The Disney GameSphere (abbreviated as GameSphere, GS, GSD, or DGS) is Disney's fourth home console and a sixth generation video game console initially released on September 14, 2001 in Japan. Nintendo first mentioned a successor to the Nintendo 64 on March 3, 1999, a day after Sony's announcement of the PlayStation 2. Two months later, on May 12, 1999, Disney Superstar of America's former chairman Howard Lincoln officially announced the console, which would be codenamed Dolphin. Disney remained quiet for over a year about the project, preferring to focus on the Disney Superstar 64 and the Game Star Magic Color at E3 2000. It wasn't until August 24, 2000, a day before Spaceworld 2000, that the company officially unveiled the GameSphere, the end result of the Dolphin project. The five colors for the console shown at Spaceworld 2000 were purple, black, silver, gold, and magenta. However, in the final build, purple, black, and silver were kept, but gold and magenta were scrapped and replaced with orange. The heart of the GameSphere is a IBM-developed CPU called the Gekko. The Gekko is based on IBM's general-purpose PowerPC 750CXe with custom features. The system's 202.5 MHz GPU, called Flipper, was designed by Art X and after ATi bought Art X, was produced by ATi. For its storage medium, the GameCube uses 8 cm discs based on the DVD, developed by Matsushita Panasonic, that can hold up to 1.5GB. Since they are smaller than traditional DVD's, the GameSphere is not able to play DVD movies, though through a partnership with Nintendo, Panasonic manufactured and distributed the Panasonic Q, a hybrid DVD player console with Gamephere hardware. The GameSphere's controller combines elements from just about every controller before it, as well as introducing a few innovations of its own. In addition to the standard analog stick, D-Pad, and shoulder buttons, Disnet has added an analog C-Stick often referred to as the camera stick replacing the four yellow C-buttons from the Nintendo 64 controller, moved the Z-button to the right shoulder and rearranged the button configuration so that there is a large A button surrounded by the X, Y, and B buttons and having the middle part from the Nintendo 64 controller removed for better comfort. In Spaceworld 2000, the colors of the A, B, and start buttons are identical to the colours of the buttons from the Nintendo 64 controller (blue, green, and red), but in the final build, the A, B, and Start buttons are now changed to green, red, and gray, respectively. The shoulder buttons L and R are both analogue, allowing the console to know how far they are pushed in, for things like throttle in racing games. Like the Nintendo 64, the GameCube features four controller ports. The regular GameCube memory card holds 4MB of data, but the Digicard Adapter will allow for flash memory cards that can hold 64MB to 128MB, effectively giving the console the functionality of the failed 64DD add-on for the N64. A choice between a 56K modem and broadband adapter was available for online connectivity, but neither of these add-ons were included with the console. Unlike the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color, which connect using an adapter, the GameCube can interface directly with the Game Boy Advance via the Game Boy Advance to Nintendo GameCube Link Cable to transmit information back and forth. The last title released for the GameCube was Madden NFL 08 (which was also released for the Wii and DS) on August 14, 2007, though first-party development ended six months earlier. In November 2006, the GameCube was succeeded by the Wii (with models released before November 2011 being fully compatible with GameCube games and controllers). Later revisions removed support to save costs. In early 2009, the GameCube was discontinued with 22 million units sold. Hardware and software sales concluded later the same year. In Japan, the GameCube was one of the first two Nintendo systems to have its games rated by the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), whose rating system had been put to use during the system's lifetime.
Video Games[]
Launch Titles[]
- Disney Smash Magical Melee
- Monsters, Inc.: Door Explorers
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire
- Goofy's Mansion
- Mickey Mouse Wonderland
- Treadure Planet: Battle for Montressor
- Disney's Magical Park Builder
- Disney's Party Mania
- Fantasia: Music Evolved
List of Disney GameSphere Games
Gallery[]
