car licences, so that would be hard. No sign of any of the Wip3outs though... Surely Sony could organise music licences.

Originally Posted by ShakeWell

I think there's a lot of tech debt there, but I also don't think the market is right for a Gamecube Classic yet. People whose first console was a PS1 are closing in on 30, people whose first console was a Gamecube are fixing to go to college, and these things trade heavily on nostalgia.

Yeah, I agree with this. N64 is in that sweet spot, I think. I really want a decent Megadrive/ Genesis mini first though. Streets of Rage 2 and Shining Force remain two of my favourite games ever.

[Positronic Brain]

Originally Posted by Vaeran

But just think how adorable a tiny Gamecube would be!!

This. I'd buy one for the form factor alone. The NGC is the last console that had an amazing form factor, and minification only makes it more so.

[estragon]

Originally Posted by Phantoon

I'm not saying there's a relationship at all.

I think the basic issue is that we have literally no idea if this means anything at all.

So, the scenarios you're presenting are not necessarily impossible, but pending some insight into the actual process they are basically like . . . PlayStation Classic development fanfiction, one of countless other possibilities.

Maybe they were checked purposefully, or maybe they were just fooling around. Maybe some on that list were checked purposefully (for those reasons or others), but other games on that list were not. Who knows.

[Ludendorkk]

Originally Posted by ShakeWell

I think there's a lot of tech debt there, but I also don't think the market is right for a Gamecube Classic yet. People whose first console was a PS1 are closing in on 30, people whose first console was a Gamecube are fixing to go to college, and these things trade heavily on nostalgia.

I think nostalgia for that era is setting in earlier for younger people faster than it used to myself. My wife's students go absolutely batshit for Gamecube/PS2 stuff. (Also Mario Kart 64)

[ShakeWell]

Originally Posted by Ludendorkk

I think nostalgia for that era is setting in earlier for younger people faster than it used to myself. My wife's students go absolutely batshit for Gamecube/PS2 stuff. (Also Mario Kart 64)

I mean, sure, I still thought NES stuff was dope in high school/college, but I wouldn't have bought the equivalent of an NES Classic at that age.

[Sarge]

Probably a function of living in the Internet age, where everything seems to age much more quickly.

[four-so]

I like the general idea of a PS Classic but it was never a high priority like the NES/SNES Classic. The key between the two mindsets lies with Childhood Magic Nostalgia Hour. My freshman year of college was 1998; the nostalgia meter doesn't run full throttle for PSX/N64 like it does for the NES/SNES, and I'm not sure I even have nostalgia for GCN and PS2.

[Sarge]

I'll be honest, if Nintendo does do an N64 Classic, I'm not really sure I'm interested. It may be my least nostalgic system. I do have some for the PSX simply because of all the amazing RPGs.

[Daikaiju]

Originally Posted by Vaeran

But just think how adorable a tiny Gamecube would be!!

So adorable.

[ShakeWell]

Originally Posted by Sarge

I'll be honest, if Nintendo does do an N64 Classic, I'm not really sure I'm interested. It may be my least nostalgic system. I do have some for the PSX simply because of all the amazing RPGs.

I have interest because their bespoke emulators are very good and while I have an N64, without a mod, it looks like poop garbage on all of my TVs.

[ThornGhost]

N64 Classic seems like an obvious home run for Nintendo. Culling the library to 15-20 bespoke games probably does the N64 more good than any other console in Nintendo's catalog and it seems to be held in exceedingly high regard by those in their mid-to-late 20s, even as interest in the mid-30s set drops off. The question is: Do people in their mid-20s have $80 to drop on this conceptual thing?

[TheSL]

Originally Posted by ThornGhost

The question is: Do people in their mid-20s have $80 to drop on this conceptual thing?

The second question is- does the N64 have much appeal to a general consumer without 4 controllers and/or Goldeneye?

[Rascally Badger]

It's got Mario and Zelda, the Mario and Zelda games that were many college kids' first experience with those characters. I'd say it has plenty of appeal.

[WisteriaHysteria]

Any GC classic would need like 30+GB of storage on it to accommodate a modest library. Not huge by today’s standards at all, but not a trivial amount of storage either. My assumption on the construction of these things is that they’re trying to get the fattest profit margins possible, and it’s going to look a lot less desirable to do so if you have to put components in them that aren’t literal pennies.

[ShakeWell]

Originally Posted by Rascally Badger

It's got Mario and Zelda, the Mario and Zelda games that were many college kids' first experience with those characters. I'd say it has plenty of appeal.

It also has the *Extremely Shane Bettenhausen voice* secret best version of Resident Evil 2, which I'd hope would make an appearance on such a theoretical device, because without an UltraHDMI mod, the resolution changes make it unplayable on a modern setup.

But as I mentioned in the 2019 predictions thread, I expect a Game Boy Classic in 2019 as Nintendo's Nostalgia Cash Cow.

[Sarge]

Originally Posted by WisteriaHysteria

Any GC classic would need like 30+GB of storage on it to accommodate a modest library. Not huge by today’s standards at all, but not a trivial amount of storage either. My assumption on the construction of these things is that they’re trying to get the fattest profit margins possible, and it’s going to look a lot less desirable to do so if you have to put components in them that aren’t literal pennies.

Depends on how many games they were looking to throw on there. If memory serves, Gamecube games clock in at 1.35GB, and that's assuming you don't trim the ISOs at all. There tends to be a lot of dummy data in some games, so several should reduce down quite a bit. Not sure if you could cram 20 games into 16GB like the PS Classic, though.

EDIT: Looking at the Nintendont chart, probably not 20. Maybe 15. Depends on what they put on there. Mario Sunshine is just over 1 GB, Twilight Princess just under. Luigi's Mansion is under 200 MB, but it's the only one I've thought of that could end up on there that shrinks that much.

https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Ninten...atibility_List

EDIT 2: Huh, Double Dash shrinks to under 400 MB. Impressive.

[ArugulaZ]

Would it really be that hard to resurrect the GameCube architecture? Nintendo's been riding that pony for fifteen years, and abandoned it only two years ago for the Switch. I would definitely want a GameCube mini to run the games natively, as opposed to some naff Linux or Android hardware without the power to do the job properly. GameCube and Wii emulation exists, but it's not something some cheapy cheap Android box can handle.

[Destil]

Gamecube Emulation has some very special problems.

[WisteriaHysteria]

Originally Posted by ArugulaZ

Would it really be that hard to resurrect the GameCube architecture?

Please see Phantoon’s post on production pipelines from a few pages ago.

Producing hardware is only cheap with economies of scale. Things like the SNES and PS classics are only a thing because they can use off the shelf parts for its inners. If they had to machine a bunch of original or redesigned components, that could potentially raise the price for it to be unattractive for both Nintendo and consumers.

You guys know why your consoles over time get larger HDDs thrown in them? Launch PS4s came with 500GB HDDs, and now the default is 1TB. They’re not trying to maintain an inflated price. It’s actually the opposite - it’s cheaper for them to use larger storage as time goes on and production of the smaller drives stop. I’ll never forget how my original Xbox actualy came with a 20GB HDD because it was cheaper for MS than to buy 8GB HDDs that nobody made anymore, but was partitioned to only let me access 8GB because of uniform system specs.

[ShakeWell]

Originally Posted by ArugulaZ

Would it really be that hard to resurrect the GameCube architecture? Nintendo's been riding that pony for fifteen years, and abandoned it only two years ago for the Switch. I would definitely want a GameCube mini to run the games natively, as opposed to some naff Linux or Android hardware without the power to do the job properly. GameCube and Wii emulation exists, but it's not something some cheapy cheap Android box can handle.

As Phantoon mentioned, the chipset in the GC was custom for Nintendo. Justifying spinning that operation back up would be hard, if it was even possible, given that the NES Classic (the thing Nintendo couldn't keep on shelves) sold about 10% of what the Gamecube sold. There's no way a potential future GC Classic runs games natively.

[ArugulaZ]

Well, if it's not economically feasible to bring back the GC/Wii/Wii U hardware, and no current Android/Linux hardware can emulate the GameCube at full speed, there's no reason to attempt a GameCube Mini. I mean, unless you want it to be a flaming wreck like the Playstation Classic was.

[Phantoon]

Originally Posted by ArugulaZ

Well, if it's not economically feasible to bring back the GC/Wii/Wii U hardware, and no current Android/Linux hardware can emulate the GameCube at full speed, there's no reason to attempt a GameCube Mini. I mean, unless you want it to be a flaming wreck like the Playstation Classic was.

Which is why ShakeWell and i were talking about technical debt. It won't happen next year. Or the year after. It will eventually though, and it'll have the advantage that Nintendo know the hardware and won't have to find this stuff out the same way the Dolphin guys do.

There's no reason the PS Classic should be rubbish, the hardware is capable. It may be that putting a different emulator on it gets the performance back.

[ShakeWell]

It's hacked. Only one "new" game at a time currently, but I suspect it's only a matter of time before it's wide open.

[Phantoon]

As I understand it, it doesn't have much space left over from what's already on there, but you can remove the games (unlike the Nintendo classics) and there's almost certainly going to be a USB workaround.

This is one area where cartridges will retrospectively help the N64; the games are a lot smaller, so there will be less of an issue with this.

[ShakeWell]

But wait, there's more:


Apparently PBP files do work, and there's a way to get to the emulator menu without a keyboard.

[Phantoon]

We're going to have a Hackchi equivalent very soon, aren't we?

[ShakeWell]

Seems likely.

[ShakeWell]

More stuff with details on how to switch between PAL and NTSC, scanlines, filters, etc.