Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 originated from Project Reality, an ambitious partnership announced in August 1993 between Nintendo and Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), the Silicon Valley company renowned for its workstation computers used in Hollywood visual effects. SGI's MIPS Technologies subsidiary designed the custom processor that would power the console, designated the Reality Co-Processor (RCP). The partnership was brokered by SGI engineer Wei Yen, who approached Nintendo with the concept of bringing workstation-class 3D graphics to a consumer game console.

The N64's main CPU was a 64-bit NEC VR4300, a cost-reduced derivative of the MIPS R4300i running at 93.75 MHz. This made the N64 one of the first consumer devices to use a 64-bit processor and gave the console its name (originally codenamed "Ultra 64"). The Reality Co-Processor, designed by Wei Yen's team at SGI, was a separate chip containing both the Reality Signal Processor (RSP) and the Reality Display Processor (RDP). The RSP handled geometry transformation, lighting, audio processing, and physics, while the RDP performed rasterization, texture mapping, and anti-aliasing. This architecture allowed the N64 to render approximately 100,000 polygons per second with effects like Z-buffering, Gouraud shading, and anti-aliasing that smoothed the jagged edges common in early 3D graphics.

The most consequential and controversial decision in the N64's development was Nintendo's choice to retain cartridge-based media rather than adopting CD-ROM technology. Hiroshi Yamauchi and Shigeru Miyamoto justified this decision on several grounds: cartridges offered nearly instantaneous load times compared to CD-ROM's multi-second seeks, they were more durable and harder to pirate, and the cartridge manufacturing process gave Nintendo continued control over third-party production and revenue. However, N64 cartridges could hold a maximum of 64 megabytes of data compared to a CD-ROM's 650 megabytes, and cartridge manufacturing costs were significantly higher, with per-unit costs ranging from $15-25 compared to under $1 for a CD.

This decision had profound consequences for the N64's software library. Square, formerly one of Nintendo's most important third-party partners, moved its flagship Final Fantasy series to the PlayStation, stating that the cartridge format could not accommodate the pre-rendered cinematics and vast data requirements of Final Fantasy VII. Enix followed with Dragon Quest VII. The exodus of major Japanese RPG developers left the N64 with a significant gap in its library and is widely considered one of the key factors in the PlayStation's dominance, particularly in Japan where RPGs drove console sales.

The N64 controller's design underwent extensive iteration under Shigeru Miyamoto's direction. The three-pronged design was conceived to accommodate three distinct play styles: the left prong with D-pad for traditional 2D games, the center prong with analog stick for 3D games, and the right prong for secondary functions. While criticized by some as ergonomically awkward, the design reflected the transitional period between 2D and 3D gaming. The analog stick used an optical encoder system with a plastic gimbal mechanism that was precise but prone to wear, a design limitation that became apparent as games like Mario Party required rapid stick rotation.

The console's 4 megabytes of unified Rambus RDRAM (expandable to 8 MB with the Expansion Pak) used a high-bandwidth memory architecture that was expensive but provided excellent throughput. This memory was shared between the CPU, audio, and video systems, requiring careful optimization by developers. The N64's architecture was notoriously challenging to program, with the microcode-based RSP requiring specialized knowledge. However, second-party developers like Rare (Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark) and internal Nintendo teams mastered the hardware, producing visual results that often exceeded what the theoretically more developer-friendly PlayStation could achieve.