Andre asks, Can a GameCube disc be dual-layered

like the PS2 or the Xbox discs?

Mike H. Says: GameCube discs can't be dual-layered

as the GameCube wasn't designed with the capability to read dual layered media.

WHY, who knows. The cost of adding dual-layer readability to the unit would have been

negligible, and the cost of dual layering the media would have been similarly small.

Rize Says: Perhaps variable focus lasers are more

susceptible to damage. Nintendo has always been good about product reliability (especially

since no one can buy games for a broken GameCube). In any case, Resident Evil Rebirth is

slated to occupy two discs, so it's not really a problem. You'll have to change the discs

one time (say half way through the game or so). It's not like they'll have you swapping

discs every five minutes, or whenever you try to backtrack. I'm sure all the game data

will be on both discs and only the FMV will differ from disc to disc.

TYP Says: I'm speaking with next to NO knowledge

of layering, but logic would suggest a double-sided GCN disk (not double-layered) would be

possible, though I've been told that would require a very small label in the center

(imagine the DVDs with wide-screen and standard sides). I guess that would be cheaper than

two separate disks, but developers probably don't want a virtually unlabeled disk...

Jonathan Says: Who cares? Now that the first

multi-disc game has been announced, we'll never have to listen to storage capacity gripes

again. So dual-layering is a non-issue, IMO.

InfectedPo asks, I was just wonder if the GBA price drop signifies a new type of GameBoy

Advance (maybe backlit) to come in the next year? What do you think?

WindyMan Says: Absolutely not. We're not going to

see a back-lit GBA for a long, long time. Nintendo has dropped the price of the GBC a few

times, and have we seen a backlit GBC at all? No sir.

Quite personally, I don't see any problem with the

current GBA screen's brightness. Only the first few games had problems, but now that

developers know about it, current games look much brighter now. Just learn to live with

what you've got.

Rize Says: I agree. Only the first crop of GBA

games really had a problem with light. That said, the GBA with it's many more colors does

pose a problem that the GBC didn't have. It is harder to see the GBA than the GBC

so perhaps Nintendo will release a deluxe GBA eventually. The main obstacle (other than

cost) is battery life. If Nintendo can defeat these (and invests the research costs to do

so) then maybe you'll see something eventually. I wouldn't get my hopes up though.

Dragona Says:

href="http://www.portablemonopoly.com">Fear me, for I represent your desires.

Billy Says: The GBA has been out for less than a

year. Nintendo will NOT be releasing a back lit version for a long time.

Do expect a lot of different colors this year. I expect

to see a pile of "colorific" GBA's to be unveiled at E3.

Mike H. Says: I'm not happy with the brightness.

I'm also not happy with the sore necks for twisting myself into a position where the wall

light brightens my GBA without a big, nasty glare.

A Franklin to the company that releases a commercially

viable GBA-to-TV converter. Yes I know it defeats the purpose of being portable, but I'd

rather have fun than neck cramps.

Olivier asks, I've seen some GameCube game reviews (on IGN for instance) where they

mention frame rates of 60 fps, but that the game does not support progressive scan. Is

this possible? I always though that 60 fps and progressive scan were meaning the same

thing.

Mike H. Says: Err... so did we. You can't see 60

frames per second on standard definition TV sets, so they ARE essentially one in the same.

This would be an IGN boo boo.

Rize Says: This isn't entirely true. F-Zero ran at 60 frames per second on the N64

and that certainly didn't involve progressive scan. This his how a regular TV displays

frames (an American or NTSC TV anyway). You get sixty "fields" per second, but

each field is not an entire frame. Each field is actually just the odd numbered or even

numbered lines. So you get alternating odd and even fields sixty times per second. I'm

pretty sure that the game still runs at 60 frames, you just get to see the odd and even

lines of each frame instead of the whole thing. This is why you can look closely at a TV

and see vertical lines "waving" from left to right as opposed to on a computer

monitor where straight lines remain perfectly straight. That said, a game that runs locked

at thirty seconds still looks very good, even on a progressive scan TV. The most important

way to make a games frame rate look good is to lock it in place (as long as it's 30 and

above). When the frame rate swings about wildly is when it's easiest to notice.

Rick Says: Ok, let's break this down.

NEVER use the acronym "FPS". It's too misleading. Here's why.

An NTSC television refreshes at 60Hz (think of this as a "pulse" of the picture

guns), interlaced. Every half a second, you see one FIELD of picture data. However, these

fields are interlaced, meaning that it skips a line. The remainder of that second, the

screen displays the other lines. It happens so fast, that your brain blurs it all together

to make one solid picture.

This "solid" picture that you see every second is a FRAME. A game running at 30

FRAMES per second is displaying the same FIELD twice every second.

In F-Zero for N64, the game ran at 60 FIELDS per second. Every interlaced field had new

picture data in it, and this creates a very smooth feeling to the motion. Again, your

brain blurs all of these interlaces fields together, and it seems very smooth and

responsive. It's particularly effective with low-resolution N64 games because it's not

trying to take advantage of the full screen resolution of a TV screen (which is

approximately 640x480), most N64 games ran at 320x240. Since it's only half the vertical

resolution, this introduces no flicker.

Flicker in games running at 60 FIELDS per second on a standard TV occurs because they are

running at high-resolution 640x480, so you are only seeing half of the picture data that

you could be seeing every half second. This creates a noticeable flicker, which is

apparent in games like Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee. There are ways to

mitigate this flickering effect, and SSBM uses one such method.

On a progressive scan (HDTV), the picture isn't interlaced. Every half a second, you see

the entire FIELD of picture data. Games that can run in progressive scan mode do not

flicker, because it's the interlacing combined with those two interlaced pictures being

different that causes flicker.

Thus, only a game running in progressive scan mode is capable of running at 60 FRAMES per

second. All interlaced games run at 60 FIELDS per second. This is why you can't use the

term FPS when talking about console games. No one would know if you're talking about

Fields or Frames (although we could probably figure it out).

There. Clear as mud, isn't it?

Daniel Says: The more you learn, the less you seem

to know. I have no clue what Rick just said.

Jonathan Says: I'm with Daniel, but here's

something I've heard before that might help:

It's true that you can only truly see 60 frames (or fields or whatever, Rick can correct

me) per second in progressive scan, but 60 fps (gasp!) in interlaced mode still looks

better and smoother than 30 fps in interlaced mode. That's why F-Zero X looks smoother

than any 30 fps game on the N64, even though the N64 doesn't support progressive scan at

all.

Mike H. Says: But where are we going to find 1.21

gigawatts of power to operate these racers at full-field?

Mark asks, Will developers figure out different ways to store information on GameCube

memory cards so that their games don't take up so much space? I have four games for my

GameCube so far, and my memory card is almost filled up (Pikmin takes 19!). That's just

crazy.

Mike H. Says: I think we all

certainly hope so! But that will be entirely up to the developers to do. I do hope they

respect the small size of these cards more in the future. I am on my second memory card

also.

In the meantime, the 3rd party memory cards with larger storage capacities are now coming

to market. We'll be running them through the hoops soon, so check back for reviews.

History has shown 3rd party cards to be crap, so here's hoping for some good luck.

Rize Says: Yeah, I'd wait a bit on the 3rd party

memory cards. At least Nintendo's memory cards are inexpensive in the mean time.

Dragona Says: Well there's a couple of options.

- Nintendo might release a bigger card.

- Developers start packing in a Memory Card, as part of a limited edition and/or the

memory cost is too high

- Nintendo finally releases the damn SD Card Adapter

The first one is bound to happen, the GC's manual makes a reference to "Memory Card

128". Supposedly it'll make an appearance soon too...

The second one has already come to fruition -- Biohazard will have an optional Memory Card

bundle -- and it will probably be a "limited" or special edition card at that.

Not bad for another 7$ USD or so.

The third... well let's just hope.

Billy Says: I can feel your pain. I have 4 memory

cards right now for use with both Japanese, and North American games.

There are a ton of huge memory cards coming from third parties which range from 8meg to

64meg. Then again in the past, third party memory cards aren't the most reliable in the

world.

Let's just hope Nintendo releases the SD Adapter. SOON.

Jonathan Says: I'll agree with what everyone else

has said here. Nintendo WILL release a bigger card some day, whether it's a normal one

with more blocks or the SD Card with save-game functionality. The other thing is to

include a card with a game that takes up a lot of blocks, which will hopefully become as

standard in America and Europe as it already is in Japan. It just makes sense...especially

because the cards are SO cheap, and will continue to get cheaper for Nintendo to make. And

with each game case having a card holder built in... it all works out perfectly. I'd like

to see games like Resident Evil have a special-edition memory card included, because if a

lot of games include their own cards, it's going to get hard to keep up with them unless

they have logos and such. It's not like anyone actually uses those write-on labels.

TriSpeed asks, a long time ago, there were reports that there were going to be 6

Zelda games for the Game Boy, 2 remakes of old games and 4 new games. The 4 new games were

supposed to be the three games Capcom made which turned into two, and the other was

unannounced. Do you know whatever happened to these?

Rize Says: Well, if you count Link's Awakening DX

as one of the remakes... I don't know where the other went. The original Zelda was remade

for the SNES Satelliview system in Japan, but never released here. That could be port

material for the GBA. The three Capcom games were cut down to two due to time constraints

and because of the complexity of making three games interact in meaningful ways. Finally,

I've never heard of this fourth Zelda. However, if we don't here anything about a new GBA

Zelda title at E3, I wouldn't expect to see one any time soon.

TYP Says: I've touched on this before in other

mailbags when talking about Zelda remakes/updates, so I guess I can say it again.

Capcom/Flagship was always hazy about the number of GBC Zelda games they were going to

make. They had planned on making 3 GBC Zelda games in the "Mysterious Acorn"

saga (changed to Oracle) and there was talk of a Zelda 1 remake... it may or may not have

been the third in the series. But whether or not they were one and the same, the third

"Mysterious Acorn" title and the Zelda 1 remake were scrapped. Nintendo and

Capcom claimed it was difficult enough to create two password-interlocked titles, so they

supposedly took the third title and incorporated bits and pieces into the first two. As

for the Zelda 1 remake, it was canned primarily because it was too hard to play on such a

small screen. Whereas Mario titles could be finessed to run on a smaller screen (due to

their scrolling nature), the original Zelda's room layouts proved impossible on the

smaller screen: players often couldn't tell where to go or what to do... So it was

canceled. You may have recognized updated versions of Zelda 1 bosses in Oracle of Seasons,

and I propose these are leftovers from the Zelda 1 remake.

Dragona Says: Heh, AGB Zelda? You don't say...

Well remember, there was an old AGB hardware demo that featured a souped up Zelda II, to

show off the different effects.

I wonder what became of that... Heheheh.

Billy Says: Remakes? Please no.

I wouldn't doubt we'll see Zelda 1 brought back to the GBA, as long as they do these two

simple things.

1. Add a lot of extra, NEW things to the games. New dungeons, monsters, etc.

2. Really upgrade the graphics.

This would probably be a welcomed addition for a lot of people who haven't played the

first Zelda Adventure, but it will get blasted by veterans if there isn't a lot of new

stuff added.

Jonathan Says: I remember reading somewhere that

some guy Flagship had totally ported the first Zelda to GBC... but it was unplayable

because of the screen proportions. (You couldn't see doors in the dungeons, etc.) So maybe

that's the missing one?

Da Agent's speech begins: I'm writing to criticize, analyze, and fantasize (or

should I say, Phantasize?) about the future and past of RPGs on the GameCube, and

Nintendo's systems in general. With all the talk of "Secret RPGs" and TBAs and

TBDs it's hard to know what is really real, and what's vaporware (excuse my Canadian).

First of all, let's get the worst over with, and start with SquareSoft. When I was first

exposed to Final Fantasy, it was the third incarnation to be released in North Am. on the

Super NES. It felt like I was playing a game especially made for hardcore gamers, it used

a language that only the truly nerdy could ever have the patience to learn and understand,

while 'normal people' would be asking questions like "Why do the characters attack

from so far away?" "Who's Fenix, and why is he Down?" "Antdot? You

make a dot the size of an ant?". The way the real-time battle system was set up, it

felt like the game was almost too good for me. Now these days, it seems there's none of

that left. They've taken out the quirks that only gamers could understand and appreciate,

broken all their traditions (e.g. the two-bar intro to the battle music, moogles, allowing

each class a range of items to equip, as opposed to restricting each character to a single

type of weapon, armor, accessory, &c.). In short, they've dumbed it down for the

non-gamers, the commercial-watchers and movie-goers. Final Fantasy just doesn't feel like

the high-class game it once was, and I'd rather have the companies currently working on

GameCube RPGs, than trade any of them away for SquareSoft. But wait, there is still some

hope for any of you 'cube owning Square fans out there. If SquareSoft really wanted to

develop a game for the GCN, they could develop most (read: all) of the game, using the GCN

dev kits that they have, telling the general public (and the 20% of them owned by Sony)

that it's for the PS2, then arrange to suddenly 'cancel' it at the last minute and have

another company (BB perhaps?) pick up the project, publish it, market, and distribute it

on GameCube, paying Square most all of the profits, while keeping a fair amount for

themselves. Of course, things tend never to be fair, and covert insider operations are

rarely, if ever, successful, so don't keep your hopes up.

On to a lighter note, we've heard many things about Camelot and Brownie Brown

working on "secret GameCube RPGs." What everyone wants to know is, what are

they, and when will we get them? I have a few theories. First of all, is something that's

been mentioned already before - Camelot's project is most likely a GCN sequel to Golden

Sun, which will continue from the GBA version by allowing the player to upload their save

through the Cubelink Advance cable. I believe that is why their next GBA Golden Sun game,

the Lost Age, isn't directly continuing the story from the first chapter. With Brownie

Brown, though it could be anything from another Magical Vacation game, to something

completely different. My guess is, as they seemingly started development of the GCN game

in the middle of developing Magical Vacation, it's a sequel to MV that may or may not

connect the GBA game. There is a small possibility that they were allowed to take the

franchise "Seiken Densetsu" (Secret of Mana here) with them, so they might be

planning something around that, too.

Let me say something extremely obvious here: Nintendo has been very friendly with Capcom

during the past months, almost even more so than with Camelot. There's a good possibility

that Capcom could be in the planning stages for Breath of Fire 5 on the GCN, but I'd say

there's probably a better chance of seeing a Mega Man Battle Network-compatible game rise

into the news before the end of the year.

Now here's my nuke: Phantasy Star V. This is all just pure speculation, but I

think if Sonic Team were to make Phantasy Star V a GameCube RPG, it would tilt the gaming

world on it's side (and hopefully crush Sony under the weight, heh heh). Now there is a

real, high-class RPG. It's got all of the gaming quirks (foi, sashu, and Gizan are names

for spells, and they follow their own naming rules), the high difficulty, and yet the

battle system is so fun you'll actually want to level-up and hang around certain parts. I

think Phantasy Star 2 was the most 'high-class' of them all in this respect, and I keep

going back to it, despite the fact that I have to start over each time, and go through all

the beginning areas. I hope Phantasy Star V, if made, would follow the battle system of II

(80s anime style, on maybe a wireframe background?), perhaps throwing in a real-time

element, too. There are so many questions left unanswered in the Phantasy Star series,

it's far from over. Are Numans a regular species, or are they always artificially created?

Will the people have to rebuild Palma in order to fix the seal, or will it completely

break as the Algol system finally dies? How do the Earth and the 'Great Light' come into

play?

I'll finish with some questions that maybe you could answer better than I could:

Harvest Moon 3... We've heard about the announcement of this game for the GCN.

Theoretically speaking, when would it arrive in North Am if Natsume had started planning

it halfway through the development of Save the Homeland?

Lufia GCN... Taito, Natsume, or Neverland Co.? It seems a contract had expired between two

of these companies, and the one that owns the franchise is debating whether or not to go

through with this game.

Intelligent Systems... Fire Emblem, Mario RPG, Wars. As a wars game has been released on

Game Boy Advance, with a Fire Emblem game on its way, will I.S. perhaps start planning

their next Mario-style, or Traditional RPG? Or will they turn to their puzzle games for a

change of pace?

WindyMan Says: The only way

Square is going to make games for Nintendo again is if it breaks down and develops

GameCube games. It painfully wants to develop GBA games, but Nintendo won't allow it until

it agrees to make GCN games. There are about 20 other factors of course, but that's what

it boils down to.

Now let us never make silly speculations on SquareSoft again.

As for Camelot, it's obvious something related (if not, a sequel) to Golden Sun is coming

GameCube's way. The commercial for GS said that it was "the first chapter" of

the game, and when you beat it, it asks for a final save, which is a bit suspicious for a

GBA game if you ask me.

Jonathan Says: Your speculations on Square for

GameCube and Brownie Brown still having the rights to Seiken Densetsu are ridiculous, but

I agree with everything else you said. I don't want Final Fantasy to go back to having

characters attack from across the screen or spelling items like "Antdot", but

there is definitely a visceral, hardcore essence that was siphoned away during the

franchise's life on PSX. And, from what I've experienced of FFX on PS2, Square still

hasn't figured out how to bring back the magic. I would have never expected to get excited

about the online FFXI, but every new bit of info I see makes it look more and more like

one of the old-school Final Fantasies...except you can play it with your friends around

the world. Score. I've got my fingers crossed for that one, because be it online or

something equally outrageous, Final Fantasy needs some massive changes to avoid eternal

mediocrity.

I haven't even heard rumors of a Phantasy Star V, nor have I ever played a Phantasy Star

game (unfortunately), but who knows? Sonic Team is certainly all up in GameCube's ass, and

I can't wait to see what stuff they have to announce at this year's E3. Samba de GC?

PL3ASE!!!!!1

As for Intelligent Systems...their Fire Emblem game for GBA will be out soon, and I have

high hopes for that one to make it stateside. If it does, the inevitable Fire Emblem for

GameCube should also come to the States, and then we're in business for GameCube Wars,

etc. I hope.

Dragona Says: Oh K'Gara R'Hu, where do I

even begin..? *Sighs* At the beginning I suppose.

Ah, SquareSoft: King of Mainstream RPGs. I'll have to remind you that FFVI is far from a

"hardcore gamer's RPG". In fact it is entirely the opposite, it was the first

RPG from Square designed to feel and act like a movie. Its intent was to draw more casual

gamers. Guess what? It worked. Smashingly. As for all of those "nerdy"

references, I'll remind you that for English Translation, the programmers had less room,

and more characters to fit onto the screen. The Japanese Alphabet does not consist of

singular "letters" but rather phonetic sounds. Thus, you'll have characters that

stand for "Ka", "Ku", "Ki"... This essentially saves a

"letter's" space on the menu screen or whatnot. This is why you see "Fenix

Down" instead of "Phoenix Down", which even then was an obvious reference

to the Phoenix's legendary power of rebirth. Antdot? The same deal I'm afraid.

As for your rant about "forgetting all of the traditions"... You're wrong there.

Ever since FFVI, Square has been seeking to bring a more story-line based approach to its

games, more cinematic. This is no huge change. The ancient ATB (the "real-time"

gameplay) finally wheezed its last breath for FFIX. FFX borrowed much from Grandia (which

is the better game by far), it is true, but it ultimately played better than the dying

Active Time Battle system.

I'll also remind you that Final Fantasy was never "high class". It is a child's

game. If you're looking for something above a grade school level in terms of quality,

you'll have to look to for the Fire Emblems, Romancing Three Kingdoms and Valkyrie

Profiles of the world. The kanji used in all FFs hovers at about the 6th grade

level. Hardly the makings of classic literature.

As for your "theory" could you be reaching any more? Secretly using GC Devkits?

What, are you bloody mad? Aisha.

On Camelot: Golden Sun Cube has been confirmed ages ago. No speculation required there.

None of the team members of Brownie Brown have any rights to the name "Seiken

Densetsu" whatsoever. They were only founded by ex-Square members. It isn't like

the entire Seiken team up and left. Even then, the name is copyright Square CO.,

LTD.

Rockman.EXE has a GC in the game. You make the connection. Breath of Fire?

Heh... I can't talk about that right now. Sorry.

If you recall the ending of PSIV, you'll remember that pretty much ends the threat

of "Dark Force" since "The Profound Darkness" which kept reviving it

was destroyed as well. While PSV would be greatly appreciated, don't hold your breath.

We'll get a release date on HM3 for GC sometime around E3. It could possibly be a

retooled StH port, much like Harvest Moon: Back To Nature was essentially

the same basic game as the N64 original.

Erm, Estpolis: Gaiden is still in development for AGB. I don't know what you're

talking about concerning contract expirations. NeverLand CO. is also rumored to finally

bring the franchise back to consoles.

Finally, concerning your ideas on IS, let's just wait and see. You might be rather

surprised.

I can't believe you chose to forget about Enix, Game Arts, Quest, Chunsoft, tri-Ace,

Monolith, KCET to name a few. If you're going to talk RPG/SRPGs, you can't leave them out.

You didn't even mention the great fairy godmother of them all: Dragon Quest!