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.