Retro Gaming Australia

Today, May 17, marks the 10 year anniversary of the release of the Nintendo GameCube in Australia.

The Australian launch took place some eight months after the Japanese launch, much to the chagrin of local Nintendo fans. In fact, Nintendo Australia didn’t even have a planned launch date until some three months after the American launch.

The successor to the Nintendo 64, the GameCube had strong pre-release buzz in Australia, helped along by a nice pre-launch price drop from $AU399 to $329. It had a varied launch lineup, although it was the first Nintendo home console to launch without a Mario game. (continue reading…)

If Nintendo Director of Entertainment and Trend Marketing Amber McCollom is to be believed, GameCube software will be available on Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console through the WiiWare service. In an interview with Nintendo Gal, McCollom said, “GameCube discs will not be compatible with Wii U, but a number of the games that were playable on GameCube can be downloaded from WiiWare.”

One has to wonder if we’ll just get straight up ports of these games, or whether Nintendo will go the HD remaster route, which has proved lucrative for Sony. Whatever the answer is, we’ll be waiting for some kind of official confirmation before we get our hopes up.

Source: Nintendo Gal via Joystiq

Nintendo Australia didn’t advertise much in the GameCube era, but even when they did, it was positively awful. Behold.

The Game Boy Player was an attachment for your GameCube which allows you to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games on your television. In most countries, the GB Player is only available in black, but we got black and indigo ones here. Doesn’t make up for the rest of the incompetence of that generation.

Search for Game Boy Player on eBay

Retro Gaming Australia does not encourage or approve of use of video game peripherals and handhelds in the bathroom.

The Wavebird was a wireless version of the Nintendo GameCube controller that used RF for its wireless connectivity, rather than the generally ineffective infrared systems used by previous controllers. A groundbreaking peripheral when released, the Wavebird set the standard for wireless controllers, and now they are commonplace. This ad originates from the United States.