[Nintendo Ultra 64] 1994? Silicon Graphics Tech Demos

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"Nintendo 64 is the culmination of work by Nintendo, Silicon Graphics, and MIPS Technologies. The SGI-based system design that ended up in the Nintendo 64 was originally offered to Tom Kalinske, then CEO of Sega of America by James H. Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics. SGI had recently bought out MIPS Technologies and the two companies had worked together to create a low-cost CPU/3D GPU combo that they thought would be ideal for the console market. A Sega of Japan hardware team was sent to evaluate the chip's capabilities and they found some faults which MIPS subsequently solved. However, Sega of Japan ultimately decided against SGI's design, apparently in part due to internal problems between Sega of Japan and Sega of America.

In the early stages of development the Nintendo 64 was referred to by the code name "Project Reality"[3]. This monicker came from the speculation within Nintendo that the console could produce CGI on par with then-current supercomputers. When unveiled to the public on November 24, 1995, the console was introduced as the Nintendo Ultra 64[4] at the 7th Annual Shoshinkai Software Exhibition in Japan." - [wikipedia]

Channel: Gaming
Uploaded: February 1, 2007 at 1:57 am
Author: monokoma

Length: 00:03:33
Rating: 4.74
Views: 139328

Tags: nintendo 64 ultra silicon graphics tech demo shark proto beta 1994 Wii DS GameCube N64 Mario Super NES 1995 Zelda

Video Comments:
clinch44 (November 6, 2008 at 11:39 pm)
i remember the 1995 release date i was mad when they push it way back to 96
XavierDemitri (November 3, 2008 at 10:29 pm)
Man! I remember as a kid, Playing the N64 And thinking the graphics were amazing! But now it looks horrible!

And trust me people...
You think games look good now?
Wait a few years, You'll be amazed.
godoakos18 (October 31, 2008 at 10:47 pm)
"This is only possible on cartridges because CD-R is too slow" I mean...FAIL
tommarques (November 2, 2008 at 12:06 pm)
In 1995 was. Do you remember the loading screens on PS one? I do. And on N64? It hadn't.
godoakos18 (November 3, 2008 at 10:56 pm)
Yes, you're right, that is no question about the loading times, but...er...space and quality.
CD wins. But look at us, still talking about CD when Blu-Ray is about to take over DVD which took over CD which took over Cartridges :D
ElectriceGA (November 9, 2008 at 11:45 pm)
Yeah, that's the best now.

But you have to look back twelve years, when CDs were relatively young and their technology wasn't as developed as it is now.

Paks win in the early 1990s.
Moto200Alt (November 14, 2008 at 4:13 pm)
Back then CDs were much slower and could hold less data due to limited compression techniques.

Ever read the minimum requirements of an old 90's PC game? It requires you to have a x2 drive, and recommends x4. Now we have x52 in standard. Also, not always CD had 700MB of capacity.

Watch a Philips CD-i commercial, and they'll show you how horrible movies looked on CDs in the early 90's.
airraideagle (October 27, 2008 at 2:43 am)
None of these game/demos are running on N64, or N64 dev-kids or N64 prototypes.

They are real-time, but realtime only on SGI Onyx RealityEngine machines costing $100,000 and up.

Also, the N64 could not run this stuff at 60 frames per second. It would only be able to do about 30 FPS, at 1/4 the resolution, with lower polygon count.
jedixo (October 19, 2008 at 5:58 am)
hahaha i like how he says it cant be duplicated by a cd system, well back then there was no such thing as the playstation so he is probably right when that movie was made but he is worng nowdays
Samson1091 (October 30, 2008 at 11:02 pm)
That is what you call trying to be a salesman.. a stupid one.