Nintendo GameCube Prototype Wiimote

[Shonumi]

Just thought I'd share this with the community: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/10/japanese-auction-reveals-nintendos-first-wii-remote-for-the-gamecube/

Would be interesting if this could be studied and somehow made to work with Dolphin, even though it was unreleased. I dunno if that realistically will ever happen, since the auction winner would have to be willing to reverse-engineer it (assuming all the hardware is functional) or let others help them do it. I can dream though, right?

Anyway, just posting this because it seems like something new and fascinating for some of us here.

[Admentus]

Well... Just wondering. There aren't any games in existence made for the GameCube with a Wii (or should I GameCube) Remote in mind, except for possible prototypes.

How could Dolphin benefit from a hardware extension that is not used in any title?

[Shonumi]

(10-29-2018, 01:15 AM)Admentus Wrote: How could Dolphin benefit from a hardware extension that is not used in any title?

The same way higan and no$sns benefitted from emulating the SNES-CD. It's the same idea: never released prototype with no official game software. Emulation for some people isn't strictly about playing games. Preserving video game history is one factor, and it's the motivation behind some emudevs, myself included. Finding out how it works and recreating that in Dolphin opens up the possibility of GameCube homebrew that could theoretically take advantage of these prototypes.

It's just a thought. At the very least, I'd want someone to look at how these prototypes work on a technical, low-level and document that. Too many times stuff like this gets put on a shelf somewhere and forgotten entirely.

[Admentus]

Hmm, yeah. I didn't consider that yet. Homebrew could indeed open a new world of possibilities if prototype hardware are properly documented and implemented.

Of course preservation is an important factor. It is just, if there is no use for it, even if it is meant for preservation, how could you possibly interact with it. And if you can not interact with it, what can you even do with it, besides having the gained knowledge? Perhaps not today, but future developments might open new possibilities for interaction.

Dolphin wouldn't be a complete GameCube emulator if it lacked hardware features... Hehe.

[JMC47]

Metroid Prime 3's GameCube Beta could likely use these based on the menu options.

[MayImilae]

This probably wasn't intended for retail GameCube units specifically, but for developers (internally, and trusted 2nd and 3rd party) with the GameCube Dev Kits could experiment with the accessory suuuper early. Like Metroid Prime 3 - Nintendo would suuuper want that on the new console, and Retro is trusted by Nintendo, so it totally makes sense that before the Wii hardware (and dev kit) was totally buttoned down, they'd send this to Retro to let them play with it and start thinking about how to design a game around this weird peripheral.

So in that sense, I don't think it's really "a Wii Remote for GameCube" per se, but more of a way to help in the transition. Hence it being extremely rare!

[wowfunhappy]

(10-30-2018, 07:25 AM)MayImilae Wrote: So in that sense, I don't think it's really "a Wii Remote for GameCube" per se, but more of a way to help in the transition. Hence it being extremely rare!

But, we do know the Wii Remote was originally slated to be a Gamecube accessory. So, I could see this particular piece of hardware being either.

[MayImilae]

That plan was changed very, very, very, early on, probably before any prototype was made. The GameCube didn't do very well, after all (the Nintendo Switch has already surpassed its sales despite only being out for 18 months!), so they had all the reasons in the world to make a new console.