More GB Player details

Whenever we go to see Nintendo, they make half-hearted attempts to convince us that their latest console is more than just a child's toy, but the latest news on their Game Boy Player peripheral suggests that even they believe what people say about the Cube these days.

The recently announced Game Boy Player, a peripheral which connects to the bottom of the GameCube (giving it a more Cubey shape, as it happens) and along with a Cube-sized boot disc allows you to play software from Game Boys of all ages on the TV screen, will include an option for parents to have the machine automatically power down after a certain amount of time. We can see the TV advertising campaigns now. "It's bedtime in half an hour," Mum yells, before coming back later to sneakily play Mario by herself. At which point the missus leans over our side of the couch and says "don't you have one of those kid's toys?" No, no, no!

Like the Super Game Boy SNES peripheral, there will be an options menu, accessed via the Z button, allowing you to change the border graphic (ala Super Game Boy), remove the border entirely or to fiddle with the parental turn-off feature.

Anyway, there is some good news too. As far as we know, there will be no territorial lockout, so as with all of Nintendo's handheld hardware, imports from the US and Japan will run without issue. Which is good news, as long as your bloody mother doesn't set the egg timer to turn off after an hour. Arrgh!