I got a gamecube today, with Metroid Prime, Tony Hawk 3 and the Zelda 4-game disc!
I’d always thought that nintendo decided to use a completely different kind of disc to discourage pirates. But just now I saw a mini-cd of mine sitting next to my GC. I slipped it in, and it looked just about right.
So, that’s it? It’s just a mini-cd?
Now, I’m sure that it couldn’t hold all of that data, if it were actually a compact disc. But is this of any value to pirates?
thanks.
Actually, the GC’s disc is a mini-DVD, not CD. This means it can hold 1.5 gigs as opposed to 650 megs. As for the rest of your question, I’ll let someone else fill in.
In addition to it being a DVD (and being smaller, I’m not sure you can buy DVD R’s that size. It also spins backwards. I think that would thwart most people, but I can’t imagine it would take much to put a different motor in a DVD reader/writer and do any other needed modifications to make it work.
These guys say you can read a GameCube disc in a DVD-ROM, but I haven’t been able to do it.
AFAIK, the motor spins the same direction as a regular DVD drive, but the data is recorded from the outside to the inside (like the second layer of a regular DVD).
Yes, you can, but that’s not how people are pirating GameCube games.
Those guys were ripping worthless junk data.
From what I’ve read, and without going into specific detail, GC piracy works via a complex, kludgy, process that I’ve never seen on a console. A certain game has a bug in it that, when properly exploited, allows the GC broadband adapter to pull disc images over a LAN off your computer’s hard drive. Due to bandwidth limitations of the broadband adapter, I’ve read that many games don’t play right, or at all. The games are ripped to the hard drive via a similar process: rip from the Cube and send it over the LAN to the computer.
Gamecube games are definitely overpriced here in the UK (£40 each) but that is no excuse to condone piracy.
Piracy put paid to On Digital and the Dreamcast, now developers are dropping the Gamecube like hot potatoes.
Please let honest consumers enjoy their systems.
Hey, what’s with the accusations, Disgusting cocktail of childhood beverages? I’m not planning on pirating any software. I’m just curious about how the cube works.
Hey, nobody said they wanted to do it. The OP pretty much just asked if it was possible.
Developers aren’t dropping the GC because of piracy. This hack is pretty new; developers were leaving before it was even discovered. In fact, I seriously doubt that most people are even doing it. Like I said, it’s a kludgy hack and some games just don’t work. Plus, you need an original copy of the exploitable game and a BB adapter - over $100 total. It would be cheaper and more effective (and has been for quite some time) to rig an Xbox or a PS2.
FWIW, I have a GameCube and $300 worth of purchased games, none of which are the exploitable game, and no broadband adapter. I have no plans to buy either. I just find fascinating the lengths people go to and the techniques they use to get stuff for free.
Also, it should be noted that the Dreamcast commercials were pretty much gone from television by the time people figured out how to pirate the games, suggesting that the system was already on its way out.
Apologies… Nothing personal…
No hard feelings here, MML.
And thanks for the responses, everybody.
Huh? Did they stop making Gamecube or something? Did it go the way of the Dreamcast?
They stopped production earlier this year, as there were being made at a rate faster then they were selling (this was by no means intended to be permanent). Anyways, they restarted production a couple months ago after the Nintendo lowered the price of the GameCube to 99 dollars and as a result, sales were through the roof. For the last 2 months, GameCube has been consistently outselling Xbox and coming very close to the PS2 (though it did surpass it for a couple weeks even). It seems the $99 was the magic number.
*as they were being made at a faster rate…
Well, that’s what most people assume. Gamecubes have actually raised in sales 130% since Thanksgiving. They’ve probably restarted production by this point. Nintendo themselves have officially said that they’re planning something big by first quarter 2004, thus the halt on production. Whether or not anyone believes that is another story.
– Shawn K.