Nintendo 64

By Stephen Baker

Staff Writer

n September 29th Nintendo of America released its next generation gaming system, the Nintendo 64.

This system was developed in conjunction with Silicon Graphics, one of the leaders in reality immersion technology. Silicon Graphics custom designed the 64-bit processor at the heart of the Nintendo 64. Running at 94 mhz this chip gives the system the ability to create real time 3d environments unparalleled by any of its 32-bit competitorst. With this system Nintendo hopes to reclaim its dominant position in the video game industry.

The flagship game for the system is Super Mario 64. This game is simply amazing! Unlike the previous 2d Mario adventures this time you are immersed in a 3d world with the power to go anywhere at any time.

The game also breaks new ground with the tremendous control it gives the player, during any given moment you can rotate the camera view, zoom in, zoom out, anything. Still pictures do not do this game any justice, you really have to play it to appreciate its power.

The Nintemdo 64 is set apart from its competitors by more than just its chip set. In fact, one of the most innovative components of this system is its controller which features an analog interface in addition to the traditional digital one.

The analog stick responds to different degrees of pressure, for example, this would allow a game to differentiate between walking and running in a given direction by how much force the user applied.

Despite all its glory, the Nintendo 64 does have some (or at least one) drawbacks. The main complaint by developers is the in regards to the system being cartridge based, this limits how big (in terms of memory size) games can be. This usually results in the loss of things such as full motion video which take up large amounts of memory and are usually only found on CD games. The use of cartridges does have one major advantage over CD's though, this is with respect to load time.

On a CD based system ,such as the Sega Saturn, you must first retrieve information from the CD before it can be used. This often results in pauses during the course of the game. On a cartridge based system, the game might as well be an extension of the units own memory - theres effectively no load time resulting in free flowing continuous play.

I believe the Nintendo 64 to be an excellent system with a great deal of potential. If you'd like to find out more about the Nintendo 64 I'd suggest visiting either The Unofficial Nintendo 64 Headquarters or Nintendo 64 Power. Both of these sites have numerous resources including game release schedules, technical specs, pictures, movies and reviews.