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Here a question.
How long do people think the N64 has left to live?
With games like Perfect Dark, Zelda: The Continuing Sage, Turok 3, A Resident Evil game, Top Gear Rally 2, and a bunch of other wicked games this year. How long will the N64 live for? Specially with the PS2 and Dolphin on the horizon how much longer can the N64 last?
Cooky
How long do people think the N64 has left to live?
With games like Perfect Dark, Zelda: The Continuing Sage, Turok 3, A Resident Evil game, Top Gear Rally 2, and a bunch of other wicked games this year. How long will the N64 live for? Specially with the PS2 and Dolphin on the horizon how much longer can the N64 last?
Cooky
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But someone has to say it, so it may as well be me.
As mush as I hate to admit it, this 'We are so good, were selling more stuff than all the others' attitude from Nintendo is ridiculous. Yes, for the first time maybe ever, they're shifting more units than the other big players, but it really is nothing to celebrate. This fleeting moment of statistical glory is based solely on the fact that nobody wants a PS so soon before the PSII, the Dreamcast is still in it's infancy, and for the first time in far too long Nintendo are going to give us owners something worth buying. Yes, nobody with an N64 has had a lot else in the games market to spend their money on, and now that a big release is arriving all these frustrated people are keen to get something new to play.
So, what we have is a one off peak in Nintendo's sales accompanying a temporary dip in everyone else's. And Nintendo are acting like the sun shines from their own bums and their world is good.
News for you suit wearing clowns - this one short lived moment of glory is not enough. The Nintendo owning public deserve better than the occasional fluke appearance at the top of the sales ladders from a company that promised so much more and delivered so little.
ONCE AIN'T ENOUGH
I for one am not happy about the way the N64 went. Downhill.
And for Nintendo to come up with all this propagander about being so great, the console being back at the top, and the world for N64 owners being rosey again, all off the back of a single freak set of sales figures, an insult.
As mush as I hate to admit it, this 'We are so good, were selling more stuff than all the others' attitude from Nintendo is ridiculous. Yes, for the first time maybe ever, they're shifting more units than the other big players, but it really is nothing to celebrate. This fleeting moment of statistical glory is based solely on the fact that nobody wants a PS so soon before the PSII, the Dreamcast is still in it's infancy, and for the first time in far too long Nintendo are going to give us owners something worth buying. Yes, nobody with an N64 has had a lot else in the games market to spend their money on, and now that a big release is arriving all these frustrated people are keen to get something new to play.
So, what we have is a one off peak in Nintendo's sales accompanying a temporary dip in everyone else's. And Nintendo are acting like the sun shines from their own bums and their world is good.
News for you suit wearing clowns - this one short lived moment of glory is not enough. The Nintendo owning public deserve better than the occasional fluke appearance at the top of the sales ladders from a company that promised so much more and delivered so little.
ONCE AIN'T ENOUGH
I for one am not happy about the way the N64 went. Downhill.
And for Nintendo to come up with all this propagander about being so great, the console being back at the top, and the world for N64 owners being rosey again, all off the back of a single freak set of sales figures, an insult.
Unfortunatly Snowboard Kids 2 is not coming out here, but is avalible on import, it is pretty much the same game as Snowboard Kids 1 though
If you go to atlus' website who made the original SBK (atlus.com) there is a sub-site about sbk2 tips , kids and other stuff. Was this only released In the U.S.A or is it soon to be released here. Anyone Know?
DOES ANYBODY KNOW IF AND WHEN THIS GAME WAS RELEASED IN THE UK...IS IT AN OLD GAME OR A NOT YET RELEASED GAME...I AM RELYING ON YOU FELLOW N64 OWNERS TO HELP ME HERE
THE GAME
THE GAME
Yes I admit it. Arty and Ant and Boss. You are all right about everything and I'm sorry to have inconvinienced you with my opinions. I guess I just think that the Dreamcast is good value for money at only £99, that the games are hugely better and crisper looking than the PS2s, and that the PS2 has old PLaystation updates as their main games. But hey, if Sega aren't going to advertise the truly amazing games that the DC has already then fine, I'll just have to tell people to buy Dreamcasts - I truly beleive it is a great machine and amazing value, If Sega don't sell enough DCs then all the money that I've invested into games , well, will be for nothing. If EA Sports loves Sony then so be it. I mean who really wants Fifa 2001, 2001.5, Fifa Christmas edition, Fifa Olympics and Euro 2000. EA started well, but got worse, and worse. Uefa striker on DC is higely more realistic and fun, but if everyone wants to stay on the Sony bandwagon then thats fine by me. I mean you're the ones losing out. You'll be playing games on the PS2 that aren't good, but you'll pretend there good because SONY tells you they are. It has to be said that sega, and to their credit, Nintendo are the only companies that know how to make good games.If you just support the Dreamcast then maybe you'll start enjoying the games you play because Sega knows how to make good games. Nuff said.
Nintendo partnering with IBM? Thats new! Not even the officials at Nintendo know that. No info on the dolphin has been released to anyone outside of Nintendo and is not allowed to till completion.
Nintendo offiacial magazine get all the info first on all Nintendo news. They even beat America (Dave, the editor of NOM gave away the very first official mew for Pokémon on the gameboy). They are 'first, Biggest and best on all Nintendo exclusives' (I'm, not advertising them) They haven't said a thing and I am going to ask them about this now.
I think you are just trying to win a game off special reserve aren't you by putting your own version of 'The history of Nintendo'. What if I told you Nintendo helped make the PSX but realised it was rubbish and let sony take over. (This is just a rumour going around my school).
Nintendo offiacial magazine get all the info first on all Nintendo news. They even beat America (Dave, the editor of NOM gave away the very first official mew for Pokémon on the gameboy). They are 'first, Biggest and best on all Nintendo exclusives' (I'm, not advertising them) They haven't said a thing and I am going to ask them about this now.
I think you are just trying to win a game off special reserve aren't you by putting your own version of 'The history of Nintendo'. What if I told you Nintendo helped make the PSX but realised it was rubbish and let sony take over. (This is just a rumour going around my school).
The design and philosophy behind Nintendo's next-generation Dolphin system differs so greatly from the company's 64-bit one that it has led many to dub the upcoming console the "Anti-N64."
Exactly four years ago on June 23rd of 1996, Nintendo of Japan launched the long-delayed Nintendo 64; the console that caused their fall from grace. It may sound odd, but this fall from grace was actually due to Nintendo's past success. The period leading up to the Nintendo 64’s conception gave the company a superpower attitude. It marched fearlessly and blindly into battle—a battle that would scar Nintendo forever.
Nintendo was riding the wave of popularity it generated from the NES, Super NES, and Game Boy. The company had turned the gaming industry upside down, and the mere name "Nintendo" nearly replaced the word "videogames". Because of all this, Nintendo felt it could do just about anything it pleased with its new uber-console, the N64. No doubt, because of Rare's success, it even tried to lock out third-party developers, and create a "Dream Team" of exclusive second party developers. Trying to keep the machine exclusive was one mistake that led to Nintendo's hard times, but there were many others.
All the problems caused by Nintendo's cocky business strategies and all around "unstoppable" attitude contributed to the poor sales of N64 hardware in America, and especially in Japan. In terms of comparison, the Nintendo 64 has sold roughly 30 million units, compared to Sony PlayStation's 70 million. This dangerous mix of attitude, ignorance, poor sales, and other problems damaged Nintendo's image with developers forever. The war torn face of Nintendo would never be the same.
Present day Nintendo willingly admits it made some bad choices. Companies make mistakes. They are not as flawless as we’d like them to be, but what's important is that they learn from those mistakes. Since the launch of the N64, the war-hardened Nintendo has changed its attitude. Drawing upon its past mistakes, Nintendo has a new attitude and is designing a new home console to help gain back the market and reputation it once had. That new console is none other the famously codenamed "Dolphin." With one eye toward the future and on eye on the past, Nintendo is engineering Dolphin as the "Anti-N64."
From what has been divulged through facts or credible rumors, nearly everything surrounding Dolphin's development contrasts with the Nintendo 64. Many Dolphin fanatics will tell you it’s a better machine and has the potential to be a far greater system than the N64, but what is the reasoning behind that? Seemingly, Nintendo has systematically examined the problems it had with the N64, and has made sure to implement a solution to such problems in its next console, codenamed Dolphin.
During the design process of the N64, Nintendo was bright enough to know most consumers would not pay more than $250 for a new console. However, Nintendo had champagne taste in partners. It chose Silicon Graphics, Rambus, Alias, and other high-class partners to create a high-profile machine. Everything under the hood of the machine was custom made, and it didn't come cheap. Along side of its custom 64-bit CPU and graphics chip, the N64 used 4MB of Rambus DRAM, which was some of the most expensive memory on the market. In the end, because the system had to retain a $250 price point (which later dropped to $200), the hardware was not as powerful as Nintendo originally had the press believe. The custom machine was not at all well rounded.
Nintendo has formed strategic partnerships for the ultimate hardware solution: high-quality performance at affordable prices. Most of Dolphin's important components are very cost effective. Again, the well thought out partnerships Nintendo formed are responsible for this.
Partnership with IBM
When Nintendo revealed it had chosen IBM to manufacture and develop Dolphin's CPU many were stunned by the decision. At first sight, it had partnered with one of the most experienced chipmakers in the world. However, skeptics were quick to point out that Dolphin would be based off of IBM's Power PC chips, and would lack the performance a custom chip could offer. What the skeptics failed to take note of was that by utilizing the already developed chip architecture, Nintendo could get the performance at a good price. This was the case because IBM could simply custom modify the chip, as opposed to creating a custom chip from the ground up. Also, further factors such as IBM's existing manufacturing facilities, and copper technology made the deal even more cost effective. By ordering high-volumes, Nintendo will be getting this powerful little CPU chip, called Gekko, at next to nothing.
Partnership with NEC
Nintendo has had a long-standing relationship with NEC, and chose to rely on them heavily. Another great choice, as NEC has the brawn and experience meet Nintendo's demands. As per those demands, NEC will be in charge of manufacturing the graphics chip along with its on-chip memory, as well as Dolphin's high-speed main system memory. To efficiently manufacture all of these components, NEC will be constructing a whole new fabrication facility, and Nintendo won't be paying a cent for it. Another money saver comes in the fact that NEC will also be developing Dolphin’s main system memory with cost effectiveness in mind. This is as opposed to Nintendo choosing the ever popular, but quite costly Rambus memory. Again, Nintendo's Dolphin gets high-performance for less money.
By partnering with these larger companies, Nintendo seems to be ensuring Dolphin will maintain a competitive price point. At launch, this will give Nintendo the ability to market the Dolphin console at a price that aggressively competes with the competition. A competitive edge which will be very important in marketing the system.
The Nintendo 64 used ROM cartridges, which were root of many of the N64's problems. Firstly, the ROM cartridges lacked storage space. It could only hold roughly 12MB-32MB, and later on 64MB if you were fortunate. This is in contrast to a CD-ROM’s 650MB. Developers had a hard time fitting everything on the cartridges. They couldn’t fit a lot of sound or textures on most cartridges. Even making a fairly large game was difficult because of the cart’s size. And, as for rich computer generated full motion video, the cart sizes made it absolutely prohibitive—a reason why Square wouldn't develop for the console. Also, because Nintendo controlled the sale of the carts, developers were forced to pay large licensing fees, which created a high risk when developing for N64. If a game didn't sell, a publisher could potentially have a warehouse full of costly carts it couldn't sell.
Nintendo's Dolphin will use a proprietary DVD format intended to offer up a wealth of space. The exact amount hasn’t been revealed yet, but it should, at least, be several gigabytes (GB). If we take into consideration that developers managed to fit 40+ hours of gameplay into merely 32MB or 64MB of space on the N64, it should be relatively easy for developers to make extremely large games on the Dolphin’s DVD medium; a storage medium likely 30 times larger than N64 carts. Dolphin's proprietary DVDs should also prove to be cost effective, or Nintendo would probably have chosen something similar to cartridges otherwise. Nintendo has also already promised the game software will be priced competitively. Again, with a DVD based medium, cost effectiveness and excessive space will not pose any problems.
Exactly four years ago on June 23rd of 1996, Nintendo of Japan launched the long-delayed Nintendo 64; the console that caused their fall from grace. It may sound odd, but this fall from grace was actually due to Nintendo's past success. The period leading up to the Nintendo 64’s conception gave the company a superpower attitude. It marched fearlessly and blindly into battle—a battle that would scar Nintendo forever.
Nintendo was riding the wave of popularity it generated from the NES, Super NES, and Game Boy. The company had turned the gaming industry upside down, and the mere name "Nintendo" nearly replaced the word "videogames". Because of all this, Nintendo felt it could do just about anything it pleased with its new uber-console, the N64. No doubt, because of Rare's success, it even tried to lock out third-party developers, and create a "Dream Team" of exclusive second party developers. Trying to keep the machine exclusive was one mistake that led to Nintendo's hard times, but there were many others.
All the problems caused by Nintendo's cocky business strategies and all around "unstoppable" attitude contributed to the poor sales of N64 hardware in America, and especially in Japan. In terms of comparison, the Nintendo 64 has sold roughly 30 million units, compared to Sony PlayStation's 70 million. This dangerous mix of attitude, ignorance, poor sales, and other problems damaged Nintendo's image with developers forever. The war torn face of Nintendo would never be the same.
Present day Nintendo willingly admits it made some bad choices. Companies make mistakes. They are not as flawless as we’d like them to be, but what's important is that they learn from those mistakes. Since the launch of the N64, the war-hardened Nintendo has changed its attitude. Drawing upon its past mistakes, Nintendo has a new attitude and is designing a new home console to help gain back the market and reputation it once had. That new console is none other the famously codenamed "Dolphin." With one eye toward the future and on eye on the past, Nintendo is engineering Dolphin as the "Anti-N64."
From what has been divulged through facts or credible rumors, nearly everything surrounding Dolphin's development contrasts with the Nintendo 64. Many Dolphin fanatics will tell you it’s a better machine and has the potential to be a far greater system than the N64, but what is the reasoning behind that? Seemingly, Nintendo has systematically examined the problems it had with the N64, and has made sure to implement a solution to such problems in its next console, codenamed Dolphin.
During the design process of the N64, Nintendo was bright enough to know most consumers would not pay more than $250 for a new console. However, Nintendo had champagne taste in partners. It chose Silicon Graphics, Rambus, Alias, and other high-class partners to create a high-profile machine. Everything under the hood of the machine was custom made, and it didn't come cheap. Along side of its custom 64-bit CPU and graphics chip, the N64 used 4MB of Rambus DRAM, which was some of the most expensive memory on the market. In the end, because the system had to retain a $250 price point (which later dropped to $200), the hardware was not as powerful as Nintendo originally had the press believe. The custom machine was not at all well rounded.
Nintendo has formed strategic partnerships for the ultimate hardware solution: high-quality performance at affordable prices. Most of Dolphin's important components are very cost effective. Again, the well thought out partnerships Nintendo formed are responsible for this.
Partnership with IBM
When Nintendo revealed it had chosen IBM to manufacture and develop Dolphin's CPU many were stunned by the decision. At first sight, it had partnered with one of the most experienced chipmakers in the world. However, skeptics were quick to point out that Dolphin would be based off of IBM's Power PC chips, and would lack the performance a custom chip could offer. What the skeptics failed to take note of was that by utilizing the already developed chip architecture, Nintendo could get the performance at a good price. This was the case because IBM could simply custom modify the chip, as opposed to creating a custom chip from the ground up. Also, further factors such as IBM's existing manufacturing facilities, and copper technology made the deal even more cost effective. By ordering high-volumes, Nintendo will be getting this powerful little CPU chip, called Gekko, at next to nothing.
Partnership with NEC
Nintendo has had a long-standing relationship with NEC, and chose to rely on them heavily. Another great choice, as NEC has the brawn and experience meet Nintendo's demands. As per those demands, NEC will be in charge of manufacturing the graphics chip along with its on-chip memory, as well as Dolphin's high-speed main system memory. To efficiently manufacture all of these components, NEC will be constructing a whole new fabrication facility, and Nintendo won't be paying a cent for it. Another money saver comes in the fact that NEC will also be developing Dolphin’s main system memory with cost effectiveness in mind. This is as opposed to Nintendo choosing the ever popular, but quite costly Rambus memory. Again, Nintendo's Dolphin gets high-performance for less money.
By partnering with these larger companies, Nintendo seems to be ensuring Dolphin will maintain a competitive price point. At launch, this will give Nintendo the ability to market the Dolphin console at a price that aggressively competes with the competition. A competitive edge which will be very important in marketing the system.
The Nintendo 64 used ROM cartridges, which were root of many of the N64's problems. Firstly, the ROM cartridges lacked storage space. It could only hold roughly 12MB-32MB, and later on 64MB if you were fortunate. This is in contrast to a CD-ROM’s 650MB. Developers had a hard time fitting everything on the cartridges. They couldn’t fit a lot of sound or textures on most cartridges. Even making a fairly large game was difficult because of the cart’s size. And, as for rich computer generated full motion video, the cart sizes made it absolutely prohibitive—a reason why Square wouldn't develop for the console. Also, because Nintendo controlled the sale of the carts, developers were forced to pay large licensing fees, which created a high risk when developing for N64. If a game didn't sell, a publisher could potentially have a warehouse full of costly carts it couldn't sell.
Nintendo's Dolphin will use a proprietary DVD format intended to offer up a wealth of space. The exact amount hasn’t been revealed yet, but it should, at least, be several gigabytes (GB). If we take into consideration that developers managed to fit 40+ hours of gameplay into merely 32MB or 64MB of space on the N64, it should be relatively easy for developers to make extremely large games on the Dolphin’s DVD medium; a storage medium likely 30 times larger than N64 carts. Dolphin's proprietary DVDs should also prove to be cost effective, or Nintendo would probably have chosen something similar to cartridges otherwise. Nintendo has also already promised the game software will be priced competitively. Again, with a DVD based medium, cost effectiveness and excessive space will not pose any problems.
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