Tag Archives: n64

QUAKE 2 is celebrating its 15th anniversary today, and to mark the occasion, is Software’s Tim Willits decided to share some fun facts regarding the game and its development.

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Conker’s Bad Fur Day began life as a sequel to the soft and fluffy Conker’s Pocket Tales. Half an hour of footage of the original prototype, Twelve Tales: Conker 64, give us a glimpse of a much less edgy effort – all chirrups and whistling and sunny days.

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In a GDC Europe post-mortem of N64 classic Goldeneye 007, as reported by IGN, director Martin Hollis revealed a troubled development history for the system-seller. Highlights include the team building an on-rails shooter because it didn’t know what kind of controller the then-new console would have, and chucking the famous multiplayer in at the last moment. The game took 32 months to make, well over deadline. Interesting stuff. Goldeneye 007 has never been released via console networks thanks to the transfer of the Bond license, but a modern re-imagining was released by Activision in 2010.

Turok has been gone for a long time since his N64 heydey, but an ex-Iguana team member believes there’s life in the old dinosaur hunter yet.

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Nintendo bossman Satoru Iwata has said that N64′s Majora’s Mask was a “turning point” for Nintendo, giving the company a “glimpse” of compact gameplay of the future.

“The ‘Three-Day System’, the idea of a compact world to be played over and over again, came down from Miyamoto-san and one other director, (Yoshiaki) Koizumi-san,” explained Zelda’s Eiji Aonuma in the latest edition of Iwata Asks. “We added that to the mix, and then, finally, we saw the full substance of a The Legend of Zelda game we could make in one year.”

“Actually, I feel as though, back then, we were given a glimpse of the concept that ‘Deep, compact play is one form of the games of the future’,” added Iwata. “I think in that sense, as a product, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was a big turning point for Nintendo.”

Those who are not lucky enough to still own a N64 system can get the game via the Virtual Console.

Via CVG.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask will be arriving on the Virtual Console sometime tomorrow: look.

Wii Classic Controller or the GameCube Controller is required to be able to play.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed to Famitsu that he felt “sadness” during Nintendo’s GameCube phase.

“There was an era when Nintendo was going in the direction of doing the same things other companies did,” he said.

“The more we competed with new companies entering the market, the more we started acting similar to them. But is being number one in that competition the same as being number one with the general public? That’s the question we had.”

He continued: “Entertainment is something that you have to look at the world with a very wide eye as you create it. I always thought that, but there were a few years where I was unable to get off other people’s trends. It was a dilemma in my mind.”

During Nintendo’s N64 console era and the one following, Miyamoto was fascinated with 3D worlds, but the rendering and processing speed were too much for the team at the time.

“This is a job where you have a plan and you polish it endlessly while getting help from others. If Nintendo’s games fail to stand out as games that aren’t made that way proliferate, then it shows that the creation process is for nothing, which made me very sad.

“That was especially obvious during the GameCube era; Nintendo titles were hardly even discussed by the general public back then.”

Because of his team’s mental block, Nintendo started over and aimed for games that could “be played by people who don’t play games”. The company wanted something that would revolutionize the market — so ex-Nintendo president Yamauchi came up with the ‘two screens’ concept.

The rest is DS history.

More over on 1UP.

It’s enough to raise a rosy glow. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been picking over the bones of his past in the latest of his official interviews, reminiscing on the time has single-handedly coded Super Smash Bros. for N64 in 1999.

“At that point in time, we weren’t utilizing any Nintendo characters, and while you handled the planning, specs, design, modeling and movement, I worked on programming all by myself,” he said, the “you” in question being Super Smash Bros. Brawl director Masahiro Sakurai. “In some respects, it was the ultimate handcrafted project.”

Things have changed a bit since then. Now Iwata owns global video games and Super Smash Bros. Brawl is enough to bring grown men to their knees. Funny how things turn out.