Masayuki Uemura

"We adopted a strict approval system, controlled the number of games released, and kept a firm grip on game quality. We had to ensure that every cartridge players bought and took home would bring them joy the moment they inserted it into the machine."

The image on the curtain changed.

It became the gray-purple SNES.

"When we reached the 16-bit era, competition became fierce. Some used faster processors, some used brighter colors." Masayuki Uemura did not name Sega, but everyone present knew who he was talking about. "We added L and R shoulder buttons to the SNES. At the time, many people didn't understand. They complained there were too many buttons on the controller, that players wouldn't be able to keep up. And the result? Many games proved the value of those two buttons."

"Now, we stand at the threshold of the 3D era."

Masayuki Uemura's tone grew heavier.

The image on the curtain shifted again.

A black N64 console appeared, paired with that oddly shaped controller.

"Over the past year, the industry has been filled with all kinds of fresh terms. CD-ROMs, massive storage, full-motion video, polygon counts, floating-point computing power." Masayuki Uemura listed these specifications in an even tone. "Some say that whoever commands the strongest hardware will command the future."

That was putting it very bluntly.

When Sony promoted the PlayStation, it loved bringing up polygon generation capability.

Although Sega's Jupiter did not overemphasize hardware power, every one of its main released games was showing off its hardware and technical prowess.

"Hardware power is very important. The N64 uses a 64-bit processor, and its SGI-customized graphics chip provides hardware-level Z-buffering and anti-aliasing. We solved the most headache-inducing problem in 3D games: texture warping. Polygons no longer fly around like scraps of paper." Masayuki Uemura paused for a