A Keen Eye: A Nintendo Ultimate Timeline

[Jaiken]

Yamauchi, head Preisdent of Nintendo, has one request to those running the company: Make Nintendo the best it can ever be.

To do this Yamauchi instructed his company to further expand into game development by investing profits into Nintendo itself to ensure growth. As long as profits were good then more money is to be invested into the company.

Sony had the right idea when it came to disc formats; regardless, thanks to their hit franchises the Nintendo 64 turned profitable. Titles like the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 were huge hits, but what if titles from F-Zero and Custom Robo also became huge hits? It was too late to course correct the Nintendo 64 but with some billion dollars in the bank Nintendo could definitely make a major impact in the gaming scene.

Point of Divergence: Yamauchi gets even more serious about running his company to the point of making them the top contender in video games by reinvesting more money into the company itself.

 

[Jaiken]

First Thing was to stop Sony. Nintendo had learned Sony's PlayStation would use DVDs amongst rumors and decided there had to be a way to kill the DVD before it took off. The Nintendo 64 may have used Cartridges but the successor would use SDD or Super Density Discs 8.5 GB (7.92 GiB) dual layered single sided discs. To do this Nintendo would invest money into Toshiba to create and push SDDs in a bid to get rid of DVDs; thus, the Technical Working Group of 1995 voted to boycott both formats unless the two camps agreed on a single converged standard. The MMCD and SD groups agreed to adopt proposal SD 9, specifying that both layers of dual-layered discs can be read from the same side.

The TWG almost voted to make DVD the standard until Toshiba pressed matters, stating that compromising the single layered single sides discs would only reach a storage capacity of 4.7 GB (4.38 GiB) instead of the dual layered single sided discs of 8.5 GB (7.92 GiB). Toshiba was head strong on promoting the Super Density Discs stating that having dual layered sided discs were possible. Thus a consensus was reached. Super Density Discs would be used in favor of DVDs due to the higher storage capacity.

Nintendo was thrilled to hear the news and would create a patent for a console that only allowed Super Density Discs. With Nintendo's connections with Toshiba they could mass produce such discs with great efficiency. Nintendo would get to work on their latest console the Nintendo GameCube SP (Server Protocol).

Hardware Specs of the GameCube SP were similar to OTL GameCube Panasonic Q except the storage capacity that allowed for better memory.

Processor​

485 MHz PowerPC 750CXe

Memory​

40MB Internal Memory
Nintendo GameCube Memory Card (16MB max. capacity)

Resolution​

480I/480P

Media​

8CM 8.5 GB SDD
4MB GameCube Memory Card
8.5GB to 17.08GB SDD Video
MP3 CD, Audio CD, VCD

After losing the format wars Sony would need to find a different format for their upcoming PlayStation 2.

What further was Nintendo's Yamauchi planning?

Butterfly Effects: The PlayStation 2 and DVDs are stopped dead in their tracks of becoming the standard for Discs and optimal ways to watch movies. Toshiba has taken over Sony as a huge disc manufacturer. Sega is not sure what to do to counteract this situation.

Next Time: We learn more about Nintendo's plans going forward with their games and company.

 

[Nivek]

Butterfly Effects: The PlayStation 2 and DVDs are stopped dead in their tracks of becoming the standard for Discs and optimal ways to watch movies. Toshiba has taken over Sony as a huge disc manufacturer. Sega is not sure what to do to counteract this situation.

The Main problem SEGA has is money, Daddy Okawa is paying for everything but they rushed the Dreamcast to counter the disastrous Saturn so the optical format could lead the system to bankruptcy(another problem was releasing the Dreamcast first in Japan when Saturn was still popular when it should have been the reverse...but the damage was already done), i think SEGA already might be with GD-ROM because cost.

 

[Jaiken]

Having killed the DVD and securing the Super Density Discs as the standard form of media distribution, Yamauchi stated to his company and his successors what needed to be done:

1. Expand Domestic R&D facilities to other major Japan cities (Osaka and Yokohama):

Nintendo's internal research and development based in Japan was a nice thing to have but so much more could be done with extra development teams.

2. Expanding international R&D facilities throughout US, Canada, UK, China

Having Subsidiaries in different regions made sense to secure more resources from said developers in different parts of the world. Nintendo Software Technology was a promising team and Nintendo was thinking more could be done with said team had they secured teams in Canada and the United Kingdom.

3. Securing contractors/affiliates into full blown subsidiaries

Not only would Nintendo intend to secure more development teams internally and to expand them they would also try to find and fund more contractors and business partners into subsidiaries. Not all members would be added despite their skill as developers and bringing in money would determine whom got allocated and internally committed to Nintendo's internal developers.

4. Pushing more classic IPs for remasters or remakes through contractors to flesh out larger catalog of games.

Lastly Nintendo would browse through its catalog of games to determine what was best for each given franchise in its catalog.

As of now Nintendo's internal development teams and subsidiaries would undergo heavy changes to increase its developmental schedule of games and consoles.

Nintendo would break all of its internal development teams into multiple teams each with a differing functioning goal.

Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 1	Goal is to focus on development of externally developed games by Nintendo's partners such as Hal Laboratory and Game Freak
Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 2	Funding and helping externally developed games by Nintendo's partners mainly the Mario Party series and other spin offs
Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 3	Focus on the Legend of Zelda series developed by internal studios
Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 4	Come up with New Intellectual properties and franchises to help Nintendo catch any outliers and popular franchises
Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 5	Focus on Miyamoto's understudy who is making the Animal Forest games and see if any promising new development leaders are a standout
Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 6	Search and Find externally development partners to become full blown subsidiaries
Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 7	Focus on bringing Nintendo's back catalog of games and finding new ways to breathe life into them
Nintendo Entertainment Planning Development 8	Focus on the Mario series developed by Internal Studios

This process would take time but as of now, 1998, things would come to full fruition in due time. With no objections at the full front Yamauchi would issue Nintendo Software Technology for developing their own games and focusing on new partners in the USA to bring under its fold.

Sega would still release the Dream Cast in Japan first despite the popularity of the Saturn in said region same as OTL using GD ROM discs.

Butterfly Effects: Nintendo's internal teams get formed earlier than IOTL and have differing functioning goals than OTL.

Next Time: We learn what Sony plans to do to combat losing the Disc Format wars.

 

[Jaiken]

With losing the format wars Sony was forced to concede to the use of Super Density Discs. Sony would need to go to their rivals Phillips to make the Multi Media CD ROM a reality. This would require game discs to be flipped over to play the rest once a certain portion of said game was reached. Luckily Sony had some money to moneyhat developers to making games for its console.

The PlayStation 2's CPU and GPU specs would be the same as OTL; however, for the lack of storage capacity, developers had to rely on storage such as memory cards. The 3.7GB storage capacity of the Multi Media CDs would produce way better audio sounds. Primary advantages of backwards compatibility with PlayStation 1 games are compromised due to the lack of storage which also leaves third-party developers to make additional efforts in optimizing games to span multiple discs.

Sony knew it needed a killer app to combat Nintendo's upcoming GameCube.

Level-5 was a studio lead by founder Akihiro HIno in 1998. Originally developing games for third parties it was approached by Sony to make a video game that would rival that of Nintendo's Zelda franchise.

credited to world of long plays.

The game would focus on restoring the world to its proper state after the main antagonist the Dark Genie destroyed it. Focusing on building the world back together the game would use a Georama system that would allow players to rebuild the ingame towns how they saw fit.

What irritated fans of Dark Cloud, like many other gamers and game developers alike, was having to turn over the disc to continue playing due to its limited space capacity.

Butterfly Effects: The backwards compatibility of the PlayStation 2 is negated and game developers are starting to look for greener pastures without having to have their games span multiple discs.

Next Time: We finally see what Nintendo’s EPD team is up to and what their first course of action is.

 

[MegaToon1234]

This timeline so far is really interesting!

 

[Jaiken]

The year was 2001 and the Hit Title Super Monkey Ball had just come out for the GameCube SP. Talks of Sega going under were sadly true as Nintendo said goodbye to their long term rival; however, there was one course of action that the NEPD 7 team was curious about. Could Sega's Amusement Vision subsidiary breathe life into F-Zero? Nintendo was recently working with their long term rival for quite a while and was curious to see what the future of F-Zero could be. Nintendo's Miyamoto approached the head of Sega for an idea.

Why not contract Sega's Amusement Vision to make a new entry in the F-Zero franchise? With a supped up Super Monkey Ball engine the game would prove to be fun and addictive. Plus with the Super Density Discs F-Zero would allow for more courses and gameplay side modes such as building your own race track to share with friends via the GameCube SP memory card. If Nintendo liked the team's work they would contract them for more jobs and projects.

While NEPD 7 was focusing on bringing old franchises back NEPD 4 was on the prowl for new and exciting ideas that would come with developing new franchises. They laid eyes on a particular developer. Silicon Knights was contracted by Nintendo to develop a title called "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem" to attract an older audience for the GameCube SP system. Silicon Knights was an interesting developer to have having worked on the Legacy of Kain games for the PlayStation, they had a falling out with Crystal Dynamics over who owned the rights to develop the Legacy of Kain franchise. Having a rival studio to one of Sony's partners would prove beneficiary in the long run of developing games.

Nintendo's Chinese subsidiary and newest team, iQue, would try to let games come into the Chinese market produced by Nintendo which were on heavy lock down by the Chinese Government itself. iQue would also try to find any outliers for game developers in the region that would make good subsidiaries.

Nintendo's European Team would look for subsidiaries in the area that would help with hardware and manufacturing consoles and other technologies that the big N needs. ActImagine was one said subsidiary that would prove big help to the Japanese company alongside the Mobi Clip development studio. Both would help Nintendo in their DRM technologies and emulator for their upcoming online stores.

Nintendo of Canada was keeping an eye open for any stand outs of game developers to add to Nintendo's fold. A newly founded studio in Next Level Games, as of 2002, looked promising to develop sports games for the big N.

Nintendo's own acquisitions started with the game company "Noise" who was credited towards the Custom Robo series. Brownie Brown from the former SquareSoft after their debacle of 'Final Fantasy the Spirits Within' movie. Argonaut Software for developing the Star Fox games who was with a exodus of staff leaving the company. Retro Studios with their making of Metroid Prime and Nintendo Software Technology for their work on the Wave Race series.

Yamauchi would retire shortly afterwards and hand over control of his company to Satoru Iwata.

Butterfly Effects: Nintendo is eyeing some early acquisitions from former Rival Sega and other game developers to bring into its fold.

Upcoming Chapters

A Dark Chronicle Approaches
A Magical Vacation
Western Studios Oh My

 

[Jaiken]

Level-5 was a developer that attempted to help Sony usurp Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series; however, Nintendo saw promise in the studio. So with some investments from Nintendo a new game was made.

Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Rogue-Like Dungeon Crawler

Gameplay video:

provided by 10 min gameplay

Controls:
Control Stick: Move character
A Button: Action/Interact
B Button: Block
L Button: Use secondary weapon
R Button: Toggle Map
Z Button: Lock On/ realign camera
Y Button: Use selected item
X Button: Switch Character
C-Stick: Move Camera
D-Pad: Toggle between selected items
Start Button: Pause/Unpause game

Dark Chronicle was a spiritual successor to Dark Cloud in ever way possible minus the Dark Genie final boss. The game centers around Maximillian whom is trying to find his mother that has mysteriously disappeared. To do this he must set foot out of his home town Palm Brinks which has been blocked off from the outside world. Main villain, Griffin, has been destroying points of origin from time to weaken the heroes and his enemies which the player must restore by using the games Georama system.

The Georama system was the main focus point that interested Nintendo as it encourages players to rebuild the town's origin points the way they see fit. Using the GameCube's Memory Cards players could visit each other's towns to find the locals and pick up on rare items.

Thanks to the GameCube SP's extra gigabyte storage there existed extra modes for Dark Chronicle:

Co-Op Mode: A mode where two players could team up and play through the game together. This would have added a new level of strategy to the game as players could work together to solve puzzles and defeat enemies.
Endless Dungeon Mode: A mode where players could traverse through an endless maze of dungeons, fighting enemies and collecting loot. This would have added a lot of replayability to the game, as players could continue to challenge themselves with increasing difficulty levels.
Boss Rush Mode: A mode where players could battle through all the bosses of the game in succession, without the need to progress through the story. This would have been a great way for players to hone their combat skills and compete for high scores.
New Game+: A mode where players could replay the game with all of their previous progress intact. This would have allowed players to explore different story paths and try out different approaches to the game without worrying about starting from scratch.
Co-OP mode for Dark Chronicle:
Two-Player Adventure: Players can team up and play through the game's story mode together. Each player controls one of the two protagonists, Max and Monica, and work together to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and rebuild the world.
Building Mode: Players could team up to build and design their own customizable homes and towns in the game's world. Players could gather resources, build structures, and decorate their homes with items collected throughout the game.

The biggest competitive mode for players was the Fish Frenzy mode where players would race caught and raised fish against each other for more prizes and loot.

Dark Chronicle was a Smash Hit amongst Nintendo fans and Dark Cloud fanatics alike which also used the GameCube SP's Modem. Nintendo would end up acquiring the game developer Level-5.

Butterfly Effects: Level-5 is now a Nintendo subsidiary and will be making games only for the Big N now.

Upcoming Chapters:

A Magical Vacation
Western Studios Oh My
Taking things to the Next Level

 

[Jaiken]

The year is 2001 and Nintendo Subsidiary, Brownie Brown, has just released their own original franchise 'Magical Vacation'.

Developer: Brownie Brown
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Japanese Role Playing Game

Most JRPGs encourage players to conserve resources and save items, but Magical Vacation flips that concept on its head. The default attack option is Magic which, depending on the amount of magic you use, unleashes powerful magic attacks. Magic recovers every turn so you don't need to rely too much on consumables. Enemies have 'spirits' that can cancel yours sort of like rock paper scissors. Players can combo the Spirits a total of 7 times for maximum damage and would choose their character's spirit.

gameplay provided by MEGABLADEJ

The game centers around a huge war that took place in the land of Kovomaka. The war lasted for 3 days, but major casualties took place. A lie was given to the townspeople saying an experiment had gone awry killing thousands. One man watched over the land making sure another war did not break out. Game takes place where the player character is a member of the Will-O-Wisp magical school.

Nintendo would release this game to the West not just Japan and would reach moderate sales of 450,000 copies world wide. The game would be a cult classic amongst Nintendo fans and gamers would be eagerly awaiting the next entry in the Magical franchise.

Butterfly Effects: Brownie Brown's first game is made well known world wide and sells moderately well.

Upcoming Chapters:
Western Studios Oh My
Taking Things to the Next Level
Super Smash Brothers Melee
The Pixel PlayGround

 

[Nivek]

Butterfly Effects: Brownie Brown's first game is made well known world wide and sells moderately well.

Something needed OTL, I'm surprised why it was never localized it

 

[Jaiken]

Something needed OTL, I'm surprised why it was never localized it

Same here, maybe Nintendo didn’t trust in the game enough to do well?

 

[Nivek]

Same here, maybe Nintendo didn’t trust in the game enough to do well?

Umm who knows, the sequel did was localized, i wonder if lack of translators, as golden sun was localized at the same time

 

[Otakuninja2006]

Wow.......

This is nice.

So, will this new format also play music and movies?

And what's happening to Sega?

 

[Jaiken]

Wow.......

This is nice.

So, will this new format also play music and movies?

And what's happening to Sega?

The GameCube SP Super Density Discs format will help with that yes, but Sony’s Multi Media CDs also plays movies it is a format war between high cost SDD and less room but cheaper MMCD.

Nintendo is acquiring parts of Sega before Sammy buys them out.

 

[Otakuninja2006]

The GameCube SP Super Density Discs format will help with that yes, but Sony’s Multi Media CDs also plays movies it is a format war between high cost SDD and less room but cheaper MMCD.

Nintendo is acquiring parts of Sega before Sammy buys them out.

Cool!

So this butterflies out BluRay?

Who wins this round of the format wars?

 

[Jaiken]

Cool!

So this butterflies out BluRay?

Who wins this round of the format wars?

BluRay is still around but without the DVD Sony has an uphill battle for getting third parties making games for their systems versus Nintendo.

 

[Otakuninja2006]

BluRay is still around but without the DVD Sony has an uphill battle for getting third parties making games for their systems versus Nintendo.

Cool.

 

[Jaiken]

With Nintendo securing the Super Density Disc rights to their GameCube Server Protocol is the attention of third party developers mainly those from the west. Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubisoft were the biggest players of the 6th generation of consoles west side and all had saw something interesting in the GCSP.

Electronic Arts: The extra development space and faster loading times will help our sports games flourish.

Activision: The modem port that exists on the GCSP is interesting wonder what Nintendo plans to do with the online capabilities. Call of Duty would likely flourish on this console.

Ubisoft: Most of our PC games would find a great home on the GCSP with its internet capabilities. Ghost Recon would benefit greatly from being introduced on a home console audience.

These three companies would help Nintendo push the GCSP to new heights; however, there still existed the issue of bringing online to the GCSP. For that Nintendo would look towards Sega subsidiary Visual Concepts and Sega.Com. For a price of $243 Million Nintendo would acquire the rights to both studios and further secure a better relationship with their old rival Sega.

Sega.Com would become Nintendo Server Protocol and Visual Concepts would bring the long awaited sports titles to Nintendo's console.

Yamauchi would say in an interview at E3 2001: "You see our GameCube Server Protocol runs on internet technology being the first of its kind to popularize online capabilities for the average consumer."

Yamauchi holds up a black device

"This is the Nintendo GameCube modem adapter that will release alongside the GameCube Server Protocol for a total of $230. The modem is included with the console to give consumers the full experience of online."

IGN reporter: "What games will use the adapter?"

"The majority of titles that will use the modem are still under wraps but we will reveal a few: F-Zero GX, Star Fox Assault, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Dark Chronicle, Mario Kart Double Dash and Activision's newly anticipated Call of Duty."

Yuji Naka chimed in: "The titles Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi and Virtua Fighter will also use online."

IGN Reporter: "At what time will games come out that fully use the Adapter?"

Yamauchi: "The majority of titles will come out in due time and will fully show the capabilities of the modem, but when consumers see it they will fall in love with what our friends over at Nintendo Server Protocol have come up with."

With that E3 was over.

Butterfly Effects: Nintendo now owns Sega.com, now Nintendo Server Protocol, and Visual Concepts subsidiaries of Sega and have included the modem alongside the console.

Upcoming Chapters:
Taking Things to the Next Level
Super Smash Brothers Melee
The Pixel PlayGround
Revival of Old Classics

 

[Otakuninja2006]

What's the difference between the regular Gamecube and the Gamecube SP?

Especially since there's a Game Boy Advance SP?

 

[Jaiken]

What's the difference between the regular Gamecube and the Gamecube SP?

Especially since there's a Game Boy Advance SP?

The GameCube Server Protocol has better online functionality and Disc space for games to be made bigger and better. The future will reveal what it does with the Game Boy Advance.