Nintendo Space World
formerly named and was an annual video game trade show hosted by Nintendo from 1989 to 2001. Its three days of high-energy party atmosphere was the primary venue for Nintendo and its licensees to announce and demonstrate new consoles, accessories, and games. Anticipated and dissected each year with hype and exclusivity, it was a destination for the international video game press, with detailed developer interviews and technology demos.
The show was the launch or marketing flashpoints of countless products, especially Nintendo's flagship platforms and video games. The show launched the Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, 64DD, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and all the ongoing games in the Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon franchises. Some major exhibits were teased and then never seen again, leaving fans and press to maintain hype and inquiry for years, as with the Super Mario 128 demo spectacle, the controversial art style of the Wind Waker teaser video, Mother 3, and a litany of lost 64DD games.
Format
The three day format began with one day called Shoshinkai exclusively for press attendance, and two days called Space World for open public attendance. Nintendo officially referred to the whole event as "Shoshinkai" for some years until 1996, and then as "Space World" since 1997. The show floor had many third party booths surrounding Nintendo's large main booths, all with videos and many playable prerelease games, and some with outlandish decor and character performances. Unlike most other video game trade events, only Nintendo decided whether and when to hold each annual show. It was in Japan, either in Kyoto which also hosts Nintendo's headquarters, or at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba. After the most recent Space World show in 2001, the company instead began to favor online publishing and industry-wide conferences such as E3.Nintendo Power explains: "Q: What is Famicom Space World? A: Space World is a free show for the public that follows the one-day Shoshinkai. Gamers who wish to attend need only pick up an entry pass at any official Nintendo retail location in Japan."
History
Shoshinkai 1989
The first Shoshinkai show was held on July 28, 1989. The Super Famicom was announced and Super Mario World was reportedly shown.Shoshinkai 1990
The second Shoshinkai show was held on August 28–29, 1990. The final version of the Super Famicom was unveiled to the public. Famicom, Super Famicom, and Game Boy games were on display in areas that Nintendo called "Symbolic Zones".Shoshinkai 1991
The third Shoshinkai show was held on April 24 to May 6, 1991. The Super Famicom had been on the market for a few months and much attention was given to its games including Final Fantasy IV and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.Shoshinkai 1992
The fourth Shoshinkai show was held on August 26, 1992. The Super FX chip was announced.Shoshinkai 1993
The fifth Shoshinkai show was held on August 25, 1993. On August 25, President of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, announced Project Reality, a major strategic partnership with Silicon Graphics for the development of what would become the Nintendo 64.Shoshinkai 1994
The sixth Shoshinkai show was held on November 15–16, 1994. Project Reality had already been renamed Ultra 64.Hiroshi Yamauchi introduced the portable Virtual Boy console, along with its hardware specifications, launch games, and future games. The startup screen of the prototype was shown. A "very confident" projection of "sales in Japan of 3 million hardware units and 14 million software units by March 1996" was given to the press. The demo of what would have been a Star Fox game showed an Arwing doing various spins and motions.
Gamers who previewed the system complained that the Mario demo was not realistic enough, was not in full color, and did not motion-track the image when players turn their heads. In the lead editorial of Electronic Gaming Monthly following the show, Ed Semrad predicted that the Virtual Boy would have poor launch sales due to the monochrome screen, lack of true portability, unimpressive lineup of games seen at Shoshinkai, and the price, which he argued was as low as it could get given the hardware but still too expensive for the experience the system offered. Next Generations editors were also dubious of the Virtual Boy's prospects when they left the show, and concluded their article on the system by commenting, "But who will buy it? It's not portable, it's awkward to use, it's 100% antisocial, it's too expensive and – most importantly – the 'VR' doesn't add to the game at all: it's just a novelty."
Shoshinkai 1995
The seventh Shoshinkai show was held on November 22–24, 1995, at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, Japan. Popular Mechanics described the scene where "hordes of Japanese schoolkids huddled in the cold outside an exhibition hall in a small town near Tokyo, the electricity of anticipation clearly rippling through their ranks". Nintendo Power interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka about the development of Super Mario 64, Zelda, and game philosophy.The show featured the public unveiling of the newly renamed Nintendo 64 console, with thirteen games. This included the playable prototypes of Super Mario 64 and Kirby Ball 64, and a videotape containing a total of three minutes of very early footage of eleven other Nintendo 64 games. Of all these, the development of Super Mario 64 was reportedly the most advanced, though only 50 percent complete. Twelve playable demos had been prepared for the show, but Hiroshi Yamauchi removed ten of them from the itinerary just days beforehand. Zelda 64 was shown in the form of an abstract technical and thematic demonstration video, where Next Generation magazine said "Well, the fact is that the videotape sequences shown at Shoshinkai bear very little resemblance to what the final product will actually look like. Spectacular scenes of a surprisingly large Link clad in polished armor are most likely to end up in cut-scenes rather than representing the actual play." Some brief early footage of Mario Kart 64 was shown on November 24, which Miyamoto said was 95% complete, but which was not shown in playable form due to the difficult logistics of demonstrating the multiplayer features. Computer and Video Games reported overall.
Nintendo made its first announcement of the 64DD peripheral, saying it would be launched by the end of 1996, though releasing virtually no technical specifications. New and upcoming role-playing games for the Super Famicom, Virtual Boy, and Game Boy were exhibited, including Pokémon Red and Green.
Shoshinkai 1996
The eighth Shoshinkai show was held on November 22–24, 1996 at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, Japan. New software was shown for the Nintendo 64, Super NES, and Game Boy. Nintendo of America's website published a report of the show including photos and videos, the roster of Nintendo 64 games and some demo reviews, and a translated summary of a panel discussion among key personnel about their philosophy of Nintendo 64 game development.This show bore the first demonstration of the 64DD. IGN reported that this was one of the biggest items of the show along with first-party games, but other gaming press said 64DD was kept out of the spotlight and had no meaningful demonstration of capabilities. Nintendo stated that it was deliberately downplaying the 64DD at the show in order to demonstrate the ongoing commitment to the cartridge format. Nintendo's Director of Corporate Communications, Perrin Kaplan, made the company's first official launch window announcement for 64DD, scheduled for late 1997 in Japan. The 64DD system was shown in its own display booth with the hardware specifications having been finalized, according to Nintendo of America's Chairman Howard Lincoln. Super Mario 64 ran on 64DD, which was an improvised conversion from the new retail cartridge release onto floppy disk to demonstrate the bootable prototype floppy drive, only at this show. Lincoln explained, "Super Mario 64 is running on the 64DD right now. First they weren't going to show anything on 64DD, but they decided at the last minute to have a game people recognize." The booth also demonstrated the process of rendering audience members' photographed faces onto 3D avatars and shapes—a feature which was ultimately incorporated and released in 2000 as Mario Artist: Talent Studio and the Capture Cassette for 64DD. Another 64DD game in development was Creator, a music and animation game by Software Creations, the same UK company that had made Sound Tool for the Nintendo Ultra 64 development kit. They touted the game's ability to be integrated into other games, allowing a player to replace any such game's textures and possibly create new levels and characters. There was no playable version of Creator available at this show, but the project was later absorbed into Mario Artist: Paint Studio.
Reportedly several developers attended the show to learn how to develop for 64DD, some having traveled from the US for the 64DD presentation and some having received 64DD development kits. Included in the early roster of committed 64DD developers, Rare officially discounted any rumors of the peripheral's impending pre-release cancellation.
N64.com described the presentation of Zelda 64 as "very quick shots on videotape". Yoshi's Island 64 debuted in a short video, and was eventually released as Yoshi's Story. "The biggest surprise" of the show according to IGN and "most impressive " according to Electronic Gaming Monthly was the Jolting Pak, which was eventually launched as the Rumble Pak in a bundle with the upcoming Star Fox 64. Next Generation derisively claimed it "was seen as merely another whimsical Nintendo fancy destined to the bin marked Good Idea at the Time".
Miyamoto was interviewed, including about 64DD and Jolting Pak.
The highly anticipated EarthBound 64 debuted as a video trailer segment within the overall video loop of gameplay footage. Copies of this footage were hunted and analyzed for decades as part of EarthBound fandom lore. A teaser for Project Dream, which would eventually evolve into Banjo-Kazooie, was produced for the show.