Retro:Ν2000-Dolphin-CagEnt αρθρα

Wally

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Πολυ μου αρεσουν οι παλιες σπεκουλες για τα τοτε επερχομενα μηχανηματα

Στη συγκεκριμενη περιπτωση του "Ν200" (ΑΚΑ Dolphin) θυμαμαι που μας ειχαν πρηξει το συκωτι οτι θα ειχαν υποστηριξη για NURBS!Φυσικα μολις ανακοινωθηκαν τα weak specs του Cube ξαναβρηκαμε την ησυχια μας. :D

Πηγη : IGN64

It's Alive!
IGN64 brings you the scoop on Nintendo's ArtX-designed 128-bit console.

March 15, 1999

It was fall of 1997 when Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) filed a lawsuit against startup ArtX. In the suit, SGI claimed that ArtX, staffed by 20 former SGI engineers and led by that company's former head of Nintendo operations Wei Yen (the division responsible for the architecture of Nintendo 64), could not help but utilize SGI company secrets in the development of future ArtX technologies.

Despite SGI's claims, in May of 1998 Nintendo officially contracted ArtX to develop its next-generation hardware. Incidentally, with no settlement reached, SGI quietly dropped its claims against ArtX and development of Nintendo's secret console continued unabated.

The Dawn of a New Millenium

"We are developing a more advanced videogame system, but we are not providing any specifics at this time," said Nintendo March 3 of this year in response to Sony's PlayStation 2 announcements.

Meanwhile, Nintendo's Peter Main recently confirmed that the company has plans to implement a new, more advanced hardware into the market by the end of 2000 or, more likely, 2001.

A reliable source close to Nintendo who wishes to remain anonymous recently narrowed the gap even further. "N2000 [tentative] is planned to ship October 2000 in Japan, but I don't think it's going to happen. In fact, from what I hear Nintendo isn't even convinced of this internally."

Evidently Nintendo is betting on its 64-bit hardware to hold its own against the conspiring forces of Dreamcast and later PlayStation 2. "It all depends on how well Nintendo 64's '99 software line-up sells," an anonymous Nintendo 64 developer commented. "If titles like Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64 do well, we're not going to see Nintendo's new hardware until 2001. If, on the other hand, Nintendo 64 sales begin to falter or Nintendo feels overly threatened by the competition, then I'm confident that N2000 will release October of next year as planned."

ArtX Inside

The original design specs for the N2000 -- a 128-bit system -- called for a 400Mhz port and dual chip design, much like the Nintendo 64. Unlike its predecessor, the new console will of course not feature a MIPS processor in favor of "proprietary technology" developed by ArtX. While the new technology will no doubt be impressive, this also pretty much rules out built-in backwards compatibility as seen in Sony's upcoming PlayStation 2.

 


No information is available on the unit's clock speed or graphics engine, but design papers written up in early 1998 still estimated the raw polygon output numbers of 20 million polygons per second. According to industry sources, these numbers may even quadruple before the system's release, bringing the Nintendo platform into the realm of Sony's next generation.


So how powerful will this thing be? "PlayStation 2 and N2000 will definitely be within 30%, power-wise," comments an anonymous Nintendo 64 developer who is hoping to lay his hands on a dev kit before the end of the year. While Sony has the edge in terms of manufacturing chips more cheaply, Nintendo has the advantage of time. The N2000 isn't slated to come out until more than a year after the PS2, so it's possible that it will emerge as the more powerful console in a number of respects.

Need More Memory

Nintendo's next console will again use the same speedy Rambus RAM as the N64. Sources told IGN64 that a memory expansion slot was not part of the original design document. The total amount of memory for the N2000 has not yet been finalized, but considering the late date of the console's release, Nintendo will no doubt match and beat the competition's total system memory.

Much Ado About NURBS

NURBS is an acronym for Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines and is basically an accurate way to define a free-form curve. Designers construct their models using beziers and NURBS and the curves are then broken down to polygons for display. While Sony's PS2 supports bezier surfacing in hardware, sources close to Nintendo told us that ArtX experimented with hardware NURBS conversion for the new console. At this point, we do not know whether the final console will support NURBS in hardware or whether the feature has fallen by the wayside.

Do you hear what I hear?

Like the N64, the next console will not include a sound chip. This means that most of the audio in N2000 games will be handled by the console's co-processor.

As you may know, this design led to a few problems with the N64, especially with developers who had gotten used to the use of Redbook audio in games. Since the N64's storage space is rather confined, streaming audio directly off the cartridge (which is the most "processor-friendly" solution) often wasn't an option for developers. Most of the time, audio was implemented last minute and used as few voices as possible or even played back in mono. Coupled with Software Creation's outdated sound drivers, the inability to easily stream audio like with the competition's CD systems caused loss of valuable processor time that could have been used for graphics, AI, and so on.

Thankfully, this doesn't appear to be an issue with the new console. Because of the storage media's copious amounts of space and Redbook audio playback abilities, audiophiles can expect surround quality audio. Let's hope for a coaxial or optical output.

No More Cartridges

Nintendo recently confirmed that the next console would not utilize cartridges. While carts are certainly sturdy in design and enable quick data access, their drawbacks are manifold. Let's face it, the N64 was developed around Super Mario 64. The EAD team wanted a machine able to create a seamless cartoon world without load times and didn't care much about space and cost issues. But what about third-party developers? Many were naturally outraged at the cost and confines of cartridges and ignored the N64, especially in Japan.

Nintendo is fully aware that the decision to go with cartridges cost the N64 the full support of companies like Square, Capcom, and eventually Enix, Namco, Taito, and more. Likewise, PC developers spoiled with CD games didn't exactly flock to the console, either. Although Nintendo has certainly shown that a system can survive on first- and third-party support, NCL is not content watching millions of Japanese ignoring its leading game console while less powerful machines draw larger crowds simply based on major game franchises and quantity of titles.

The N2000 is designed from the get-go to attract third-party developers by offering more power at a cheaper price. Nintendo's design doc for the console specifies that cost is of utmost importance, followed by space.

According to Japanese sources, Nintendo has narrowed down its choice of media to two options:

* Proprietary 1.5 GB (Gigabyte) disk system that may or may not offer writability. This is roughly three times the size of a CD and 50% more space than the proprietary Dreamcast format offers.

* Digital Versatile Disk (DVD). Nintendo is impressed by the size of the media (5.7 GB) and many Japanese developers have approached NCL with the suggestion to choose this format.

According to sources close to NCL, the decision of which format to back has not yet been made. While writability would work hand-in-hand with planned network abilities and Internet surfing as well as please the EAD development teams, DVD is the cheaper and larger format. It is very likely that Nintendo will choose to implement the latter and opt for a harddrive-style writable component (or add-on) for the final design.

The Game Boy Connection

Game Boy connectivity was planned from the very beginning. Two months ago, NCL hinted that its next console would offer data exchange with Game Boy Color units via the handheld's built-in infrared port. If the feature doesn't get axed for cost reasons, gamers will be able to hold their Game Boy up to the N2000 and swap data, such as Pokemon monster information.

Networking

A Nintendo of America source commented that "Networkability is at the top of the list for the new console." Nintendo has entered into an agreement with Israel-based Nexus to develop networking and modem capabilities for both its current console and future technology. Along with mumblings about Nintendo's involvement with Netscape, Alps, and a number of modem makers, N2000's ability to allow for network gaming and possibly Internet surfing and e-mail is guaranteed.

Control

Despite a few info sheets circulating the web with supposed information on the N2000's controller, it simply hasn't been designed yet. NCL's hardware wizards are reportedly experimenting with a number of designs (including a two-pronged one more similar to the PSX controller), but so far, only two things are known from the design sheet: Internal rumble function and at least two analog buttons. Expect the N2000 kits to ship not with actual N2000 controllers, but rather with modified N64 ones -- just like the Nuon dev kit.

Developers and Games

Though the release of Nintendo's next-generation console is still a long way off, a number of talented developers have already pledged allegiance to the hardware. IGN64 has complied a brief list of who and what to keep an eye out for.

Nintendo and EAD

* Fact: November, 1998. Shigeru Miyamoto, in an interview with the Japanese magazine 64Dream, commented, "1080 2 was cancelled in its early planning stages and the team responsible for 1080 has started researching new hardware."

Programmer Giles Goddard (responsible for the 3D Mario face in Super Mario 64) and team are likely already underway with software for Nintendo's next console. In fact, if any developer has a quasi-working N2000 development kit, it's EAD.

* Fact: December, 1998. Shigeru Miyamoto commented on the sequel to Super Mario 64. "We made the outline for Mario 2 more than one year ago, but I haven't touched it since then. The original idea was to make it available on the 64DD, but since I haven't worked on it for the last year I can't tell what it will be like."

Miyamoto went on to hint of the game's possible incarnation for a new hardware. "Maybe we will get some other people to work on it, or we will make it for a completely different system."

The chances that a Mario-based game will introduce the new Nintendo hardware is almost certain.

* Fact: Startup second-party game-maker Retro Studios comes out as first official N2000 developer.

Formed by ex-Iguana Entertainment founder and president Jeff Spangenberg, Retro Studios is currently making sports games for the next Nintendo console. Expect the company's first title to fall under the football genre.

"They haven't got N2000 development kits yet," reports an anonymous source close to the company. "But they're expecting them very soon."

Other often mentioned, but as of yet unconfirmed N2000 developers/publishers include:

* Rare

* Ubi Soft

* Acclaim (Iguana)

* Midway/Atari Games

* Capcom

* Konami

* Factor 5/LucasArts

* Looking Glass Studios

It's Coming

"It's really hard to keep anything secret if you are within 12 months of launch because too many people know," reminds a source close to Nintendo. "As soon as development kits start leaking out we're going to have concrete information and I'd say it'll happen well before the end of this year."

With word that Retro Studios is expecting development kits within a few months time, the N2000 is quickly becoming more than just a rumor. The next-generation console will be announced officially before the end of the year and it will absolutely compete with the competition in terms of both power and price.

In the meantime, be patient, enjoy the very best the Nintendo 64 has to offer and remember, all good things come to those who wait.
 
Kαι μιας και πιασαμε το early Dolphin να θυμηθουμε οτι ηταν ενα project της N που ηταν να κυκλοφορησει 1998/99 και θα ηταν βασισμενο στο CagEnt's (3DO Systems) MX chipset μοντιφαρισμενο ωστε να φοραει MIPS CPU.

Αυτο θα σημαινε οτι θα ηταν 3/4 φορες πιο δυνατο απο το M2 (αν και η Matsushita υποστηριζε οτι θα ηταν ισαξιο με το Model3!) οποτε δεν ειχε μελλον εναντια στο Dreamcast,οποτε και μπηκε στο ραφι.

Οποτε με λιγα λογια:

1.) SGI + Nintendo τελη 1996 -> SGI-designed απογονο του N64

2.) Nintendo + Samsung & CagEnt (3DO Systems) το 1997/98 -> MX-based απογονο του N64

3.) Nintendo+ArtX το 1998 -> IBM based CPU απογονο του N64

EDIT

Βρηκα αλλο ενα ΚΑΤΑΠΛΗΚΤΙΚΟ αρθρο γυρω απο Dolphin και CagEnt

Πηγη : Next Generation Online

Next Generation Online - April 1998
Although experts acknowledge that the video games business is surprisingly

incestuous by even Jerry Springerʼs standards, recent developments taking place

within two of Seattleʼs biggest corporations have made that fact clear for the

whole world to see. Next Generation Online exclusively reports on how Nintendo

and Microsoft wound up eyeing the same companyʼs chipset for the year 2000ʼs

biggest game console.

Few in the video game industry are aware of a rift that formed between Nintendo

and partner Silicon Graphics, Inc. just as their jointly-developed 64-bit game

console rolled off production lines. Already beginning to feel financial

strains due to changing market conditions for their high-end graphics

workstations, Silicon Graphics found itself arguing over component profits with

notoriously tight-fisted Nintendo as the systemʼs American launch MSRP

was lowered at the last minute before release. Although the companies

maintained their working relationship, the decidedly traditional and hard-

lined management at Nintendo had taken offense, and no longer considered SGI a

lock for development of Nintendoʼs post-N64 game console.

Then several important events took place during 1997 inside of Nintendo, SGI

and one of their former competitors. Weak Japanese sales of the N64 and its

software lowered the companyʼs confidence in the N64 platform, and American

sales were projected to fall off as key internal software titles were

continuing to miss release targets by entire seasons. Demonstrably strong sales

of PlayStation games in the inexpensive CD format had weakened the appeal

of Nintendoʼs third-party development contracts, and Nintendo started to

believe that it was in the companyʼs immediate interest to prepare a new

console for release as soon as Fall of 1999. At the same time, a number of

Silicon Graphics key Nintendo 64 engineers left the company to form the new

firm ArtX, with the express intention to win a development contract for

Nintendoʼs next hardware by offering Nintendo the same talent pool sans SGIʼs

manufacturing and management teams.

As it turns out, most of the industryʼs top 3D chip experts have been lured

away from smaller firms by accelerator developers NVidia, 3Dfx and NEC, so

Nintendoʼs pool of potential partners was already shrinking when it began to

shop around for a new console design team. Enter CagEnt, a division of consumer

electronics manufacturer Samsung, and hereʼs where the confusion begins: CagEnt

was formerly owned by 3DO, where it operated under the name 3DO

Systems and developed the M2 technology that was sold to Panasonic for $100

Million some time ago. When 3DO decided to exit the hardware business, it sold

off the 3DO Systems division to Samsung, which named it CagEnt and gave it

roughly two years to turn a profit. CagEnt owned three key technologies: a DVD

playback system, a realtime MPEG encoding system called MPEG Xpress, and a

completed game console with a brand new set of console-ready chip

designs called the MX. Adrian Sfarti, who had formerly developed the graphics

architecture design for SGIʼs Indy workstation, was the head of the MX project.

The MX chipset was a dramatically enhanced version of the M2 chipset sold to

Panasonic and Matsushita, now capable of a 100 million pixel per second

fillrate and utilizing two PowerPC 602 chips at its core. (CagEntʼs executives

also boasted of a four million triangle per second peak draw rate, though the

quality of those tiny triangles would of course have been limited). Nintendo

executives Howard Lincoln and Genyo Takeda were among a group of

visiting dignitaries to tour CagEntʼs facilities, culminating in late 1997 or

early 1998 with a formal offer from Nintendo to acquire CagEnt outright. At

this point, Nintendo had terminated its development contract with SGI (see

SGI/MIPS Loses Nintendo Business).

As purchase negotiations continued, Nintendo worked with CagEnt engineers on

preliminary plans to redesign the MX architecture around a MIPS CPU, as

Nintendoʼs manufacturing partner NEC has a MIPS development license but none to

produce the PowerPC 602. Nintendo and CagEnt flip-flopped on whether the

finished machine would include a built-in CD-ROM or DVD-ROM as its primary

storage medium, with Nintendo apparently continuing to insist that ROM

cartridges would remain at the core of its new game system. Yet as DVD and MPEG

technologies would have been part of the CagEnt acquisition, Nintendo would

probably have found some reasonable use for those patents eventually. The

MX-based machine was to be ready for sale in Japan in fall 1999 -- in other

words, development of games for the new console would begin within literally

months, starting with the shipment of dev kits to key teams at Rare and

Nintendoʼs Japanese headquarters.

Although the asking price for CagEnt was extremely low by industry standards,

talks unexpectedly broke off in early 1998 when Samsung and Nintendo apparently

disagreed on final terms of CagEntʼs ownership, leaving Samsungʼs management

desperate for a suitor to buy the company. CagEnt aggressively shopped itself

around to other major industry players. SGIʼs MIPS division, reeling from the

loss of its N64 engineers to ArtX, allegedly considered

acquiring CagEnt as a means to offer Nintendo the technology it had already

decided it liked. Sega, 3Dfx and other companies toured CagEntʼs facilities and

finally CagEnt found a suitor.

In early April, Microsoftʼs WebTV division ultimately acquired all of the

assets of CagEnt and hired on most of its key personnel. WebTV and Microsoft

apparently intend to use the MX technology at the core of their next WebTV

device, which as might be guessed from the graphics technology, will no longer

be limited to simple web browsing and E-mailing functionality. The next

generation WebTV box will be Microsoftʼs low-cost entry into the world of

game consoles, melding the functionality of a low-end computer with a

television set-top box and game-playing abilities. Having worked with Sega

behind the scenes since 1993 or 1994, Microsoft has been quietly gathering the

knowledge it needs to market and develop games for such a device, and now it

has the hardware that even Nintendo would once have wanted for itself.

As for Nintendo, all signs point to a very unpleasant near future for the

Japanese giant. Lacking internal hardware engineers with the necessary

expertise to develop the next high-end chipset, Nintendo is now all but forced

to either partner with ArtX, or one of the 3D accelerator makers who have been

sucking the industry dry of all its most talented people, or perhaps join with

one of its other major rivals. The latest word has it that ArtX and

Nintendo are in talks to work together, perhaps under circumstances similar to

those under which Nintendo would have acquired CagEnt. Unlike CagEnt, however,

ArtX does not have a finished console or even half-completed chip designs to

sell Nintendo, and it would be unlikely that Nintendo would be able to scrape

together a reasonable system by Christmas 2000 with ArtXʼs present limitations.

Additionally, SGIʼs recent series of strategic lawsuits

against Nvidia and ArtX seem to be intended to serve as garlic and crosses to

stave off any Nintendo alliance with its tastiest potential allies: Nintendo

might well fear developing a new console only to find out that its core

technologies or employees are depending upon infringed patents, regardless of

the merits of those patents or the lawsuits.

Meanwhile, the company continues to harbor tremendous concerns for the future

of the Nintendo64 platform, which appears to be sinking deeper and deeper in

Japan by the day. Nintendoʼs negotiations with CagEnt shed light upon the

tremendous dependence the Japanese company now has upon Rare, which has been

responsible for a number of the Nintendo 64ʼs best-looking games and at least

two of the machineʼs most popular—Diddy Kong Racing and Goldeneye 007.

As Nintendoʼs Japanese development teams have never been known for their

ability to stick to release schedules, the companyʼs third-party rosters have

remained bare and its management has remained dogmatically fixated upon silicon

chips as its sole means of profit, Nintendoʼs problems have set the stage for a

truly interesting set of negotiations come this E3.

To sum up, readers need to understand that decisions and relationships made

early in the design process of a new console can dictate a companyʼs standing

in the industry for the following five years. Ripple effects from these

decisions can be felt in a companyʼs bottom line can be felt for even longer.

Nintendo has found itself in the unenviable position of being without an

established partner and with the clock ticking down. If Nintendo should

choose to go with ArtX (assuming itʼs able to fight off SGIʼs lawsuit), it will

need to complete a chip design is an extremely short period of time. If it

doesnʼt go with ArtX, Nintendo will have to find a technology that is already

suited to the console market or one that can readily be changed to suit a

similar purpose. Either way, at this point the chances of Nintendo hitting its

desired 2000 release with a new system are extremely slim.
 
Και αλλα παρασκηνια...(επειδη υπαρχουν και παρεξηγιαρηδες το "παρασκηνια" δεν σημαινει κακο-δολιο-υπουλο απλα ενδιαφερουσες background stories)

Πηγη : DrGAKMAN

GameCube
This was the first real serious effort on Nintendo's part IMO. They didn't try to tack themselves on to some other project made by someone else in other words...even though the heavily rumored X-BOX was being made by MS who *definatly* wanted to even buy Nintendo.

Working closely with ArtX and through contracts with them working with IBM (who was rumored to be wanting to get into the gaming business back near the launch of N64) Nintendo's own Howard Lincoln truly set out to go against Sony's "CGI quality" PS2. GAMECUBE seriously *was* a beast. Project Dolphin (or Do!phin if some rumors are to be believed) was seriously ambitious as well.

I think Nintendo, the industry and gamers as a whole really thought that the Dolphin was Nintendo's "comeback" and now that it would use discs (provided by a special CAV drive from Panasonic/Matsushida) Nintendo had it in the bag.

However, Sony still had a hold on many Japanese developers and after a very ill-received GAMECUBE unveiling party at Nintendo's SpaceWorld (lolz purple lunchbox, fisher price controller lolz) MS brilliantly swooped in with the (up until then rumored) X-BOX unveiling and picked up a lot of gamers/game makers that were largely dissappointed in Nintendo's next-gen system.

Before the generation even started I do believe that minshare "won" the war for Sony as MS & Nintendo fought over the previous generation's N64 userbase: GCN being bought by Nintendo fans, X-BOX being supported by everyone else (N64's garnered Western support: the Tom Clansey's, the Star Wars, the FPS's, the PC ports...and later in a devestating mindshare blow: RARE).

Nintendo was really taking shot over shot in the last generation and leading up to GCN's Japanese launch Nintendo strategically planned announcements from 3RD parties to show that they learned the error of their ways from the N64-era and garner Mature/RPG genre's that they lacked in that generation.

The RE-exclussivity deal (and later CAPCOM 5), the Namco exclussive Tales Of and Baten Kaitos RPG's and then the big one was suppossed to be Square returning to Nintendo...however that announcement didn't come 'til later (when it meant less) as right when it was about to happen Sony bought a huge chunk of Square.

The once thought "exclussives" Nintendo was getting either ended up dudding or also going to PS2. Connectivity, lack of online, lower capacity discs...lack of real exclussives and poorer 3RD party sales (due to GCN's lower install base) just really hurt Nintendo's mindshare.

It was to the point that most people believed that MS & Sony were neck'n'neck while GCN was a distant third and that GCN was actually underpowered (both of which were very untrue).

The GCN *was* a beast...for the money it stood on par with the loss-leading bleeding edge big boys when game makers actually tried and this was noticeable as Sony went with IBM (who, through some of what they learned with GCN's PowerPC architecture, created the Cell for PS3) and MS went with both of Nintendo's previous partners (IBM & ATi) for X360.

The previous sentence wouldn't have occurred unless GCN wasn't as powerful (garnering attention even though the system overall was seen as an underpowered distant competitor).
 
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