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IQue Player
Chinese home video game console From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The iQue Player (Chinese: 神游机, romanized: Shén Yóu Jī, lit. 'God Gaming Machine') is a handheld TV game version of the Nintendo 64 console manufactured by iQue and released exclusively in China. It was developed as a joint venture between Nintendo and Wei Yen following China's ban on the sale of home video game consoles. The console and controller are a single unit that plugs directly into a television, with a multiplayer accessory sold separately.[1]
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The first part of its Chinese name, Shén Yóu, is a double entendre meaning "to make a mental journey."
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History
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Development
Due to the widespread black market for video games in China—where consumers often purchased pirated cartridges or downloaded game files for use with console emulators—Nintendo sought to offer a secure and affordable official alternative.[2] The iQue Player adopted a handheld plug-and-play format to circumvent a 2000 ban by the Ministry of Culture on the sale of traditional home video game consoles.[3]
Nintendo established the iQue company in December 2002 as a joint venture with Taiwanese-American engineer Wei Yen, a veteran of prior Nintendo collaborations. Yen had served as Senior Vice President at Silicon Graphics during the early 1990s, where he played a key role in the creation of Project Reality, which later became the Nintendo 64. His company, BroadOn, developed the cryptographic security system used in the iQue Player to deter piracy.
Although early development plans considered support for NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64 titles, the final product was limited to Nintendo 64 games.
The iQue Player was officially announced at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2003, with a planned launch in mid-October in major cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, and a broader nationwide rollout scheduled for 2004.[4][5]
To gain approval from the Ministry of Culture and potentially reverse the national ban on home video game consoles, Nintendo emphasized the educational and developmental benefits of gaming in its marketing strategy. The console featured a real-time clock, enabling parents to restrict playtime to specific hours. Upon launching a game, the system displayed a message discouraging prolonged play and encouraging regular breaks.
The launch of the iQue Player was slightly delayed to November 18, 2003, with a limited selection of five launch games.[6][7][7] Sales of the iQue Player were modest, with estimates ranging between 8,000 and 12,000 units.[8]
The final localized game released for the platform was Animal Crossing in 2006.[9] On October 31, 2016, iQue announced that the iQue@Home service would be discontinued by the end of December that year.[10] Servers were gradually deactivated, and all digital distribution services ceased by 2018.
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Technical details
The iQue Player is a compact version of the Nintendo 64, using system-on-a-chip technology to run Nintendo 64 games ported specifically for the system.
- Processor: MIPS R-4300i 64-bit CPU @ 140.625 MHz
- Memory: 16 MB DDR SDRAM, 8 MB usable
- Graphics: 100,000 polygons per second, 2.09 million colors
- Sound: ADPCM 64
The iQue Player has been used in speedrunning due to its faster loading times and quicker text scrolling compared to the Nintendo 64 versions.[11]
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Games
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The iQue Player’s library comprises 14 titles, all based on Nintendo 64 games previously released in other regions. Although The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was advertised on packaging and promotional materials, it was ultimately cancelled.[12][13]
Games were localized into Chinese with translated text and, in most cases, dubbed voice acting. However, some titles, such as the Mario series and Sin and Punishment, retained their original English voice tracks. Several games also included minor bug fixes and gameplay adjustments to account for the iQue Player’s lack of peripheral support, including the Rumble Pak.
Game distribution followed a model similar to the Famicom Disk System and Nintendo Power cartridge rewriting service in Japan. Users would bring their memory cards to retail iQue Depot kiosks to download games directly. In October 2004, Nintendo introduced iQue@Home, allowing users to connect the console to a PC via USB and download games from iQue’s servers.
With either system, games were bound to a specific console, a form of digital rights management (DRM). Games were downloaded to memory cards as encrypted files and re-encrypted on first launch using a console-specific private key. This system proved highly effective at deterring piracy, even in one of the world's most piracy-prone markets.[14]
The iQue Player was bundled with a memory card containing several games. Dr. Mario 64 was fully playable, while Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Wave Race 64 were limited-time trials. The built-in real-time clock enforced trial limits based on minutes of play time. Full versions could later be purchased at kiosks or via iQue@Home without redownloading.
| † | Full game included on the bundled memory card. |
| ‡ | Game demo included on the bundled memory card. |
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