GameCube systems were the forerunners in the video game industry, thanks to the latest technology adopted by Nintendo and innovative features provided to its users. They are part of what is called the 'sixth generation' or '128 bit' era of game consoles that included the Playstation 2 and the Xbox. Although it has been succeeded by the Nintendo Wii, the GameCube is still a great console, and a lot cheaper than the newer Wii's.

The Nintendo GameCube is also known as GCN (formally) and NGC (informally). It is the fourth gaming console released by Nintendo. Previously, game developers had a hard time developing new games for the Nintendo 64, which was the Gamecube's predecessor. Given that a large and innovative game selection helps drive console sales, this was obviously not an ideal situation for Nintendo. The GameCube was Nintendo's answer to that problem.

Nintendo sought to strike a balance between performance and ease of game development. Thus, the GameCube wasn't designed to squeeze the highest performance possible out of a console, at least not when it meant sacrificing too much ease of use for developers. It was still important to Nintendo that their console have a good level of performance that was above the standard of the time, and the console they developed managed to strike this balance well.

The Nintendo GameCube uses optical discs as a medium for storage and it is the first of the Nintendo consoles to do this. Because the Gamecube systems use mini DVD's instead of full size DVD's, you miss out on DVD and audio CD playback. However, if you're after a gaming system only, this isn't such a big deal. If you want something of that era of gaming console that has DVD/CD playback, you're better off going for a PS2 or Xbox.

The Nintendo Gamecube system has a Broadband adapter and a modem adapter that will allow you to play online games. Also, this game cube console system provides you with access to the special features of a few games by letting you connect it to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. What's more, since it is portable you can use it in place of a controller for the Game Boy Player. Generally the GameCube controller, a part of the system, has a wing-like grip structure in order to fit well in the hands of players. It includes two analog sticks, an internal rumble motor, a D-pad and eight more buttons.

Nintendo GameCube systems offer you two ports that provide accommodation for memory cards so that you can store game data externally. Officially, there are three types of memory cards varying in size. These are:

* 59 blocks - 4 Mbit/512 KB, grey card

* 251 blocks - 16 Mbit/2 MB, black

* 1019 blocks - 64 Mbit/8 MB, white

Apart from these, you can also use some cheaper third-party memory cards available in the market.

You can also enjoy two secret startup sounds in GameCube systems, which never will interrupt the startup procedure in any way. If you want to hear the sounds of a squeaking toy, springs, xylophone or childish laughter, press Z button on one controller at the time of startup. When four controllers are connected, you can press all four Z buttons and be ready to hear kabuki-style sounds along with vocalization and drumming effects.