You know the holiday shopping season is upon us when video game purveyors trot out their latest wares as a means to entice kids and the gaming enthusiast within the adult mere weeks before Dec. 25.

Primed to maintain its leadership position in the Canadian video game market, Nintendo of Canada Ltd. unveiled its GameCube system in Toronto on Oct. 30. Vancouver-based spokesperson Ron Bertram, announced Nintendo has 100,000 GameCube units earmarked for sale in Canada between Nov. 18 (the official release date for North America) and Christmas Day. Moreover, 300,000 pieces of gaming software will also hit the streets just 38 days before Christmas mom.

"We estimate between November 18th to Christmas, we will sell about 100,000 Nintendo GameCubes in Canada and about 300,000 pieces of software. We're going to need every one of them judging by the initial reaction we've had by sampling the game across the country," he said. "Hardware sales for our industry are up 67 per cent and software is up 32 per cent in Canada, and in the United States we're up overall by 35 per cent."

Retailing for $299 -- allegedly $150 cheaper than the competition -- and with a height of 4.3-inches, width 5.9-inches, and a depth of 6.3-inches, the GameCube's microprocessor unit (MPU) is a custom built IBM Power PC 'Gekko', with 485 MHz frequency. The Cube houses 1.3 GB per second bandwidth (32-bit address space, 64-bit data bus, 162 MHz clock), a 24-bit colour pixel depth, and 2.6 GB per second memory bandwidth amongst other features. The Cube's controller -- that which provides the crucial connection between the player and the game -- helps comprise what Greg Buchner, vice-president of engineering for the partnering ATI Technologies Inc. of Markham, Ont., called the "perfect gaming experience".

"We set out with a high level goal of making the system that game developers would just love," said Buchner of ATI's involvement with Nintendo by creating the GameCube's graphic chip. "If we could succeed in getting the game developers to love the system and be successful with the system, everything else would fall into place."

Buchner added that the collective partners managed to achieve all of its goals while keeping GameCube's retail cost competitive.

"From a cost point of view; I think we nailed the cost well," he said. "That's evident by the price gap at retail, $150 difference, between the (competing) systems on the market."

Nintendo has plans to release a means for its Game Boy Advance handheld video game to connect with the GameCube for use as an additional screen and/or controller. In addition, it'll offer both a 56K modem and a broadband Internet adapter so the Cube can partake in online gaming; come 2002. However, Bertram said Nintendo has no plans whatsoever to pursue offering online games.

"GameCube has broadband capability, but there are no plans to launch online games," he said.

The Cube will arrive to Canadian consumers compatible with an SD-memory card adapter, a digital memory card (a 4 Mb card to enhance the system's games), a wireless Wavebird controller (good for up to 10 metres), and a digital video cable.

Bertram said Nintendo would be introducing a bunch of new games for the Cube including classics Zelda and Mario Bros. In the meantime, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, LucasArt's Rogue Leader (a Star Wars based-game in which the goal is to fly an X-Wing fighter into battle against the evil Death Star and Darth Vader), and NBA Courtside 2002 round out the top games offerings. But there's more: Star Fox Adventures, Super Smash Bros.' Melee, Pikmin, Madden NFL 2002, Luigi's Mansion, XG3 Extreme G Racing, and SSX Tricky.

"This is the year we show gamers a new paradigm of gaming," Bertram said. "We're the leader in the Canadian market to the tune of over 54 per cent in a $700 million dollar industry. We're a video game company, that's all we are. Our mission is to create the most enjoyable games possible for gamers of all ages."

Other partners offering software for GameCube: Midway Sports Inc. will ship its NHL Hitz 2002 on Nov. 13, Sega's Super Monkey Ball is out in November, and Montreal-based Ubi Soft Entertainment's Batman: Vengeance and Disney's Tarzan Untamed will be apart of the initial Cube launch. "We will be launching an additional six titles (for GameCube) by March 2002...and a total of 20 game titles in 2002," said Ubi Soft's product manager Chantal Cloutier.

RELATED ARTICLE: GameCube specifications

Size: Height 4.3-inches, width 5.9-inches, depth 6.3-inches

Media: Three-inch proprietary GameCube disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology with 1.5 GB capacity

Peripheral Devices: Memory card with 4 MB of flash memory, SD-memory card adapter, wireless Wavebird controller, 56Kbps, v.90 modem adapter, broadband adapter, digital video cable

Audio: Custom Macronix 16-bit DSP, 81 MHz

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