Who misses the N64?

[Secret_Window]

N64 was probably the best console I ever owned. I owned a SNES before it, and also enjoyed the Megadrive, but I just have so many great memories from the N64.

I remember seeing Super Mario 64 in the shops for the first time and being amazed by the graphics, and renting games like Wave Race, Star Fox 64 because I couldn;t afford any of the games at the time. Greatest memories were playing through Zelda Ocarina of time, Star Wars Shadows of the empire, Goldeneye, Fifa 99 and Quake II 64 with friends.

 

[WolfR1der]

The thing that stuck me recently when I dusted mine off is how deathly silent it is. No moving parts, no noise.

For an Xbox owner, that's pretty eye-opening .

 

[[J.D.C]]

Goldeneye. One does miss.

 

[HNR1]

Still got our N64 and is in mint condition and a huge slection of games, i taught my children to respect their games and console's Still played today.

I'm just about to go looking for a sega megadrive as we never had one.

 

[Mr Men]

I still have mine but can't find the rf cable still I think if I did find it and play it then it might ruin the memory of such a great console

 

[orderoftheflame]

I still have mine but can't find the rf cable still I think if I did find it and play it then it might ruin the memory of such a great console

You can get an AV cable for a few quid off the bay.

 

[Murray]

used to love playing Mario 64 and Zelda

 

[~>Dg<~]

i have two n62s and two snes

 

[malachi]

I still have mine but can't find the rf cable still I think if I did find it and play it then it might ruin the memory of such a great console

Or get a Gamecube Scart cable works on the N64 and SNES Shame I can’t play games like Zelda MM on my 47" LCD as some levels look too dark.

Got all the classic like Mario, Zelda, Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, etc. Remember paying £60 for Donkey Kong 64 and that was the cheapest at the time because it came with the expansion pack.

 

[Beast06]

Best console ever made.

Conkers Bad Fur Day, Goldeneye and Super Smash Bro's - Unbelievable!

 

[thedoc46]

Been ages since I last considered myself a 'gamer' but was recently thinking about how much I enjoyed the N64 when I was around 11-15.
Perhaps partly nostalgia and growing up but I honestly feel it was a fantastic console with absolute gems of games.

I briefly owned a 360 but enjoyed it nowhere near the amount of the N64.
Thanks Nintendo for making such a great system!

Sorry to be a party pooper, but i never felt the N64. Loved the SNES, but the N64 failed for me. Perhaps something to do with the PS1

 

[BunnyKillBot]

My partner and I have an N64, and its the console we break out at gatherings. Anybody can pick up a controller and have a blast.

Diddy Kong Racing is by far and away the best game on the N64 and superior to Mario Kart in every single way.

 

[phatboy]

still got my n64 and about 30 odd boxed games .....just cant let it go.

went to the local tip just before xmas and in the little staff shack thing they had 2 mint pads with perfect analogue sticks (anyone who knows N64 pads will know this is sacred and rare as you like!), grey and green both with official memory cards in them.....got them for a pound each

 

[Volcanic_Hammer]

Can always buy a new one. Me and my friends enjoy many nights of Mario Kart, Pokemon Stadium (Suprisingly fun) and ISS. Classic games never lose their appeal.

 

[lokiss]

It's one of those ones thats definately in the realm of the first love, aside from a few killer games though.. past and present, just about everybody knows that the n64 was limited in what it could do compared to what was around at the time.

Nice looking extremly playable games coming out of rare, but for a lot of it's other titles, they were gimped compared to the ps1/pc counterparts.

I did buy one though, as said, a few good/great games... iss64, starfox64, mario, blastcorps, golden eye. All good stuff, but when they were done, it wasn't hard to shift back to the huge ps collection, a hell of a lot more variety.

 

[mame]

I had one of these but I have different memories of the N64. When the PS1 and Saturn were released, they were a huge leap from the previous gen. They made the SNES and megadrive look like kids' toys. We now had 32-bit consoles. Then the N64 was released and a lot of people I knew bought one. It didn't seem long before people were going back to the Playstation. I know there were some good games for the N64 but there were loads of not so good. The lack of CD showed up in many titles. I remember playing some driving/rally game on both PS1 and n64. The ps1 version was far superior to the point that it was almost a different game. The N64 version had hardly any scenery in comparison.

I'm not saying it was a bad console but I find it strange when people say it's a classic, I don't remember it being that big at the time.

I remember than being on watchdog because they dropped the price from £250 to £150 to £99 in a few months.

 

[Warbie]

Diddy Kong Racing is by far and away the best game on the N64 and superior to Mario Kart in every single way.

Oh yes! Diddy Long Racing was indeed better than Mario Kart 64. Top game.

Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, Banjo Tooie, Banjo kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Blast Corps, Diddy Kong Racing, Killer Instinct Gold, Mickey's Speedway (did anyone else play this?). How great were Rare back then? I don't think any developer has released as much quality for a single console.

Shame they pale in comparison now :/

//edit

I remember playing some driving/rally game on both PS1 and n64

Comparing the ports of some random driving game you can't remember the name of (it must have been good ) doesn't say much. I had a PS1 and an N64 (and a Saturn) and when it came to great replayable games with top gameplay the N64 was leagues ahead. Infact, it's arguable that the Rare games listed above offer more quality than the PS1 lineup all on their own.

 

[Geffen]

It's debatable whether these were mistakes. Financially, probably. Games wise, certainly not. Visually PS titles tended to look grainy and pixelated, and the CD loading times were horrible. Imagine OoT or Mario 64 using the CD tech available then *shudders* Infact the best games I remember from that generation would have been worse for it. Not sure where you were going with the three hands remark btw - as a single analogue pad it was supurb and didn't compromise digital or analogue placement (something which can't be said of current pads). In the end it all comes down to gameplay, and here the N64 was king. Controlling a 3D Mario for the first time - tiptoeing, running, climbing trees and long jumping, there'd never been anything like it and it was great

Overall i think the PS1 had better graphics which is worrying when it was launch a year before the N64. Partly the problem seems to be the lack of storage space on the carts plus problems with the SGI graphics chip. Nintendo got round this by sticking to low texture with colourful cartoon graphics which worked well for Mario games but did limit it for more realistic games.

I'll give you the point about the loading speed advantage of Carts over CD but the lack of storage was a problem resulting in content being cut.

With regards to the controller i could never hold it and reach all the buttons. Give it a go.

Another quibble with it would be the lack of RGB scart which limited the picture quality. Which is a shame as the RGB scart in the SNES gives and excellent image.

I would like to add that i loved the games on the N64 but just think they could have been even better with better hardware.

 

[Warbie]

Beware my wall of text!

Overall i think the PS1 had better graphics which is worrying when it was launch a year before the N64.

Fair enough, this is all subjective after all. I thought N64 games looked better. The textures were lower in resolution, but they didn't have the weird grainy look PS games tended to have. Another thing that bugged me with the PS was how the 3D worlds never felt solid - everything looked like it had been built out of paper and was hollow inside. This coupled with the late arrival of the dual shock and analogue never becoming a standard gave PS games a 2.5D feel, especially when compared to the weighty, chunky and more convincing game worlds on the N64. 3D games just played and felt a whole better.

Nintendo got round this by sticking to low texture with colourful cartoon graphics which worked well for Mario games but did limit it for more realistic games.

Fair point. Gran Turismo couldn't have worked on the N64 (although i'd argue Mario 64 would have stood less chance on the PS). I think this more than anything is what divided opinions - some gamers wanted more 'serious' realisitic gaming experiences, where as others wanted video games that celebrated being video games.

With regards to the controller i could never hold it and reach all the buttons. Give it a go.

It wasn't designed to give access wto all buttons at one go Did you ever feel that the the 8 or 9 buttons you had access to (depending on how you were holding it) weren't enough?

Another quibble with it would be the lack of RGB scart which limited the picture quality. Which is a shame as the RGB scart in the SNES gives and excellent image.

Yeah, that wasn't great.

I would like to add that i loved the games on the N64 but just think they could have been even better with better hardware.

There would have been trade-offs and I think the best N64 games would have suffered more and played worse on CD. Can you imagine playing OoT with continuous noisy load times in a grainy 'flat' uncanny valley tastic world?

 

[finite]

Games like 1080 and Wave Race 64 didn't suffer too much because of the hardware the waves are still as impressive as they ever were. What it couldn't do was large amounts of audio, video and CGI video cut scenes which has little overall bearing on gameplay.