Well, I’m glad my expectations for Nintendo at GDC were quite low. I thought they were fairly low key last year but they’ve outdone themselves this year. No booth on the expo floor, no private suite (like they had last year), and only 1 lecture about the GameCube. In fact, Nintendo’s main presence is in the form of the picture of a GameCube (“The Real Future of Gaming”) on the bag that is given to all registered attendees and the Gameboy Advance/GameCube promo poster found inside the bag. Yes, it’s pretty cool, but it hardly qualifies as any real presence at the conference.

The one lecture about GameCube came courtesy of Thomas Engel (Factor 5) about the GameCube’s audio sub-system. The highlights of the lecture were the various demos that showed off some of the system’s capabilities. Unfortunately, my audio of the lecture sounds like crap but I believe Matt and Fran were able to get something. There are some things to consider when listening to the demos, too. First, the acoustics and speakers in the meeting room were pretty poor. Part of the reason Thomas sounds so bad on my recording is because the sound in the room was hardly stellar, though the demos sounded pretty cool despite these shortcomings. Second, the demos were actually created before Spaceworld so the audio wizards at Factor 5 should be doing even better stuff now. Third, the demos were done in real-time without using much of the processor so you can fully expect to hear audio of this quality (and probably better) during actual game play.

Throughout the lecture, I was taunted by a prototype GameCube controller which Thomas occasionally used to change the sound in the demo. It sat on the table about 10 feet away from me, daring me to pick it up. Unfortunately, my “professionalism” kept from just leaping up and grabbing the controller so I could fondle it for a few seconds before being brutally beaten and dragged away by the undercover Nintendo police. Ah well, such is life. By the way, the controller was a prototype because the Z button was pretty much a small spec, just barely qualifying to be classified as a button. It seems like Factor 5 got the controller just after the decision was made to include the Z button. Also, the length of the prongs is still subject to change.

That’s about it for Nintendo coverage...I’ll be back later for those interested in the other parts of GDC (i.e. the game developer parts) and I’ve got a few other stories that might help pass the time before May 16th. Check back over the weekend.