The Nintendo source code leaks from July were so enormous that new information is still being uncovered. This time around, it appears that plans for a proposed portable GameCube model have been located, and not in the “GameCube has a handle on its back” sense of “portable.” Rather, this is something surprisingly more akin to Nintendo Switch. This alleged portable GameCube model would have included a TV dock with GameCube controller ports, a slot for a memory card, network functionality, and more. Twitter user LuigiBlood seemed to first spot these plans, which toruzz expanded upon a bit.
The dock had GC controller ports, SD card / GC Memory Card slot, AV out, and then optional TV tuner + MPEG4 Encoder and wireless stuff. pic.twitter.com/FW5848Wdy0
— Yakumono (@LuigiBlood) September 2, 2020
A portable GC model proposal has been found in the recent leaks. It would've included a dock with support for external controllers, network, memory cards and a mini-DVD drive. pic.twitter.com/wETVYLKpzi
— toruzz (@toruzz) September 2, 2020
You’ll have to forgive that I’m not an electrical engineer and some technical aspects of those diagrams go over my head. It’s pretty wild that Nintendo may have been contemplating on-the-TV, off-the-TV gaming as far back as the early-to-mid 2000s though. Its success likely would have depended upon price, battery, and form factor, and it’s difficult to imagine what sort of ramifications a portable GameCube with TV dock would have had on Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. This whole situation is like trying to picture a bizarre parallel universe.
There’s no telling how far these alleged portable GameCube plans ever advanced at Nintendo, but it seems unlikely development progressed too far, much like with the proposed Game Boy Advance / PC Pokémon MMO plans found elsewhere in the Nintendo leaks.
