Topic: Can you still buy old Gamecubes, new? (Re: Progressive Scan/Component Cables)

[DEO3]

I recently purchased a rear projection HDTV and am planning on picking up a GC in a week or so to compliment my PS2. I purchased my PS2 a few months before the Gamecube and Xbox came out and have been relatively happy with the available games, and as such, I never really bothered looking into either the Gamecube or the Xbox.

But lately I've grown bored with the same ol' same ol', everytime I play a new game I get this feeling I've already played it before, and so I've been looking for something fresh. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the Xbox offers nothing that interests me which I couldn't find on either my PS2 or my PC, whereas the the Gamecube seems like just what the doctor ordered.

But!

As I mentioned in my first paragraph I recently purchased a rear projection HDTV, and naturaly would like to have the ability to play my games in progressive. So my question is this, is it still possible to find the old model Gamecubes in stores which have the component cable port, or am I going to have to pick up a used/refurbished system in order to have that capability?

(And yes, I know I'll need to purchase the cable through Nintendo's online store.)  

[DrZoidberg]

Possibly, depends if stores have sold through their reserves of GCN's with the port or not, My advice is to hit up a bunch of stores and flat out ask them if they have it, you could strike lucky. Try less popular stores or smaller towns near by where things would generally sell less.

[Rancid Planet]

Yeah it'll be tough. After the GCN price dropped to 99.99 and the system shortage that followed for the next couple weeks occured, it probably ate up most of the original systems that stores still had.

[KDR_11k]

The port was dropped a bit later AFAIK...

[mjbd]

I dont have an HDTV, but I still think its bogus that nintendo decided to scrap the port.  It couldnt have saved them much $$$.  I realize that less than 2% of gamecube owners use the port, but HDTV's are getting more popular, so the feature may be more valuable down the road than it is today.  

[DEO3]

Well I visited a local Circuit City earlier today and they still have 001 models on the floor. I was looking into getting the Metroid bundle but unfortunatley all those systems are 101 models, so it looks like I'll have to buy my Gamecube and Metroid Prime seperate.

[UncleBob]

Yeah, it's kinda like removing the A/V ports from the Top Loader NES... I'd like to pick one up, but without the A/V jacks, the picture quality is just horrible...

[MaleficentOgre]

you can send your system (i think it has to be unopened) to nintendo and they'll give you a different model if you ask them.

[UncleBob]

Unfortuatly, I believe they send you a refurbished 'cube.

[MaleficentOgre]

oh, I didn't know that.  Hey, at least you can run metroid Prime 2 with optimum prettiness.  Doesn't matter to me, my tv would make doom 3 look bad.

[tacojohn]

Yeah- I have a 15" Samsung TFT TV with component inputs. Right now I'm just using the AV cables, but if I got the component cables how big of a difference does it make?

Will it stop some of the edges/colors from bleeding?

[Ian Sane]

The removal of the port always bugged me mostly because it shows how out-of-touch Nintendo is.  They claimed only 2% of Cube owners used the port yet they didn't release the cable in stores and they didn't promote it and they didn't allow third parties to make their own cables.  It's probably fair to say that only 5% of Cube owners even knew of the cable's existence.  In that case 2% is pretty good.  If you make the fans jump through hoops for a product that product is going to bomb.  That's just how it is.

Fortunately there's rumours that the Revolution will have PC monitor support right out of the box so perhaps Nintendo has learned from this.

[Lost101]

I pretty much agree with everything Ian Sane said.  But I think Nintendo shouldnt have bothered with the port in the first place, right now it looks more bad for Nintendo to take away a feature they already had than to never have it in the first place.  Besides, is the difference that large even if you do have an HDTV (enough to spend time and money buying a cable?).