Link: https://www.engadget.com/2241156/only-gamecube-could-play-cds-dvds-rarely-found-below-1000-dollars-panasonic-q/

The weird, rare Panasonic Q GameCube was a hybrid GameCube and CD/DVD player. Very few were sold due to the PS2's similar capabilities, but that makes the Q worth more now (of course)

Been wanting one of these for a while, but they're priced like crazy on ebay. Maybe some day

Back in the day, this was literally the best GameCube to have. Considering the aftermarket price on them now, and how far technology has advanced, it’s just not practical to go after this particular model anymore unless you’re a collector. A bog-standard Cube is much cheaper and easier to maintain.

Damn. I had one of these - with the multi-region hack, the original controller, box, manual. Urgh. My ex made me sell it for reasons. Is it wrong to re-buy stuff like that?

I was there, back in ancient times. Couldn't buy one at that time because of price (remember it being significantly more expensive than base) and super limited availability in NA.

Honestly, a Wii is kinda the ultimate gamecube for the average person, as that has 100% backwards compatibility, are dirt cheap, have widely available composite cables that are 20x cheaper than the rare gamecube ones, gives you access to the Wii library, and also the ability to easily softmod them to then access the high seas and emulation of 16-bit and 8-bit consoles.

It isn’t wrong but it’s also not necessary

True, but you lose what is my favorite part of owning a GameCube: the GameBoy Player.

The Wii emulates all gameboy, GBC, and gba games if softmodded :)

And now it's worth about 6x whatever it cost back then.

it was a collectors item even shortly after release. very hard to come by outside of Japan and the cost to import it even then was insane.

For some reason I had forgotten they played GameCube games... I may have to re buy one now.

Bear in mind that only the older revisions of the Wii have GameCube controller and memory card ports, the later revisions removed them (though they can still play GameCube ISO's from the SD card if softmodded, which works well with the Wii Classic controller).

Given the Virtual Wii mode, I would argue that the Wii U is the ultimate Game Cube - it has complete support for 3 generations of consoles.

Personally I don't find the Wii U's catalog compelling enough for the higher price compared to a Wii, and apparently Wii games can look better on a soft-modded wii compared to running them on a Wii U, but for those who like the Wii U's catalog it probably is the ultimate version.

I've been through both. Modded a Wii and applied the settings noted in the video. Ultimately I was hooking it up to a 4k TV on composite cables.

Those same settings can get applied to the modded virtual Wii on the modded Wii U - but connected by HDMI.

The Wii U didn't have a great catalogue (and much of it was also released on the Switch) but it does have some unique ones, like the only re-releases of the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Plus there is a huge arsenal of virtual console games from NES to DS.

The Wii cost me $50, the Wii U was $100. The extra $50 was well worth it.

Did they have to be small discs?

Small disc energy

I had so much fun with my GameCube in the early-mid2000’s. MAY IT LIVE FOR A BUNCH OF YEARS

Nope. The Q has a full size disc reader.

Not for the Q.

Mom, I'm scared.

There was also the PSX - a weird hybrid PS2 with a digital video recorder. Dunno why they kept trying this back then.

The Q had a hole that could accommodate all sizes, big and small.

You’re probably just too young to remember. Come, stay a while and listen.

In the before times, you would have to check a paper booklet which could tell you the “days”, “times”, and “channels” a tv show or movie would “air”.

If you weren’t at home, or wanted to watch two things playing at the same time on different channels - you would miss out. This was a big deal at the time, because television was a social experience you would talk about with friends at school, or colleagues at work.

Before DVDs became commonplace, many homes had VCRs that were capable of recording these shows or movies onto cassette tapes that you could then watch at your convenience. But once DVDs became the home “standard”, VCRs were getting mothballed and homes needed a new device in order to record said shows.

Along came TiVo and other similar DVRs; capable of recording directly onto spinning discs of rust lovingly called “hard drives”. This would have been in the early 00s, before Netflix was ever a thing - and digital media distribution as we now know it today was limited to piracy, and required expensive broadband internet access.

As a bonus fun fact (unless I’m mistaken), that PSX hybrid was Sony’s first implementation of the much-loved cross-bar interface, later found on both the PSP and PS3.

Very condescending, I love it

$50 can be a lot for some people, but certainly for the DS games and those remasters (along with Breath of the Wild), it could be worth it for many.

I really need to learn that. When I am condescending, people get angry 🤣.