The Nintendo GameCube Appreciation and Collecting Thread.

Leondexter said:
It sucks that Deluxe never came out on the Gamecube, even though it only had a bit of new content (10 new levels, I think).

The Xbox version is graphically identical to the GCN games, and loads just as quickly as the Gamecube games did. But the analog control is not programmed well. It's inconsistent when you need fine control. On the easy levels, you probably won't notice a thing, but on the difficult ones, it really shows. I struggled some mid-tier levels, and I cleared all the Master levels on the GCN games many times. I don't think that's a controller issue, I really think it's a symptom of porting code that was designed for the GCN's super-precise sticks over to a different system without enough testing.

The PS2 version of Deluxe is a contender for worst port ever. Monkey Ball is hardly a graphically demanding game, but the PS2 version looks nothing like the original. All the texture effects like "shiny" or mirrored surfaces are gone, the lighting is flat and ugly, and the framerate is extremely low and inconsistent. To top things off, the load times are atrocious. On the other systems, they're almost non-existent.
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Thanks! This is exactly the type of impression I was looking for.
 
^is that any good? buddy told me the buffy game on xbox was cool

speaking of franchise stuff, i picked up that GC Die Hard title a while back...talk about a stinker!
 
IrishNinja said:
^is that any good? buddy told me the buffy game on xbox was cool

speaking of franchise stuff, i picked up that GC Die Hard title a while back...talk about a stinker!
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Yep, it's a really good game IMO and still the best Buffy game.

Also, really, that sucks, I want to try it.=O
 
I very distinctly remember having a component cable years back. Just dug out my gamecube and bought a Game Boy Player to hook up, just to discover that those cables are long long gone. I think I'm going to be pretty bummed out for today.
 
Pancakes R Us said:
I hate this thread sometimes. It keeps recommending games I should buy.
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This is much more about the source material, though. Not really the game itself. Not to say it's not good, just that the appreciation is based on our love for the source material. Otherwise it's just a neat little 3D brawler.
 
TheMoon said:
High five!
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Yeah!

Pancakes R Us said:
I hate this thread sometimes. It keeps recommending games I should buy.
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I know those feels. So, does my wallet.

TheMoon said:
This is much more about the source material, though. Not really the game itself. Not to say it's not good, just that the appreciation is based on our love for the source material. Otherwise it's just a neat little 3D brawler.
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They really need to make another one. I don't care if the shows been over since 2003. We need more Buffy games, even if it's based in the comic time-line. Imagine a Vita Buffy Game.
 
TheMoon said:
I still need to get that original Xbox game. The weird thing is that they made a DS game a few years ago. Super bizarre. Written by Rob Des Hotel even.
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Yah, I know. No NA release though. :(

It's been on my backburner to buy for awhile... Been meaning to snatch a copy off ebay but i've been chipping away at rarer Vita and NGC titles lately. Just picked up FFX-2 (asia ver.), Ar Nosurge and Breach & Clear. Still fishing around for a a decent Oreshika but the lowest I can find is like $130+ dollars.
 
Roi said:
Can't believe the cube is 14 years old. Feels like yesterday when I bought it, so many good memories :).
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Yep...I remember the day well.

Launch day in the UK, preordered from EB Games, picked up with Rogue Leader, Memory Card and an RGB Scart cable.

Rogue leader blew my mind.
 
oh man, id been in a bad accident a bit before the GC released, and went in early at my local TRU to pick one up - kinda stayed overnight since i needed to be up & study anyway, did the same for PS2

so i was at the start of said line, and literally when the doors opened, someone trampled me to get ahead...i was happy i managed to trip them with my crutches as i fell, and while a few people skipped me, others were nice enough to stop the madness & help me up, haha. got my purple lunchbox & luigi's mansion and had a blast!

could swear there was a Batman animated looking game there at launch too that i debated, but no one ever talks about that one so im assuming that passing it up was a good call
 
IrishNinja said:
oh man, id been in a bad accident a bit before the GC released, and went in early at my local TRU to pick one up - kinda stayed overnight since i needed to be up & study anyway, did the same for PS2

so i was at the start of said line, and literally when the doors opened, someone trampled me to get ahead...i was happy i managed to trip them with my crutches as i fell, and while a few people skipped me, others were nice enough to stop the madness & help me up, haha. got my purple lunchbox & luigi's mansion and had a blast!

could swear there was a Batman animated looking game there at launch too that i debated, but no one ever talks about that one so im assuming that passing it up was a good call
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yeah it was bad, bad shovelware quality
 
I'm packing up my stuff for a move, and I think I'm gonna make some cuts to the library.

Looking at this Pokemon Channel like, "Why?"

Any reason to keep it around?
 
Mzo said:
I'm packing up my stuff for a move, and I think I'm gonna make some cuts to the library.

Looking at this Pokemon Channel like, "Why?"

Any reason to keep it around?
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Hell, no. Get rid of it. I've got you covered, man. By that, I mean, I'll pay for shipping.
 
So the Gamecube defined my childhood in a lot of ways and it definitely holds a dear place in my heart as my favorite console, but since recently buying another (splitting buying games with my older brother was good when I was younger but now means we have to share our collective pool, lol) I've been realizing there were a good number of games I missed between having a limited income and reasonably involved parents who weren't going to let me get Resident Evil 4 when I was like 10, so I've been looking into tracking down a lot of those games now.

Games I have already:
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Smash
Metroid Prime 2 (picked this up recently and playing it for the first time)
Resident Evil 4 (picked this up recently for the first time and finished it)
Tales of Symphonia
Fire Emblem
Wind Waker
LoZ Collector's Edition
Soulcalibur 2
Rebel Strike (played the shit out of the co-op RL campaign, liked it better than the RS parts)
Star Fox Adventures

Games I'm already interested in picking up:
Paper Mario: TTYD
REmake
Super Mario Sunshine
Metal Gear Solid: TTS (played the original for the first time recently and loved it, kind of curious even though I know a lot of people hate it

What else are things I should definitely pick up that I've missed? I'm still trying to decide how much I like Metroid Prime 2, is the first game different in any notable ways? Some of my favorites from the system are Wind Waker, Fire Emblem, Symphonia, and Smash.
 
Bonen no Max'd said:
So the Gamecube defined my childhood in a lot of ways and it definitely holds a dear place in my heart as my favorite console, but since recently buying another (splitting buying games with my older brother was good when I was younger but now means we have to share our collective pool, lol) I've been realizing there were a good number of games I missed between having a limited income and reasonably involved parents who weren't going to let me get Resident Evil 4 when I was like 10, so I've been looking into tracking down a lot of those games now.

Games I have already:
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Smash
Metroid Prime 2 (picked this up recently and playing it for the first time)
Resident Evil 4 (picked this up recently for the first time and finished it)
Tales of Symphonia
Fire Emblem
Wind Waker
LoZ Collector's Edition
Soulcalibur 2
Rebel Strike (played the shit out of the co-op RL campaign, liked it better than the RS parts)
Star Fox Adventures

Games I'm already interested in picking up:
Paper Mario: TTYD
REmake
Super Mario Sunshine
Metal Gear Solid: TTS (played the original for the first time recently and loved it, kind of curious even though I know a lot of people hate it

What else are things I should definitely pick up that I've missed? I'm still trying to decide how much I like Metroid Prime 2, is the first game different in any notable ways? Some of my favorites from the system are Wind Waker, Fire Emblem, Symphonia, and Smash.
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You've already got, or intend to pick up, a lot of the essentials, but here are some of my other favorites (in no particular order):

Viewtiful Joe 1 & 2
Luigi's Mansion
F-Zero GX
Skies of Arcadia Legends
Mario Kart: Double Dash
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (but only with the bongo controller)
Pikmin 1 & 2
Super Monkey Ball
Beyond Good & Evil

Also, I like Metroid Prime quite a bit more than its sequel. It has a better mood/atmosphere, and I didn't really care for the dark world thing in Echoes.
 
To all my Aussie Gamecube and Nintendo fans out there, I will be advertising my Complete in box Gamecube which includes the rare and coveted Digital component output cable!

Tempted to sell it separately too...

Look out on eBay, ill be sure to share the link to it soon.
 
I would hope most Aussies here got one for non-scalper prices back when Nintendo were selling them. Those who didn't probably already know they can search on eBay for one. Unless you're selling it at a decent price? In which case why not list it in the Gaf BST thread?
 
Pretty much finished my Gamecube collection now.
Only games I'm after now are Four Swords and Chibi Robo.

Got about Ten GBA's so I'm all set for Four Swords just need to find it at a decent price, really regret not picking it up for £15 a few years back.
The PAL version of Chibi Robo is super expensive, and it's not likely to ever be a game that I'll find at a car boot sale, should I just bite the bullet and get it off Ebay?
 
thomasos said:
Also, I like Metroid Prime quite a bit more than its sequel. It has a better mood/atmosphere, and I didn't really care for the dark world thing in Echoes.
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Do the enemies take as long to kill, and how clear is it what your objective is? Those are probably the only reasons I have mixed feelings on it, the rest is great. Well, I'm not a fan of the dark world either tbh but I know that's just a MP2 thing.
 
Bonen no Max'd said:
Do the enemies take as long to kill, and how clear is it what your objective is? Those are probably the only reasons I have mixed feelings on it, the rest is great. Well, I'm not a fan of the dark world either tbh but I know that's just a MP2 thing.
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Prime 1 is "better" in both of those regards. I think that lack of clarity in Prime 2 is a strength, but Prime 1 is more straightforward/less labyrinthine, and more aggressive with hints.

I'd say it would be better to play Prime 1 before 2, because 2 is basically "Metroid Prime Hardcore Edition." The general consensus is that the first game is the best of the three. I was in that camp for a long time, but replays of Prime 2 have really let me appreciate the things it does so well and put it on top.
 
Type_Raver said:
To all my Aussie Gamecube and Nintendo fans out there, I will be advertising my Complete in box Gamecube which includes the rare and coveted Digital component output cable!

Tempted to sell it separately too...

Look out on eBay, ill be sure to share the link to it soon.
Click to expand...
Please do share the link. I may be tempted if it's a decent price.
 
chaosblade said:
Prime 1 is "better" in both of those regards. I think that lack of clarity in Prime 2 is a strength, but Prime 1 is more straightforward/less labyrinthine, and more aggressive with hints.

I'd say it would be better to play Prime 1 before 2, because 2 is basically "Metroid Prime Hardcore Edition." The general consensus is that the first game is the best of the three. I was in that camp for a long time, but replays of Prime 2 have really let me appreciate the things it does so well and put it on top.
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Agreed.

I really like all three, they have different focuses, and all have highly intelligent design and ideas. Prime 1 is closest to the great Metroid 3 however.
 
I don't know if you had noticed, but Chittagong is doing pre-Christmas PAL games giveaway. A lot of GameCube classics were already given away, but there is more today and there are going to be more tomorrow.

Currently, you can grab Zelda: Wind Waker Special Edition and Zelda Promo Disc if you show that you deserve them.

I'm writing this because I think that thread is severely under-appreciated. There were so many outstanding games, but it seems people just haven't noticed the thread.
 
I'm putting my copies of Skies of Arcadia Legends and Baiten Kaitos on Ebay soon. If anyone's interested PM me!

(And Luigi's Mansion and Gladius, but I'm guessing those aren't in high demand)
 
Sometimes Half Price Books has the occasional deal. Merry Christmas to me!
20151220_182359.jpg
 
RexRogers said:
Sometimes Half Price Books has the occasional deal. Merry Christmas to me!
**$10 Mario Kart Double Dash**
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Nice find! I was at my local Half Price Books and this is what I saw today:

BDFB4A94-EC1C-488B-BA42-CE29E6EA7A86.jpg


I did get Kirby Air Ride for $17 at Movie Trading Company a few days ago though!

C82A88A6-7FC9-41AC-B5E2-C113893A608F.jpg
 
looking at those pics i remembered i had this stored in a box:



found it a while back @ gamestop for 9.99. i have a purple gamecube so it doesn't match the black :(
 
ctothej said:
I'm putting my copies of Skies of Arcadia Legends and Baiten Kaitos on Ebay soon. If anyone's interested PM me!

(And Luigi's Mansion and Gladius, but I'm guessing those aren't in high demand)
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Hey man, very interested in Gladius if you could provide me a link.
 
It's often overlooked how much Gamecube, and how it was designed, helped shape the way all modern consoles (starting with Xbox 360) got designed.

There's a lot to read here, sorry about that, but IMO it's worth reading.

IGNcube: Can you discuss your position at ATI and how you became involved with Nintendo and the design of the Flipper graphics chip?

Greg Buchner:

So, going back in history, in 1997 a lot of people left SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.), which wasn't doing well, so a bunch of us started ArtX and we aimed at doing graphics in the PC space. In early '98 we started talking to Nintendo about being their provider for the graphics and system logic for what has become GameCube. At ArtX I was vice president of engineering and part of the founding team of ArtX.

In April of last year we joined ATI through an acquisition, which ATI aquired as a way to get into the [home console] space and as a way to get another graphics development team working in the integrated graphics PC space. So, through the acquisition I've maintained a similar role for the team at Santa Clara. ATI already had a team at Santa Clara plus the addition of the ArtX team. More recently I'm operating in a more technical role, I'm giving advice on how we build chips.
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IGNcube: You say you began talking to Nintendo in 1998. So from white paper designs and initial design to final mass production silicon how long was the development process?

Greg Buchner:

Well, there was a period of time where we were in the brainstorm period, figuring out what to build, what's the right thing to create. We spent a reasonable amount of time on that, a really big chunk of 1998 was spend doing that, figuring out just what [Flipper] was going to be. In 1999 we pretty much cranked out the gates, cranked out the silicon and produced the first part. In 2000 we got it ready for production, so what you saw at Space World last year was basically what became final silicon.

We've probably tweaked it a bunch since then and even [after the September 14 Japan launch] other versions are being tweaked. It will forever be in a cost production mode, so to say there is final silicon is something that doesn't really happen because these products live for so long.
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IGNcube: Can you describe how the brainstorming process worked with Nintendo? Did you approach them with ideas, did they come to you? How did the relationship work?

Greg Buchner:

It was kind of back and forth. A lot of us worked on the N64 and at that point they certainly didn't have any 3D graphics knowledge in the company. For this round, some of the team that was at SGI that worked on the N64 is now at Nintendo. So the group up in Redmond at NTD, Howard Cheng and Rob Moore's group -- both of which worked at SGI on the N64 -- had some expertise through hiring people on the 3D side of things. They were really the link into the developers, because the whole theme of this product early on was targeting the developers, they are really the customer for us not those that played the games.

So Howard's team was really that bridge into the developers' mind. Everything was really a collaboration between our team and Howard's team -- some of our discussions were friendly and some were "passionate" about what the right thing to do was. At the end of the day there was always the theme of the developers as well as cost. Anything we discussed typically had trade-off with cost. You can go do almost anything, but everything comes at a price. It's about figuring out what's the right thing to do at this point in time, so that was a big part of the collaboration.

IGNcube: You talked about having a vision for the chip and we've heard a lot about it being developer friendly. Was there a specific mantra that the team had? In a few sentences if you could describe what the main goal of the chip was, what would that be?

Greg Buchner:

There are so many pieces that factor into the decision. There's looking at the developer, looking at the development process, and making them as efficient as possible so they can make their money. The more money they make the more successful the overall products are going to be and the more successful from a selfish-intent point of view we're going to be from the royalty stream. The lower we can make the cost of the system, the more it will open up for a broader base of consumers that can buy it. So that was a very important thing.

Predicting what the technology is going to allow us to do. So you have to look into a crystal ball and figure out what's going to be fashionable and important, what's going to allow the Miyamoto-sans of the world to develop the best games. So, again, it's kind of taking your best guess at it. These are the kind of things you have to get, put them into a jar and shake them up and they all become very important to deciding what the product is going to be. You could add more and we'd be sitting at the same price point as the PlayStation 2, but I think we're already better than that at the price point we aimed at. I feel like it was the right combination of things.
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IGNcube: When did the decision for the sound chip come in? Was that there from the beginning that it was going to be integrated on the graphics chip?

Greg Buchner:

Certainly not from day one, but within the first six months we had already picked that direction. So by the middle of 1998 it was known, and a partner was chosen for that. The performance level of it was probably tweaked a little bit over time. The interface to memory was the thing we changed over time. The idea of the A-RAM was something that evolved probably in 1999. Originally there was something else that was there.

There was another memory out there for something else and we kind of figured out a good way from a cost point of view. Instead of having two memories that were partially used we would have one that was more fully used. It was the better way to go, so there was some structural changes to the system [later on] but from a basic 10,000-ft (Editor's note: Greg is referring to a very general, non-specific view) block diagram you could say middle of 1998 that decision was made.

IGNcube: With the embedded RAM, was that a decision from the very beginning or was that added at a later date?

Greg Buchner:

That was actually one of the "passionate" arguments, because making that step there's a huge benefit to system performance but there's also the addition of risk and cost. Nothing in life comes for free. It's one of those things [when decided] it changes what we want to do from a technology partnership with NEC, what kind of process we need, from tools, and it brings a new partner, MoSys, into the mix. It limits the choices of silicon providers because there's not many people who can do something like that. In fact very few people can do what NEC has done with this. They've done a phenomenal job.

So that was a decision where we said from a practical point of view, "Do we want to do this?" and just had a very rational discussion on pros and cons. In the end clearly we get a huge benefit. Not only from the embedded DRAM, but from how we structured it. One of the other products out there has embedded DRAM, but arguably they're not getting all the bang for the buck. They've got the cost in the silicon from a process point of view, but as for the performance in memory I don't think they have what we have -- or anything close to it.
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IGNcube: Over half of the chip is embedded RAM, right?

Greg Buchner:

On the version that shipped at launch it's on the order of a third. From a transistor point of view it's about half, but because it's a very regular structure it is very, very dense. So that half-transistor results in a much smaller area. So from an area point of view actually a little less than a third.

IGNcube: Is transform performance one of the big fights you had with using eDRAM, which takes up space?

Greg Buchner:

That actually wasn't an issue. Those two are very separate discussions. You look at the embedded DRAM and it's going to be for performance on the fill rate side, and that's a cost trade-off. To get that kind of bandwidth with an external device, forget it, you're not going to even come close. So there's a huge benefit we get by having it.

Transform is a separate topic almost: how much do you shoot for, what's important, what are the typical cases with what developers are doing. Not many people send down triangles of the same color and never change anything else. It's these kind of fake benchmarks that are irrelevant. And so they're not streamed to data that is ever showing up in a game, so what's the point in measuring them? So what we went after is what's really happening in a game, what's really happening from a content creation point of view. We optimized around what the data patterns looked like and made a machine that screams for those kind of patterns.

IGNcube: If you had to pick one main feature on the chip that you thought as most important or most impressive what would it be?

Greg Buchner:

Hmm, there's a lot of them. [Laughs] From an overall, machine architecture point of view it is a very, very clean architecture. So, again, back to the 10,000-ft level it's a sweet machine, it's just so clean and there aren't a lot of quirky behaviors. There are very few things that I would put in the quirky behavior category. So it's allowed the developers to go focus on making the games. From a raw feature point of view, in the texture area, the texture combining, what we can do with textures, how one texture can manipulate another texture...in the area of textures I think we've greatly extended what people can do and the effects that they can create. So that's something over time I think you're going to see continuing improvements as developers say, "Hey, I've got this incredible toolbox now for assembling things" I don't think that's an area that's been tapped yet. So, I think over time you're going to see better feature effects coming out.
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http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/10/30/ati-discusses-gamecube-graphics
 
NR1 said:
Nice find! I was at my local Half Price Books and this is what I saw today:

BDFB4A94-EC1C-488B-BA42-CE29E6EA7A86.jpg
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Just wow. Where does they get those prices? 80 bucks for Twin Snakes? Even on eBay they don't go for that.

I did get Kirby Air Ride for $17 at Movie Trading Company a few days ago though!

C82A88A6-7FC9-41AC-B5E2-C113893A608F.jpg
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Is this game any good? I saw a copy a while back and didn't pick it up. Of course it's gone now.
 
still looking for a complete skies of arcadia. i got a copy years ago, but disc 2 was missing. sent it back to the seller, since he couldnt find it.


now the price is ridiculous. i dont want to pay more than 50€ for the game in a good condition.

chiborobo and cubivore seem to be interesting games, but dont know much about them. worth buying them?
 
Sakujou said:
still looking for a complete skies of arcadia. i got a copy years ago, but disc 2 was missing. sent it back to the seller, since he couldnt find it.


now the price is ridiculous. i dont want to pay more than 50€ for the game in a good condition.

chiborobo and cubivore seem to be interesting games, but dont know much about them. worth buying them?
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Haven't played Cubivore, but Chibi Robo is one of the best games of the generation, IMHO. I have a lot of interest/nostalgia in quirky early-aughts Japanese stuff though.
 
I decided to swing by HPB again today and had a small find. It was $19.99 for Zelda: Twilight Princess, $7.99 for the Resident Evil 2, and then $19.99 for each Wavebird. And then I found out it was all 20% off for and after Xmas sale! The Z:TW is missing the instructions, but still not bad.
20151227_134358.jpg
 
RexRogers said:
I decided to swing by HPB again today and had a small find. It was $19.99 for Zelda: Twilight Princess, $7.99 for the Resident Evil 2, and then $19.99 for each Wavebird. And then I found out it was all 20% off for and after Xmas sale! The Z:TW is missing the instructions, but still not bad.
20151227_134358.jpg
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great deals!!!
 
RexRogers said:
I decided to swing by HPB again today and had a small find. It was $19.99 for Zelda: Twilight Princess, $7.99 for the Resident Evil 2, and then $19.99 for each Wavebird. And then I found out it was all 20% off for and after Xmas sale! The Z:TW is missing the instructions, but still not bad.
Click to expand...

NICE FINDS!!!
 
It turned out that the platinum controller is busted. Doesn't transmit, though the receiver works. I knew it was a gamble given that they didn't even have the chance to test it, but oh well. There's still a market for busted hardware on eBay.
 
RexRogers said:
I decided to swing by HPB again today and had a small find. It was $19.99 for Zelda: Twilight Princess, $7.99 for the Resident Evil 2, and then $19.99 for each Wavebird. And then I found out it was all 20% off for and after Xmas sale! The Z:TW is missing the instructions, but still not bad.
20151227_134358.jpg
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Damn that's a good deal on TP.
 
Hello GAF, can you people recommend me some good imports for the gamecube? I'm planning on importing games that never made it to the US.
 
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