Iwata: It changed. It really did change.

Nakagawa: However, before the Nintendo 64 came out, other company’s systems already had something like an introduction to 3D. So the knowledge to creating games in 3D was also…

Iwata: They had a certain amount of knowledge already.

Nakagawa: …Yes. That’s why we thought we could work on the Nintendo 64 too. But, the Nintendo 64 … sure was something (bitter laughter).

Iwata: (laughs) It was a machine that was hard to create things for and didn’t work at all.

Nakagawa: Y-Yes. It didn’t work at all…

Maegawa: At the time, I was the main programmer, so I also understand Nakagawa’s experiences.

Nakagawa: What we did before the Nintendo 64 was, after all, only an introduction.

Iwata: Yes.

Nakagawa: But, the Nintendo 64 was a 3D machine to the core.

Iwata: Because the Silicon Graphics Co.⁸ architecture was just dropped into play. The Nintendo 64 had all sorts of limitations, but in the end, it was a 3D machine to the core. It’s just that, even if it was one to the core, there were those limitations, so it was hard to use and turned out to be a machine that didn’t work at all.

Nakagawa: Which is why, after having played around on these introductory systems (Editor’s note: possibly referring to SEGA Saturn?) for all this time and then suddenly having a professional machine dropped into our laps, we couldn’t get it to work at all for the first year…

Iwata: Yes.

Nakagawa: … (Silently stares off into the distance)

Iwata: It couldn’t work, and…?

Nakagawa: Sigh… (and gives a very big sigh)

Iwata: (laughs) That sigh just now contained many different emotions, didn’t it (laughs).

Nakagawa: (very big nod)

Iwata: (laughs)