Hidden intro screens. Controllers that don’t exist. Dolphins. The GameCube has quite the collection of secrets and easter eggs
This post was first shared in 2014. In the lead up to the GameCube’s 20th anniversary, we’ll be pulling some of our favourite older pieces out of the Kotaku Australia archives.
Did You Know Gaming’s latest video takes a look at the venerable Nintendo GameCube, which turns 13 years old this year. And, like pretty much every other game system, it’s far from just a receptacle for great games — it’s a device with its own little interesting story. After all, a lot of things can happen in four years’ development time.
Have a look:
In case you can’t watch the video, here are some of the more fascinating pieces of trivia:
- The GameCube’s development codename was Dolphin, and this is referenced in several of its games: for example in Super Mario Sunshine, which takes place on Isle Delfino, and Pikmin, where Olimar’s spaceship is called Dolphin.
- Nintendo actually patented and developed a motion controller for the GameCube — Rogue Squadron series developer Factor 5 even experimented with implementing it in their games. Obviously, the controller was scrapped.
- Before it was released, Nintendo showed off the GameCube’s graphical capabilities in several tech demos. One of them was an animated 3D music video featuring several Pokémon, including an electric guitar-wielding Meowth. Some people took this as a hint that a new Pokémon game would be coming, and they were proven right, eventually, with the release of Pokémon Colosseum in November 2003 (or March 2004 in the ‘States).
- The GameCube was the first Nintendo console not to launch with a game that had Mario as the protagonist — however, it did launch with a Mario franchise game, in the form of Luigi’s Mansion.
- There were two alternate intro screens for the GameCube: one was accessed by holding the Z button on the controller, and the other by plugging in three other controllers and holding the Z button on all of them.
- The texture used by the GameCube logo on the intro screen is actually the same shiny metal texture used by every game on the system.
Comments
12 responses to “The GameCube’s Secrets, Revealed”
In case you can’t watch the video…
Thank you for catching on.
I don’t understand what this one means. Like, is there some texture library that all the games have to use, or…?
This intrests me also. Does GC have to use certain texture formats?
Maybe it was a built in texture they could use or was part of a bunch of textures that were supplied with dev kits.
There’s probably a bunch of stock textures in the system.
Ah. After watching, what this should say is:
“… the same texture used for every shiny object (and the N64 logo) in Ocarina of Time & Majora’s Mask.”
Edit: I incorrectly paraphrased. Changed to use actual words.
That… is way off the mark. Who the hell managed to interpret that into what we got written above??
Cheers for the clear-up.
I think the guy means all 1st party games. I’d very much doubt every single cube game uses the one map for chrome effects.
its the same texture used for reflective objects in 2 (not all) nintendo games. Ocarina of time and Majoras mask on the N64. its just the texture mapped to the surface of the object.
I’m surprised that they didn’t mention the 3D-capable hardware on the GC, which Nintendo never went ahead with due to the cost of 3D screens at the time.
Holy crap, a bullet point list! Thank you BasedAndras.
was most impressed by the menu screen ambient music, being a slowed down version of the famicon insert disc music.