Going along the lines of a similar thread here, @skywake had an interesting approach to these "players". In that thread, he mentioned about making a "reader" that simply would read the 3DS cards, and have the Wii U itself handle the emulation. Not a bad idea, considering the actual transfer rate from DS/3DS cards on the 3DS is well within the boundaries of USB 2.0 standards, but whether the Wii U could emulate the 3DS is a different story. That got me thinking. What if Nintendo were to make a Gamecube player/reader for the Wii U?
The hardware inside the Wii U is an advancement of the Wii, which was an advancement of the Gamecube. Their architecture is very similar with the exception of advancements that came with each progressive generation. Granted that there are differences enough that games couldn't run as-is, the similarities would reduce much of what stresses hardware emulation. Outside of general processing of data and graphics, the Wii U is missing controller/memory ports, and the disc drive can't read GC discs. This "reader" could handle the disc problem, and the emulator could handle the input problem.
Discostew
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I'm sure it is possible with enough technical know how for Nintendo to make one, but they never would. They wouldn't be able to make money of selling the games, since that is entirely in the used market. The only profit is from selling the device. Not likely a good investment.
Which is why if Nintendo feels it is possible and worth their time to make GCN games work on the WiiU, they'd sell it as Virtual Console.
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Topic: Gamecube Player for Wii U - what if?
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