I had a friend called Josh that was the only person I knew that owned one of these. He got it right when it came out and imported it or something and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever. We played Mario Sunshine and Ocarina of Time Master Quest on it. Back in the early 2000s it felt really awesome and looked all futuristic and stuff. I think he sold it a few years ago. What I remember the most was the LED display lights and stuff looking awesome in his game room when it was dark and we were playing way into the night. Memory that will always stick with me ^_^
Honestly, that seems like a perfect thing to get for like college students moving into the dorms or into a small apartment. Just have my GameCube that plays movies. I'd put it right next to my Switch
@@slarbiter A $300 cube that's region locked for both of the things you want to use it for? I don't know maybe they actually wanted to be able to use it?
I've always loved the GameCube. It has some really fun games and it's an adorable console. But I do admit that I wished it had DVD playback. The Panasonic Q was the solution, but I couldn't afford to import it back in the day. It was cool to finally try one out while making this video!
Gaming Historian Heya GH! I would LOOOOOVE to see a video about the SaGa series. It's a series by Squaresoft with almost as many titles as the Final Fantasy Series. Yet very few people have even heard of SaGa!! Or maybe you could do an ep about how Squaresoft almost went out of business in the 80s after Rad Racer and Final Fantasy was their last-ditch effort to stay open. Anyway, good content on this channel. I LOVE your work. If you wanna know more about SaGa, check out my channel cuz I'm LPing SaGa Frontier right now.
Gaming Historian I think there were some aftermarket housings that could accommodate for dvds. Then you could use homebrew software to play the dvds. Nice video by the way. :)
It was a pretty powerful standalone DVD player. I used to own one and it was professionally modded to allow DVD regions unlocked. It always reminded me of a mirrored toaster.
"Dialogue Enhancer" --why doesn't every DVD & Blu-ray player have this!? The audio levels are so poorly balanced on some movies that I've been wishing for a feature like this for years!
It's always cool to find out about consoles you didn't know existed. Had no idea Nintendo gave permissions to make versions of their console. It's kind of shocking given how over protective they are of their stuff.
+sonicsnake44 Hmmm, wtf; the Philoips CD-I and Panasonic 3DO were uber/elite level home consoles; along with the Neo-Geo, Nuon, Panasonic Q and the N64 DD (an extremely rare , import only model) -- why would so many human beings detest such nosralgic gems !? I find these comments to be frivalous and trivial at best. *-*
When you have something Nintdon't and Nintendo needs it, you suddenly have more bargaining power with them. It is almost as if Nintendo is a business of some sort. I know right! Who would have thought that Nintendo is a business!
I'm wondering if what you called the "subwoofer out" is actually a coaxial digital out (all 6 channels, same as optical, just in coaxial mode). That would make much more sense. Dolby Digital was standard on all DVD players (including the PS2) and was the default format of the OG Xbox games. But it's cool that it supported DTS. Kinda jealous that you have one of these. Also, does it play DVDs in progressive scan?
The PS2 doesn't use Dolby Digital. Sony didn't want to pay royalties to Dolby which were pretty high at the time. Microsoft therefore dodged those royalties by including it in a optional accessory.
The GameCube is still one of my favorite consoles, the one that demonstrated we had reached the point where *OMG-better-graphics-power-under-the-hood!* no longer appealed to me as a compelling reason to buy or play a console.
and the original X-Box was not much more powerful then the GameCube itself. sadly the small disc format held it back, but I still love the GameCube as well, it was my choice of system back in the day when all my friends had PS2 consoles.
I loved the GameCube and all the games, the wii I hated when it came out, but it was sold out everywhere at Christmas and people were waiting whole weekends to buy Wii’s, luckily a lady that my mom knew worked at Walmart and won a wii in a raffle and my mom bought it off her(bless her heart lol). The thing that pissed me off is when I waited for smash bros brawl to come out and they kept delaying the launch day of the game, and then when it finally came out it wouldn’t play on any “original wii” so I had to send my wii to Nintendo for three weeks before I could play it. Lol never waited so long for a game
I know a lot of people who got PS2s simply because their family wanted a DVD player. Plenty of non-gamers went out and bought that thing. I love the Gamecube but Nintendo could have easily sold tens of millions of more units if the original model had played DVDs. But for its time, the GC was a powerful piece of hardware and showcased tons of fantastic games.
For example me some years ago. I simply wanted to buy a dvd player for my old Tv and then I remembered the Ps 2. I never had one so I combined both wishes at once. Pretty neat. It felt like a Full Entertainment System.
Well, for me the ability to play DVD had exactly 0 influence when it came to buying a console. I never used my consoles to do anything other than play games. If I wanted to watch a DVD, I had DVD players at home. Even today, if I want to watch Netflix, I have SmartTVs. I never had a Sony or Microsoft console. I own every Nintendo console ever made, except for the Virtual Boy. I'm a huge Nintendo fan, but even I wouldn't buy that piece of junk.
I've always loved these things. It's a shame they're pretty pricey and they wont work easily here in Europe :( I never knew Panasonic released a special GameBoy player for it though!
Imagine if something like this was the GameCube we all came to know and love. I think the GC wouldn't have been so much of a flop in any case, especially if the games came on full sized discs.
The 3DO wasn't a Panasonic console; it was an attempt by a group called The 3DO Company to create an industry standard for video game consoles, and they licensed out their firmware to multiple consumer electronics companies to give it a push. Panasonic was just the first and arguably the best known manufacturer; there are other models by Goldstar and Sanyo.
Some of you may think that the Panasonic Q's specs are what the GameCube's should've been. But keep in mind, Nintendo is not a general electronics manufacturer. They only make video games and systems. Why did Nintendo choose cartridges for the Nintendo 64? Because for strictly-gaming companies, CD-based technology was very expensive, and the price of the system would've gone up to $400, just like the Sega Saturn and Neo Geo CD (and look at the mess those two systems ended up in, especially the Saturn since its infamous NA launch in 1995). And like Sega and SNK, Nintendo was never going to sell the N64 at a loss like Sony was selling the PlayStation. Okay, Sega did cut the price of the Saturn after its infamous head start, but the 1995 damage had already been done. Not to mention, every Saturn sold throughout its lifespan put Sega $100/¥10,000+ in the red, and the Dreamcast wasn't doing any better in terms of profit. When Nintendo developed the GameCube, they went for an affordable proprietary miniDVD format to avoid illegal copying and still give developers a cheap way to make and sell games. 1.5GB of data was more than enough for third-party developers to be taken in. Sony and Microsoft added DVD playback to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox (the latter requiring a playback kit), since, being electronics manufacturers, they were willing to sell consoles at a low profit/loss (though with the added internal hard drive and DVD Forum fees, the Xbox was sold at a bigger loss than the PS2). Was Nintendo willing to take a chance by adding DVD playback to the GameCube? Fat chance. It's not just the cost of the technology. Nintendo would've also been forced to pay the DVD Forum a sizable licensing fee (something Sony could easily handle, because they partially owned/founded the organization). All this would've driven up the price of the GameCube to over $400 and given consumers even more of a reason to move on to other consoles (and it may have also destroyed Nintendo's place in the console wars). Like I said, strictly-gaming companies don't sell consoles at a loss. And by the time the GameCube was launched, standalone DVD players were coming down in price. Single-disc players were going for under $100, and with the GameCube selling for $200 at launch (and then dropping to as low as $100 by the end of its lifespan), buying a standalone DVD player and GameCube individually was cheaper than buying a PS2 or Xbox. So in conclusion, by 2001, there were pretty much no advantages to owning an expensive all-in-one system that played GameCube games and DVDs over owning a GameCube and standalone DVD player at a lower price.
What I like the most about the Gamecube is, that it's just a game console. No gimmicks that make it more expensive. I bought my gc in 2004 for 90€ (!) new, that's around 100$. Dirt cheap and that was within the first two years of it's life span. Love that console.
Great video! Just a small correction: the ports you are referring to as "composite out" are actually called RCA connectors, and only the yellow RCA connector carries the composite signal, the red and white ones are just normal audio outputs.
Just yesterday I went to a gaming museum in my town that also has a Panasonic Q in one of their display cabinets. Now that you mentioned the difference in size again, I noticed too that the thing I saw under the Q yesterday couldn't be the original GameBoy Player as it also had a gray tone to it instead of a black one. Nevertheless a nice device that looks really good too. Nothing I'd pick up anymore especially since those GC Digital AV cables are super expensive but still something unique one can definitely consider a collector's piece these days.
The GameCube made the mistake of not including DVDs, not just for playing movies, but the third party games couldn't fit on one mini disc, PS2 had more games third party games.
Some third party games also couldn't be fit on one PS2 disc either. Games like Devil May Cry 2, Xenosaga 2, and Star Ocean were all 2 disc games. I don't see the point why GameCube games needing two discs is a problem when PS2 games also had them too.
Matt R so divide the game in more disk =3= the reason why people didn't port to the GameCube was because it just didn't sold well and it didn't have as many games on release as the ps2 which had backwards compatibility.
Side note: that "rubber band" inside the Panasonic Q is properly known as a *drive belt* -- because it is intended to be less stretchy & more durable than an actual rubber band. Typically, drive belts are colored black to further differentiate them as not being rubber bands. Sadly, drive belts have the same issue that "normal" rubber bands suffer from: over time & due to wear from regular usage & thermal stress, drive belts eventually stretch out too much or even break completely. For decades, a primary cause of breakdowns in the old-school electronics devices (such as tape recorders & later VCRs) was simply due to old drive belts going bad, rather than more serious issues like a cold solder joint or a blown resistor....
I'm not going to lie, this got a like mainly because you're a Robotech fan. I wanna fanboy out for a moment but I know without a second fan it would simply become a rant 😂
I doubt it. It might have outsold the Xbox but the xbox had a hard drive and that was a big deal. It would have helped them though, but no way would it have outsold the PS2
Not against sony imo. Xbox was just as bad though where you had to pay a pretty penny to have the ability to watch movies. Hell its still just as shitty. I think those DVD cords or whatever the fuck on how they did it is 80 bucks
dont be fooled by this thing. it might look cool and play dvd but it is possibly the hardest game console in the world to repair if something breaks on it
I actually bought a fully-modded and CIB Panasonic Q around three years ago (perhaps four? I can't recall exactly), though mine has a red button on the underside to toggle between regions instead of the little power button trick. It's a pretty cool little system and I have it setup in my living room. It's more of a conversation piece than something I sit down and regularly play, but my most recent playthrough of Twilight Princess was done on it 🙂
thats where you are wrong the Panasonic Q is not region locked there is all turn region mode off option on the q which allows playback of u.s gamecube games and also allowed for piracy because in this mode the console will also read gamecube backups oops
Always get a bit of a down feeling when I hear how badly Nintendo did financially in the console competitions after the PS1 was released, since I've always had rather little interest in Sony's offerings after the earliest years of the PS2 and Microsoft's consoles - and more importantly, their games - have _never_ appealed to me. Just a bit saddening to hear how much more and more that particular niche of gamers is shrinking.
Axioanarchist You don't like the dankest of the PS2? You got to admit that the PS2 has the most unique games of that generation like Silent Hill 2 & 3 and ico.
Not a fan of DMC or MGS, or really any other first or third person shooter, hack-n-slash, or stealth game. I'm primarily a JRPG and platformers player. Which there's nearly zero of in Xbox's lineage and a quickly dwindling amount of in PS's following the early years of the PS2 when Final Fantasy X and XII came out. (And let's just not talk about XIII and beyond.) Nintendo still makes games I enjoy, as does Steam for PC (or at least Steam is the one selling them). Sony and Microsoft don't. I never got a Wii or WiiU (due to financial reasons rather than lack of interest; I certainly _wanted_ them) but I got tons of gaming time out of the DS and 3DS libraries. While the PS3 and 4 were shiny and nice to look at, I just never saw any games that made me want to bother with the pricetag, and Xbox was just never worth even looking at unless you like shooters or sports games, neither of which I care for.
Yeah I've heard good things about the Persona series, never gotten to check it out though. It's been on my to-do list for years. Xenosaga sadly felt like a massive letdown after the amazingness that was Xenogears, so I never played past the first game. Thankfully they made up for it with Xenoblade later. For some reason Dragon Quest has never been my cup of tea. Never quite sure why. But yeah. The fact that those _are_ there is why I didn't write off the PS2 completely, and I did own a couple (though neither works anymore). PS3 and 4 though, nada.
VideoGameJNPoop But those plans were scrapped when Nintendo discovered DVD Forum royalties would've added to the manufacturing costs and driven up the retail price tag to an amount tantamount to the PS3.
at the time, i was about to buy a panasonic q, but then i realised that only plays japanese games ! the q was only released in japan. in europe, only some japanese retailers had it, in very limited quantity, and for much more than 300$ (close than 1000$ if i remember). the day i decided to not buy the q (i reserved it), the retailer sold 1 hour after for 1500$ instead of 1000$, cause it was its last exemplary. it was neo-ayato a very well-known japanise retailer in south of france. today i realise i don't have space to keep hundred of consoles in my living room, so no regret !
I worked at GamesStop in the mid-2000s and I remember seeing one of these in the store. You say they only came out in japan so maybe the one I saw was used. I don't remember anyone buying it.
I still have mine, boxed up in a spare room. Had it throughout my 20s. Huge CRT in my bedroom, hifi to hook the consoles up to for good sound. Perfection. The blue lights in game mode were very cool. As was the overall design, and the (modded) ability to play any region DVDs and other discs (and play them well). Plus it was a GameCube! One of the best devices I've owned.
Man, it kinda sucks that it bombed, cause it's definitely very interesting with its features. I like that concept of the Region-Switching idea (even if that was modified, and not part of the console.) 😮
It’s cool to see how consoles are still getting more and more towards multimedia devices with the blue ray player in the Xbox one and apps like UA-cam and Netflix being standard on most consoles.
Kyle Desrochers yeah the switch has UA-cam and Hulu on it now and with Netflix canceling or losing most their shows it hardly feels like anything is missing
I remember discovering the Panasonic Q while browsing Lik-Sang back in the day. It was only 200 then. Always dreamed of owning one. And hey, there's footage of the Game Chasers!
Man, I didn't know how much bigger the Q was than the normal GameCube. I never saw comparison pictures of them side by side. It's huge! I love that they kept with the "cube" theme and made it a cube-ish case instead of just making it a normal flat DVD player profile. I regret not importing one for my collection back in the day. Thanks for the video! I was always intrigued by the Q as a GameCube fan myself.
Hi Norm, thanks for keeping things classy! A subject that may be up your alley that I know not everyone is totally clear on could be the cover Sega's hardware prior to the Genesis - all of the various confusing redesigns and variants. Just limiting the focus to the hardware would make the subject easier to produce than a series retrospective, and I know many have heard rumors about the Master System at most. Thanks for all your hard work!
I remember hearing about this a long time ago, like when it first came out. I think Nintendo Power mentioned it. I always assumed it was available outside of Japan, but I guess it wasn't.
Demeech If that were true, the PS2 would've failed, too. Due *only* to the fact that DVD players were expensive at the time the PS2 was released, it didn't.
One big kill this would've been for me is the fact that the Game Boy Player device won't fit. The GameCube with the Game Boy Player is what sold the system for me, especially that you can play Game Boy Advance games, too, unlike the SNES add-on cart.
The day my father took me to purchase a gamecube, there was a man outside the game shop that was trying to sell one of these. He was selling it for $100 lower than the retail Gamecube I was about to buy inside. I was incredibly intrigued, as I hadn't seen anything like it before...but I'd spent way too long saving up to risk purchasing something I didn't know much about. I really wish I had :'(
...I'll just go ahead and add this to the list of shit I really don't need but really want lol.
A friend and I wanted them since they came out. It's been hell watching the prices soar over the years, but we each finally own one now.
@@FuzedBox was it worth it?
Truuuuue
@@Alfonso162008 it’s worth every penny
This week on Pimp My GameCube.....
SilentS Ghost ride the cube
Starring X(box)zibit.
SilentS lol
Yo Dawg...
You nailed it! No other comments needed.
I had a friend called Josh that was the only person I knew that owned one of these. He got it right when it came out and imported it or something and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever. We played Mario Sunshine and Ocarina of Time Master Quest on it. Back in the early 2000s it felt really awesome and looked all futuristic and stuff. I think he sold it a few years ago. What I remember the most was the LED display lights and stuff looking awesome in his game room when it was dark and we were playing way into the night. Memory that will always stick with me ^_^
I'm sorry to inform you, but Josh was killed on January 3rd, 2017. Police believe his hamster, George the Second, killed him.
cool story bro
nuketowncity copy cat
I think your 13 subs tells a different story :)
Thats one of the reason I actually dig the playstation 4's light bar, the colors pop out in the dark and give the room a really good look :)
Now we wait for someone like MetalJesusRocks or another UA-camr to find an ultra rare American prototype of the Q
who?
MazingerDestroXtreme MetalJesusRock is a semi-popular youtuber who found a prototype American N64DD (which was only released in Japan)
No Normal Dog he also found a 1 of a kind original Xbox
And in nacho orange
And the prototype for Earthbound 64 and True Fantasy Online.
Honestly, that seems like a perfect thing to get for like college students moving into the dorms or into a small apartment. Just have my GameCube that plays movies. I'd put it right next to my Switch
I have a modded og Xbox and an Android TV box. I can barely study :/
Only...price.
Even at the time this thing was quite expensive, especially at import costs.
Or just buy a DVD player. Even in the 2000s they were barely $100
@@MrWolfSnack why buy a $100 DVD player and $200 gamecube when you can buy a $300 DVD cube?
@@slarbiter A $300 cube that's region locked for both of the things you want to use it for? I don't know maybe they actually wanted to be able to use it?
I've always loved the GameCube. It has some really fun games and it's an adorable console. But I do admit that I wished it had DVD playback. The Panasonic Q was the solution, but I couldn't afford to import it back in the day. It was cool to finally try one out while making this video!
Gaming Historian Heya GH! I would LOOOOOVE to see a video about the SaGa series. It's a series by Squaresoft with almost as many titles as the Final Fantasy Series. Yet very few people have even heard of SaGa!! Or maybe you could do an ep about how Squaresoft almost went out of business in the 80s after Rad Racer and Final Fantasy was their last-ditch effort to stay open.
Anyway, good content on this channel. I LOVE your work. If you wanna know more about SaGa, check out my channel cuz I'm LPing SaGa Frontier right now.
Gaming Historian I think there were some aftermarket housings that could accommodate for dvds. Then you could use homebrew software to play the dvds. Nice video by the way. :)
It was a pretty powerful standalone DVD player. I used to own one and it was professionally modded to allow DVD regions unlocked. It always reminded me of a mirrored toaster.
Gaming Historian Another great video! I might have missed it but have you done vids of your personal collection?
Were you able to buy one? Or do you just borrow someone else's for research and video purposes?
Even today that design holds up really well
Yeah, toasters look timeless.
except for the unreliable belt. no fix for this.
Yeah, anything with chrome on it just looks premium to me.
@GreedKills Not going to be something 99% of customers would ever even think about
@@markplott4820 I'm sure there might be a way to use some rubber band for this ^^
"Dialogue Enhancer" --why doesn't every DVD & Blu-ray player have this!?
The audio levels are so poorly balanced on some movies that I've been wishing for a feature like this for years!
DigitalBamboo most of TVs had it
Sony had a Nighttime feature. I’d like to see it come back.
Your TV should have this built-in. It might be called something like 'news mode'.
Well it requires additional hardware and software which means it's going to cost more.
Shit looks like a very fancy toaster.
InvaderShadow42 when I saw the thumbnail I thought "is that a toaster?"
Supa' Mario Toasta'
You know what they say all toasters toast toast! YEAH TOAST! Sorry I couldn't resist.
if only it could fly like a toaster too.
+GioEx YEAH TOAST!
That would be quite a collectors item.
i think i might get this but then again that would be 5 ways to play dvds
It is
It's always cool to find out about consoles you didn't know existed. Had no idea Nintendo gave permissions to make versions of their console. It's kind of shocking given how over protective they are of their stuff.
Nintendo had little to do with the CDI games, AFAIK they just gave Philips permission to use the licenses and they fucked it up.
let's not remember the CDI.
+sonicsnake44 Hmmm, wtf; the Philoips CD-I and Panasonic 3DO were uber/elite level home consoles; along with the Neo-Geo, Nuon, Panasonic Q and the N64 DD (an extremely rare , import only model) -- why would so many human beings detest such nosralgic gems !? I find these comments to be frivalous and trivial at best. *-*
let's just pretend the infamous CDi games never happened
When you have something Nintdon't and Nintendo needs it, you suddenly have more bargaining power with them. It is almost as if Nintendo is a business of some sort. I know right! Who would have thought that Nintendo is a business!
GameQbe
XD
FUCKING GENIUS
They should’ve just called it that
I would have bought the Panasonic Q GameCube if it was released in America.
Same.
I'm wondering if what you called the "subwoofer out" is actually a coaxial digital out (all 6 channels, same as optical, just in coaxial mode). That would make much more sense. Dolby Digital was standard on all DVD players (including the PS2) and was the default format of the OG Xbox games. But it's cool that it supported DTS. Kinda jealous that you have one of these. Also, does it play DVDs in progressive scan?
Joe!!!!
@@waltersobchak7275 Mama!!!
One of the ports literally spell out "subwoofer" in Japanese.
The PS2 doesn't use Dolby Digital. Sony didn't want to pay royalties to Dolby which were pretty high at the time. Microsoft therefore dodged those royalties by including it in a optional accessory.
DVD mode only outputs via composite or s-video, so no progressive scan. I've got a custom scart cable so I can get RGB in Game mode :)
That puny little mini-disc sitting in that huge DVD tray is just sad-looking.
ShadyKnight9 The inner ring of CD/DVD players was for mini-discs like that one.
Tiny little cutsie voice: "I'm the product of bad business decision!"
Now U know how your gf feels
Gabriele Riva
Change the word "bad" to "cautious", and you'd be right.
The GameCube is still one of my favorite consoles, the one that demonstrated we had reached the point where *OMG-better-graphics-power-under-the-hood!* no longer appealed to me as a compelling reason to buy or play a console.
Really? If the GameCube had N64 graphics, people wouldn't have bought it. It was the Wii where people (sadly) stopped giving a shit.
GameCube was more powerful than PS2.
and the original X-Box was not much more powerful then the GameCube itself. sadly the small disc format held it back, but I still love the GameCube as well, it was my choice of system back in the day when all my friends had PS2 consoles.
I loved the GameCube and all the games, the wii I hated when it came out, but it was sold out everywhere at Christmas and people were waiting whole weekends to buy Wii’s, luckily a lady that my mom knew worked at Walmart and won a wii in a raffle and my mom bought it off her(bless her heart lol). The thing that pissed me off is when I waited for smash bros brawl to come out and they kept delaying the launch day of the game, and then when it finally came out it wouldn’t play on any “original wii” so I had to send my wii to Nintendo for three weeks before I could play it. Lol never waited so long for a game
@@jake_of_the_jungle9840
safe to say you weren't waiting for Kingdom hearts 3
I know a lot of people who got PS2s simply because their family wanted a DVD player. Plenty of non-gamers went out and bought that thing. I love the Gamecube but Nintendo could have easily sold tens of millions of more units if the original model had played DVDs. But for its time, the GC was a powerful piece of hardware and showcased tons of fantastic games.
I don't know about "tons," but the few greats it had were truly great.
EBsessed It was tons
No, it really wasn't though. Gamecube is infamous for having a very small library of truly quality titles, but those few are very high quality.
For example me some years ago. I simply wanted to buy a dvd player for my old Tv and then I remembered the Ps 2. I never had one so I combined both wishes at once. Pretty neat. It felt like a Full Entertainment System.
Well, for me the ability to play DVD had exactly 0 influence when it came to buying a console. I never used my consoles to do anything other than play games. If I wanted to watch a DVD, I had DVD players at home. Even today, if I want to watch Netflix, I have SmartTVs. I never had a Sony or Microsoft console. I own every Nintendo console ever made, except for the Virtual Boy. I'm a huge Nintendo fan, but even I wouldn't buy that piece of junk.
Not gonna lie, I half expected him to say "it almost looks like a fasionable piece of furnishure... or a toaster."
My exact thought
I've always loved these things. It's a shame they're pretty pricey and they wont work easily here in Europe :(
I never knew Panasonic released a special GameBoy player for it though!
You just need a stepdown converter, then you it works pretty easily?
Imagine if something like this was the GameCube we all came to know and love. I think the GC wouldn't have been so much of a flop in any case, especially if the games came on full sized discs.
I'm surprised they were able to do this, after the fail of the 3DO.
Randomark3087 well, Nintendo finally learned after this one.
Learned from what?
Void of Space and Time I'm talking about Panasonic. Their system 3DO failed BADLY. That's why I'm surprised they could make another.
Randomark3087 Well, this was just a modified system. Maybe they thought it'd be different.
The 3DO wasn't a Panasonic console; it was an attempt by a group called The 3DO Company to create an industry standard for video game consoles, and they licensed out their firmware to multiple consumer electronics companies to give it a push. Panasonic was just the first and arguably the best known manufacturer; there are other models by Goldstar and Sanyo.
PS2 and XBOX had Dolby Surround as well...
that was one of xbox's primary features.
Oil up and hit the gym with me.
Codex Necro k baby
Codex Necro That's my Playstation!
*roo voice*
uncommon quote
Oil up and beat the dead horse with me.
Oil up and lets Fck
You know what's an easier way to get a Game Cube and a DVD player in a single machine? A hacked Wii!
"Oil up and watch region 2 dvds with me."
I love your channel! I've been binge watching so many episodes! SO ADDICTIVE!
Some of you may think that the Panasonic Q's specs are what the GameCube's should've been.
But keep in mind, Nintendo is not a general electronics manufacturer. They only make video games and systems.
Why did Nintendo choose cartridges for the Nintendo 64? Because for strictly-gaming companies, CD-based technology was very expensive, and the price of the system would've gone up to $400, just like the Sega Saturn and Neo Geo CD (and look at the mess those two systems ended up in, especially the Saturn since its infamous NA launch in 1995). And like Sega and SNK, Nintendo was never going to sell the N64 at a loss like Sony was selling the PlayStation. Okay, Sega did cut the price of the Saturn after its infamous head start, but the 1995 damage had already been done. Not to mention, every Saturn sold throughout its lifespan put Sega $100/¥10,000+ in the red, and the Dreamcast wasn't doing any better in terms of profit.
When Nintendo developed the GameCube, they went for an affordable proprietary miniDVD format to avoid illegal copying and still give developers a cheap way to make and sell games. 1.5GB of data was more than enough for third-party developers to be taken in.
Sony and Microsoft added DVD playback to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox (the latter requiring a playback kit), since, being electronics manufacturers, they were willing to sell consoles at a low profit/loss (though with the added internal hard drive and DVD Forum fees, the Xbox was sold at a bigger loss than the PS2).
Was Nintendo willing to take a chance by adding DVD playback to the GameCube? Fat chance. It's not just the cost of the technology. Nintendo would've also been forced to pay the DVD Forum a sizable licensing fee (something Sony could easily handle, because they partially owned/founded the organization). All this would've driven up the price of the GameCube to over $400 and given consumers even more of a reason to move on to other consoles (and it may have also destroyed Nintendo's place in the console wars). Like I said, strictly-gaming companies don't sell consoles at a loss.
And by the time the GameCube was launched, standalone DVD players were coming down in price. Single-disc players were going for under $100, and with the GameCube selling for $200 at launch (and then dropping to as low as $100 by the end of its lifespan), buying a standalone DVD player and GameCube individually was cheaper than buying a PS2 or Xbox.
So in conclusion, by 2001, there were pretty much no advantages to owning an expensive all-in-one system that played GameCube games and DVDs over owning a GameCube and standalone DVD player at a lower price.
What I like the most about the Gamecube is, that it's just a game console. No gimmicks that make it more expensive. I bought my gc in 2004 for 90€ (!) new, that's around 100$. Dirt cheap and that was within the first two years of it's life span. Love that console.
Lugmillord Got mine in July 2005. One of my best investments..
Lugmillord but nintendo is now all about gimmicks. Just look at switch
Lugmillord Well, I think Sony uses their media business to subsidize the cost.
I know. And that's why I love the Gamecube and not the Wii.
I don't see how an optional dvd player or online functionality is a gimmick.
I think it’s tacky looking surprised when you said it’s beautiful although I get it
Dude where has this been the past 15 years of my life!? This is FUCKING AMAZING!!!
This has to be one of the most beautiful console designs ever made!
But once someone takes it out the box and touches it, it will have so many fingerprints and smudges🥲
ah this is a cool channel subbed :)
3:12 this console was truly ahead of its time; they even added a feature specifically for Christopher Nolan movies 😂
4:27 I thought it was gonna spin around like in the Gamecube Menu
For most people, it'll be cheaper to get a DVD player and a GameCube separately. Even in Japan.
3:40 What does it mean if I instantly thought of Mr. Resetti in Animal Crossing when I saw him press that?
Maybe this is what Qanon should have been locking for.
Great video! Just a small correction: the ports you are referring to as "composite out" are actually called RCA connectors, and only the yellow RCA connector carries the composite signal, the red and white ones are just normal audio outputs.
Just yesterday I went to a gaming museum in my town that also has a Panasonic Q in one of their display cabinets.
Now that you mentioned the difference in size again, I noticed too that the thing I saw under the Q yesterday couldn't be the original GameBoy Player as it also had a gray tone to it instead of a black one.
Nevertheless a nice device that looks really good too.
Nothing I'd pick up anymore especially since those GC Digital AV cables are super expensive but still something unique one can definitely consider a collector's piece these days.
The GameCube made the mistake of not including DVDs, not just for playing movies, but the third party games couldn't fit on one mini disc, PS2 had more games third party games.
Some third party games also couldn't be fit on one PS2 disc either. Games like Devil May Cry 2, Xenosaga 2, and Star Ocean were all 2 disc games. I don't see the point why GameCube games needing two discs is a problem when PS2 games also had them too.
Team Spirits those games pushed the limits even for regular PS2 discs, the GameCube wouldn't been possible to play those games.
Matt R so divide the game in more disk =3= the reason why people didn't port to the GameCube was because it just didn't sold well and it didn't have as many games on release as the ps2 which had backwards compatibility.
The GameCube is more powerful than the ps2 despite its appearance it could have handled .. pun intended those games..
Most could fit actually.
Side note: that "rubber band" inside the Panasonic Q is properly known as a *drive belt* -- because it is intended to be less stretchy & more durable than an actual rubber band. Typically, drive belts are colored black to further differentiate them as not being rubber bands.
Sadly, drive belts have the same issue that "normal" rubber bands suffer from: over time & due to wear from regular usage & thermal stress, drive belts eventually stretch out too much or even break completely. For decades, a primary cause of breakdowns in the old-school electronics devices (such as tape recorders & later VCRs) was simply due to old drive belts going bad, rather than more serious issues like a cold solder joint or a blown resistor....
I honestly hoped you would do a video on this
I'm not going to lie, this got a like mainly because you're a Robotech fan. I wanna fanboy out for a moment but I know without a second fan it would simply become a rant 😂
If Nintendo were to release this in the US instead of the Gamecube, I think it would've sold more than the Xbox and PS2.
Unlikely, the PS2 was already cheaper than a standard DVD player and had already a bigger library.
Demeech no way
I doubt it. It might have outsold the Xbox but the xbox had a hard drive and that was a big deal.
It would have helped them though, but no way would it have outsold the PS2
Maybe the XBox, but not the PS2
Not against sony imo. Xbox was just as bad though where you had to pay a pretty penny to have the ability to watch movies. Hell its still just as shitty. I think those DVD cords or whatever the fuck on how they did it is 80 bucks
"...Xbox Live, which would bring console gaming online."
Except SEGA did that in 1999. Try harder.
You thought the NES looked like a toaster?
LOLOLOLOLOL
No.. its because of the way you insert the cartridge, its similar to a toaster.
dont be fooled by this thing. it might look cool and play dvd but it is possibly the hardest game console in the world to repair if something breaks on it
I have a Panasonic Q. Would sell it. someone in europe interest?
All-And Nothing yeah
The controller literally says SH-T GC (GameCube) 10 at 2:07 and cracked me up when I first saw it
I SEE ZATCH BELL
I actually bought a fully-modded and CIB Panasonic Q around three years ago (perhaps four? I can't recall exactly), though mine has a red button on the underside to toggle between regions instead of the little power button trick.
It's a pretty cool little system and I have it setup in my living room. It's more of a conversation piece than something I sit down and regularly play, but my most recent playthrough of Twilight Princess was done on it 🙂
Thank you for the soul warming Chibi-Robo music
am i late came to the party? UA-cam algorithm sudently show this channel, and i never been so happy
I've been drooling over this the entire video. I want.
This looks like something that patrick bateman would brag about in his living room
love this channel! Keep up the awesome work Norm
Loving the Chibi-Robo music in the background! Such an underrated gem.
3:29
What is that Movie and how can i get it.
Do you keep all the systems and things you make videos about or do you sell them back on ebay after the video is made?
I love the use of Chibi-Robo music for this GameCube video! Nice choice!
thats where you are wrong the Panasonic Q is not region locked there is all turn region mode off option on the q which allows playback of u.s gamecube games and also allowed for piracy because in this mode the console will also read gamecube backups oops
I love the Chibi Robo music playing in the background!! good memories.
The Q's design looks like something I would find at a friends house and there parents would tell me not to touch it
I want one
bcdesjardin Nice dachshund..
lol thanks
what's his/her name and may I pet him
chibi robo music yess I love this guy
Always get a bit of a down feeling when I hear how badly Nintendo did financially in the console competitions after the PS1 was released, since I've always had rather little interest in Sony's offerings after the earliest years of the PS2 and Microsoft's consoles - and more importantly, their games - have _never_ appealed to me. Just a bit saddening to hear how much more and more that particular niche of gamers is shrinking.
Axioanarchist
You don't like the dankest of the PS2? You got to admit that the PS2 has the most unique games of that generation like Silent Hill 2 & 3 and ico.
Axioanarchist
i luv my GCN, and i can understand, but thers is alot of cool games like DMC and MGS2 & 3.
Not a fan of DMC or MGS, or really any other first or third person shooter, hack-n-slash, or stealth game. I'm primarily a JRPG and platformers player. Which there's nearly zero of in Xbox's lineage and a quickly dwindling amount of in PS's following the early years of the PS2 when Final Fantasy X and XII came out. (And let's just not talk about XIII and beyond.)
Nintendo still makes games I enjoy, as does Steam for PC (or at least Steam is the one selling them). Sony and Microsoft don't. I never got a Wii or WiiU (due to financial reasons rather than lack of interest; I certainly _wanted_ them) but I got tons of gaming time out of the DS and 3DS libraries. While the PS3 and 4 were shiny and nice to look at, I just never saw any games that made me want to bother with the pricetag, and Xbox was just never worth even looking at unless you like shooters or sports games, neither of which I care for.
Axioanarchist
Ps2 has alot of JRPGs. Persona 3 & 4, and xenosaga and Dragon Quest 8 are the highly known handful from the plethora if those games.
Yeah I've heard good things about the Persona series, never gotten to check it out though. It's been on my to-do list for years.
Xenosaga sadly felt like a massive letdown after the amazingness that was Xenogears, so I never played past the first game. Thankfully they made up for it with Xenoblade later.
For some reason Dragon Quest has never been my cup of tea. Never quite sure why.
But yeah. The fact that those _are_ there is why I didn't write off the PS2 completely, and I did own a couple (though neither works anymore). PS3 and 4 though, nada.
In fact, DVD support was originally planned for the Wii, and white Wii’s even have a chip to do this, later black ones though have a different chip.
VideoGameJNPoop
But those plans were scrapped when Nintendo discovered DVD Forum royalties would've added to the manufacturing costs and driven up the retail price tag to an amount tantamount to the PS3.
Anyone who is buying this thesdays is wasting their money you can get a GameCube and a DVD player separately
I know i ran into this somewhere. Jus can't put my finger on it.
This might be slightly controversial but I was never a fan of the Q’s design
Yeah me too, it look nothing like "nintendo"
I had no idea there were blue lights! That's a gorgeous piece of kit, I wish I could justify adding one to my collection!
Great video (as always)!
But where is the Panasonic Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth?
Can a unmodded Q play region 0 dvds (region free dvds)
What the hell is the point of region-locking... I don't get it
at the time, i was about to buy a panasonic q, but then i realised that only plays japanese games ! the q was only released in japan. in europe, only some japanese retailers had it, in very limited quantity, and for much more than 300$ (close than 1000$ if i remember). the day i decided to not buy the q (i reserved it), the retailer sold 1 hour after for 1500$ instead of 1000$, cause it was its last exemplary. it was neo-ayato a very well-known japanise retailer in south of france. today i realise i don't have space to keep hundred of consoles in my living room, so no regret !
I wouldn't think it's worth it, I can watch DVDs and yes even play Gamecube games on my PC! (with an emulator of course).
I thought I recognized the background Chibi Robo music and then saw the game played confirming my suspicion. 👌
I worked at GamesStop in the mid-2000s and I remember seeing one of these in the store. You say they only came out in japan so maybe the one I saw was used. I don't remember anyone buying it.
It's such a sexy console... but worth buying now? No. With the cost it seems they had the same problem as the Sega CDX
2004?!?!? I thought it was released in 2004?
I still have mine, boxed up in a spare room. Had it throughout my 20s. Huge CRT in my bedroom, hifi to hook the consoles up to for good sound. Perfection.
The blue lights in game mode were very cool. As was the overall design, and the (modded) ability to play any region DVDs and other discs (and play them well). Plus it was a GameCube! One of the best devices I've owned.
Man, it kinda sucks that it bombed, cause it's definitely very interesting with its features. I like that concept of the Region-Switching idea (even if that was modified, and not part of the console.) 😮
7:31 I just had a flashback to PBS circa 2001.
"Funding for (program) is provided by..."
Thats the idea furry
Norm, was the Q worth the price in your opinion?
It’s cool to see how consoles are still getting more and more towards multimedia devices with the blue ray player in the Xbox one and apps like UA-cam and Netflix being standard on most consoles.
Kyle Desrochers yeah the switch has UA-cam and Hulu on it now and with Netflix canceling or losing most their shows it hardly feels like anything is missing
Looks like a toaster not an piece of furniture lmao
I would have gotten one of these in a minute!
I remember discovering the Panasonic Q while browsing Lik-Sang back in the day. It was only 200 then. Always dreamed of owning one. And hey, there's footage of the Game Chasers!
Man, I didn't know how much bigger the Q was than the normal GameCube. I never saw comparison pictures of them side by side. It's huge! I love that they kept with the "cube" theme and made it a cube-ish case instead of just making it a normal flat DVD player profile. I regret not importing one for my collection back in the day. Thanks for the video! I was always intrigued by the Q as a GameCube fan myself.
what are we? are we some kind of Gaming Historian?
"Mark AirWind, we really are The Gaming Historian."
Hi Norm, thanks for keeping things classy! A subject that may be up your alley that I know not everyone is totally clear on could be the cover Sega's hardware prior to the Genesis - all of the various confusing redesigns and variants. Just limiting the focus to the hardware would make the subject easier to produce than a series retrospective, and I know many have heard rumors about the Master System at most. Thanks for all your hard work!
nice use of the Chibi-Robo soundtrack
I remember hearing about this a long time ago, like when it first came out. I think Nintendo Power mentioned it. I always assumed it was available outside of Japan, but I guess it wasn't.
I really want this thing!
I do want to admit how pretty, glossy and interesting the Q looks :)
such a great episode i love the gamecube its my favorite nintendo systeam i want this so bbbbbaaaaadfdd
Joseph Bradner Improve your spelling first.
"It was more expensive to buy this than a Gamecube and DVD Player separately." Seems like a common reason these hybrid consoles always fail.
Demeech
If that were true, the PS2 would've failed, too. Due *only* to the fact that DVD players were expensive at the time the PS2 was released, it didn't.
One big kill this would've been for me is the fact that the Game Boy Player device won't fit. The GameCube with the Game Boy Player is what sold the system for me, especially that you can play Game Boy Advance games, too, unlike the SNES add-on cart.
Wow...Nintendo is really protective of their shit...aren't they?
The day my father took me to purchase a gamecube, there was a man outside the game shop that was trying to sell one of these. He was selling it for $100 lower than the retail Gamecube I was about to buy inside. I was incredibly intrigued, as I hadn't seen anything like it before...but I'd spent way too long saving up to risk purchasing something I didn't know much about. I really wish I had :'(