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[Totakeke]

http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=2292

This device that the article speaks of is most likely the IBM Microdrive. The Microdrive is basically a really small hard drive. The hard drive platters are a bit bigger than a quarter. The max size right now is 1GB. Which, according to the article, is the storage size of this device.

Keep this in mind folks. The device in that picture is NOT an IBM Microdrive. It is a Compact Flash card (made by TDK, at that). But the Microdrive is about the same size as that.



Edit: Well, wait, this is old but, whatever happened to this thing?

 

[deadhorse32]

2001 was a sweet year..... or maybe not

 

[hooo]

News Date: 10/29/2001

Another victim of the public educational institution.

 

[GIR]

Old, stinky and irrelevant, you have a point?

 

[B'z-chan]

nothing

 

[GIR]

Edit: Well, wait, this is old but, whatever happened to this thing?

Who cares, Xenon and Revolution are just around le corner.

 

[Totakeke]

Okay
I'm doom3d ;(

I was sent this and didn't check the date

 

[dog$]

The least they could have done was put a date within the updated text.

Well, just for the sake of discussion -

I'm not sure how much benefit a 1GB flash-drive would provide. I have no idea how much space normal XBox games take up, but if it's anything like PS2 games the installations are usually 4GB a piece. On my PS2 I have the system data and one game (just of system data, not even the in-game stuff you can save to it) taking up 8 of 40GB. It seems like it'd be more trouble than needed to utilize that space effectively.

 

[truesayian]

Miyamoto confirmed a HD for gamecube back when they unveled the gamecube.

 

[MadOdorMachine]

The IBM card is about the size of a floppy disk with a max capacity seemingly of 1GB. The device can act as an expansion of A memory.

It sounds like it have been used as a memory expansion pack instead of a mass storage device.

 

[radioheadrule83]

I actually emailed IBM about this a year or two ago.. they've since sold the microdrive business onto a different company name. They were unaware of anything in development for Nintendo Gamecube a year on from PGCs story, so I don't know what happened.

edit: That's it -- they're manufactured and sold by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies now. Neither they nor IBM had any knowledge of it.