Special ATI Gamecube

I recently came across this Gamecube and have no idea where it's from. I bought it quickly because I thought it was the ATI employee GC (Thanks for developing the Flipper), but it ended up being different. Anyone have any info on it?

 

http://assemblergames.com/l/threads...outstanding-effort-on-flipper-gamecube.51077/
hmmm... thought it was the same as this one.. guess not. I'll leave it here for reference anyway.


Edit: Maybe it's an earlier version of the link above?

 

Could be. Best place to ask would be Nintendo themselves. It may have gone to a person who wasn't directly involved in the GPU for Flipper, as like a "Honorable Mention" kinda console?

 

Or maybe even a commemorative Gamecube? I remember they sold over 12 million Flipper chips and were really hyped about that, so that could very well be a later model. Model number?

 

Take a look at the center , it comes out easily. I have seen cpus in acrylic for ati as well. If it's silk screened and not a sticker it's good proof.

If it is real ( I see no reason why not) then it was for high rank employees. Normal people didn't get freebies at ati.

 

AH! I have developed a theory! What I think, was this was a console used at an event where ATI had a booth or something like that and showed off their achievements, one of them being buying out ArtX (aka making the chip) and used this as display. Or it was in the ATI headquarters and it was taken down, given to someone, and he/she sells it, as ATI is now AMD.

 

They would have had to get nintendo's permission to do that. Unlikely.

This was for a reward to a top engineer, or most likely for executives.

 

Nice.

Here's an IGN interview with ATi on GameCube's (ArtX-designed) Flipper GPU:


Part 1: http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/10/30/ati-discusses-gamecube-graphics
Part 2: http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/11/01/ati-discusses-gamecube-graphics-part-2

some choice quotes:

 

Its

I'm at work so I can't take a better picture, but the ATI logo is holographic. Reminds me of Intel's genuine stickers.

 

If it's a sticker it's going to severely hurt the value.

 

All under one roof

 

AMD's just one giant leech, but I love them, and Intel/Nvidia is too expensive. Lol

 

ArtX was formed by people who previously worked for Silicon Graphics.

 

.... that created the graphic chip for the N64.

 

Art-x, I sadly lost an ebay bid on some rare art-x stuff

 

Alright, sorry about the delay. Here's a close up. It's got that holographic, color-shifting thing going on with the logo. ATI appears darker or lighter depending on how you look at it. Pretty cool

 

If possible can you remove the jewel to view underneath it to see if anything is under there?
Also is it silkscreened or a sticker?

 

It's silkscreened not a sticker.

 

Very nice. Must be a legit bit of kit as silkscreening a hologram is more effort than its worth.