Project Unreality

Development on Project Unreality started in late 1997, just over a year after the launch of the Nintendo 64.^[4] In its earliest days, Project Unreality had few contemporaries; at the time, emulators for current-generation consoles were often hoaxes^[5] or "shells" with extremely limited emulation capabilities.^[6]

By early 1998, Project Unreality could emulate homebrew games to some extent.^[7] The emulator's initial release saw its ability to boot commercial games, a first for any Nintendo 64 emulator.^[8]

In May 1998, lead programmer Michael Tedder announced that Project Unreality would be "put on the back burner for now", though no future updates were ever released.^[4] Slashdot later reported that one of Project Unreality's developers was hired to a game studio, leaving the emulator's development in limbo.^[9] This news coincided with Tedder's hiring to Z-Axis, where he continued to work until early 2000.^[10][11]

Though Tedder repeatedly claimed that Nintendo hadn't contacted him regarding Project Unreality,^[4][6] the rumor that Nintendo halted the emulator's development spread throughout the emulation scene; it has been suggested that UltraHLE's development was carried out in secret directly as a result of this rumor.^[12]