Gunpei Yokoi and Masayuki Uemura, the two veterans, were also waiting nearby early on.
"President, the hardware design is finalized." Genyo Takeda handed over the report and pointed to the motherboard under the prototype's casing as he explained, "It uses a custom NEC-manufactured MIPS R4300i processor with a clock speed of 93.75 MHz, using a 0.35-micron process. The most critical part is that this is a true 64-bit RISC architecture, capable of reaching an operating speed of 93 MIPS."
He paused, a hint of unconcealed pride in his tone: "Sony's PlayStation and Sega's Jupiter are still wallowing in the quagmire of 32-bit, while we have directly skipped an entire era."
Hiroshi Yamauchi flipped through the report.
He lacked an intuitive grasp of the specific megahertz figures, but he understood the simplest marketing logic: "64-bit is one generation ahead of 32-bit."
"How is the performance of the graphics coprocessor provided by SGI?" Yamauchi asked the core question.
"A 62.5 MHz RCP coprocessor." Masayuki Uemura took over, pointing to the parameter chart in the report. "It integrates a signal processor and a graphics processor internally. Even with all effects enabled—Z-buffering, anti-aliasing, texture mapping, trilinear filtering, and perspective correction—it can still maintain a rendering capability of 150,000 polygons per second. Especially with perspective correction: Sony's machine often suffers from distortion when processing 3D textures, but our machine can ensure the image remains smooth and accurate from any angle."
"As for memory, we have adopted Rambus's RDRAM, with a capacity of 4 megabytes," Genyo Takeda added. "The licensing fee for this solution is not cheap, but it provides a staggering bandwidth of 562.5 megabytes per second. To cope with large-scale games in the future, we have also reserved an expansion slot on top of the machine, allowing players to purchase expansion packs themselves and upgrade the memory to 8 megabytes."
Hiroshi Yamauchi closed the report and turned his gaze toward the boxy black machine.
"How about the storage capacity?"
"Our cartridges range in capacity from 4 megabits to 64 megabits," Gunpei Yokoi replied decisively. "The read speed of optical discs is too slow and would severely disrupt the continuity of the game. For Nintendo's gaming philosophy, making players stare at a black screen waiting for a load is an unforgivable flaw in the experience. Furthermore, the anti-piracy advantages of cartridges are something optical discs cannot match."
Hiroshi Yamauchi nodded, agreeing with this decision.
Nintendo's obsession with cartridges was not just about the lucrative royalties, but also about that pure joy of "plug and play."
After discussing the console, the topic naturally shifted to the controller.
Genyo Takeda took a grey controller out of a cardboard box nearby and handed it to Hiroshi Yamauchi.
Hiroshi Yamauchi took it and rubbed his fingers over it.
This was not the strange "trident" design with three grips that they had shown in their initial internal meetings.
"Abandoned the previous plan?" Hiroshi Yamauchi weighed the controller.
Genyo Takeda nodded in acknowledgment: "After Sega's Jupiter was released, we conducted a detailed teardown of their controller and user behavior research. We have to admit, those people at Sega are ahead of us in terms of ergonomics and 3D space control."
"Our original 'trident' design was too anti-human; players simply didn't have enough time to switch their grip during intense gameplay."
He pointed to the controller in Yamauchi Hiroshi's hands, explaining the nuances: "We combined the strengths of Sega and redesigned the layout. The traditional D-pad remains on the left, but we've added a high-precision analog stick underneath, making it easy for the thumb to switch at any moment. We added L and R buttons to the shoulders, and trigger buttons similar to those on a firearm on the back. Most importantly, we took Mr. Yokoi's advice and integrated the vibration motor directly into the controller, using an asymmetrical design—lighter on the left, heavier on the right—so there's no need for a cumbersome external vibration pack."
This was, in fact, the prototype for what would later become the GameCube controller, brought to life early by Nintendo under the pressure of intense competition.
"Won't directly borrowing from a competitor's design invite gossip in the industry?" Masayuki Uemura asked with some concern.
Yamauchi Hiroshi snorted coldly. "Why not use something that works well? Didn't Sega come up with that analog stick just to serve 3D games? Players pay for the console, and they only care about whether it feels good to use; nobody cares who invented it first. As long as our games are more fun than theirs, what's a little borrowing?"
As he was speaking, the lab door was pushed open.
Shigeru Miyamoto walked in.
This soul of Nintendo, after more than half a year of forced rest, had completely regained the rosy complexion that had once been somewhat sallow.
His round face wore his signature gentle smile, but his whole being radiated an eagerness that had been bottled up for a long time.
"President. Mr. Takeda. Mr. Uemura. Mr. Yokoi." Miyamoto greeted them one by one.
"Are you completely recovered?" Yamauchi Hiroshi looked at him.
"I could play ten rounds of games without my hands getting tired," Miyamoto joked, walking over to the workbench. His gaze was immediately drawn to the prototype machine. "Is this our new weapon?"
"The external name has already been confirmed," Yamauchi Hiroshi said. "N64. Nintendo 64. Simple and direct."
Miyamoto picked up the controller on the table.
His thumb rested naturally on the analog stick, which he turned gently.
The joystick provided physical feedback with just the right amount of resistance.
His index finger hooked onto the trigger button on the back and pressed it twice.
"The feel is great," Miyamoto evaluated, his tone revealing the sharpness of a professional game designer. "It fits the palm even better than Sega's. With this analog stick, character movement in 3D space will no longer be limited to the eight directions of up, down, left, and right. This is the key that truly opens up a new world."
Yamauchi Hiroshi looked at him: "Since you've rested enough, it's time to get to work. The N64 needs a reason that will make players around the world willingly open their wallets."
Shigeru Miyamoto gripped the controller.
"Super Mario 64," he said the name without any hesitation. "I've been conceiving this for a long time. In the hospital bed, in the garden where I was recuperating, every day I thought about how Mario should jump and run in a 3D world. Previous 2D side-scrollers limited our imagination too much. Now, with this machine and this analog stick, I'm going to build a real amusement park for the players."
Genyo Takeda reminded him from the side: "The 64-bit architecture development environment is completely different from the SFC. The underlying code from SGI is very complex; your development team needs time to adapt to the new graphics library."
"I'm not afraid of complexity," Miyamoto said, putting the controller back on the table. "I'm only afraid of the hardware not being able to keep up with my ideas. Since the N64's capabilities are so strong, we will push it to its limits."
Hiroshi Yamauchi stood up and adjusted his suit jacket.
"Sega has been arrogant lately. They've been delivering one after another on the promises they made at E3. Sony's PlayStation is also selling quite well." The old man's tone became stern. "They think Nintendo is getting old and can't keep up with the times. Miyamoto, show them who really rules this industry."
"Leave it to me." Miyamoto agreed without hesitation.
With the N64 hardware officially finalized, Nintendo, that massive machine, finally shifted into top gear.
Abundant funds began to be poured without reservation into the development department.
Teams that were still working on late-stage Super Famicom (SFC) titles had a large number of elite programmers and artists pulled from them, all gathering under Miyamoto's command.
They were about to redefine the standards of 3D platformers on a blank slate.
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