Masayuki Uemura's opening speech had an immediate effect.
A long queue formed at the N64 demo area.
The reporters were not impatient, chatting with each other while holding their small notebooks.
An editor from GamePro waited in line for twenty minutes before sitting down at a demo station.
Super Mario 64 was running on the screen.
He picked up the peculiar-looking controller, resting his thumb on the analog stick on the left.
Mario on the screen started to walk slowly.
He pushed harder, and Mario's pace quickened, turning into a run.
He spun around a few times in the 3D castle courtyard, experiencing that kind of all-encompassing, delicate control.
A D-pad really couldn't achieve this kind of smooth turning.
While operating the controller, the editor said to the photographer, "Take a few more close-ups of the controller, especially the structure at the base of the stick."
The photographer pressed the shutter.
"It feels good to hold, but my thumb will get sore after playing for a long time. Remember to mention the ergonomics issue in the article."
Because they weren't rushing to other events, and with increased staff and clear division of labor, the reporters spent more time in the demo area.
They were no longer just skimming through a CG video; they were truly experiencing the core mechanics of the game.
This depth of interaction was exactly the gaming experience Masayuki Uemura emphasized in his speech.
Two o'clock in the afternoon, South Hall.
The Sony PlayStation booth was buzzing.
Ken Kutaragi had kept his word; the booth's sound system was cranked up to the max.
The cheerful electronic soundtrack of Crash Bandicoot echoed throughout the entire South Hall.
Crowds gathered in front of several large, custom displays.
Sony may have lost the vote in the opening keynote, but they made up for the volume with a massive lineup of third-party games.
Sony's PR team skillfully handed out press kits to passing journalists.
Inside were discs and beautifully crafted art books.
Last year's disc strategy had been a huge success, and this year, not only Sony and Sega, but even some large third-party manufacturers had started using CD-ROMs to distribute media materials.
On the other side of the South Hall, Sega's booth was just as lively.
Hisao Oguchi, wearing a gray work jacket, stood outside the temporary office unit on the second floor, looking down at the exhibit area below.
This year, Sega didn't reveal all their cards on the first day.
They focused the first day on hands-on experiences with their game lineup.
In that dimly lit area on the left, red and blue neon tubes created the atmosphere of New Port City.
They focused the first day on hands-on gameplay experiences. To the left, a dimly lit area with interwoven red and blue neon tubes created the atmosphere of New Port City.
That was the *Ghost in the Shell* demo zone.
A *GamePro* editor and photographer happened to be strolling by.
"Come give this a try."
The editor rubbed his hands together and sat down in front of the Jupiter console.
On the screen, Motoko Kusanagi was lurking in a dark alley.
The editor pressed the controller, trying to maneuver the character to charge out and shoot.
Just two steps out, a red light flashed at the edge of the screen, and Motoko was hit by a bullet from an unknown source, falling straight to the ground.
A red "Game Over" message popped up on the screen.
The editor stopped his movements.
He turned and looked at the demonstrator next to him.
"This is the hacking and stealth sequence for the third level, and the difficulty is locked to the highest setting."
The demonstrator handed over a can of ice-cold cola and pointed at the screen, explaining, "You can't just charge in."
"You need to use every advantage at your disposal, observe the enemies' patrol routes, create blind spots by hacking nearby electronic devices, and then use optical camouflage to get past."
The editor took a sip of his cold drink and picked up the controller again.
Five minutes later, he died again.
This time, it was because the hacking took too long, and he was discovered by a mechanical dog on patrol.
"This difficulty setting isn't reasonable, is it?"
The photographer, watching from the side, shook his head.
"No, the game mechanics are very deep."
The editor didn't give up; he sat up straight. "The game's AI logic isn't fixed."
No, the game's mechanics are quite profound.
The editor didn't give up; he straightened his back. "The game's AI logic isn't fixed."
The mechanical dog adjusts its patrol route based on where you last died.
Interestingly, this kind of dynamic difficulty adjustment is rarely seen in console games from the past.
Because he had plenty of time, the editor spent a full forty minutes at this demo station.
After dying more than a dozen times, he figured out the energy consumption pattern of the optical camouflage and successfully hacked into a surveillance node, bypassing the guards.
When he finally cleared the level, he let out a long breath, his forehead covered in sweat.
It's fun.
He leaned back in his chair and gave his heartfelt verdict.
Ten o'clock sharp.
The background music in the venue stopped right on time.
The overhead lights dimmed.
Two white spotlights hit the center of the stage.
Masayuki Uemura walked out from the shadows on the side of the stage.
He was still wearing that same dark gray suit, no tie, his steps steady.
He walked to the center of the stage and adjusted the height of the microphone.
"We meet again," Uemura said into the microphone.
A wave of good-natured laughter rippled through the audience.
Less than an hour had passed since he delivered the opening remarks in the Central Hall.
This back-to-back schedule had turned this hardware engineer, who spent most of his time in the lab, into the person most frequently in the spotlight today.
"I've already talked about the past of Nintendo's home consoles in my opening remarks, so I won't repeat it here," Masayuki Uemura said, resting his hands on the edge of the podium with a relaxed tone. "You didn't come here to hear me reminisce about the past. You want to see something new."
He turned to the side, stepped back half a pace, and extended his right hand.
The massive screen covering the entire wall behind the stage instantly lit up.
A 3D model of a black console slowly rotated on the screen, showcasing its industrial design from every angle.
"Nintendo 64," Uemura announced.
Applause erupted throughout the venue.
Two staff members pushed a glass display pedestal onto the stage and stopped next to Uemura.
On the pedestal sat a physical prototype.
It had a black, streamlined chassis, with four controller ports lined up along the front.
A gray cartridge was inserted into the slot on top.
The overall design was sleeker and more futuristic than the previous generation of consoles.
Photographers in the press area stood up one after another, pressing their shutters.
The white light of the flashes merged into a single sheet, illuminating the faces of the audience in the front row.
Masayuki Uemura waited for the photo session to continue for a while before he resumed speaking.
"Functionality is the topic that everyone has discussed the most over the past few months," Uemura said, looking at the audience. "There has been a lot of speculation about the performance of this machine. Today, we are providing the accurate answer."
The image of the console on the big screen shrank, and a list of detailed technical specifications appeared on the right.
"The N64 uses a 64-bit processor, exclusively customized for us by SGI. The operating frequency reaches 93.75 megahertz," Uemura said, pointing to the data on the screen. "In terms of graphics processing, we have implemented hardware-level Z-buffering."
Technical reporters in the audience hurriedly took notes in their notebooks.
"What does this mean?" Uemura paused, then explained, "It means that developers no longer need to use complex software algorithms to handle polygon occlusion. The screen will no longer have texture flickering, and there will be no more clipping issues with models."
Engineers from Sega of America whispered to each other in the audience.
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