Nintendo was the leader in the video gaming market since the Nintendo Entertainment System. However, times do change. People demand for greater and more powerful hardware to satisfy their gaming needs. And thus, Nintendo created the Nintendo 64 to quench the thirst for great gaming. This console goes hand and hand with the Game Boy Color. As a part of the 5th generation of gaming, it transcended from 2D-bit graphics to three-dimensional environments. It completed with the long time rivals Sega and Atari with their consoles, Saturn and Jaguar, respectively. They also went up against two newcomers; Sony with their PlayStation and 3DO and their 3DO Interactive Multiplayer console.
"Project Reality" started in 1993. Nintendo wanted to harness the same type of CGI animation used to create the same effects computers made at the time. Nintendo did not have much experience with 3-D graphics. For the most part, they worked with third-parties to develop the technology. The main companies to thank for the Nintendo 64 are Silicon Graphics MIPS Technologies. Both made the real-time 3D graphics system for the 64 to produce. Interesting enough, SGI wanted to work with Sega first. Sega decided against working with the company, and Nintendo wooed them.
Coming off the failed Virtual Boy, Nintendo needed to reestablish a bond with their consumers. Before the 64, the Virtual Boy was supposedly their "real 3D system". Nintendo seemingly mastered it's Super FX technology that made the Super Nintendo Entertainment System so great, creating 3D planes of existence only available in films around the time. People were astonished how big games could be. Nintendo used a graphics chip in the 64 capable of Trilinear filtering. This allowed for textures to look very smooth, rather than a polygon effect or pixelated textures.
The Nintendo 64 was first shown off at E3 of 1996 in Los Angeles. With a promotional video, they displayed the advances in technology and a plethora of video games. Many games in the the video was in beta form and looked different from the finished product. Not only that, but few were actually cancelled. Using phrases like "dream made reality" and "real fun in real time", Nintendo was praised for creating the best video gaming device of all time. Many believed they hit the nail right now the head with this new console dubbed the 64.
However, they made a lot of decisions that affects them to this very day. They refused to develop a CD-ROM based console. Cartridges took longer to manufacture and were more expensive than disc. Leftover video games made hurt Nintendo's pocket. Not only that, but because Nintendo refused to move on to CD-ROMs, a few third-party companies that were with Nintendo since the NES sided with Sony. Two long time partners of Nintendo, Square and Enix, had pre-planned Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Warrior VII to be exclusively for Nintendo's consoles. However, due to memory limitations of ROM cartridges, they could not generate desired results. Instead, they went to Sony to create the masterpieces of gaming we know today. Nintendo tried to make up for these lacks by pointing out strong points. Many cartridges include the ability to save games internally and the load times for extremely fast. Both were weak points of disc based consoles. Nintendo later released a peripheral called the Nintendo 64DD to play disc-based games and more. It was only released in Japan.
Nintendo's lack of third-party support they normally had led them to be more innovative than ever before. They had to fabricate various Intellectual Properties, or IPs for short, to maintain their position. They expanded on their already successful trademark characters, Mario, Link, Kirby and Samus, pushing out some great games. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards was one of the games that showcased Nintendo's creativity. Spin-off titles like Pokemon Snap and Paper Mario also helped. The third-party company Rare stepped up and a**isted Nintendo, constructing the games Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64.
Even with all these cla**ic pieces of art, the Nintendo 64 was second in the race to Sony, having only selling 32.93 million units of the 64. In regardless, the 64 is still a world renown console that many people still love to this date. People still like it and play many of this games that have been re-released. Specifications CPU: MIPS 64-bit RISC CPU Co-Processor: 64-bit RISC processor running at 62.5 MHz Graphics Processor: RCP Pixel Drawing Processor: DP Resolution: 256x224 - 640x480 Memory: Rambus D-RAM 36 Mbits Game Library Super Smash Bros. Super Mario 64 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards Star Fox 64 Donkey Kong 64 Golden Eye 007 Perfect Dark Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Banjo Kazooie Accessories Rumble Pak Transfer Pak Wide-Boy 64 VRU Bio Sensor GameShark Nintendo 64DD