Happy 10th Birthday, Nintendo 64....

[nintendan]

Yes people... September 29th is finally here. It was 10 years ago today that the Nintendo 64 was released. (Yes, I know some retailers broke the street date and sold it on Sept. 26th). But Sept. 29th is the official release date.

 

I remember travelling nearly 3 hours away to the Kamloops, BC Wal-Mart (we left at 4am, and arrived at 7am). To my surprise, there was about 3-4 people already there (one was a girl) lined up. So I was 5th in line. It was fun killing off 2 hours talking to other gamers.

 

SINCE my cousin worked there (she was waiting outside with us), she donned her blue vest and got in the main entrance at 8:55, 5 minutes before store opening. Her main goal was to SECURE a system for me. So when the doors opened up, everyone AHEAD of me and everyone BEHIND me ran to the electronics. My girlfreind and I just walked casually, knowing we had one secured (and sure enough, we did). As soon as we got to the Electronics Dept, we were handed a brand new Nintendo 64 system by my cousin. I also picked up Super Mario 64 AND Pilotwings 64.

 

Since she only lived 20 mins away, we took it to her house, and I let my girlfreind have the first-ever turn (she played Super Mario 64). She died on the First Level of mario 64 where the chain chomp is. Then it was my turn, and if I recall, I made it all the way up that mountain to where that boss bob-omb was.

 

After a good 30 mins of taking turns and playing, we packed it back up, and took the 3-hour car ride back home. When we got back, my brother has invited 3 little kids over to see the new system, and since i already had my turn, I had to hook it up and let the 3 kids PLUS my brother play before I had another turn.

 

When I later opened up Pilotwings 64 that night, that hooked my dad. My dad really wasnt a video gamer at all, and I was shocked that he loved playing it. It was a good time for a father and son bond, and we did that.

 

My father is no longer with us (he died in November 2000), but I still remember us bonding that one night, 10 Years ago tonight.

 

Is anyone else gonna hook up their Nintendo 64 today, and give it some "Birthday Love"??

 

Dan

[Ghost Soldier]

ahh yes I remember this day as well 10 years ago. I had reserverd mine from Babbages (electronic store)in the mall. My parents picked it up for me and brought it home along with Pilotwings and Mario 64. I remember being really excited about opening it then disappointed when I realized I had to by a modulator to hook it up. So I packed up a couple snes games and called trevor to drive me down to the mall. A small trade and I had the mod to play it. (was broke in the day) I'll never forget turning mario 64 on and playing it well into the morning hours. Pilotwings was practically ignored until I tired of mario. Then it was new all over again when I played PW.

I will be taking out my n64 tonight for some gaming goodness. My son loves cruisin world and mario 64 sounds really good right now. Maybe I'll pick up a couple pizza's and call it a night. Hard to believe its been 10 years ago. Time sure does fly the older you get. I was a junior in high school when it released. Now 10 years later I've been married for 5 years and have 2 kids.

[Video]

I remember this day well, this is when the 64 come out. I didn't get one, to poor, but one of my friends did, and they gave me their Atari Jaguar. So I played Doom all day that day instead of Nintendo.

 

Was Mario 64 and Pilot wings packed in? I don't remember pack ins for it, but it seems everybody that had one, had Mario and Pilot wings.

 

Soon after, my friend also got Wave Race, or something like that, the first water raceing game I remember that had physics to keep you from turning and accelerating when your out of contact with the ground.

 

Mario 64, and my 64 will meet again tonight for a few hours, though the controller I have is broken, it should still be fun.

[Breakpack]

Happy Birthday N64.Congratulation,oh mighty system.We shall always remember ye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shadow460]

Take it out and hook it up!? My friends, it is just a given that the Nintendo 64 is always ready to play at a moment's notice!

 

I got mine in the summer of 1997 just after the price dropped to $150. It's ready to play right now, so I might hook it up and jam with Mario Tennis for a bit. I've been playing the Color Gameboy version of that so much that it should be illegal, so maybe it's time to see how much stronger Alex is now.

Or perhaps it's time to bust out Aidyn Chronicles for the first time--who knows? KI Gold is sitting out, too, so maybe I'll play it some.

[ninjarabbit]

Happy Birthday to perhaps one of the most underrated systems of all time.

[super_dos_man]

ahhhhhh...... so many mario party all nighters

[jpfalcon2003]

Cannot believe it's been 10 years already. Time really passes by. I just picked up a few 64 games last month.

[Cheese007]

Happy B-day! The N64 just so happens to be the first console I ever purchased. It came with Pokemon stadium and an extra controller. Bought it in 2000 right after I moved to North Carolina for $100.

Edited September 30, 2006 by Cheese007

[+remowilliams]

Cannot believe it's been 10 years already. Time really passes by. I just picked up a few 64 games last month.

Wow, you got that right. 10 years, damn. Must be getting old - I know it was released a bit after launch, but it doesn't seem that long ago that I first experienced the glory of GoldenEye

Edited September 30, 2006 by remowilliams

[snorlaxnut]

I remembered it was N64's 10th b-day. Just played Zelda: Ocarina Of Time and the first Turok game for a little bit.

[shadow460]

I repaired my Super Smash Bros. cart and played that game for the first time. It's very fun and it's quite funny.

[moycon]

Wow 10 years!? I lucked out on the N64. Stopped by Toys R Us on the launch day, I remember they were very close to closing and they had 2 units left and a dude had just bought one of them. The sales person was getting it for him, as soon as they returned I asked for the other and a copy of Mario 64. After that they became impossible to find in our area. The woman I was working for wanted one for her daughter, every day at lunch I was going over to the mall one exit down looking for it. Never did find another. I offered her mine but she declined.

 

I always thought the controller was kinda weird, but it grew on you. Mario 64 was AMAZING to me. There were so many great games on that system. Once BlockBuster sold off their N64 stock my collection easily tripled or more. I haven't even plugged many of the games in. So many games, so little time.

 

HAPPY B-DAY Nintendo 64

[Vic George 2K3]

I got my first N64 -- the original dark grey one -- around early 1997, putting it on layaway along with a Super Mario 64 cartridge at a local K-Mart that used to be in my hometown. It originally would have cost me a total of about $280, but then when the price drop to $150 happened (around the time I put it on layaway), the store allowed me to take advantage of that price drop, so I ended up paying about $230 for the whole thing when I finished paying up for it. It was fun playing Super Mario 64 for the first time at my own residence rather than just playing it at a kiosk. Because of the prices of the cartridges in 1997, I had to put most of my purchases on layaway, which included Doom, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye, Tetrisphere, and Starfox 64. 1998 was a bit easier on the wallet, though, so I ended up with very few layaway cartridges.

 

I sold off my first N64 to a friend of mine when I purchased the clear blue N64 -- one of the Play It Loud colors -- in 2000, though I had to purchase another Expansion Pak when I sold it. Eventually I had to sell off that N64 when I bought my Playstation 2.

 

Overall, during my time of owning an N64, I'd have to say that its software was mostly a mix of hit-and-miss, with very few games that would make it worth being a keeper. I was somewhat disappointed when Nintendo decided NOT to bring forth the Dynamic Drive to America, let alone Mario Artist in even a cartridge format. And I was disappointed when nothing came forth of Infogrames even mentioning that they would do a Smurfs 64 game, though not to the same extent of being teased by Nintendo Power's multi-page spread featuring the SNES Smurfs game in 1996, a game that was actually finished but only was released in Europe.

[Technosis]

<snip> Overall, during my time of owning an N64, I'd have to say that its software was mostly a mix of hit-and-miss, with very few games that would make it worth being a keeper. I was somewhat disappointed when Nintendo decided NOT to bring forth the Dynamic Drive to America, let alone Mario Artist in even a cartridge format. <snip>

 

I can't help but think that the N64 had the potential to be a much better system than what we got. Yes, there were some excellent games on it, but there were an incredible amount of terrible titles that watered down the software line-up. Don't forget the fact that the games were VERY expensive, and the system was up against Sony's Playstation juggernaut. I think in retrospect Nintendo going with the cartridge format was a bad idea (even though its great for cartridge collectors). The cartridge format kept the game prices high, and you couldn't participate in playing all the cool "demo" discs that were released for systems like the Playstation. Also many N64 games were targetted to a younger audience then say the Playstation, when the consumer trend was towards more "mature" themed games.

 

Overall I like the N64, it has some absolute classics, we just needed more of them.

[carpecarne]

I bought mine used in the spring of 98. I had to get one after playing an N64 at a friend's house, and reading that a Zelda game would be released for it. I forget how much I paid for it (200 francs maybe?) but I got a controller and Super mario 64.

 

I remember the salesperson giving me a hell of a time for wanting the N64. He kept saying, "why don't you get a playstation? I mean look, the N64 has these games" and he points to a really small selection "but look at all THESE games!" and then he pointed to an opposite wall with a behemouth of PS1 games. I wanted to say, "If I wanted a million racing games and a million Fighting games I'd buy one. But I want effing Zelda and mario!" but I didn't.

 

The funny part was, they didn't have the box, so they gave me the hardware and some wires and when I got home ready to plug it in...I found out they had given me a Playstation AV cable. Bastard. Had to walk all the way back into town to replace the cable.

 

Great times with that machine. Goldeneye and Turok 2 multiplayer was the source of many an after party frag marathons.

[super_dos_man]

I originally got mine in 97. I went to a local toys r us and waited in line for 3 hours to get one. once I got it and a copy of mario 64 I was set for the next 5 years .

 

long live the n64 you will forever be in my heart.

 

sadly my n64 was stolen in the year 2003 with mario 64 and starfox 64. I miss it

[shadow460]

Man you guys talk about waiting in line on 1997! My N64 was on top of a stack of about fifteen of 'em, just waiting to be bought up. *pats odd shaped gray console*

That console is still in my house with about 60 or 70 games now.

[ozatariprincess]

I remember the day I got mine, I had scabbed up ALL the money I had (I was 15), and caught the bus down to Liverpool Dick Smith shop, I got there not long after it had opened, walked in got the console and Mario 64 to go with it. I took it home and attempted to hook it up when I realised I needed some little connecter thing because my tv was an old shit heap. My mother got me the connecter thing that night on her way home from work, then it was all good and spent hours and hours playing Mario.

I was so obsessed by that game.

 

Later on I got Mario Kart 64 and a few other games for it.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Was Mario 64 and Pilot wings packed in? I don't remember pack ins for it, but it seems everybody that had one, had Mario and Pilot wings.

I don't think so. I remember not having it for a while after getting a 64. Of course one of the nice things for me was that to mod a 64 for imports, you just had to open it up with a gamebit and remove the cartridge slot shell. Which unfortunately was the support for the dust cover, but that's not much of a problem.

 

And I still have a new-in-box N64 that came with an extra Atomic Purple controller as a pack-in. I had gotten it as a present for the nephews, and after they told me they already had an N64, I never bothered to take it back for a refund. The same box recently sold BIN on ebay for $65, so it's still not worth the $99 I paid for it.

 

It's still a good system, even if it felt to me like the 5200 of its era, game-wise. (That's still better than being the Saturn of your era like the PS3 is becoming!)

[Numan]

I had just started playing the N64 again, unaware of the anniversary. I finally played the Hunk and Tofu scenarios.

 

It is certainly a worthwhile system, and I prefer the cartridge over the CD any time.

[shadow460]

Off the subject a bit, but you know it's odd when I'm from Oklahoma (middle of the USA) and I, too have been to a Dick Smith store.

It was in Hobart, Tasmania.

[nester]

Hmm, I don't really remember when we got our system. I think it was in late 96 or early 97. My dad's the one who really wanted it, and it's still his favorate video game system. I was kinda skeptical of it at first, so I didn't really look forward to it. We rented one from our local video game store though, and Mario 64 truly blew my mind. It had the same impact that Super Mario World had on me a few years earlier. Anyway, our N64 stil sits hooked up at my parents house, and I still play it when I go home to visit on the weekends. We had some good times.