Nintendo optical discs
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| Nintendo optical discs | |
 Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and Wii Optical Disc |
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| Media type: | Read-only optical disc |
|---|---|
| Encoding: | Digital |
| Capacity: | GCN 80mm: 1.5 gigabytes Wii 120mm: 4.7 gigabytes (8.5 gigabytes dual layer) |
| Read mechanism: | Laser |
| Developed by: | Nintendo & Matsushita |
| Usage: | 80mm: Nintendo GameCube game media 120mm: Wii game media |
Nintendo optical discs refer to the optical disc format used to distribute video games released by Nintendo. This includes the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and Wii Optical Disc.
[edit] Format
The Nintendo GameCube Game Disc is the medium for the Nintendo GameCube, created by Matsushita, and later extended for use on the Wii through backward compatibility.[1] The GameCube Game Disc is a 1.5GB, 8-cm miniDVD based technology which reads at a constant angular velocity from disc edge to disc center,[2] while the Wii Optical Disc is a 8.5GB, 12cm DVD based technology. It was chosen by Nintendo to prevent copyright infringement of its games,[3] to avoid licensing fees to the DVD Forum and to reduce loading times.
The GameCube Game Disc was criticized for its relatively small storage, as some games with large amounts of data have needed to be placed across two discs, such as Tales of Symphonia. Full-motion video scenes and audio for a few also had to be slightly more compressed to fit on a single disc, reducing their quality. The disc also has less capacity than the physically smaller 6.5 cm PSP UMD, which can hold up to 1.8 GB (double layer),[4] though UMDs are based on newer technology. Prior to the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo consoles traditionally used cartridge-based media.
For the Wii, Nintendo extended the technology to use a full size 12-cm DVD-based disc, enabling it to have the benefits of the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc, while having the standard capacity of a normal DVD-ROM.
[edit] Burst Cutting Area (BCA)
Each Nintendo optical disc contains a BCA mark, a type of bar code that is written to the disc with a YAG laser. Another example of DVD media with BCA marks is the discontinued DIVX format.
A BCA mark is visible to the naked eye. It should not be confused with the IFPI mark that is on all optical discs. BCA is described in Annex K of the DVD physical specification, and can be seen between radius 22.3mm (+0.0/-0.4mm) and 23.5mm (+/-0.5mm).
[edit] References
- ^ Casamassina, Matt (2006-09-12). IGNcube's Nintendo "Revolution" FAQ. IGN. Retrieved on 2006-09-07.
- ^ Dipert, Brian (2005-08-04). Beating the blue-laser blues. EDN. Retrieved on 2006-09-07.
- ^ GameSpy Staff (2003-07-30). Beginner's Guide: GameCube. GameSpy. Retrieved on 2006-09-07.
- ^ Whitlock, Matt (2004-12-14). The Playstation 2, XBOX, & GameCube. TechLore.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-07.
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| Console | Color TV Game • NES (Famicom Disk System • NES 2 • AV Family Computer) • Super NES (Super Game Boy • Satellaview) • Virtual Boy • Nintendo 64 (64DD • iQue Player) • GameCube • Wii |
| Handheld | Game & Watch • Game Boy (Pocket • Light) • Game Boy Color • Game Boy Advance (SP • Micro) • Nintendo DS (Lite) |
| Arcade | Nintendo Classic • Vs. Series • PlayChoice-10 • Nintendo Super System • Triforce |
| Misc. | Nintendo Gateway |
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