Kutaragi to join the Nintendo side?

[Bigfoot]

Kutaragi! Iwata is y-... nevermind.

Apparently Mr. Iwata would love to have Kutaragi work for Nintendo.

http://gonintendo.com/?p=16987

Maybe it was a joke statement? Who knows?

[KakTheInfected]

Here's a dumb question: Exactly why is this guy such a big deal? Sony systems were never technical powerhouses, and when he makes one that is, they kick his ass out the door.

I realize the Playstation 1 and 2 were huge successes, but nothing about the system itself was really mind-blowing (aside from bringing discs to mainstream).

[Razumen]

Well apparently he was/is a pretty good engineer, he actually designed the sound chip for the SNES way back in the day. I just don't think he cuts it in a public relations or company head role.

Still, I think the statement was made mostly out of respect, and to the Japanese, giving proper respect is serious business.

[I-n-j-i-n]

If he does join Nintendo, he'd probably return to being an engineer. Which is what he should be doing instead of running an entire company with no checks and balances to his engineering vision. The Cell was way too ambitious of him and it cost him.

Here's a dumb question: Exactly why is this guy such a big deal? Sony systems were never technical powerhouses, and when he makes one that is, they kick his ass out the door.

I realize the Playstation 1 and 2 were huge successes, but nothing about the system itself was really mind-blowing (aside from bringing discs to mainstream).

For one, Kutaragi was not just a talking head, but he actually helped create the actual system architecture of the Playstation consoles. Compared to the behind the scenes and relatively unknown group of engineers elsewhere. The Playstations, for better or for worse, were Kutaragi's babies.

[Bahamut]

Here's a dumb question: Exactly why is this guy such a big deal? Sony systems were never technical powerhouses, and when he makes one that is, they kick his ass out the door.

I realize the Playstation 1 and 2 were huge successes, but nothing about the system itself was really mind-blowing (aside from bringing discs to mainstream).

There's probably a lot more that he did that requires some form of respect - engineering a console is no small endeavor.

[watkinzez]

I'd like Kutaragi to go back in time and make the N64 audio hardware not suck.

[The Coop]

I'd like Kutaragi to go back in time and make the N64 audio hardware not suck.

I'd rather have him go back in time and bitch slap the idiot that decided to go with the cart format for the N64.

[FiremanJoe]

I'd like Kutaragi to go back in time and make the N64 audio hardware not suck.

Quoted for emphasis.

On a related note, I want to hear some of the N64 game soundtracks redone (eg Perfect Dark). The composition is great, but sound quality not so much.

[lazygecko]

What's wrong with the N64 sound? Blame the composers for being technically inadequate. Chris Hülsbeck made some awesome shit with it.

If anything, the average quality of a SNES soundtrack sounded worse on a relative scale.

[Devyn]

Someone post that picture of the King and Wormtongue.

[I-n-j-i-n]

What's wrong with the N64 sound? Blame the composers for being technically inadequate. Chris Hülsbeck made some awesome shit with it.

If anything, the average quality of a SNES soundtrack sounded worse on a relative scale.

Um. How can you blame the composers when the N64 system was notorious for having stringent hardware limitations on the sound due to its lack of memory for the audio? Didn't people know about this a decade ago?

[Shadow Wolf]

I'd rather have him go back in time and bitch slap the idiot that decided to go with the cart format for the N64.

Ironically, if Nintendo hadn't decided to go with the cart format for N64, the Playstation would be a Nintendo system and it's audio hardware wouldn't suck either.

[lazygecko]

Um. How can you blame the composers when the N64 system was notorious for having stringent hardware limitations on the sound due to its lack of memory for the audio? Didn't people know about this a decade ago?

The exact same thing can be said for the SPC and its mere 64kb. If you knew a thing or two about compression techniques, switching samples loaded and such you could work around these limitations.

Hülsbeck did this on N64 hardware. Sure beats any sequenced music I've heard on the PS1, which no one ever complained about.

[I-n-j-i-n]

Except you know.. the SNES was a generation behind the N64. And apparently, the thing with the PSX sound chip was its ease of use and we've seen the end result of that time and time again. N64? Not so much. I'm not really saying that the N64 was incapable of good sound quality. That Hülsbeck sequence actually sounded very good (even if it had the trademark N64 tinny sound). But I sure didn't hear that kind of quality from hundreds of hours playing the N64.

I'm sure you can tweak the 512 KB sound memory of the PSX just the same.

And really, the sound chip of the PSX architecture was one of the few things Kutaragi did right and actually thought ahead of the curve in the early 90's.

[The Coop]

The exact same thing can be said for the SPC and its mere 64kb. If you knew a thing or two about compression techniques, switching samples loaded and such you could work around these limitations.

Hülsbeck did this on N64 hardware. Sure beats any sequenced music I've heard on the PS1, which no one ever complained about.

Did he happen to mention how many megabits that song would take up on a typical N64 cart? I say "megabits" because N64 carts were still using that old memory size terminology.

[Tael]

I say "megabits" because N64 carts were still using that old memory size terminology.

Megabits isn't old terminology, it's accurate terminology. The size of a byte differs amongst various architectures.

[Pavos]

bit = 1/8 byte

[The Coop]

Megabits isn't old terminology, it's accurate terminology. The size of a byte differs amongst various architectures.

It was in the gaming world by the time the N64 came along. Carts were first labeled in kilobytes, then in megabits by the time the Master System and NES showed up. The Genesis, SNES and Neo-Geo continued using this memory number, until CDs started becoming the norm with the PS1 and the Saturn. By the time the N64 hit, the term "megabits" when referring to video games was seen as the terminology of the past. Nintendo clung to that term, so that their games sounded huge with a "whopping 512mb of memory"... or greater.

Now, considering that 16-bit games stopped at 40mb (Super Street Fighter 2, Sonic and Knuckles, etc.), it wouldn't have looked good for a new system to say its games were 64MB. I mean, we might know the difference between mb and MB, but when marketing a new system to the general public and younger kids (where the average person probably didn't know the difference), I doubt Nintendo wanted comments like "What? That's it? My Genesis games are only a little smaller. I thought this was next generation stuff.". So, they stuck with the "old" megabits line to make their games sound massive.

"megabits" is a lot like referring to a gaming system's power in "bits" (8bit, 16bit, 32bit, etc.). By the time the Dreamcast arrived, it was an out dated terminology for the video game world. The same thing happened to "megabits" before the N64 rolled around. So while yes, the term is still viable in the computer and data worlds, in the video game world, it's "old".

[Meteo Xavier]

My biggest complaint with N64 soundtracks is that they sound like glorified MIDIs (Star Fox 64 and Zelda come to mind), I think thats more the instrument choice than anything. Super Mario 64, Turok, Castlevania and Mystical Ninja had great soundtracks, so it was possible.

[Drack]

This was just an error in translation. The original announcement that started all this read somehting more along the lines of "I don't think that will happen any time soon" .. It takes a really bad translator to get the OPPOSITE meaning.