Hardware There's no reason why the Wii U can't be compatible with gamec

[TripleSMoon]

Oh, brilliant idea! Why don't they include N64 cartridge slots too?

Come now, you and I both know that's a grossly ridiculous comparison. There's a huge difference between backwards compatibility for something that uses the same disc-based storage medium, and backwards compatibility for a different cartridge-based storage medium that would require a completely different slot to insert the cartridges into, which would clutter things up. With Gamecube, it's a matter of adding some internals, and that's it. The Wii uses the same disc drive for both Gamecube and Wii discs, and the Wii U presumably uses the same disc drive for both Wii U and Wii discs... so why not gamecube? The whole cost argument is very silly, especially when you consider the Gamecube is an 11 year old console that probably costs MUCH cheaper to make now than it did then. Asking for N64 compatibility on the Wii U is like asking for GBC/GBA compatibility on the 3DS... Asking for gamecube compatibility on the Wii U is like asking for original DS compatibility on Nintendo's next generation handheld (assuming it uses the same game-card-based storage medium)

All that said, it doesn't bother me THAT much since I have both gamecube and Wii. But it would be very nice to be able to need only one system for all 3 generations, rather than take up even MORE space on the shelf because the Wii U is arbitrarily incompatible with Gamecube discs

 

[Maxternal]

As far as hacking the Wii U, It may run Wii games in some sort of bubble so they can't see the rest of the hardware or something just in case but if you have a retail disk copy of Brawl, I don't see there being a good way they can avoid us using the Smash Stack and I'm sure there are other disk based hacks you could use to run devolution even if you couldn't actually install the HBC.

So how much longer until devolution is released for wii?

They've been asking that in the devolution thread like every day for a while now.
By his descriptions, though, it does seem that [member='tueidj'] is getting close.

 

[Taleweaver]

(note: numbers added for clarification)

1.Look at the early models of the playstation 3. It was backward compatible with both ps1 and ps2 games. The Wii U should be like that too. 2. It doesn't need the gamecube controller ports or the memory cards. They could have made the wii u pro controller work with the gamecube games. The games could save data internally to eliminate memory cards. And to transfer old save data, nintendo could have made an adaptor to plug gc memory cards into (I think there's one like that for the PS3). 3. And think about the possibilities if they had made the gamecube games work with the wii u gamepad. We'd essentially have a handheld gamecube! Man this would have been so awesome. 4. Why didn't nintendo do it? 5. Also do you guys think the Wii U will able to emulate gamecube games after it gets hacked?

1. In terms of price as well? No...didn't think so.
2. Why yes indeed. Throw them a couple million dollar in sponsorship for this feature, and they might consider it. I doubt they'll do it for free because other than a few handful GBAtempers, everyone either has forgotten about the gamecube or actually USES one (or a wii).
3. Yes...if you have a portable power generator. But then again, you already have a portable wii and portable wiiu as well (the latter one obviously only for games that are fully playable on that gamepad).
4. because they're not making any money on it (see also: answer 2).
5. no, absolutely not.



(note @everyone else: I'm just answering that last question as I did because the last thing I want is someone nagging the same "is it done yet? is it done yet?" question every freakin' day).

 

[TripleSMoon]

1. In terms of price as well? No...didn't think so.

You make valid points, but I kinda disagree with this one... I mean honestly, do you really think that PS1 compatibility is really responsible for THAT much of the launch price of the PS3, considering everything else it had? Heck, blu-ray players at the time were a couple hundred dollars alone. I highly doubt a glorified CD reader bumped the price up significantly.

 

[Pleng]

1. In terms of price as well? No...didn't think so.

You make valid points, but I kinda disagree with this one... I mean honestly, do you really think that PS1 compatibility is really responsible for THAT much of the launch price of the PS3, considering everything else it had? Heck, blu-ray players at the time were a couple hundred dollars alone. I highly doubt a glorified CD reader bumped the price up significantly.

Not PS1 compatibility, that was done in software (emulation). PS2 compatibility needed actual PS2 hardware so, yes, it did add to the launch price.

 

[TripleSMoon]

Not PS1 compatibility, that was done in software (emulation). PS2 compatibility needed actual PS2 hardware so, yes, it did add to the launch price.

I didn't say it didn't, I just said it didn't add SIGNIFICANTLY to the price.

 

[Pleng]

Not PS1 compatibility, that was done in software (emulation). PS2 compatibility needed actual PS2 hardware so, yes, it did add to the launch price.

I didn't say it didn't, I just said it didn't add SIGNIFICANTLY to the price.

you were talking about the DVD drive needing to be compatible with CDs to play PS1 games. No that doesn't add to the price; it's a feature of every DVD drive around.

Adding an entire PS2 inside the system of course added significantly to the price (hence why it was removed on later revisions)

 

[TripleSMoon]

you were talking about the DVD drive needing to be compatible with CDs to play PS1 games. No that doesn't add to the price; it's a feature of every DVD drive around.

Adding an entire PS2 inside the system of course added significantly to the price (hence why it was removed on later revisions)

point taken. But if you're following that, you can easily say that the Wii U should drop Wii compatibility for reasons of price. But it doesn't, it keeps wii compatibility and yet drops Gamecube compatibility.

 

[Pleng]

Not really. The Wii uses an OS. Games these days are coded to respect the OS. The WiiU should be able to fairly easily patch Wii OS calls to Wii U OS calls. The gamecube was around before the days of consoles using an OS.

 

[TripleSMoon]

Not really. The Wii uses an OS. Games these days are coded to respect the OS. The WiiU should be able to fairly easily patch Wii OS calls to Wii U OS calls. The gamecube was around before the days of consoles using an OS.

hm...

 

[TripleSMoon]

proclaiming that nintendo should be able to do something with A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PRODUCT than their competition is straight out retarded.

Except, they can. They definitely CAN do with their own product what a competitor does. Does this mean that they should or necessarily have to? Of course not. But to argue that they "just might not be able to" is ridiculous. Following that logic, you could easily argue that Apple "can't" implement flash in iOS, even though Android does. Of course, this would be ridiculous. Apple could very well design and enable flash just as well as Android does, but they choose not to.

Would enabling Gamecube compatibility drive up the price of the Wii U? Of course. Would it drive up the price too much? Maybe. Is it possible? Definitely. Saying otherwise is about as stupid as people who defend the 3DS's lack of second analog "because it just wouldn't work".

 

[tueidj]

Not really. The Wii uses an OS. Games these days are coded to respect the OS. The WiiU should be able to fairly easily patch Wii OS calls to Wii U OS calls. The gamecube was around before the days of consoles using an OS.

Wrong, wii games do not run on top of an OS (same as gamecube games).

 

[Maxternal]

It's interesting how people keep comparing it to PSOne, PS2, PS3 backward compatibility.
In that case there were much bigger differences in each generation as far as hardware goes. I'm assuming that's why later revisions of those consoles dropped reverse compatibility. Removing it actually dropped their cost significantly.
Even with the new Wii's that "can't" run gamecube games, they only saved money by not including the controller and memory card ports and using a cheaper drive that couldn't accept the smaller disks. The proc and GPU and even the motherboard remained the same (just solder on the GC ports and you're good)

The Wii being compatible with GameCube is because they both have PowerPC procs. The trick with adding GameCube mode was mostly just a case of adding a means of slowing it down and changing some memory addresses for some hardware if I understand correctly. ATI was also nice enough to make the GPU be an expansion of the previous one so the old GC GPU commands would still work (as [member=tueidj'] has nicely proven). In fact, I understand this video shows what happens when you just call the MIOS directly without going through the BC

Spoiler

Well, I will just leave this video here
[yt]GlzVpo5IPdM[/yt]

a little faster and maybe a bit glitchy but it still works.

Assuming Wii mode on a Wii U works about the same way, they can't drop the GC functionality out of the GPU because some Wii games might have used them. Devolution should be all it needs to run GC games.

They probably just tried to save a few bucks on the processor by not having to have a Wii mode AND a GC mode although I kinda wonder if that part really would have been so difficult. I almost think they may have saved more money on just not wiring in all the controller ports and stuff and making the drive not accept them.

 

[TripleSMoon]

They probably just tried to save a few bucks on the processor by not having to have a Wii mode AND a GC mode although I kinda wonder if that part really would have been so difficult. I almost think they may have saved more money on just not wiring in all the controller ports and stuff and making the drive not accept them.

Annnnndddddd maybe they just wanted to make a quick buck off Gamecube virtual console releases. -_-

 

[Maxternal]

I'm sure it won't be quite the same just to avoid people using a WODE on it but I'm curious how similar the disk drive will be.

If it were exactly the same, there's always the option of putting in a replacement drive to accept the mini-disks.

 

[TripleSMoon]

If it were exactly the same, there's always the option of putting in a replacement drive to accept the mini-disks.

Perhaps, but I think there's more hardware required for Gamecube compatibility than just a drive than can accept mini DVDs.

 

[Maxternal]

If it were exactly the same, there's always the option of putting in a replacement drive to accept the mini-disks.

Perhaps, but I think there's more hardware required for GameCube compatibility than just a drive than can accept mini DVDs.

Yeah, I was just saying in addition to everything else mentioned but by all means Devolution doesn't actually support real disk loading so there's kinda no point. It's a lot of work to replace the drive just to be able to dump the disks to a hard drive.

 

[BornInBlack]

The costs are likely to be higher for Wii U games, but so is the price. Ocarina Of Time wasn't $10 at launch, but it's $10 as a virtual console title. My concern is if they view digital distribution of GC games (and the framework needed to support them) as something that would get them enough of a net gain.

Hopefully they approach it the same as VC on the wii, wherein they covered up to the N64 - 2 gens back. I think they may still stick to this and do GC on Wii U but probably with starting out with very few titles which are sure-sells, again i doubt bandwidth/size will hold them back because they're offering day 1 digital downloads of retail games and we know that Wii U's discs are at least 25 GB capacity [obv. this space will not be fully utilized by every game] back on topic tho- I'll bet nintendo is at least willing to test the water with GC VC and if it works we'll see more

 

[Bryon15]

Check out this video of a portable gamecube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiUI08UITwc

It sure would've been nice to do that on the wii u gamepad.

 

[ov3rkill]

Maybe they will emulate GC games on Wii U soon, release it as part of the virtual console or something. That is of course if it will be feasible. Otherwise, will just have to wait for the scene to crack this baby up and probably run some homebrew emulators. Keeping the legacy console or having a Dolphin-capable PC is still the best way to play GC and Wii games.