Clearly there was a cost significance to this as otherwise Nintendo would not have removed it later on in the console's lifespan.
In fact, functionality was actually removed in later versions of the GameCube console too, which will not be compatible with the new wave of HDMI dongles.Īll of which raises the question of why Nintendo added a digital output to the original GameCube design in an era before HDMI existed and before there was any digital interface on the kind of consumer-level displays the console was likely to be attached to. On that second point, the Wii may have been based on similar hardware to the Cube, but the digital output was actually stripped out of its design. Secondly, it's worth stressing that these devices shouldn't be compared with the cheapo HDMI dongles that shipped for the Wii - those devices converted analogue to digital and scaled the image, while the GameCube adapters deliver a pure end-to-end digital signal. First of all, the only real alternative with a decent quality level is the astonishingly expensive Nintendo component cable. None of these options are cheap - the use of an FPGA precludes this - but they are worthwhile on two counts. These adapters range from $75 for the Insurrection Industries' Carby, up to the $150 for the Eon GCHD Mk2 I was sent for review, which offers a number of additional features. However, its existence has made the new wave of HDMI dongles for the Cube possible - the DAC itself has been reverse-engineered via an open source effort, and mapped onto an FPGA that now allows GameCube owners to hook up their consoles to modern screens via HDMI. Nintendo's component cable was never distributed that widely and now command prices of around $200-$300 on eBay. Indeed, the only use for the digital output - bizarrely - came from Nintendo's official component cable, which featured a built-in digital to analogue converter (DAC) for the most pristine image quality you could get from the hardware. Perhaps not surprisingly then, the digital AV output was barely utilised.
What's curious about this is that the only digital display interface with any kind of traction at the time would have been DVI, a standard for PC monitors and surely not Nintendo's target for the functionality built into the GameCube. PlayStation 3 would go on to be the first mainstream console to deliver a digital video output via HDMI, but the fact is that Nintendo built a similar pure digital output into the GameCube five years earlier.
A series of HDMI adapters for the machine are now available, delivering crystal-clear 480p, derived from a lossless digital signal that was mysteriously built into the GameCube hardware. But there are hints that Nintendo had further plans for its machine, ideas built into the design that were never fully utilised - until now. First released in Japan in September 2001, it offered a vast leap in 3D power compared to its predecessor - the Nintendo 64 - while at the same time delivering the whole package in a tiny form-factor. Nintendo's GameCube is a fascinating design - and an under-appreciated masterpiece of console technology.