A 9-Year-Old's Game Console
1996. The revolutionary Nintendo 64 had just been released, but I was looking to the future. What would the next generation of consoles offer to starry-eyed children such as myself? One fateful day when I was supposed to be listening to my teacher, I put my mind to work and drafted up my best estimation of what the successor to the N64 would be like.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Red Triangle.
My prediction seemed to be that Nintendo would not switch to a CD format, instead employing some sort of cumbersome V-shaped cartridge. Clearly backwards compatibility was the main issue here, and I suppose its hulking size can be attributed to containing the inner workings of four separate consoles. The controllers appear to be based on the N64 design, with added grips and compatibility with the "Ultra Rumble Pak".
The most confounding element is that it is 89 bits, as opposed to 128. My best guess is that after being raised on the 8 and 16-bit consoles, 128 was just too high a number to seem reasonable. In order to remain down to earth and not be some ridiculous dream console, Red Triangle needed some arbitrary number of bits between 64 and 128. But if there are cartridges in more than one slot, how does the Triangle know which to play?
Oh, a giant lever. Okay.
After digging up this amazing piece of history, I decided to ask my good friend Owen Dennis to draw up what the Red Triangle might have looked like if it ever went into production. The slideshow that follows is an amazing glimpse into the heart and mind of my younger self.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Red Triangle.
My prediction seemed to be that Nintendo would not switch to a CD format, instead employing some sort of cumbersome V-shaped cartridge. Clearly backwards compatibility was the main issue here, and I suppose its hulking size can be attributed to containing the inner workings of four separate consoles. The controllers appear to be based on the N64 design, with added grips and compatibility with the "Ultra Rumble Pak".
The most confounding element is that it is 89 bits, as opposed to 128. My best guess is that after being raised on the 8 and 16-bit consoles, 128 was just too high a number to seem reasonable. In order to remain down to earth and not be some ridiculous dream console, Red Triangle needed some arbitrary number of bits between 64 and 128. But if there are cartridges in more than one slot, how does the Triangle know which to play?
Oh, a giant lever. Okay.
After digging up this amazing piece of history, I decided to ask my good friend Owen Dennis to draw up what the Red Triangle might have looked like if it ever went into production. The slideshow that follows is an amazing glimpse into the heart and mind of my younger self.