Did you know?
At one point, the Nintendo 64 could have been the Sega 64.
Plans for the N64 originated when Silicon Graphics Inc, or SGI, approached Nintendo
with their new energy efficient and cost effective CPU.
However, Nintendo were not their first choice.
The processor was initially shown to Tom Kalinske, then-CEO of Sega America.
After some debate among Sega's hardware designers, the company declined SGI's offer.
This was due to uncertainties about the chip's performance, and associated manufacturing
risks.
Kalinske advised SGI founder Jim Clark to contact other manufacturers, which led to
a successful pitch with Nintendo.
The contract between Nintendo and SGI was signed in August 1993, and work began the
following month.
The time between the project's inception and its eventual release in June 1996 was
fraught with delays.
The setbacks came from Nintendo, who wanted to ensure enough games and a solid marketing
plan were ready at launch.
Inevitably, these delays w To prevent impatient fans from buying other consoles during the
1995 holiday season, Nintendo ran advertisements well in advance of the N64's release.
These ads boasted that the Nintendo 64 was worth the wait: "Only if you want the best!"
Nintendo's confidence in the N64 was partly due to a previous venture with Silicon Graphics
technology: Donkey Kong Country.
Country's visuals played a key role in its massive success, and allowed Nintendo to compete
visually with emerging 32bit systems.
And since Sega were recklessly diving into the next generation with the Saturn, Nintendo
felt comfortable delaying the N64 by six months to ensure its quality.
These delays inadvertently led to major developments in the World Wide Web.
Jim Clark resigned from SGI in February 1994, and began brainstorming new ideas alongside
a software engineer named Marc Andreessen.
Encouraged by Clark's previous experience with Nintendo, their first idea was an online
service for the N64.
When they discovered the system wasn't intended to ship until late 1995 at the time, they
went back to the drawing board.
The project they eventually settled on was the world's first commercial Web browser:
Netscape Navigator, which played a huge role in popularising the internet as we know it
today.
Andreessen has himself speculated that the duo probably wouldn't have made Netscape
had the Nintendo 64 released earlier than it did.
The console was intended to launch under the name "Ultra 64" in the West, and "Ultra
Famicom" in Japan.
The "Ultra" title was possibly intended as a reference to several toys Nintendo manufactured
in the 1960s.
The Ultra line of toys included the Ultra Hand, the Ultra Scope, and the Ultra
Machine.
They were an early success for designer Gunpei Yokoi, who would later work on the D-pad,
the Game Boy, and Metroid.
While industry speculation suggested the console's name was changed due to legal trouble with
Konami, Nintendo offered another explanation.
Nintendo 64 was a simple name that united the console under a single worldwide brand.
The name was created by Shigesato Itoi, best known internationally for his work on EarthBound.
He chose the name after hearing that people would use Nintendo as a catch-all phrase
for a game console, similar to how the name Hoover is used when referring to a vacuum
cleaner.
Itoi fell in love with the confident simplicity of the name Nintendo 64.
In an interview with the Japanese magazine 64 Dream, he explained: "Instead of rashly
trying to envision the near future or the next generation, I was hoping to name it something
that would just force its opponent out of the ring head-on.
When naming cars and coming up with sedans or whatever, you can't even keep track anymore.
'Super Excellent Sedan'.
It's disgraceful.
So I made it the most orthodox name there is."
Nintendo received criticism for using cartridges with the N64, as the rest of the industry
moved on to CD-ROM technology.
The lack of memory in cartridges made high-quality audio and full-motion video challenging to
produce for the Nintendo 64.
This inevitably lead to third-party developers such as Capcom, Square, and Namco to favoring
competing consoles over the Nintendo 64.
Nintendo justified their decision, arguing that the popularity of plug-and-play consoles
was proof that a lack of load times was important to the consumer.
They also stated that using unique hardware made piracy more difficult on the Nintendo
64.
But other companies and critics were skeptical, accusing Nintendo of trying to maintain leverage
over developers.
Former chairman of Nintendo America, Howard Lincoln, strongly denied the accusations.
Lincoln said "I've seen speculation about how this was some plot to control third-party
publishers.
That's completely nonsense.
There' s just not a grain of truth in that thing.
No discussion like that ever occurred; that was never an issue.
It was strictly technology and counterfeiting." However, Lincoln believed that CD technology
was still improving and Nintendo could change formats as soon as discs became the better
choice.
Eventually, talented developers were able to compress full-motion video and high-quality
audio onto N64 cartridges.
Angel Studios in particular managed to compress Resident Evil 2 from two CDs onto a single
cartridge.
The team had some difficulty doing this, and severely underestimated what it would take
to compress over 200 unique pieces music onto a single cartridge.
Under-budgeted as a result, they turned to Factor 5, a company notable for their ability
to compress complicated audio onto N64 cartridges.
Factor 5 previously helped with speech compression in Pokemon Stadium, and even managed to include
full audio commentary for every level in Star Wars Episode I: Battle for Naboo.
This commentary was regarded as one of the first of its kind in video games.
Despite the efforts of Nintendo and their partners, the cartridge format had undeniable
drawbacks.
Cartridges were approximately ten times more expensive to produce than CDs, and took two
to three weeks to manufacture, whereas CD's took two to three days.
To counter this, Nintendo considered letting players bring their cartridges to participating
Lawson stores across Japan and replace the software on the cartridge with another game.
Dubbed the "Game Kiosk," the plan was intended to offset both production costs for
Nintendo and inventory risks for stores.
Nintendo had implemented a similar concept with the Famicom Disk Writer and the Nintendo
Power kiosks in Japan, which allowed data on Famicom Disks and Super Famicom carts to
be rewritten.
Many Nintendo 64 games began as projects for the Nintendo 64's short-lived disk peripheral:
the 64DD.
Miyamoto himself has mentioned this fact, claiming that almost every new project he
started for the console was originally for the 64DD.
Reasons for the peripheral's repeated delays have been kept vague, with Nintendo citing
difficulties in developing both the drive and the disks themselves.
Although the 64DD was released exclusively in Japan, a collector and YouTube user known
as MetalJesusRocks acquired an American 64DD from an anonymous seller.
The model is noteworthy not only because it's American, but also because of the stickers
on its case.
The labeling suggested it was a retail-ready, or at the very least a retail prototype.
This means Nintendo was far closer to selling the 64DD state-side than anyone had realized
before.
A version of Super Mario 64 has also been discovered for the 64DD.
This version was made for Nintendo Space World 1996 to promote the 64DD, and was discovered
in a Japanese pre-owned games store.
The game has few differences to the cartridge version, and seems to omit more than it adds,
such as Mario's head being abscent from the title screen.
And if you want even more Nintendo 64 facts, check out the last Did You Know Gaming video
on the N64!
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