Project Reality - Nintendo's Next Generation

Nintendo's probably noticed the impending introduction of machines 
technologically far superior to its current 16-bit product, such as the 3DO 
and Atari's Jaguar.  They've teamed up with Silicon Graphics, Inc., makers of 
some of the world's most sophisticated graphic workstations, to develop a 
new 64-bit machine tentatively christened as the Project Reality machine.

This next generation machine will use some of the same graphics technology 
used in Silicon Graphics' high end workstations.  Silicon Graphics machines 
have been used in producing special effects for many major motion pictures 
and music videos, including Jurassic Park and Peter Gabriel's 
"Kiss This Frog."

It will use a design based on the MIPS Multimedia Engine chipset, which runs 
at 100MHz and can perform up to 100 million floating point operations per 
second, and can display true 32-bit color with stereo sound.  The machine 
itself will be produced and marketed by Nintendo, with Silicon Graphics 
providing the development hardware/software.  Nintendo promises the machine 
will retail for under $250.

Project Reality's biggest selling point will be that it can do in real-time: 
anti-aliased texture mapping, morphing, 3-D scaling and rotation, and all in 
16 million colors with NO slowdown, and will actually produce video that's 
more suited to high-definition TV than the current worldwide standards, 
NTSC and PAL.

Development is under way, but unfortunately Project Reality isn't expected 
to ship until the second half of 1995 at the earliest.  Some other stumbling 
blocks in Project Reality's way include the fact that other systems like the 
3DO and Jaguar may have already cornered the market by the time it gets 
released, and both companies involved have been mum about what sort of media 
will be used to distribute its software on.  CD-ROM would definitely be one 
of the front runners, since the cost of producing cartridges with the 
necessary memory would put individual cartridge price at Neo-Geo levels, i.e. 
at last $150 and up.

Also, writing software for Project Reality will very likely require the 
purchase of a Silicon Graphics workstation, a minimum $10-30,000 
investment; currently most videogame software is developed on PC clones and 
Macs equipped with proprietary hardware and software at a third of that cost.

However, Nintendo's announcement confirms their commitment to providing 
sophisticated gaming technology for the average consumer.


Transmitted:  93-10-01 17:00:22 EDT
