Dear Future Gamer

Computer technology and the appetite of the masses for newer and better things will inevitably put the nail (maybe even prematurely) in the coffin of last year's big thing, something I'm sure we all realise.

Sadly, even though N64 was a good idea and one with plenty of promise, Nintendo singularly failed to grasp the inevitability of its (relatively swift) demise and offered insufficient incentive for gamers and developers alike to sign up en-masse. Instead, the big N opted to piss us all about with ice-age development times, broken promises and no concept (seemingly) of how to create a winning product, even when Sony can sell aged PlayStations to the moon and back.

As a now rather beleaguered N64 owner still waiting for Rare to give us something to play with before my little grey box o' tricks becomes a car boot liability, I can't muster any excitement for Project Dolphin. Until you've got some decent developers backing the thing, and I don't just mean one or two, there's little hope.

Poor show Nintendo.

Joshua Leonard

FG: Software support is indeed the key to a new machine's success, and Sega appear to have got it right, at least in the short-term, with Dreamcast. Whether Nintendo will manage the same level of success with Project Dolphin remains to be seen.