Opinions about the N64

[Dones]

And about sound: I've got WWF: No Mercy for N64, and I read that the poor sound is actually highly compressed MP3 (which it sounds like). As for MIDI, I don't know.

937577[/snapback]

That game was fun man. Played it a lot with friends. We usually turned off the music because it got repetitive after a short while. As for MIDI: someone has really confused things up about midi but the fact is many N64 titles used it. Just look at a game reviews website and you will see the word "MIDI" being mentioned quite often when referring to N64's music.

[Stingray]

Every single FPS on the N64 makes me sick after about 30 seconds. There's a lot of gold to be had though. Mario 64 is worth owning the system all by itself.

 

-S

[JB]

And about sound: I've got WWF: No Mercy for N64, and I read that the poor sound is actually highly compressed MP3 (which it sounds like). As for MIDI, I don't know.

937577[/snapback]

That game was fun man. Played it a lot with friends. We usually turned off the music because it got repetitive after a short while. As for MIDI: someone has really confused things up about midi but the fact is many N64 titles used it. Just look at a game reviews website and you will see the word "MIDI" being mentioned quite often when referring to N64's music.

938159[/snapback]

You're basing your comemnts about the hardware on what some game reviewers said? That's a good one.

 

And you CAN use MIDI music without having a MIDI synth(though I wouldn't trust a reviewer to have the slightest clue about the game's inner workings). Ever hear of a software synthesizer?

[MattG/Snyper2099]

I like games like star wars shadow of the empire, mario cart and beetle adventure racing. Beetle racing just has so much replay value in my opinion. Hydro thunder isn't a bad port either. There are a ton of good classic remakes on the N64 as well. Namco museum and space invaders come to mind. I mean with games like this how can one go wrong? Not to mention you can get most of these games for $5 give or take a few bucks!

 

Looking into the future, can you see twenty years from now when cartriges have been long forgoten, how people will say, "The N64 was the last of the dinosaurs!". I think it will be collected by many.

[hex65000]

To me the 64 is a hit or miss system. There are a good number of clankers for the platform. An awful lot of racing games. Top Gear Rally is pretty cool I have to agree. There are also a few puzzlers like Dr. Mario, Tetrisphere, Wetrix, and a couple of Tetris installments. Get tetrisphere on the price/gameplay value its the best of the bunch once you trudge through the tutorial. I never could figure out Wetrix. There are also a good number of 3d platformers on the system. I do hate the memory packs. It seems like they are always corrupted and you NEED a game that is able to manage saves on the memory card to do anything useful with them. This is my biggest complaint about the platform. The mem-cards appear very unstable and there is no BIOS memory manager. Even something fairly plain that got the job done would have been preferred.

 

I don't like 'rumble features' When you had the option to attach rumble options I tend to leave em' off. I think I have a DC rumble pack just to have one of that accessory though.

 

The system is also incredibly rugged. Lots of shielding (some of which is heat sink) and a pretty sturdy shell. I've only found one of these actually dead; I killed it when I had torn the unit apart for cleaning and put the jumper pack in backwards and powered it up. I burned something up severely because when I attach a power pack to the system it actually kills the power pack until its internal breaker/resetable fuse resets. I am a 'J'enius!

 

I haven't found any good alternatives for the stock controller, there is one by Performance that looked good for the FPS games, but I'm not sure how good the controller is overall.

 

Perhaps the glut of driving games was some kind of market force that I'm not aware of -- it could happen. I dunno. The 64 is a good machine, I hope to finish filling out my collection one of these days. ~ 30 to go and I'm done with caring WooHoo!

 

Hex.

[ It took me dang-near 3 yrs to pick up 3 of those matching 'orangey' controllers to match my system too. ]

[Dones]

I never could figure out Wetrix.

Have you tried Tetrisphere?

[shadow460]

@ hex:

How many games are there for the N64?

I'm thinking now's the time to collect for it. It's ten years old give or take, and when the 7800 was ten years old give or take, it was dirt easy to find games for. Now it's nearly impossible outside of ebay.

Now there's only like 60 or 70 unique 7800 titles, but there's usually that many N64 games for sale each time I walk into a game store.

 

Oh, a comment about durability--my two most fragile systems are the 7800 and the 64. I agree that the 64 console is rough and tough (the 7800 is not), but the Game Paks and the controllers can't take the slightest abuse.

If one treats the 64 like they should, however, yes it will last a while. I learned that the hard way.

There's two carts atop my PC: Mean 18 Golf and Majora's Mask. Given the same amount of abuse, my bet is that Mean 18 will survive and Majora's Mask will die. Any CD or DVD based game won't last through the first hit. At least Majora's Mask will still have its cart case intact.

 

Oh well. I still love the N64. The first system since the 5200 that shipped with analog controls...big N taking a risk on carts...Rareware... lotsa reasons to love it.

 

Oh, hey, what's with the system's self cleaning mechanism?

[Atariboy]

I understand you thinking the N64's joysticks aren't the most durable, but how are the carts fragile like you're saying?

[sukotsu9]

Perhaps the glut of driving games was some kind of market force that I'm not aware of -- it could happen. I dunno.

 

I never thought about it, but it could be Nintendo catering to the system's strengths. Like the Atari 7800's hardware doing better arcade game ports than side scrollers, games get written to show off the system. The N64 lacks good fighting games, and the ones that exist are poor by PS comparison. And certainly fighting games were the hit then (like RPG FPS these days).

 

Plus, if you're speeding by the scenery at 100mph to 300mph, the polygons and repeated jpegs don't look so bad!

[hex65000]

It's a pretty good number. The Digital Press website has a complete US realease listing. I'm currently hovering at about 126 titles. (most are cart only) Since I loathe sports titles I'm excluding most of those from my list. I may allow some boxing and/or golf, but the staples (Baseball, Basketball, Football, etc) are not on my list -- along with various 'boarding' games. I don't like em' and I'm horrid at playing them.

 

I've not had too much trouble with my controllers. I'm either lucky, or just ignore the somewhat loose feeling these can get. I've found examples of what you're describing.

 

@dones:

I logged an obscene amount of time on Tetrisphere for about two weeks straight I was playing about 4-5 hrs a day. I love the techno beat it has. I did have to play the tutorial in order to figure out how to play it though, and Wetrix I've got for the DC and recently found the N64 cart (gotta clean it up) Did you read my initial post completely or was this one of those brain-glitch moments?

 

Driving games:

That was one of those realizations, As I've been filling out my collection, it seems like every 2 or 3 carts I pick up is a racer in some capacity. Some are good, some really suck, and some should have been good, but aren't. I just started realizing that there were a lot of racers available -- even more I suspect than weird 3-d platformers with crummy camera control. What is it with 3d platfomers and camera control. You'd think they'd have figured this one out by now. Is it laziness?, stupidity?, ignorance?, too much crack? The world may never know.

 

Hex.

[ Wasted a month of his life writing software and muct now start all over again. It's like that guy with the hill and the boulder. ]

[shadow460]

I understand you thinking the N64's joysticks aren't the most durable, but how are the carts fragile like you're saying?

939162[/snapback]

 

In the picture below, look at the bottom corners of the circuit card. I should have stripped Perfect Dark for this, but this Zelda cart had the small phillips screws in the back (I put them there) for easy access.

 

Anyway, you see the holes there--two more screws go through these holes to hold the RF shield and the circuit board in place. Nothing supports the board in the middle. Also you can see the two holes are surrounded by conductive material.

Upon impact, the board flexes and snaps these off. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have smaller boards. They do not have that piece at the top with the second small chip. The smaller boards snap in the middle when they flex. Based on the wieght of most N64 carts, I am sure they have the half size boards like Goldeneye. Zelda's weight comes from the large RF shield, which is much smaller in Goldeneye carts.

 

Moral of the story is that if you're a violent gamer, you're gonna tear these boards up. Drop a CD on its back, it's toast, of course. Drop a N64 cart or a Cd on their labels, though, and the CD survives while the cart (and probably a DVD-ROM) dies.

 

Don't get me wrong, though. For the everyday person, or for the used game shopper, these carts are far more durable/reliable than CD's are. You can leave these things lay around, accidentally step on them, scrath the cases, etc, and they will work just fine. You can't do any of that with a CD, and you can't even think of it with a DVD.

 

Don't try opening these at home...I nearly fried a collector game 'cause I forgot which way the circuit board went! The chips face the gray back label normally.

 

Oh, I almost forgot--I've never busted a stick. the only time I've had controllers fail is when the circuit card within cracks the same way.

Edited September 29, 2005 by shadow460

[JB]

Moral of the story is that if you're a violent gamer, you're gonna tear these boards up.  Drop a CD on its back, it's toast, of course.  Drop a N64 cart or a Cd on their labels, though, and the CD survives while the cart (and probably a DVD-ROM) dies.

Actually, as paradoxical as it sounds, a scratch on the data side of the CD is better than the label side.

Almost all of the thickness of a CD is the plastic between the data layer/reflector and the laser. There is nothing but a a thin film of lacquer protecting the data from the label side. A scratch on the label side WILL kill your disk. A scratch on the data side MAY interfere with reading the disk, but in all likelyhood can be polished back out.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Perhaps the glut of driving games was some kind of market force that I'm not aware of -- it could happen. I dunno.

I never thought about it, but it could be Nintendo catering to the system's strengths.

 

Hm... you should ask PSP programmers about it. 2 out of 3 PSP games seem to be racing games. It had 8(!) racing games in the launch line-up in Europe!

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Dones]

Yes it is true N64 had a truckload of racing games! I had this wild theory companies wanted to cash in on the success of MarioKart 64 so they only made racing games. I remember thinking of the "Cruisin' Series" as average games (my opinion), but I also kept hearing how well it did on rentals. Beetle Adventure Racing is a notable standout. At least it was a better than average game around the time the beetles where in vogue.

Edited September 29, 2005 by Dones

[Cobra Commander]

I like collecting for the 64, second to the 2600. The games are plentiful and fairly priced usualy.

 

I havent tried any of the driving games but I scored a driving controller for free recently. Its the hand held type with the springy rubberized hand wheel, meaby I try it out soon.

[~llama]

N64 is the only system I've ever gotten new, in the box. My grandmother waited in line at the Funtronics counter in Sears for hours to get them for my cousin and I... I'm not young enough for it to be my first system, but the SNES I had before had come to me second hand.

 

That said, I love it. I have probably 20 games, and I play them all. Once "forgotten gem" so to speak that I've recently gotten back into is Gex: Enter the Gecko, and Namco Museum's Dig Dug never gets old

Edited September 29, 2005 by ~llama

[shadow460]

I like collecting for the 64, second to the 2600. The games are plentiful and fairly priced usualy.

 

I havent tried any of the driving games but I scored a driving controller for free recently. Its the hand held type with the springy rubberized hand wheel, meaby I try it out soon.

940127[/snapback]

 

If you got the Ultra Racer 64, then congrats on ownning the only InterAct video game product that's worth more than the gum on my shoes.

It's the best racing controller short of a wheel, IMO. I use mine for all my N64 racing games.

 

@ ~llama: I played the Saturn Gex. It's a riot all the way. I wonder how much better Enter the Gecko is?

 

Also, what's the deal with Ogre Battle? It's 20 percent more than any other N64 game--even Majora's Mask is cheaper!

[MCHufnagel]

I like collecting for the 64, second to the 2600. The games are plentiful and fairly priced usualy.

 

I havent tried any of the driving games but I scored a driving controller for free recently. Its the hand held type with the springy rubberized hand wheel, meaby I try it out soon.

940127[/snapback]

 

If you got the Ultra Racer 64, then congrats on ownning the only InterAct video game product that's worth more than the gum on my shoes.

It's the best racing controller short of a wheel, IMO. I use mine for all my N64 racing games.

 

@ ~llama: I played the Saturn Gex. It's a riot all the way. I wonder how much better Enter the Gecko is?

 

Also, what's the deal with Ogre Battle? It's 20 percent more than any other N64 game--even Majora's Mask is cheaper!

940283[/snapback]

 

That is a sad fact about both Ogre Battle and Starcraft. From my experience, they are the two most expensive non-import games available for the N64. They are both fairly rare, but I have seen them a little more often lately. The worst thing is, I bet that the game stores only pay around $5 each for them!

[+kisrael]

Some things I didn't like about the Nintendo 64:

4) Rare pandering to South Park fans by making Conker and his game just like the show and characters. (And I think pandering is the right adjective in that statement.)

Conker is just like South Park? That's a stretch at best. It's like saying South Park invented swearing and potty humor.

 

You can think pandering is the right word but I think you'd best be careful not to slip off of your high horse. If the game wasn't good and was just swearing and sex jokes, it would be a different situation. It's a game clearly made and marketed for adults who find that sort of thing funny. Don't play it if it offends your delicate sensibilities.

(sorry for coming to this thread late)

 

I recently played through the Xbox port of Conker.

 

One other big similarity between Conker and South Park: both rely heavily on the producer for the voice acting. Look at its IMDB page...Chris Seavor isn't just the directory, he's <i>every</i> damn voice. He's not half bad, but he has about half as many different voices as he needs, so you get a lot of repeats, like cavemen and teddiz, the Scarecrow and half the other big dumb creatures.

 

Plus I think they could have made it about twice as funny as they did...so often the writing and acting is like this play I wrote and got produced in middle school. They have this great theme, this squirrel just having this god awful day, and they don't do anything with it, it would be great if as the day goes on he just becomes more and more a furry ball of rage, just sick to death of everyone asking him to do stuff. Even the semi-heralded bummer ending misses the main message...it's not about not appreciating what you have 'til it's gone, it's about having to live with the consequences of your actions and mistakes.

 

That said, it was a great game, essentially a frame for a series of puzzles and minigames.

[+kisrael]

In retrospect, while the GC was a nicer looking console, with better controllers and faster and more detailed games, I think in the long run the N64 was a bette system. It kind of had an unfair advantage in terms of innovation because everything on it was "new", or at least newly 3D, but still, there were more games on that haven't been duplicated on the GC then games on the GC that don't have an almost as playable version on the N64. (Most hrartbreakingly, anything like BattleTanx. On any current-gen system.)

 

Between analog controllers, 4 controller ports, and the power to do split screen gaming...it was just a sweet spot for me, especially when I had more gamer buddies around in general.

 

I wouldn't be shocked by a return to physical cart media...really, it's only price per gig that's the blocking factor. The advantage is minimized load times, and the fact that at some point the limiting factor won't be how much the media can hold, but how much the dev team can produce! Already you see some strong benefits with cart media for handhelds...PSP is known for 'now loading' and poorer battery life, and the DS is known for it's "suspend any game" feature...all of which has some roots in the media they play.

 

Anyway, I'd say dollar for dolloar, N64 stands as my best game investment ever.

[Dones]

You know I used play this PS2 tank game at a friend's house (don't know the game's name). It was allright, but I couldn't help thinking how it paled in comparison to the Battletank series. Perhaps the nostalgia factor is blurring my judgement, but there was something missing in that game that the Battletank series had just right. I don't know how successful Battletank was, but I wondered why the franchise didn't show up this generation. Battletank just seem like a perfect fit for online games.

[+kisrael]

You know I used play this PS2 tank game at a friend's house (don't know the game's name). It was allright, but I couldn't help thinking how it paled in comparison to the Battletank series. Perhaps the nostalgia factor is blurring my judgement, but there was something missing in that game that the Battletank series had just right. I don't know how successful Battletank was, but I wondered why the franchise didn't show up this generation. Battletank just seem like a perfect fit for online games.

Hmm, the two I know are:

WDL ThunderTanks, by the same people who did BattleTanx...but they stripped away the story and added some stupid "spectator sport" framework. Technically this is why I bought a PS2, and if it wasn't for having bought GTA:VC at the same time I would have strongly regretted the decision, having already had a GameCube. To be fair I only tried this once or twice with friends, and something just didn't click; the action was somehow confusing and badly paced, and I couldn't get people to give it another go.

 

(3D0, the company in question, has since gone away...still it was a very decent franchise, with a story mode I'll still tear my way through when the mood strikes)

 

There was another game, bargain-price, "seek + destroy" (actually I wrote up a FAQ for it...a little cartoony though...a lite RPG in fact, with characters who were the tanks themselves. I could forgive that if they had offered a multitap multiplayer game...

 

Other than that...very little in terms of fun tankplay. I've heard there's supposed to be an Xbox homebrew based on "Tokyo Wars", which was a cool arcade game, but it doesn't seem to be destined for greatness.

 

I dunno, I guess people don't think they're as cool as FPS or something, especially since the FPSes are adding in vehicle combat. Still, it's a genre that deserves not to end on the damn N64.

[Dones]

Yes Battletank series deserves a sequel.

[J.Max]

I love my Nintendo 64 and have a strong sentimental attachment to it. My then-girlfriend (and now wife) loaned me the money to buy mine and I still have the one I purchased on launch day. (And the same copy of Mario 64 too.) It has a ton of great games and some real hidden gems:

 

Space Station Silicon Valley (doesn't work with the expansion pack, though)

Beetle Adventure Racing

SF Rush

Blast Corps

Rocket:Robot on Wheels

Body Harvest

Top Gear Overdrive

Aero Guage

 

And almost all of the Nintendo made games are good, and Sin and Punishment is one of my favorite games ever. It has a much better good to crap ratio than the PSOne, even if the library is smaller.

[+kisrael]

Space Station Silicon Valley (doesn't work with the expansion pack, though)

Beetle Adventure Racing

SF Rush

Blast Corps

Rocket:Robot on Wheels

Body Harvest

Top Gear Overdrive

Aero Guage

You know, it's weird...it seems like my SSSV is working even with the expansion pack. I'd better double check and make sure things are set the way I think they are, because I also have strong memories of it freezing w/ the expansion pack.

 

What was the expansion pack anyway? More memory?

 

Never got deeply into Body Harvest. R:RoW was fun though, nice use of a physics engine.