Collecting GameCube: what to look for and Spanish PAL variants

The GameCube arrived in Europe in May 2002. Its games come on 8 cm mini-DVDs, in cases smaller than PlayStation 2 ones. It is region-locked: North American and Japanese games will not boot on an unmodified European console.

Many European GameCube games let you choose 60 Hz at start-up, which avoids the slower picture of 50 Hz. We explain this in PAL vs NTSC.

• The product code, on the spine and on the disc, starts with DOL and ends in a country or region suffix: ESP for Spanish editions, EUR for shared European ones and others such as NOE, FRA or UKV.
• The Player's Choice range re-released the hits with a badge on the box. As on other consoles, the first edition is usually the most sought after.
• Check that the manual matches the edition: in many shared European editions, Spanish comes in a multilingual booklet.

Games from Nintendo and its in-house studios are the core of any GameCube collection, and short-run RPGs and strategy games are among the most valuable in the European library.

Beyond Nintendo, the console has some highly regarded games worth owning complete: Resident Evil 4, which came out on GameCube first; Beyond Good & Evil; TimeSplitters 2 or Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.

The games that go up in price are also the most reproduced. Before paying a lot, read the how to tell if a game is genuine guide.

• DOL-001: the first model, with a digital video port. DOL-101: the later revision, without that port. For collectors, the first is the more sought after.
• Game Boy Player: attaches underneath the console and lets you play Game Boy Advance games on the TV. It needs its boot disc.
• Controllers, including the wireless WaveBird, and official memory cards. Boxed, they are collectables in their own right.

The console's full catalogue is on the GameCube page.