A nearly 20-year-old portable GameCube concept was plucked from its childhood and brought into the harsh reality of 2022. And like all of its other pre-teen hopes and dreams, it didn't quite survive the test of time.
This homemade GameCube handheld does a great job of mimicking the handsome 2002 render it's based on, but its guts are a messy hodgepodge. It has no power to play anything for over an hour and a half, and some functional features are now purely cosmetic. The comparisons between the laptop and its middle-aged envelope keep coming.
GingerOfOz, who builds handheld video game consoles on his YouTube channel, took it upon himself to bring the fake GameCube handheld console to life and solve the mystery of its origin while doing so.
You know that fake GameCube laptop that's been floating around the internet for 15 years? Well, I'm tired of it being wrong. It's real now. pic.twitter.com/Ihox29CoP012March 2022, XNUMX
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"I just want to tell you how stupid it is to build a GameCube laptop," says GingerOfOz, who uses a Wii motherboard in this project. He explains that compared to the Wii, the GameCube's motherboard consumes more power, cannot be reduced in size, cannot be easily changed, needs a large cooling system, has less battery life, and does not produce an output of 480p natively. So a "real" GameCube handheld is simply not feasible, which is why most people who have tried to build one have opted to use the Wii motherboard instead.
That doesn't make much of a difference though, as the Wii is backwards compatible with the GameCube, so for all intents and purposes, it IS a GameCube. GingerOfOz even customized the system software so that the handheld would have the GameCube splash screen and purple menus. Now that we're all on the same page, you can watch the 20-minute video of the process without feeling obligated to leave a comment about how fake it is.
While it's an ingenious project, the portable GameCube has some glaring issues that would be problematic even if it were released 20 years ago. The dismal battery life is the main point of contention, as it barely manages to extract 90 minutes. It can be connected to a portable charging bank, but where's the fun?
The glossy black finish is, unsurprisingly, a fingerprint magnet, and the design itself is far from ergonomic. Your hands will be cramping long before the battery goes dead. And while it does have a disk drive, it's purely to match the original render. Speaking of which, GingerOfOz also added some extra buttons and triggers that were missing from the render.
If you remember the GameCube handheld concept that first appeared, you might be interested to know that GingerOfOz has tracked down the guy who did it: Demond Rogers.
Since then, Demond has worked at Ubisoft, Epic Games, and Squanch Games, but rendered for fun during his college years while studying traditional and digital art and practicing product rendering. He posted it online to see if anyone thought he was real, and thus began the legend of the GameCube Portable.
While it's a fun throwback, you're better off buying a Nintendo Switch or the new OLED Switch if you want a bigger, better screen.