Page 1 of 3 Gamecube Questions

Is it worth importing a machine and if not what are the advantages of waiting until the UK release in a couple of weeks? (I`m just thinking of saving money buying imported games?...)

Can the Gamecube be chipped (ala Dreamcast) to play copied games?

Finally, and less importantly, how many different colours is it available in?

You can save on the console price but games work out a couple of quid cheaper, but the games get released in america/japan months earlier.
As of yet I am not aware of any chip to play copies but there is a chip so u can play UK/US/Japan games.
In UK & US at present just black & purple consoles but eventually others will follow. In Japan there are at least three colours, maybe more, black, purple & spice (a mix of yellow & orange). There are plans for blue, green & metallic.

Metallic sounds good. Spice sounds to me like it shuld be renamed `vomit`.

I bought a Japanese GameCube when they were released and later modified it to play US games, i will need to wait until UK games are released before i know if it will be compatable with PAL.

There is no chip for the machine, there is no need for one, all you need is 2 wires , a bit of soldering experience and a switch, the Japanese and US machines are identical, the only difference is the machines have been wired to the correct point in the circuit board for the region they are in.

The US Bios is even present in the Japanese machine.

When i switch from Japanese to US everything in the internal settings change to English.

I think you can pick up modified import GameCubes for not much more than you will pay for a UK machine and you will have the benefit of playing US games well before they come out here and cheaper if you order from DVDBoxoffice.

Thanks for the replies all.
I think the US machine is the way forward, I`m a bit worried about the customs charges when importing but no doubt I`ll make more than the money back when I start buying the games.
Have no experience in soldering, but no doubt I`ll be able to pull instructions off the Web somewhere, if not I`ll just try and find a specialist cowboy to do it for me.
Incidentally I`ve seen the `Spice` Gamecube mentioned, fock me it`s ugly, looks like a sandstone, reckon I`ll be opting for the black one although the Metallic sounds nice.

Bought my US gamecube on ebay & paid zero custom charges (just tell the guy to mark it as a gift). You can buy brand new consoles on ebay as well as 2nd hand.

e-bay?
Hmmm, isn`t that the auction site where people take your cash and run? !
Is there anyone in particular you got yours off? Perhaps they have more?
Cheers!