Gamecube fast menus

[RCBH928]

This may be a silly topic...but,

Any one noticed that Gamecube games have a fast responding menus? I move from one screen to another as fast I can click. even saving is quick.

I played eternal darkness and it was pretty quick(which is awesome) I remember that all gamecube games has similar feature. Am i imagining ? Some how it seems even faster that cartridge(no loading) based consoles.

[pumpkinpie65]

My understanding is that the smaller discs make them load faster than regular DVD sized games. I remember reading somewhere (probably here) that the small disc size and quick load times are the only way Wind Waker was possible.

I definitely noticed a HUGE difference when I finally got a Wii with SSB: Brawl. Suddenly everything was taking 3 times longer to load than on the gamecube and I was just like, "Why...Nintendo game...load so slow?"

It was heartbreaking.

[D.D.D.]

CAV drives make the entire disc load at the same speed regardless of where data is located. Good and bad points to that.

[isiolia]

CAV drives make the entire disc load at the same speed regardless of where data is located. Good and bad points to that.

If it's a CAV drive, read speed would increase on the outer tracks as there'd be more disc being read per rotation than near the center.

There's actually no logical reason that the Wii's drive would be slower. Best I can find is that the drive is a 6X (Max I assume) drive, which if it's similar to others that list specs, it should have a maximum read speed of over 8 MB/s and an average seek time of 120ms or less. Specs for other CAV drives say 2-6X DVD performance, meaning that the inner tracks would only read at 2.77MB/s with performance scaling up as you move outward.

But, according to Wikipedia at least, the Gamecube's DVD drive is 2-3.125 MB/s read speed, with a 128ms average seek time. It's actually a touch slower, operating in the 1.4-2.4x DVD range (maybe comparable to the PS2's 4X DVD drive if it used full size discs).

Assuming that the Wii doesn't need to drop to some low-speed compatibility mode for GCN software, which it very well may I don't know.

[ExedExes]

CAV drives make the entire disc load at the same speed regardless of where data is located. Good and bad points to that.

That was Game Sack's explanation in their GameCube episode. Whatever it is, I love the fast load times. Much better than the DC at times, even!

[isiolia]

CAV drives make the entire disc load at the same speed regardless of where data is located. Good and bad points to that.

That was Game Sack's explanation in their GameCube episode. Whatever it is, I love the fast load times. Much better than the DC at times, even!

CAV operation has at least been a mode for most optical drives since CD-ROMs broke 12X in the 90s. CLV is still used too, but usually for linear content like movies, and even then it's not guaranteed.

Doesn't make much sense as an explanation, since it's kind of a "well of course it is" type of thing. Nothing about the disc size or rotation speed serves to make it faster. It's effectively the same, on a technical level, as what a 4X (PS2) or 5X (XBox) DVD drive would do on the inner tracks.

Relative to its peers, the Gamecube had more compressed data (out of necessity), so my money would be more on it pulling data off at the same speed, but needing less of it to do the same thing (or approximately the same thing).

Relative to the Wii, the Gamecube (according to Wikipedia) has a 16MB buffer for the drive/audio, which the Wii is not listed as having (though the standard buffer size built into a drive is much larger now). Could be a contributing factor as well, unless the Wii just configures the RAM to match when playing 'cube games.

[RCBH928]

what if I played a gamecube game on a Wii?

and will it have a different load time if the disc was a backup on a full DVD disc?

[D.D.D.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_optical_discs

[theclaw]

Yep the general public uses "DVD" partially in layman's terms. Being unlicensed unauthorized clones, Nintendo does not refer to Gamecube or Wii discs and drives by that name or have any legal right to use the copyrighted familiar official logo.

[D.D.D.]

Yep the general public uses "DVD" partially in layman's terms. Being unlicensed unauthorized clones, Nintendo does not refer to Gamecube or Wii discs and drives by that name or have any legal right to use the copyrighted familiar official logo.

Not a big deal. It doesn't cost the consumer any money by being DVD movie capable so I'm cool with that.