There has been another leak of Nintendo content and this time it offers a glimpse at what could have been, as well as something that fans have been wanting to find for years. As it turns out, there are documents for a planned portable version of the GameCube, as well as the mythical Wii Startup Disc. Nintendo has been the subject of numerous leaks over the past two years, with prototypes, unreleased games, and planning documents all making their way into the hands of fans.
The leaks started in 2018, when the Space World '97 demo for Pokémon Gold & Silver made its way online, featuring numerous never-before-seen Pokémon designs. This was followed by a similar leak of an early build of Pokémon Red & Green. As time went on, it was revealed that even more Nintendo content had been discovered by a hacker, though it's believed that the entirety of the collection still hasn't been released online.
There has been another Nintendo leak making the rounds, and this one has some strange revelations. According to LuigiBlood on Twitter, the leak contains the source code for Pokémon Emerald, the planning documents for a portable GameCube that could connect to a dock that is hooked up to a TV (just like the Nintendo Switch), and the Wii Startup Disc.
The Wii hacking community has been searching for the Startup Disc for years. It was originally intended to be used with Wii consoles that were shipped to stores as part of demo kiosks and needed to have new firmware installed. The portable GameCube is especially interesting, both due to its similarities to the incredibly popular Switch, and the fact that Nintendo seemingly wasn't done with the system – despite its failure compared to the PlayStation 2. The Wiimotes were originally planned to be GameCube accessories, and it's possible that Nintendo was so impressed with the motion control hardware that it decided to dump the GameCube entirely, which was a smart move, as the Wii became Nintendo's best-selling home console.
The latest Nintendo leak isn't quite as exciting as scrapped Donkey Kong games or Pokémon titles with unused designs, but it offers a fascinating look into the company's plans going into the Wii era. There has been a lot of content from this era that has made its way online, including source codes, planning documents, and internal presentations. Now, we can only wonder what else will make its way into the hands of fans in the future.
Source: LuigiBlood/Twitter