The Nintendo 64 console.
The Nintendo 64 is a video game console developed by Nintendo and was released in 1996 in Japan and North America. The Nintendo 64 was the last main home console to use the ROM cartridge as it's format for games and other software released by Nintendo. (excluding Nintendo Switch, as that is occasionally referred to as a portable console) The console, at launch, sold for $199.99 in U.S. stores. The Nintendo 64 (partially under the working title of the Ultra 64) was also the console that Super Mario 64 was first designed and published for before being redesigned and republished for the Nintendo DS.
History[]
Artist's rendition of the Ultra 64 prototype along with a prototype controller found in Nintendo archives.
Pre-Development Period[]
The concept for the Nintendo 64 first begun during the development of Star Fox for the SNES, along with the Super FX chip that made the 3D graphics of Star Fox possible. Shigeru Miyamoto, while working on this had the idea for a Super Mario game in 3D utilizing the Super FX chip, however this idea never came to fruition, and instead was merged into ideas for the next console, a 64-bit console to be able to compete with SEGA as well as Sony, a newcomer to the console wars. The console began development in 1993 soon after Star Fox was released. Nintendo partnered with Silicon Graphics along with MIPS Technologies to make necessary components for the console, such as graphics cards and processors. The console's development was officially announced during the span of Nintendo's August 1993 Shoshinkai (Space World) event when Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics met with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, officially launching "Project Reality", the codename for the Nintendo 64
Development[]
The working title Ultra 64 was first revealed June 23rd, 1994 along with the reveal of the console's design. Shortly afterwards, in September of the same year, Super Mario 64 began development. A couple months later, in July of 1995, Nintendo partnered with a currently unknown company to create personalization technology to implant in the Nintendo 64 to enhance the game to the player's wishes judging from gameplay style, skill and semi-randomization. This technology was planned to be used in nearly all games developed for the console, although it was only used for Super Mario 64 officially.
Project Daedalus[]
In March of 1996, Project DAEDALUS begun, which involved a thorough testing of the Personalization AI. Part of this project was the testing on the Focus aspect of the Personalization AI. Due to complications in the AI, the Personalization AI could not work correctly if at least 50% of the participant's attention (conscious or sub-conscious) was focused on other topics. To distract participants to test this, Nintendo played sounds of a man drowning over speakers during the "Let's-a-Go! Play it Early Contest". It is unknown how Nintendo obtained these noises, as the clips were not from any stock-footage library known at that time. Other distractions were also created, ranging from cat-scratching noises, to audio-visual distortion and atrocities shown to participants. After these failed tests, the Personalization AI was completely reworked.
Later in 1996, the console was released to the public.
Phenomena[]
Personalization Bond[]
The Personalization Bond is a special bond between Super Mario 64 cartridges and the system. This bond is not entirely understood, though it is known to allow the Personalization A.I. to function, as the Personalization A.I. doesn't function in emulated ROMs, meaning that it is tied to the cartridge and Nintendo 64 in some way. A supposed feature named Game Sync present in an unused BIOS for the Nintendo 64 appears to have been used to activate or alter the Personalization Bond in some way, though this is not entirely confirmed. This bond is believed to be elaborated on among other things in the supposed Full Oman Archives.
Scrapped System BIOS
A video showcasing the unused Nintendo 64 BIOS.
Unused BIOS[]
The Nintendo 64 lacks a BIOS, instead simply having the player insert a cartridge that will allow a game to boot up without having to select anything in a menu. However, a supposed unused BIOS for the Nintendo 64 exists that was first documented by Super Mario 64 Beta Archive in their video "Scrapped System BIOS".
The BIOS begins with an introduction cutscene of the words "NINTENDO 64" falling into view as a large N, the symbol of the Nintendo 64, appears from the ground. The main menu in the BIOS then appears. It consists of 4 buttons, and a bar at the top that says the current time and date. The 4 buttons are: Game Pak, Save Pak, Options, and Calendar.
The Game Pak menu is not shown, though the Sav Pak menu does appear, consisting of several blocks where icons signifying games with save data on the Nintendo 64 would appear. One section is labeled Internal System Memory, and the other is labeled Controller Pak (Player 1), appearing to require the Controller Pak peripheral. 4 small buttons are in the center of this menu: Switch, copy, delete, and move. A bottom area says how many free blocks exist in both the Internal System Memory and the Controller Pak, as well as information on the save data if a save is selected.
The calendar menu shows a calendar, the month, year, and current day. This is presumably built off of the unused Internal Clock mechanism in Super Mario 64 cartridges, implying that instead of being built into Super Mario 64, it was instead incorporated into the Nintendo 64. No buttons for altering the menu appear to exist, potentially due to the BIOS being incomplete, or due to this feature being in the options menu.
The options menu has the most information out of all the menus. It has debug information on the top left of the screen, and options to change the system's language, the audio output, the date and time, and an option to set up Game Sync, a feature appearing to be related to the Personalization A.I., potentially setting up the Personalization Bond. The Game Sync feature requires the user to put their finger on the controller, appearing to signify that it bases the Game Sync off of the user's fingerprint, or some other method.