Topic: Early history of the GAMECUBE

[ultrafamicom]

Here is a very muddled, incomplete, poorly written, messy history of
GAMECUBE.

Concider this post to be just a few tid bits of the true history of
our current and much-loved Nintendo console.


Before the GAMECUBE there was Project Dolphin.

Before Dolphin there was N2000.



Project Dolphin was annouced in May 1999 at E3, some 4 and 1/2 years
ago.


At E3 in 1998  (5 and 1/2 years ago )  Nintendo mentioned their
unnamed next console (next after N64). here's a direct quote from
Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln during that E3:

"I think there's a high probability that the next system that we do
will not be cartridge-based. But we have not made a decision on that.
I can tell you that we are working with ArtX, our partner in the next
generation product-a small Silicon Valley-based company that we think
has some of the best 3D graphics engineers in the world, so they are
going to be the key developer of the next-generation product. We are
also in discussions with Silicon Graphics about their role in the
next-generation product. But having said all that, I want you to
understand that our focus is, and will remain on N64 for some years to
come."

9-12 months before that (in mid-to-late 1997) Nintendo was trying to
get their N64 successor, then called N2000, together. There were
problems between Nintendo, Silicon Graphics and MIPs (SGI's CPU
company)  a major rift happened. Nintendo lost confidence in SGI
because SGI put N2000 on the back-burner.

Within SGI, a group of engineers got unhappy with the direction the
company was going. they broke away and formed ArtX, the company that
would make N2000/Dolphin/Gamecube's graphics.


Here is how it went down according to Next Generation Online
(what is left on the www that i could still grab)

You will note that the "MX chipset", a beefed up version of the 3DO M2
chipset, almost became the graphical heart of N64's sucessor (N2000).
whether that would have become the Gamecube we know today, is open to
speculation. but it was sometimes mentioned (i.e. Matt-IGN's old
Dolphin Watch column in NG and in www articles) that Gamecube's roots
may have had some basis in the M2 and MX chipsets.

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Nintendo's Next Machine

With the N64's poor performance in Japan, Nintendo is trying to begin
the design of its next system. Unfortunately, uncompromising
management and other industry factors have stymied it at every step.

   April 27, 1998



Nintendo is in the unenviable position of having to come up with a new
console while its current offering flounders in Japan and Europe.


Although experts acknowledge that the video games business is
surprisingly incestuous by even Jerry Springer's standards, recent
developments taking place within two of Seattle's 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 company's chipset for the year 2000's 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 system's 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 Nintendo's 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 company's 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 Nintendo's third-party development contracts, and Nintendo
started to believe that it was in the company's 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 Nintendo's next hardware by offering Nintendo
the same talent pool sans SGI's manufacturing and management teams.



As it turns out, most of the industry's top 3D chip experts have been
lured away from smaller firms by accelerator developers NVidia, 3Dfx
and NEC, so Nintendo's 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 here's 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 SGI's 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.
(CagEnt's 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 CagEnt's 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 Nintendo's 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 Nintendo's 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 CagEnt's ownership,
leaving Samsung's management desperate for a suitor to buy the
company. CagEnt aggressively shopped itself around to other major
industry players. SGI's 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 CagEnt's facilities and
finally CagEnt found a suitor.


In early April, Microsoft's 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
Microsoft's 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
ArtX's present limitations. Additionally, SGI's 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. Nintendo's 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
64's best-looking games and at least two of the machine's most
popular-Diddy Kong Racing and Goldeneye 007. As Nintendo's Japanese
development teams have never been known for their ability to stick to
release schedules, the company's third-party rosters have remained
bare and its management has remained dogmatically fixated upon silicon
chips as its sole means of profit, Nintendo's 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
company's standing in the industry for the following five years.
Ripple effects from these decisions can be felt in a company's 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 it's able to fight off SGI's lawsuit), it will need to
complete a chip design is an extremely short period of time. If it
doesn't 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."
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that's only part of the Gamecube story. other pieces of info and rumors can be obtained by Googling  "N2000", "Dolphin" "Nintendo" "CagEnt" "ArtX" "SGI" in any combination!

As you realize the struggle that was Gamecube's development process from 1997 to 2000-01, we might begin to imagine the struggle that Nintendo has been facing since 2000-01 until the present, in creating the forthcoming N5.

[Termin8Anakin]

geez, why didn't you just put that up on a website of your own, like I did on Nintendo Inc .
I HAD one, but I've pulled it down to reduce the amount of text on my site.
Good on you though .
A+ for effort and dedication.

[kennyb27]

Am I supposed to read all that?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

some year ago, i by gamCube

i hav ffun with game cub

yer laterr gamecub34 broken

i buyt new ganecsube

m3 hvae fun1 more3l!

[ghostVi]

That's a pretty interesting read ultrafamicom, 10x for the effort.

[ultrafamicom]

here's one of several IGN articles on N2000:



It's Alive!

IGN64 brings you the scoop on Nintendo's ArtX-designed 128-bit console.
March 12, 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.

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