Why a Cube?

Thank goodness it wasn't GameSphere...

...or else I'd lose it all the time!

The most striking thing about the GameCube is its shape - hence the name. However, given the appearance of the previous systems of both Nintendo and the competition, it is a striking contrast. How did Nintendo decide on this bold move? Why did they do so? I determined to find out why.

I knew already that the Nintendo GameCube started life as Project Dolphin - a fact referenced in Super Mario Sunshine's own Isle Delfino. Oddly enough, the first IGN article indicated that Nintendo's new console would top the PS2 in terms of graphics. I'm not sure how well they knew the PlayStation 2, but owning to their experiences with the SNES and the original PlayStation project, I'm sure Nintendo had a little bit more than just a random guess.

Still, that didn't tell me what I wanted to know. It was called "Project Dolphin," but the end product was a small cube-shaped gaming console. When or where did they decide the shape?

My first instinct was to check the issue of Nintendo Power I had on my shelf - however, I only had back to 2004. I tried searching for issues online to no avail. Then I remembered the Wayback Machine! Surely the archived pages of Nintendo's own website would have something?

I learned a few interesting things. On the feature page for Spaceworld 2000, Nintendo.com featured this paragraph in particular:

Instead of going for the highest possible performance, which does not contribute to software development, our idea was to create a developer-friendly next generation TV game machine that maintained above-standard capabilities.

As of late, Nintendo isn't known for out-powering the competition in terms of processing and graphical power. It's interesting to see that this strategy was intentional, at least for the Nintendo GameCube. This particular page indicates that the 'Cube was designed to counter the difficult of programming that came with its predecessor, the N64. Nice to know, but it still didn't answer my question!

Finally, on a FAQ for E3 2001, I managed to find some solid information. First, in response to the question "What is the size of the NINTENDO GAMECUBE system?" the page replies that it is small for the sake of "giving players more freedom to place the system where they most want it to go." Additionally, when answering a question about the proprietary discs, it is noted that "[GCN] discs are small enough to allow for the console's extremely compact dimensions while building in a layer of counterfeit protection that isn't available on standard DVD."

With that page, I'm halfway to answering my question. It's small in order to save space and prevent piracy. (I've never looked into home-brew GCN stuff, so I don't actually know how well that worked out for them!) Yet, the PS1 update for Sony's system was a compact design, but not a regular geometric figure. In a last ditch effort, I did an image search for the insides of a GameCube.

Nice and compact

From the previous information and the picture, I'd finally arrived at my conclusion: the GameCube was that shape for two reasons. The first reason, given by Nintendo itself, was ostensibly for ease of storage and because of the disc format's small area. The second reason is apparent from the innards of the console itself: the cube is the smallest, box-like shape possible given the necessary components. Rectangles had been done for years before. A pyramid shape would be dangerous and most likely waste the space at the tip. Therefore, in order to make a unique system and still squeeze in all the guts, the Nintendo GameCube simply had to be a cube.

Thanks for reading!

(P.S. If you'd like to see a deconstruction of an actual GameCube, this page has pictures of a console being disassembled, with handy color coded labels to indicate varying components.)

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Works Cited/Referenced:
http://www.ign.com/articles/1999/05/05/say-hello-to-project-dolphin
http://web.archive.org/web/20001119232600/http://www.nintendo.com/spaceworld/ngc.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20010523001344/http://www.nintendo.com/news/news_articles.jsp?articleID=3921
http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/gamecube.htm