Nintendo optical discs

Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and Wii Optical Disc
Media type	Read-only optical disc
Encoding	Digital
Capacity	GCN 80mm: 1.5 GB Wii 120mm: 4.7 GB (8.54 GB dual layer)
Read mechanism	Laser
Developed by	Nintendo & Panasonic
Usage	80mm: Nintendo GameCube game media 120mm: Wii game media

Nintendo optical discs refer to the optical disc format used to distribute video games released by Nintendo. This includes the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and Wii Optical Disc. The Nintendo GameCube Game Disc was created for the Nintendo GameCube, while the Wii Optical Disc was made for the Wii. The physical size of a Nintendo GameCube Game Disc is that of a miniDVD, and the Wii Optical Disc is the size of a DVD. The discs are of a proprietary format; the Wii disc cannot be used on other platforms, though the GameCube disc can be used in the Wii for backward compatibility. A Burst Cutting Area is located at the inner ring of the disc surface.

[edit] Format

The Nintendo GameCube Game Disc (DOL-006) is the medium for the Nintendo GameCube, created by Matsushita (now Panasonic), and later extended for use on the Wii through backward compatibility.^[1] The GameCube Game Disc is a 1.5GB, 8-cm miniDVD based technology which reads at a constant angular velocity. It was chosen by Nintendo to prevent copyright infringement of its games,^[2] to avoid licensing fees to the DVD Forum and to reduce loading times.^[3]

The GameCube Game Disc was criticized for its relatively small storage, as some games with large amounts of data have needed to be placed across two discs. Full-motion video scenes and audio had to be more compressed to fit on a single disc, reducing their quality. Prior to the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo consoles traditionally used cartridge-based media.

For the Wii, Nintendo extended the technology to use a full size 12-cm, 4.7/8.54 GB DVD-based disc (RVL-006), enabling it to have the benefits of the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc, while having the standard capacity of a double-layer DVD-ROM. Although the Wii can utilize double-layer discs, all titles were single-layer prior to the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. With the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo has admitted that some Wii systems may have trouble reading dual-layer discs due to a dirty laser lens. Nintendo repaired systems with dual-layer problems, and later released a disc cleaning kit for users to purchase.^[4]

[edit] Burst Cutting Area

Each Nintendo optical disc contains a Burst Cutting Area (BCA) mark, a type of barcode that is written to the disc with a YAG laser. Another example of DVD-like media with BCA marks is the discontinued DIVX format.

A BCA mark is visible to the naked eye. It should not be confused with the IFPI mark that is on all optical discs. BCA is described in Annex K of the physical specification, and can be seen between radius 22.3±0.4 mm and 23.5±0.5 mm.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Descripton of authentication method
• More detailed description of authentication method