How the Gamecube Works

The Nintendo Gamecube, previous to the release of the Wii, was Nintendo's flagship video game console. While some have argued that the Gamecube does not have the technical power of systems like the X-Box or the Playstation, it remains a system highly efficient at processing polygons.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Understand what's inside the Gamecube. The main processor is a 485 MHz IBM "Gekko" PowerPC CPU, which means that the Gamecube can process many kilobytes of information per second. The front-side bus, connecting the CPU to the memory controller hub, can process over one gigabyte per second. In layman's terms, this means the Gamecube offers high performance without having to slow down a lot to load things.

2. Examine the graphics processor. The ATI 162 MHz "Flipper" chip can produce over 12,000,000 polygons per second, and 648 megapixels per second. In layman's terms, the graphical power is easily dozens of times better than Nintendo's previous system, allowing for complicated, detailed, polygon-based graphics to be rendered on screen with little loading time, and the animations appear smooth.

3. Press down on the "Open" button atop the Gamecube to open the lid. Insert the game disc and close the lid. Turning on the Gamecube will cause it to read the disc like a CD-Rom. The Gamecube was Nintendo's first departure from the cartridge-based systems to a disc-reading system.

4. Look at the controllers. Once plugged into the main system console, the controllers are how the user interacts with the gamecube. In addition to the standard directional pad, joystick, and topside buttons, the gamecube controller also has frontside buttons that are pressed with the fingers.

Resources

• Gamecube on Wikipedia

[jhbroge]

on 12/4/2008 Interesting!