Panasonic Q Early Design

I was hunting around for some information on the Panasonic Q GameCube and ran across this photo from a presentation done by Nintendo in 2001 (E3):



I did some snooping and ran across this from the X-CuLt community forums:



Here's what the final product looked like for reference:



The Game Boy attachment is on the bottom, which normally isn't present, so you'll have to ignore that.

 

amazing find!!! thanks for sharing!

 

It's a special gb player (bottom shape is different), hard to find for a decent price.
Look like hand-made proto ^^

 

Its not different from the ordinary Panasonic GBA-player, is it?

 

the third picture shows released retail items. Those include the Q AND the GBAplayer, which is different to the normal GC GBA player due to width.

The 2 top pictures are the curiosity.

 

Am I the only one who feels the design of the Q is a bit over the top?
It's like circa-1950's electronic design...not at all appealing to me.

 

I know, just wondered why lilly thinks it looked like a hand-made proto.

@SG
I don't really like the design of the Q as well, I think it is too big (heightwise) to look seriously cool.

 

Talking about the earlier version of the Q with a big piece of metal instead of the mirror faceplate ^^.

 

The Q actually needs it's own special GBA player, because the feet of the Q prevent the usual unit from properly mating up with it. Electronically, I suspect that the 2 players are identical.

Conversly, that's probably one of the reasons that I have a fondness for the Q.

I do think the final retail design looks superior to the initial presentation design (although, I quite like that, too...).

 

I was always bummed that this never came out here. I heard that its dvd playback was superior to that of ps2.

 

Am I missing something, or does it look exactly the same as the released version except for different feet and a square around the controller ports?

 

It doesn't have the reflective/mirror surface of the retail's front panel (except, possibly for the rectangular panel with the controller/mc ports). And come to think of it, the feet in the second image look similar to the retail's, so one assumes that it's a later preproduction version than the first image is of.

 

Sorry, I should have used this picture:



It's a pretty nice unit in person. It's smaller than it looks in the pictures.

Unfortunately, I'm seeing tons and tons of junk units offered for sale these days which is different than a year ago. Looks like they weren't really made to last...

 

That is a great find, Japan-Games. I had no idea there was a prior design version of the Q.

I've always wanted one of these systems. Now that I see this prototype version, I favor its design more than the retail system. If only the Wii could playback DVD legitly, that would calm my yearning for this system and all my Gamecube games and DVD playback in one system.

-SK

 

Can the Q output audio over the toslink interface for Gamecubs games, or just DVD's?

 

just dvds.

also, although it supports 480p for GC games it does not do progressive scan for dvds!

it's just a GC+a dvd player, not a hybrid

 

Really, i thought the Q only carried s-video or has it the Digital audiovisual port or the earlier GC's?

 

The final design looks so much better than the proto`s IMHO

As for the GB- player I keep thinking of getting one, but never used the one i had on my normal Q so whybother with this one and at such a price

But hey collectors collect

 

Is it possible all these junk units were modded? Cause I know that alot of importers were selling them with dvd and gc region mods.

 

No, the Japanese don't mod them and the junk items I've seen are in Japan. Also, if you look at the piece that covers the LED display it looks like a picture frame, clear in the middle with a silver frame around it. That silver frame is starting to fade on a lot of units to the point where you can see through it.