Live Magazine June Issue 2017 June July Magazine Spiderman | Page 56

SYSTEM
OF THE
CENTURY:
NINTENDO
64!
Codenamed “Project Reality” it
was launched in 1996, named
by Time Magazine as “Machine
of the Year) and launched with
3 absolutely brilliant games -
Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64
and Saikyo Habu Shogi (Japan
only).
While competing with the Play-
Station and Saturn it had, un-
like its competition, a 64-bit
processing unit based on the
MIPS processor architecture
owned by Silicon Graphics.
This meant it was better at dis-
playing polygon 3D graphics
and it’s cartridge system meant
fast loading times but higher
manufacturing costs. The N64
was promoted as the first 64-bit
gaming system even though the
Atari Jaguar claimed this title -
however some questioned this
as the Jaguar executed a 32-bit
instruction set but sent control
signals to the 64-bit processor
(source Wikipedia).
At the launch of the system,
many praised its face paced
graphics thanks to the 64-bit