Courtesy of our friends at IGN, Future Gamer brings you everything you ever wanted to know about Nintendo's next-generation console...

Author's Note:
The information regarding Nintendo's next-generation system below is not set in stone. Rather, it is a compilation of official statements from Nintendo, early system specifications from Nintendo, anonymous developer insight and intelligent speculation.
Matt Casamassina

The history of Nintendo 64
It was three years ago, in September 1996, that the N64 was launched in the United States. The 64bit home console, the successor to the hugely popular Super NES, proved to be a remarkable success for Nintendo of America. But even as N64 sales soared in the US, Japanese gamers, with literally no titles to turn to after beating Super Mario 64, were returning the console to retailers across the country. The N64 has never fully recovered in the homeland, always remaining a distant second to Sony's 32bit PlayStation.

On the US side, however, the console has never slowed down, boasting a library of huge hits ranging from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to GoldenEye 007. In fact, the combined popularity of the N64 in the US and Europe has amounted to a library of 64bit titles that have sold in their millions.

Nintendo react to the competition
A chain of events may have forced Nintendo to prematurely take part in the next-generation console race:

*Sega unveil their next-generation console, Sega Dreamcast, on May 21, 1998, in Tokyo, Japan.

*Sega Dreamcast launches in Japan on November 27, 1998.

*Sony unveil "The next-generation PlayStation" (PlayStation 2) technology to the press in Tokyo, Japan on March 2, 1999.

*Sony set a target release date for PlayStation 2 in Japan: "... within the fiscal year ending March 2000".

*Sony set a target release date for PlayStation 2 in the US: "Fall 2000".

On March 3, 1999, one day after PlayStation 2's unveiling, Nintendo commented, "We are developing a more advanced videogame system, but we are not providing any specifics at this time". It was clear, however, that the specifics of the system - or at least some of them - would be made available soon. Nintendo would have to make an announcement. Only a few months later, they did.