How does a GC CD work?

[VDDZ]

I've heard a lot of stuff, but what is true? Are GC CD's Mini DVD's? Are they there own secert type of cd? Are they written backwards? I know they don't spin backwards, I looked.

[Xcool]

To my knowlegde they are mini dvd
I haven't heard of them being written backwards
but i don't think they are written backwards
I think they are just written in a way that only the gamecube's frimware can read

[kougaiji]

i think they are just dvd in small size, which can be insert into NGC...
anyway they HAVE far less capacity

[Yeloazndevil]

the mini dvd's are made by panasonic. they are regular mini dvd's but with encyrption

[Clements]

They ARE Mini-DVDs and have ~1.5GB of data as a opposed to 4.7GB for a regular DVD. As GC discs are small (8cm diameter), the laser does not have to travel very far, and as a result, you don't have loading times of other CD/DVD based systems.

GC Mini-DVDs cannot be read by a PC drive (Nintendo did this a a piracy measure). The GC disk drive does not spin backwards.

[dpence]

i think they are just dvd in small size, which can be insert into NGC...
anyway they HAVE far less capacity

That doesn't mean a whole lot as the average PS2/Xbox game is only around 2gb anyways...Plus, due to the way the GC is designed, What others need 2gb of space to store, the GC can use far less space without losing quality...

[Chrono Archangel]

That doesn't mean a whole lot as the average PS2/Xbox game is only around 2gb anyways...Plus, due to the way the GC is designed, What others need 2gb of space to store, the GC can use far less space without losing quality...

well said. It's not because the PS2 an XBOX uses DVDs that they use the entire 4.7gb available. Ive never heard any software developping company complain that they cant make a game on the GC because the media doesnt have enough space

[Xinu0]

well said. It's not because the PS2 an XBOX uses DVDs that they use the entire 4.7gb available. Ive never heard any software developping company complain that they cant make a game on the GC because the media doesnt have enough space
Yeah....They complain because of lack of graphiccal power. :p


:j/k:

[Chrono Archangel]

Yeah....They complain because of lack of graphiccal power. :p


:j/k:

:nono: you better be joking

[Xinu0]

:nono: you better be joking
I am, I am......
But I do wonder(Since I know nothing indepth about the consoles), why are some games only released for PS2 and Xbox and not GC? An example would be Splinter Cell(I think).

[Chrono Archangel]

I am, I am......
But I do wonder(Since I know nothing indepth about the consoles), why are some games only released for PS2 and Xbox and not GC? An example would be Splinter Cell(I think).

Beats me... Maybe its probably harder to make a game for GC or maybe because of the agreements they have with companies.

[kougaiji]

maybe ngc doesnt have a large market sale
so the cant expect the game to sell much

[Xinu0]

I doubt it, especially since the holidays when the sales or it rocketed(a la the $99 price). I thought of a few more that are not coming to GC-MX unleashed, May Payne2, Driver3, GTA3.

[dpence]

it's because of the misconception of GC being a Kiddie system. That and well..PS2 is biggest, so naturally they are going to try to get money out of that. And Xbox well it's very, very easy to port to, so Xbox versions are almost a freebie for them.

[madmonkeyboy]

maybe this has something to do with the way nintendo has treated 3rd party developers in the past?
i dont think user base is anything to do with this though as globally there is not much difference between xbox and gamecube.

[VDDZ]

Maybe sony is paying the game makers to not sell to Nintendo so that Sony can wipe them off the map. nah

How is the cd encyrpted? CAN a future DVD drive read a GCCD, or is it something that would be completly illagel to add to a PC DVD drive?

[GiGaHeRz]

I think that, even if it was readable by a normal dvd drive, you will have to decrypt the data by software, and i don't know of any GC-disk decrypter :P

[hushypushy]

well said. It's not because the PS2 an XBOX uses DVDs that they use the entire 4.7gb available. Ive never heard any software developping company complain that they cant make a game on the GC because the media doesnt have enough space

sorry to quote an old post...but i had to comment. chrono, i agree with what you said, just not 100%. some games do use the 4.7 GB, and even past it. good example: Metal Gear Solid: Substance. it's a dual layered disc, therefore it holds ~9.4 GB.

[Clements]

Most of that space on XBox/PS2 games is wasted with pointless uninteractive FMV clips (they take up a LOT of space).

1.5GB is enough for about 50 Ocarina of Time's, so is enough for any game.

[Chrono Archangel]

sorry to quote an old post...but i had to comment. chrono, i agree with what you said, just not 100%. some games do use the 4.7 GB, and even past it. good example: Metal Gear Solid: Substance. it's a dual layered disc, therefore it holds ~9.4 GB.

i never denied that. its the same thing for the GC. games like Enter The MAtrix use 2 mini-DVDs

[hushypushy]

well, alright. it's just that everyone is making it seem like the Mini DVD is not so small.

clements, yes of course 50 ocarina of times can fit on it, because it was on the original, quite small, N64 cartridge. of course, maybe this wouldnt be the case if nintendo had opted for CDs back then. maybe FF would still be on nintendo :p

[Chrono Archangel]

well, alright. it's just that everyone is making it seem like the Mini DVD is not so small.

clements, yes of course 50 ocarina of times can fit on it, because it was on the original, quite small, N64 cartridge. of course, maybe this wouldnt be the case if nintendo had opted for CDs back then. maybe FF would still be on nintendo :p

they are small compared to DVDs -_-....there just not THAT small. (most game could fit, even games that are release for all the other consoles except the gc)

I doubt that the reason FF isnt with Nintendo anymore is because of the cartidges used with the N64. I think Sony and Squaresoft made an agreement. Thats why now a completly different FF is beeing made on the GC

[Rosemon]

Square only made the agreement with Sony because of Nintendo's stubborn attitute regarding CDs. Secret of Mana was originally going to be a 'SNES CD' title, but had to become a regular SNES title after the idea was abandoned. When Square saw that the Nintendo 64 was still going to use cartridges, they told Nintendo exactly where to stick it and went to find another console.

After considering the Saturn, they eventually decided the PlayStation was where they should develop. Others followed, Square made deals with Sony and history was made.

[hushypushy]

chrono, most games can fit on a DVD. in fact, there are a bunch of PS2 games on CD. (yes that's true). however, would a game like MGS: substance be possible without dual layer DVD? maybe on 4 GC discs. you could put enter the matrix on 1 DVD....not 2 mini DVDs.

and could they have fit FF7 on a cartridge? definitely not (considering what they wanted to do)

[GiGaHeRz]

it's not easy to fit a 4cd game (pc version has 4 cds, not sure about psx one) into... 64mb max? (most n64 cartridges i've seen have 16 or 32mb roms), but you could fit it easily in a mini-dvd.

More realism means more data, and this data needs more space to ve saved, so you must find better ways of saving it.

Back to the topic: GC have "strange" discs to avoid piracy, but piracy would make them sell a lot more consoles and accessories and it seems that nintendo hasn't noticed that yet. ;)

[Chrono Archangel]

chrono, most games can fit on a DVD. in fact, there are a bunch of PS2 games on CD. (yes that's true). however, would a game like MGS: substance be possible without dual layer DVD? maybe on 4 GC discs. you could put enter the matrix on 1 DVD....not 2 mini DVDs.

and could they have fit FF7 on a cartridge? definitely not (considering what they wanted to do)

man......you are arguing me like I was denying that DVDs have more space -_-

Of course it would've been better if Nintendo had used CDs for the N64 and of course it would've been better if the GC used DVDs. But what im trying to say is that : even if they used media that had less space to work with, it doesnt mean that games cant be as good, as nice and as long.

all stop arguing also cuz we seem to be getting nowhere :lol:

[madmonkeyboy]

Back to the topic: GC have "strange" discs to avoid piracy, but piracy would make them sell a lot more consoles and accessories and it seems that nintendo hasn't noticed that yet. ;)???????????????
do you know that most consoles are sold at a loss?
they are sold in the knoledge that the games will earn the manufacturer money, therefore a system with pirated games makes NO MONEY, and as we all know, none of these companies are charities!
iirc sony had to lay off hundreds of jobs last year due to losses, blaming it mainly on PS2, which we all know is easy to pirate!
i.e. whats good for you, (v.cheep games) is not good for sony/m$/nintendo.

[hushypushy]

chrono...all im saying is that the gamecube DVDs suck. MGS:substance (my favorite PS2 game) would never have been able to be on GC. and that's not because of the crappy controller either ;)

[madmonkeyboy]

and whats wrong with games on multiple discs?

all the psx ff games were more than 1 disc, but i dont see people complaining about it! and if they made the fmv sections more compact, there wouldnt be such a problem anyway!

[VDDZ]

I think that only XBox was loseing money on the system...

So, a GCCD is just a mini-DVD with a crazy format that can not be read by a PC drive, but can be copyed 1-to-1.

[madmonkeyboy]

iirc nintendo was the only company making money from their consoles, and that was before the recent price cut! (i will try to find something about it to post)
btw does anyone know if GC can use double layerd mini-DVDs?

[hushypushy]

I think that only XBox was loseing money on the system...

well, when ALL systems come out they lose money. now, a few years later...i dont they are losing much money now...

[hbk0259]

hi i am new to gc emulation. i was wondering if gc disks are readable by dvd-roms

[n_w95482]

hi i am new to gc emulation. i was wondering if gc disks are readable by dvd-roms
GC Mini-DVDs cannot be read by a PC drive (Nintendo did this a a piracy measure)...
Does that answer your question? :p

[Sir Key]

@hushy i think the original xbox controller sucked bad... the gamecube controller fits me just great... ofcourse the ps2 controller is great too but they never tried inventing something new they sticked with the old one knowing everybody's fine with it but i tried playing some first person shooters with it and i think that's one little backdraw... anyways thats just opinions... everybody got his own and thats the beauty of it... btw i think it's good the gamecube discs have the encryption and all that stuff... i got 7 games atm and i'll be getting more... imo the gamecube and it's games are worth the money... the xbox games all come out for my pc too and playstation 2 emulation is growing steadily... soon i'll be able to play those games on the pc too (yeah ofcourse i got the original system and the games ;) :rolleyes: ) so the ony thing left for not missing some great games is the gamecube...

[ChaosCode]

You guys are a little off topic? :-p Might wanna close this one down before it become a AIM convo hehehe....

[VDDZ]

what does "atm" stand for?

@n_w****, you mean you can't play the cd, but you can make an image of it, right?

[Xinu0]

what does "atm" stand for?

@n_w****, you mean you can't play the cd, but you can make an image of it, right?
No! You can only make images of GC discs using the PSO hack. :rolleyes:

[RIVAL FORCE]

what does "atm" stand for?stands for 'at the moment'

[VDDZ]

thanks RF.

PSO? Arrr...google, here I come.

[Xinu0]

thanks RF.

PSO? Arrr...google, here I come.
PSO=Phantasy Star Online-a game
Here's a guide:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/1/61273

[scha]

Maybe sony is paying the game makers to not sell to Nintendo so that Sony can wipe them off the map. nah

They sure do... Rocketstar Games got HUGE amounts of money not to publish any GTA games to any console except sony's untill some date (think it was 1.1 2003).

Scha :D