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A TRIBUTE TO THE NINTENDO 64 - by Mr Biffo

8/2/2017

42 Comments

 
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The Nintendo 64 was released in the UK in March 1997, meaning there will be a span of almost exactly 20 years separating its launch from that of the Nintendo Switch. It was a bit of a wobble for me, as far as Nintendo went. The SNES - and to a slightly lesser extent the Game Boy - was so defining that any successor was always going to have a hard time topping it.

Making this task all the more difficult, the N64 didn't have the most auspicious of beginnings.

Nintendo shot itself in the stilts by giving its Super NES successor the codename "Project Rectum" ("Project Reality"), implying that we were going to witness graphics which would be almost indistinguishable from real life things, such as trees, flautists and Bangor.

We were led to believe that gamers would be so startled by the fidelity of the visuals, that they would flee their consoles in terror, screaming that Bowser was coming to defile them with a gnarly clam on the end of a broth-soaked branch.

It was a misconception that Nintendo was very happy to let run out of control. Their tie-up with Silicon Graphics fooled us all into thinking that the company had somehow found a way to cram supercomputer levels of power into a home gaming system costing a couple hundred quid.

Yes - that really is how stupid we all were back then! Without the Internet of Facts, the simple people of 1997 were fumbling around in the dark. We didn't know anything; we didn't even know what opinions to have. 
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KILLER APPS
However, we did know that Nintendo was telling us that its follow-up to the Super NES would be the world's first true 64-bit gaming system (unlike Atari's hilarious, allegedly 64-bit, Jaguar - a machine that Atari later tried to play down as "just a joke; it wasn't ever meant to be taken seriously!").

Admittedly, nobody really knew what "64-bits" meant, but it sounded good. ​The SNES had just 16 of the bits; the Nintendo 64 must be at least four times better!

Sadly, Nintendo's jamboree of misinformation got worse, when two future "Ultra 64" games - Midway's Cruisin' USA and Rare's Killer Instinct - were released in arcades. 

The impressive graphics (now hideously dated, mind) promised much - but had in fact been developed for completely different hardware to that which would form the warm, clear, jelly-like innards of the Nintendo 64.

Suffice to say, the home versions of the two games sported noticeably scaled-back visuals, and weren't even the launch titles we were all told they were going to be (the developers needing more time working out how to live up to Nintendo's absurd promises).

​When they did eventually arrive, it probably didn't help that Cruisin' USA was a tepid cottaging simulation (driving game), while Killer Instinct was a game in which the player had to guess how many bratwurst were under a tarp (a solid, but wholly unloveable, beat 'em up).

Alas, all of this suggested that Nintendo were the worst sort of liars: really big ones. After rarely putting a foot wrong during the Super NES era, suddenly Nintendo was acting all silly and that. It hadn't quite gone from being the head of the local council to the village idiot, but it certainly had one eye on that dry-stone wall...

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UNSOLID
The Nintendo 64 hardware never felt to me as solid as the Super NES. It had a touch of that Mega Drive hollowness to it.

Also, the design of the base console was - putting it politely - idiosyncratic. It had two round pads at the front, and a curious bulge which suggested something had laid its eggs inside, and that hatching was imminent.

It also didn't help that I never really got along with the joypad.

​Yes, I know that the general consensus is that the joypad was sort of revolutionary (though funny that - to date - it's the only console ever to have used a stupid trident design), but the analogue stick always felt far too loose for me. Also, let's not pretend that the system's resolution, frame rate, and textures weren't frequently below par, giving most games a distinct, cataract-o-vision, effect.

Fortunately, the games were better. The launch line-up was almost as barren as the one we're getting for the Switch. The USA only got Pilotwings 64 and Super Mario 64, but in the UK they were joined by FIFA Soccer 64, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, and - yes - Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey (which sold as well over here as you can imagine).

You don't need me to remind you that Super Mario 64 was generally considered a classic. I've written before about how I first saw it running in the offices at Sega Europe HQ, where PR man Mark Maslowicz made us promise not to write that work had ground to a halt while everyone crowded round to see it. Obviously we went straight back to Teletext and wrote all about it. The response to this was a wearily disappointed phone call from the genuinely very nice, but long-suffering, Mr Maslowicz.

I was almost lynched the last time I said this, but I don't think Super Mario 64 has aged well. Certainly, it lacks the timelessness of Super Mario World, or even the very first Super Mario Brothers on the NES. Now it seems to me like the first step into 3D gaming that it was. Nintendo would eventually perfect the notion of 3D Mario with its sublime Super Mario Galaxy games.

​At the time, though? We were all blown away. And rightly so. It's packed to the pipes with ideas and gameplay, and arguably the only title to have ever really made full use of the N64's capabilities. Also, those rippling paintings still make me go a bit funny.

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THE EYE
For me, as for many, the Nintendo 64 was all about that sweet multiplayer Goldeneye.

The first bona-fide first-person shooter on a console, its impact can still be felt today. It was a game played often on Friday nights with my mates - quite the achievement, given that most of my mates were never gamers. 

Again, though, going back to Goldeneye it's clear to see that it has dated in a way that earlier, 2D, Nintendo games have not. The same can be levelled at Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64, Starfox 64, or - genuinely one of my favourite games of the era - 1080 Snowboarding. 

It's not that any of them are bad games - indeed, most of them have been reworked for Nintendo's handhelds, and benefitted from a bit of a visual overhaul.

​It's simply that Nintendo took a brave leap into 3D, and it's hard to think of another transition of comparable magnitude. In the same way that early CD-ROM developers struggled to know how to best use the technology, so you can almost see Nintendo doing the working out before your very eyes. How good the games actually were - and that there are a number of genuine, bona-fide, classics on the N64 - is nothing short of a miracle.

Still, in the way that the Super NES consolidated and improved on the NES, so Nintendo's next system, the GameCube, would be a more confident and assured version of the Nintendo 64 - albeit without offering the same thrill of the new and never-before-seen.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
A TRIBUTE TO THE SUPER NINTENDO - BY MR BIFFO​
IF YOU'RE NOT TOO BUSY YOU COULD SPEND SOME TIME HAVING A LOOK AT THESE OLD DONKEY KONG STICKERS
​
NINTENDO: LIFE BEFORE MARIO - A HISTORY
42 Comments
Stoo
8/2/2017 11:47:26 am

I get the impression that sticking to cartridges instead of moving over to CDs was a big mistake - didn't that lose them Final Fantasy?

The fifth generation is where I mostly lost interest in consoles (PC guy here). Still, Ocarina of Time remains a wonderful game. I tried Goldeneye once, found the controls horrible, and have done for every console shooter since.

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Cartographer
8/2/2017 12:12:16 pm

Carts are back baby!

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King of Duckhenrys
8/2/2017 03:56:46 pm

It probably was, but you could see their point when it came to loading times. I think the Digi review of Mario 64 even mentioned this.

CD drives just weren't fast enough yet. I spent a lot of time looking at progress bars on the PlayStation (still faster than tapes though!). If memory serves me correctly, I don't think streaming levels from disc came about until quite sometime later in the platform's life (I seem to remember it being Soul Reaver that first had it)

In general I think that optical media just isn't suited to games. Only the GameCube got the loading times down to an acceptable level, but that was at the expense of having a fraction of the capacity. It's a good thing that consoles have hard disks now.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
9/2/2017 12:49:40 am

That and apparently Nintendo had racked up some serious bad karma with developers in the last generations. Exclusivity policies and limits to the number of games you could publish in a year, for example, didn't make them too well-loved by 3rd parties. They weren't even that nice to their second parties, if Guru Larry's recent Fact Hunt video about Miyamoto is anything to go by... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9GpCCZ6NAE)

Ironically, their flaking on a deal with Sony would eventually create the machine that would stomp their next one.

That said, the N64 remains one of my favourite consoles. Seeing Ocarina of Time for the first time just blew my mind, and I contend that Mario 64 still plays really well to this day.

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Bacon Willow
8/2/2017 11:58:18 am

The ultra-huge smeary textures make N64 games mostly unplayable now. That, along with the flimsy controllers and hollow casing make it seem like the very idea-distribution machine Biffo claims. They had to release several epoch-defining game ideas very quickly and needed a simple disposable thing to release them on

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DEAN
8/2/2017 12:23:39 pm

I'm absolutely loving this Nintendo retrospective. I only wish you'd started from the NES and covered everything from that point on.
Why not Tarantino your way round to covering 'em all!

I agree, the games, though awesome in their day, have aged rather poorly. They're still fun and all but yeah, old age has not come alone.
Contentiously, I never loved the Zelda games on the N64 (or Wii) - I'm still a bugger for old Zelda and I think the 3DS game, A Link Between Worlds, is one of the best in the entire series. Maybe the best.

I think I played Mario 64 (got them all) and Goldeneye for enough hours to have achieved a doctorate or at least a BTEC in wasting my life. Indeed, those years of mine were lost playing those two games and Worms on the PS1. Happy days!

You say that the trident design has been copied nowhere and you're right but then in a way the Wiimote with Nunchuk combo is kind of similar (motion controls aside). I never found the trident design to be unwieldy, struggles to make full use of the little yellow buttons on Goldeneye aside.

Gamecube then...

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MrPSB
9/2/2017 07:24:50 am

The problem with the NES as Biffo said at the start of the SNES piece is it was only ever a minor thing in the UK, regardless of the fact it spawned a lot of classic games under its peculiar flap. Everyone was too busy copying Speccy games from their mates to care about it.

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DEAN
10/2/2017 03:34:17 pm

That's a fair comment.
Love me some NES, though, and I suppose the NES mini review kind of covers it (no).

Off topic - I read a thing you did about train sims - but in a game.
I've actually not stopped thinking about it - you need to do more crazy writing!

Clive Peppard
8/2/2017 12:49:34 pm

I shall tell you a story:

its 1998 (possibly a tuesday in October) and I am a second year at university, unlike my housemates I decided that day to go to lectures.

When i got home i opened the door to be told that i owed my friends about £35, when i asked what for i was told they had been out and bought an N64 for the house (and 4 controllers).

I was angry, i was annoyed - how dare they spend my precious student loan on such triviality without asking first?

Then i played Goldeneye.

For the next year we did nothing but play 4 player deathmatch, we even fashioned a signal splitter out of co-ax and various adptors so we could plug in two TV's and blutac paper over half teh screen so we could play 2 v 2 without the annoyance of being able to see the other players.

we never bought another game, we never worried about whether we should get Mario Kart (we didnt) we just shot each other.

It was beautiful.

Two of my house dropped out due to "financial pressures" so me and the final friend took 50/50 possession of the hallowed machine (dropping out meant your forfeited your claim to 25% of the hardware).

At the end of the third year my final housemate and I played shithead to decide the owner of the machine. Im ashamed to say i threw the game as i wanted the runners up prize more - our other shared purchase which was alovely piece of glassware (the details of which are not relevant really)

this was an era defining piece of hardware and the only nintendo console i ever genuinely loved.

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Smelly Hackysack Whitedread Hippy
8/2/2017 12:58:53 pm

Do you still have the glassware my broseph

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DEAN
8/2/2017 01:02:43 pm

Don't be coy, Clive - Glassware?
Was it a mouse trapped in a cocktail glass with a cat pawing at it?

clive peppard
8/2/2017 01:43:50 pm

twas a beautiful fluted vase with a bulbous base and some confusing holes in it, it has dafs in it now..

RG
8/2/2017 01:54:54 pm

Nope - not enough info. How do four (I'm assuming male) university students become co-owners of a fluted vase? A fluted vase that is of enough aesthetic or financial value to walk away from a games console (with 4 controllers?)?

Clive peppard
8/2/2017 02:11:31 pm

Did you just assume my gender? Not cool.

It was a bong alright!(?)

RG
8/2/2017 02:20:24 pm

Sorry - my bad!

Clive peppard
8/2/2017 02:30:38 pm

Ah the carefree days of tuition less higher education. Kids nowadays will never know the joys, bless em

Koozebane
8/2/2017 02:38:11 pm

My uni housemates and I did the signal splitter trick too but we only played 1 V 1 winner stays on with radar turned off.

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Clive peppard
8/2/2017 03:25:41 pm

Excellent! It was the dawn of a brace new time and we were its fore fathers

wunk
8/2/2017 12:57:44 pm

N64 games may not have aged well but you could level the same accusations at my ball bag. Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye are tip top true true classics in my addled brain.

I've never topped that feeling of directing mario for the first time with the analogue stick so for 20 years gaming has all been rather moribund for me though I still do try very hard to like it.

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Widegoat
8/2/2017 01:22:47 pm

Indeed, my bag is also guilty. Though I think Waverace still plays great to this day - better perhaps than the sequel. I think a new version of Waverace would probably sell me a Switch.

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Voodoo76
8/2/2017 04:21:25 pm

My thoughts exactly Wunk. I long for that same feeling of playing Mario 64 for the first time again. Carrying that baby penguin back to its mother.......sob......sob............

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Alastair
8/2/2017 01:24:35 pm

The four controller slots and MK and Goldeneye (and to a lesser extent Perfect Dark) saved what was otherwise in retrospect something a bit iffy.

I stopped being a fanboi when the WiiU was released, my N64 and 3DS remain the only Nintendo hardware I've parted with. I popped the N64 on for a blast to see if I might hang onto it for longer, the motion sickness that ensued ensured I didn't.

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Sean
8/2/2017 01:48:20 pm

I think Mario 64 has aged quite well. Super Mario Bros is a bit ugly, particularly in comparison to Super Mario World, but they are clean and colourful enough for it not to detract from the experience. It's the same with Mario 64 for the most part, particularly if you have an emulator upping the resolution.

And just like Super Mario Bros is a bit different from what came after, so is Mario 64. While the 2d games tended to become more expansive, doing more vertical exploring and slowing the base, the 3d ones became more restrictive. Galaxy is a better game, maybe the best estimate game there is, but it doesn't offer the freedom Mario 64 does. 64s levels are little playgrounds you can go for any Star in, or just jump about and bother Goombas. No other 3d Mario has the same structure.

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Paul C
8/2/2017 02:42:41 pm

"Also, let's not pretend that the system's resolution, frame rate, and textures were frequently below par, giving most games a distinct, cataract-o-vision, effect."

Sorry to be the horrible comments spell check guy, but I'm assuming that should say "weren't"

Anyway I now want to revisit Mario 64 to see whether or not it holds up. My gut tells me it probably does, for me at least. The structure of it, going back to each level again and again to uncover every secret, is just a very satisfying one for me, and what with cartoon-style 3D platformers having fallen by the wayside somewhat I'm not sure how many recent games could do a better job of scratching that itch.

I've never played the N64 Zeldas, so playing those for the first time with no nostalgia goggles to cloud my view might be an interesting experience...

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Fancy Pants
8/2/2017 03:03:13 pm

Goldeneye and Mario gave birth to two gaming terms still in common use today:

Confuse-o-cam - when Mario disappeared behind, above or under something and no stabbing of the yellow buttons could make him visible.

Jerk-o-vision - when loads of explosions went off at the same time in four player Goldeneye and the game ran at 1fps.

Note: these terms are NOT still in common use today.

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RichardM
8/2/2017 04:48:04 pm

Remember the good old days when videogames reviews were 90% about how well the camera worked?

I always liked Banjo Kazooie a bit more than SM64, even if it did have a wonky camera.

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Kelvin Green link
8/2/2017 07:28:55 pm

Oh gosh yes, jerk-o-vision.

I know! Let's set up a deathmatch in which the only weapons are mines! Boom! BOOM! KRAKABOOM! Grind grind grind.

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EggyRoo
8/2/2017 06:03:02 pm

"It's simply that Nintendo took a brave leap into 3D, and it's hard to think of another transition of comparable magnitude...."

Sony VR seems like a good comparison here

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DEAN
8/2/2017 06:26:23 pm

I see where you're coming from but... not really.
VR isn't going to become the norm in the same way that 3D gaming has. That's mightily presumptuous of me, audacious perhaps but it's true.

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A kid called Dave
8/2/2017 06:17:44 pm

Ahh, the back end of the 90's or the early two thousands when I picked up a N64 for 20 quid at the local independent games retailer (when such things existed) and on a nondescript day of drudgery I decided to take it to the ex-grilfriends to cheer her proto-emo face up a bit. Well, it was going alright until something got on her goat, which wasn't difficult let me tell thee. One thing led to another until I lost my rag at her losing her rag and flung the thing out the window, smacking concrete from the first floor with a very definite thud akin to a Looney Tunes cartoon. (the console, not the gf, sorry to say)

Her goblin-esque father ran upstairs in all of his red faced fury and proceeded to kick me out of his dusty old abode. I lolled in his Toby Jones looking face and swept up my N53 on the way out, regretting my moment of madness.
Only when I get back, to my utter astonishment, the thing switched on without breaking a sweat. Excluding a few scratches and something that rattled inside, it still works to this day.
Red ring O death? Get tae fuck mate.

Secondly when living in a squat with a few weirdos, we subsided on baked potatoes and Mario Kart 64 for three months, getting us through it all.

It lies dormant in the garage, battle damaged and worn. Only I know of what we've been through, to most it's just old obsolete junk.



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DEAN
8/2/2017 06:34:26 pm

That's some dark shit, Dave.

It's not obsolete old junk anymore, though! CEX buy all that kind of thing for cash! Just checked and it's £23 for a discounted (damaged) one. You're like Gordon Gecko for consoles.

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Mrtankthreat
8/2/2017 06:26:07 pm

"Suffice to say, the home versions of the two games sported noticeably scaled-back visuals"

The home version of Killer Instinct sported scaled-back visuals because it was scaled back to be a SNES game (and was a decent attempt). It never appeared on the N64. The sequel (which for some reason was called Killer Instinct Gold instead of Killer Instinct 2) did appear on the on the N64 with arcade quality visuals. The N64 could easily run a proper arcade version of the original Killer Instinct but the delay in the release of the N64 meant they decided to release it on the SNES instead. Cruis'n USA though was developed on different hardware because it was developed by Midway who didn't have access to N64 development tools whereas Rare did. Sorry for the nitpick.

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Mr Biffo
8/2/2017 08:09:29 pm

No no - nitpick away. That's me told.

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Kelvin Green link
8/2/2017 07:33:31 pm

For me the N64 is all about memories of epic four-player games of GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and Mario Tennis at university. More than any other console, my fondness for it is tied to that social aspect; I like the SNES for the games, I like the N64 for the people I played the games with. That's probably damning it with faint praise.

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DEAN
8/2/2017 07:45:44 pm

Nailed it, Mr Green.

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Kingsturg
8/2/2017 08:11:14 pm

I've always said that this generation of consoles had the "worst" graphics. They tried to do stuff that the technology couldn't really do. As such, you look back now, the games look like a plasticky / muddy / jagged mess.

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DEAN
8/2/2017 08:30:02 pm

I know what you're saying but they looked great at the time. If you ever played Tomb Raider on the PS1 then you must have gotten yourself up really high and just looked out in wonderment. Mistress of all you surveyed and all that. Grey, beige and yucky brown the palette may have been, rough around the edges, yep, but the sense of immersion and scale was pretty breathtaking. What I'm saying is that the graphics achieved a lot really.

Also, when you look back now you're seeing things in the worst possible light - on a crisp screen. I think CRTs helped soften some of the shortcomings.

In summary: YES.

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colincidence link
9/2/2017 04:51:26 am

Yes.

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
9/2/2017 01:32:25 am

Never understood the love. Got one cheap from Beatties before it closed down for uni-based Goldeneye hijinx, but in spite of owning a fair few games never really sat down and played it for long sessions - always favoured my PlayStation.

It didn't help that many of the best single player games were a plethora of Rare's finest if samey platform games featuring their trademarked endless collectibles and smug, grating humour.

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jawa
9/2/2017 07:52:03 am

Crumbs. Since when has "It was kinda okay but it has aged badly" been a "tribute"? You cuss the N64 bad, Biffo ;-).

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DEAN
9/2/2017 11:00:34 am

You're disappointed? I was expecting Gaviscon shame.

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Carlos Nightman
10/2/2017 02:02:03 pm

Ah yes. The excitement leading up to the N64 launch is still unprecedented I think. Getting the gaming mags each month and seeing 5 new screenshots of Mario 64 was a highlight - it truly seemed like a new world. Finally playing it for the first time, spending ages simply running around the Castle Grounds, climbing trees, and seeing what Mario could do, all felt revolutionary.

I personally loved the controller, and even though I lack a third hand it still felt perfect - using the C buttons to strafe and shoot in Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Yes, it remains my favourite console, and while much of that fondness is wrapped up in nostalgia, I don't think any system before or since has had so many games I adored.

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