History
Nintendo’s original Nintendo Entertainment System had enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the console industry (see Chapter 2.1). Its Super NES, however, had faced considerable competition from Sega, who had successfully wrestled third-party developers away from the stranglehold of Nintendo’s licensing terms, which forbid them from porting their games to other systems. Other companies had also entered the fray. Despite these threats, Nintendo’s leaders had absolute confidence—or perhaps arrogance—that no matter what the competition brought to the table, the Nintendo brand would always reign triumphant. Alas, the next few years would challenge this hubris as never before.
The story of the Nintendo 64 begins with a company named Silicon Graphics (SGI), an American company famous for its high-end graphics workstations. In 1992, SGI spent $406.1 million acquiring MIPS technologies, a semiconductor company who specialized in high performance RISC chips. MIPS, who designed the CPUs for SGI’s workstations, had fallen prey to vicious office politics, which had key employees—including their president—walking out the door. Jim Clark, SGI’s founder, saw a golden opportunity to not only salvage his company’s favorite chip-maker, but to leverage their expertise in building the next generation of game consoles. Less than a year after the acquisition, Clark, prototypes in hand, was ready to talk business.
Blast Corps on the Project 64 emulator.
Blast Corps (1997, Rare)
A clever mix of action and puzzle game, as its title implies, Blast Corps’ primary focus was making things go boom. Using one of a variety of heavy vehicles, including trucks and robotic power suits, players needed to destroy any obstacles that stand in the path of an out-of-control nuclear missile carrier, which would explode the second it touched something. Adding to the challenge was the fact that some obstacles couldn’t be destroyed at all, but still needed to be bridged or moved. Once cleared, levels could be returned to at a later time for additional play types or simply to find all the hidden objects. Blast Corps was released too early to take advantage of the Rumble Pak, but it was still a blast.
First, Clark approached Tom Kalinske, Sega of America’s CEO. Kalinske liked the design, but was unable to persuade his company’s Japanese headquarters to take it seriously. They believed that their own research and development team could design something better, and, unwilling to reject the offer outright, instead demanded exclusive rights to the chips.1 Naturally, Clark was unwilling to agree to such demands, since they would severely limit his company’s future profits. Fortunately, Clark made a much better impression on Nintendo CEO, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Yamauchi immediately recognized the prototype’s potential and was willing to license it on a nonexclusive basis.2 Clark was happy, and unlike Kalinske at Sega, nobody said “no” to Mr. Yamauchi.
In the spring of 1993, Nintendo took the first step towards its next generation initiative with a formal partnership with Silicon Graphics to design a new console. Nintendo hoped that the project, code-named “Project Reality,” and later “Ultra 64,” was the secret weapon that would finally send the competition scurrying back to the fringes of the industry. With its 64-bit microprocessor based on MIPS Technologies’ proven R4300i design, Nintendo’s new console would have more than enough power to achieve this goal.
Silicon Graphics’ technology first proved its value in Rare’s Donkey Kong Country (1994) for the Super NES. As described in Chapter 2.5, it was one of the first mainstream games to use pre-rendered 3D graphics, which were created on Silicon Graphics’ workstations. Donkey Kong Country and other games using similar technology kept the 16-bit Super NES relevant long after 32-bit systems hit the market.
Similar technology would also find its way to the arcade, with favorites like Rare’s fighting game, Killer Instinct (1994, published by Midway and Nintendo), and Midway’s racer, Cruis’n USA (1994). While their hardware wasn’t identical to the Ultra 64’s, they still provided a tantalizing glimpse at its possibilities.
To help bridge the gap between the release of the Super NES and Ultra 64, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy (Chapter 2.4), first in Japan on July 21, 1995, and then in North America on August 14, 1995. The concept behind the device seemed infallible at the time—a 32-bit tabletop 3D console that, as the name suggested, would bring virtual reality to the masses. Unfortunately, it was a virtual disaster, and it was discontinued months later. Ultimately, the Virtual Boy was only a stumble for Nintendo, but it painfully revealed that the company was anything but infallible.
A few pages of an article from the August 1995 issue of NEXT Generation magazine. The article—entitled “Why the hell has Nintendo delayed the Ultra 64?”—echoed the growing exasperation over the final release date of Nintendo’s next console. Note how closely the design of the pictured Ultra 64 console and its cartridge matches that of the Nintendo 64, which would finally launch in North America over one year after the article’s publication.
Meanwhile, all was not going smoothly with the Ultra 64, either. The console’s design was first revealed to the public in the spring of 1994, but its first public unveiling was on November 24, 1995. There, at the 7th Annual Shoshinkai Software Exhibition in Japan, it was finally introduced as the Nintendo 64. Nintendo promised its first shipments in time for Christmas, but was forced to push that date forward by four months. Unfortunately, this embarrassing and costly delay would not be the last.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day on the Project 64 emulator.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day (2001, Rare)
Conker’s Bad Fur Day should have never existed on the Nintendo 64. Besides being one of the few cartridge games that could rival the scope of the best CD-based games of the day, it was also unapologetically crude and vulgar. It sold poorly thanks to its offensive nature and high retail price,3 but it did enjoy nearly universal critical acclaim. The remarkable game engine for this 3D platformer featured dynamic shadowing, colored lighting, long draw distances, detailed facial animation with lip syncing, elaborate textures, and even individually rendered fingers for some of the characters. Perhaps the game engine’s greatest accomplishment, however, was the amount of audio, with properly synchronized speech and even fully vocalized songs. The game was far from perfect—its camera was noticeably lower to the ground than other games of its type, and the main character’s curse-laden tirades are sometimes a bit over-the-top. Still, the fun factor found in the overall package was a testament to Rare’s capabilities. After Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002, they did a remake called Conker: Live & Reloaded for the Xbox in 2004. While more polished, particularly with its online multiplayer mode, the remake didn’t fare any better than its predecessor.
It was unclear who or what was responsible for these disastrous setbacks. Some claim it was a calculated move on Nintendo’s part to give software developers more time to make games for the launch lineup. Others believe SGI engineer Andrian Sfarti’s claim that underperforming chips needed to be redesigned. In any case, the Japanese didn’t get their systems until June 23, 1996,4 nearly eight months later than expected. The North American release (at $199.99) was pushed to September 29, 1996. European and Australian gamers had the longest wait, not getting their systems until March 1, 1997.
Perhaps these delays would have been acceptable if Nintendo only had Sega to deal with. True, Sega had gotten their 32-bit Saturn console to market nearly a year and a half earlier, but it hadn’t managed to get much traction even with its considerable head start. Unfortunately, Nintendo also had Sony to deal with, who the company previously scorned and was doing remarkably well with its upstart PlayStation console, which was released just over a year earlier in North America.
Nintendo’s tortoise-speed development of the Super NES had allowed Sega’s Genesis to undermine their control of the industry, which they never fully recovered. Likewise, Nintendo’s heel dragging gave Sony a full year to exploit their new PlayStation brand. Sega had ultimately failed to give Nintendo more than a flesh wound, but the PlayStation was no Genesis. It enjoyed terrific success in every territory, including Nintendo’s home market of Japan.
Despite all this, Nintendo’s leaders scoffed at the foolish antics of this brash young upstart. Just wait until the Nintendo 64 hit the market; the PlayStation would be history. And they were right. Sony’s PlayStation would indeed make history, but not in the way they thought.
Diddy Kong Racing on the Project 64 emulator.
Diddy Kong Racing (1997, Rare)
Since the first Mario Kart title on the Super NES, it was a forgone conclusion that the best kart racing game on any Nintendo platform would be from this series. Diddy Kong Racing, however, was an exception. While Nintendo 64 fans got an excellent new Mario Kart 64 shortly before Diddy Kong Racing, it suffered from a fatal flaw despite the watchful eyes of Shigeru Miyamoto. While Mario Kart 64 had stellar multiplayer, the single player mode suffered from irritating “catch up” artificial intelligence, which meant that no matter how far ahead a player got in a race, the computer opponents would “cheat,” automatically getting whatever boost they needed to catch up. In contrast, Diddy Kong Racing suffered no such balance issues. It also had better audiovisuals and more varied levels, with planes and hovercrafts added to the standard karts, as well as an adventure mode. Rare followed up with perhaps the third-best kart racer on the platform, Mickey’s Speedway USA, in 2000, although outside of its Disney characters and themes, the game didn’t make any notable advances.
Somehow, even after all of the blown deadlines at the factory, only three games were ready in time for the system’s Japanese release: Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, and Saikyō Habu Shōgi, a gamed based on shogi, a traditional Japanese chess-like game that was, by all accounts, better made from wood. In any case, North America didn’t even get that, having to be content with only the first two titles. Despite a further delay, Europe and Australia only got two additional titles over North America: Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. It seems likely that Nintendo bungled the launch so badly on purpose, perhaps in response to a schoolyard dare. To think otherwise seems too unkind.
The Nintendo 64 console, with Expansion Pak inserted, and its famous controller. Unlike previous Nintendo consoles, no game was included in the original box, although later system bundles would address that deficiency.
The Nintendo 64’s game library eventually numbered some 387 games, a poor figure indeed when compared to the PlayStation’s 1100+. While the Nintendo brand still carried considerable prestige, many developers were fed up dealing with cartridges, which were a losing proposition: they were more expensive to make, yet less capacious, than discs. Fortunately, the Nintendo 64 still received its fair share of classics, and they still held three trump cards in their hand: Mario, Zelda, and their creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. If Miyamoto couldn’t singlehandedly save his company, it was game over for Nintendo. Fortunately, Miyamoto was the best game designer in the business.
The game that saved the Nintendo 64 was Super Mario 64, which sold over 11 million copies and sold more systems than all of Nintendo’s marketing forces combined.5 Indeed, so fundamental was this game’s success that Nintendo had designed the system’s default controller around it. It was a bold move, but, as a result, the game and controller felt like natural extensions of one another. Both game and controller were extraordinary. The controller, with its analog stick, was an ideal way to freely move around the 3D worlds of Super Mario 64 and the many games that followed its example. While most previous 3D worlds often felt cramped or even claustrophobic, Super Mario 64’s, with its dynamic camera system and 15 unique environments (courses), made gamers feel they’d just stepped outside. For the first time, a 3D game was just as natural and easy to control as the 2D games of the 1980s. It was a revelation that few gamers (and developers) ever forgot. Super Mario 64 wasn’t just a breakthrough for the Nintendo 64; it advanced the state of the industry.
On the back of Super Mario 64, the Nintendo 64 sold over 500,000 units in its first four months on sale in North America.6 Ultimately, the Nintendo 64 sold just over 32 million units worldwide, with over 20 million of those sales coming from North America. While this total was small in comparison to the Sony’s Play-Station’s 100 million units sold worldwide, it was far more than Sega’s Saturn or Dreamcast, which sold just over 9 and 10 million units each, respectively, across all territories.
A two-page Nintendo ad from the October 1996 issue of NEXT Generation magazine, indicating the Nintendo 64’s September 29 launch date and the first game you’d want to own.
Thanks to its relative success in North America, Nintendo was able to keep the system in production until November 30, 2003, a little over two years after the launch of its successor, the GameCube (Chapter 3.7). Although many at the time thought Nintendo had erred in going with cartridges rather than discs, now nostalgia has painted things with a softer brush. The Nintendo 64 was the last major console that used cartridges, a format that will forever remain an icon of gamer culture. Their durability ensures that, long after the discs of other systems have succumbed to the rays of sun and claws of cat, a gamer somewhere will still be firing up Super Mario 64. Nintendo might have made many foolish decisions with the Nintendo 64, but they are mistakes that all true gamers cherish.
ExciteBike 64 (2000, Nintendo)
A sequel to the classic NES launch title ExciteBike (1985), ExciteBike 64 took the series in a bold new direction. Clearly inspired by the earlier Wave Race 64, ExciteBike 64 shifted the perspective from its predecessor’s 2D side-scrolling to 3D third-person, and integrated finely crafted physics into its robust game engine. Besides standard race modes, several fun mini-games are available for unlocking, including the original ExciteBike and a 3D reimagining called Excite 3D. Of course, the original’s popular track editor also received an update for this spectacular sequel. A spiritual successor, Excite Truck, debuted on the Wii in 2006. While a solid game, it failed to generate the same excitement as its predecessors, though it did spawn sequels of its own.
Technical Specifications
The Nintendo 64 may not have been the competition-crushing technological powerhouse that Yamauchi envisioned, but it was definitely not a wimp. Its heart was the NEC VR4300 RISC-based CPU, an inexpensive derivative of the 64-bit MIP Technologies R4300i. While the VR4300 used a 32-bit system bus, it retained most of the other 64-bit computational properties of its forbearer and had an impressive clock speed of 93.75 MHz. In deference to execution speed and the limited cartridge storage space, most Nintendo 64 software relied on 32-bit, rather than 64-bit, data operations.
The Nintendo 64’s audiovisuals, particularly 3D graphics, were awe-inspiring. Had the console not been hamstrung with cartridges, it might well have trounced the PlayStation. They were powered by a 64-bit SGI chipset, dubbed the Reality Co-Processor (RCP). The RCP is a 64.5 MHz chip with two major components capable of high bandwidth cross-communications: the Reality Drawing Processor (RDP) and the Reality Signal Processor (RSP).
The RDP performs graphics rendering operations and supports resolutions of 256 × 224, 320 × 240 (most common), and 640 × 480 (uncommon) with 16.8 million unique color variations. The RSP typically performs audio processing, which is also possible from the CPU, with a maximum sampling rate of 48 kHz with 16-bit audio. Its maximum sampling rate and theoretical limit of 100 channels of PCM audio are impressive, but limited system resources and the albatross of cartridge space resulted in only modest real world performance.
The Nintendo 64 uses a unified memory system, meaning any subsystem or process could access the 4 MB of RDRAM. Made by Rambus, the RDRAM offered large amounts of high speed bandwidth, which was expandable to 8 MB with the addition of the Expansion Pak.
The console itself featured a streamlined (some would say toy-like) design. On top is the cartridge slot. Just below the cartridge slot was the memory expansion door, where the Expansion Pak went. To the left of the memory expansion door is the on/off power switch; to the right is the reset button. On the front of the console are four controller ports. To the rear of the console is the AC adapter bay, which accepts the removable power supply. To the left of the AC adapter bay is the multi out port, which supports the same RF, composite, and S-Video cables as the Super NES and GameCube.
GoldenEye 007 on the Project 64 emulator.
GoldenEye 007 (1997, Rare)
GoldenEye 007 was the first console-based first-person shooter to make PC gamers take notice. At the time, it was “common sense” that you needed a keyboard and mouse to play a shooter, but Rare taught gamers otherwise, paving the way for later console shooters like Halo: Combat Evolved in the process. Not only did Rare craft a breakthrough first-person shooter, they accomplished the equally difficult task of doing justice to the James Bond movie license, something few other developers have achieved before or since. Based on key events from the GoldenEye (1995) film, in which Bond must deal with a satellite weapon that can fire an electromagnetic pulse, the videogame featured innovative mission objectives, a zooming sniper rifle, stealth elements, context-sensitive hit locations (like shooting a hat off a head!), and a local multiplayer deathmatch mode featuring unlockable likenesses of famous Bond characters. A spiritual successor, Perfect Dark, debuted in 2000, with a number of enhancements, including full voice-acting—players could even eavesdrop on guards having conversations about the events going on around them. While a classic in its own right, Perfect Dark pushed the Nintendo 64 past its limits, resulting in occasionally choppy framerates. The Expansion Pak enabled higher resolution graphics, Dolby Surround Sound, and access to more of the game’s campaign and multiplayer features.
The Nintendo 64 was capable of trilinear filter, allowing for much smoother textures. This was in contrast to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, both of which used nearest-neighbor interpolation, producing more pixelated-looking textures. However, again because of the limited cartridge space, Nintendo 64 games had fewer textures available, and were stretched and rendered in lower resolution. These workarounds often resulted in an unacceptably blurry or “Vaseline-smeared” appearance. However, the graphics were often much sharper if gamers used the S-Video connection instead of RF or composite.
A scene from one of the more subversive Nintendo 64 commercials from 1996, ending with “Change the system.” Based on the promise of its technical prowess alone, many gamers surely heeded Nintendo’s advice. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQj3hL9SPI.
Mario Party (1999, Nintendo)
Developer Hudson Soft’s innovative party game kicked off yet another enduring franchise for publisher Nintendo’s platforms. As many as four players could compete in up to 56 different mini-games to get the most stars by the end of a play session. Players chose to play as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Wario, Yoshi, or Donkey Kong in a suitably Nintendo-themed world that took the form of a traditional board game. There was even a dice block, numbered one through ten, which indicated the number of spaces a player moves. Be warned, however—some of the mini-games hearkened back to classic sports videogames, requiring players to rotate the Nintendo 64 gamepad’s analog stick as quickly as possible. The result? A sore hand, or worse, a broken controller! With sequels now numbering in the double digits, however, the potential pain and expense deterred few gamers.
Underneath the console is the EXT. door, which covers the Extension Port. The only add-on to make use of the Extension Port was the 64DD, which allowed the Nintendo 64 to use proprietary 64 MB magneto-optical disks for inexpensive data storage. After the 64DD’s release was delayed in Japan until December 1, 1999, where it was then met with a muted consumer response and limited software support, the add-on’s planned release elsewhere was scrapped.
The Nintendo 64’s cartridges were more durable than optical discs, and eliminated the load times associated with the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation. However, the downsides of the cartridge format were obvious and painful. Because cartridges were more time-consuming and expensive to produce than a CD, production runs had to be carefully managed. In addition, the cost of a cartridge escalated with the amount of data it was required to store. This led to prices as high as $79.99 at retail, or $116 in today’s dollars. Then as now, these prices are simply non-competitive. Many developers, particularly makers of epic-scale role-playing games, like Squaresoft (Final Fantasy) and Enix (Dragon Warrior), required the enormous storage capacity of optical discs to realize their expansive new game designs. As they switched sides, they brought their hordes of fans with them.
One thing Nintendo got right was its decision to bring back analog controls. In fact, the entire design of its controller was innovative and inspired, thanks in part to having to meet the unusual requirements of the console’s Shigeru Miyamoto-produced showpiece, Super Mario 64.
The front (left) and back (right) of the Nintendo 64’s famous controller. Images courtesy of Evan-Amos, Vanamo Media.
The controller, which features three grips (shaped a bit like an “M”) to allow for the different hand positioning required to get access to all of its controls, was quite unlike anything before it. On the face of the controller, from left to right, was a digital directional pad (D-pad), a red start button, an analog control stick, a green B action button, a blue A action button, and four small yellow C buttons, with up, down, left, and right arrows, respectively, often used for camera control or secondary game functions. On the top of the controller were Left and Right triggers, and below the middle grip, a Z button. Just above the middle grip was a single expansion port, which was initially for the Controller Pak (memory card), and later, the Rumble Pak, which provided haptic feedback during gameplay in games that supported it.
Super Smash Bros. on the Project 64 emulator.
Super Smash Bros. (1999, Nintendo)
Leave it to Nintendo to revitalize yet another genre: fighting games. Players tried to knock Nintendo characters, including Mario, Samus Aran, Donkey Kong, Fox McCloud, and Link, outside the arena’s boundaries with all manner of attacks. The arenas were large and required players to be adept at moving around, both in the air and on various platforms. Perhaps the game’s best feature was that each character controlled exactly the same, but with different abilities—master control of one character and you know how to control all of them. A four-player multiplayer mode makes this a great party game. With such beloved characters combined with timeless gameplay, it’s no surprise that a new Smash Bros. game is always the most requested addition to each new Nintendo system’s game library.
The controller came in a wide range of colors, including grey, black, red, green, yellow, blue, gold, atomic purple, extreme green, banana bunch yellow, and more, some of which were designed to match the special edition console they were bundled with. The colors were also useful for identifying which of the four controller ports a controller was plugged into during hectic multiplayer matches.
The Add-Ons
Two of the most popular add-ons were the aforementioned Controller Pak and Rumble Pak, each of which plugged into the controller’s single expansion port. The Rumble Pak initially came bundled with Star Fox 64 (1997, Nintendo), the first game to support it, and the required two AAA batteries. There was also a variety of third-party options, including combination Controller and Rumble Paks, where each respective function was accessible via a switch. In-game prompts would indicate when to insert and remove (or switch on) a Controller Pak for games that supported it. While some third-party Controller Paks could store more data than the 123 pages of information on Nintendo’s memory card, they still had to be contained in separate blocks of 123 pages each, with a particular block selectable with a switch.
Another popular add-on was the Expansion Pak, also mentioned earlier in this chapter, which doubled the Nintendo 64’s memory and allowed for higher quality graphics and other advanced features in some games. Two games, Donkey Kong 64 (1999, Rare), which originally came bundled with it, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, required the Expansion Pak. Other games were enhanced with the Expansion Pak, like Resident Evil 2 (1999, Capcom), which increased its graphics fidelity; Gauntlet Legends (1999, Midway), which enabled a four play simultaneous mode; and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (2000, LucasArts), which added a high resolution (640 × 480) display mode. The only downside of the Expansion Pak was that it got hot when the console was running. Some third-party alternatives to the Expansion Pak ran even hotter.
Two third-party controllers and three third-party memory cards and rumble packs are surrounded by some of the Nintendo 64’s classic games.
The usual third-party selection of alternative controllers, including steering wheels, was also available. Interact’s GameShark series of cheat cartridges also made an appearance, as did their unusual SharkWire Online, a GameShark with modem and PC-style serial port for keyboards. While allowing for emailing and updates, the SharkWire Online depended upon the short-lived sharkwire.com dial-up service for connectivity. Good luck getting it to work now.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Project 64 emulator.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998, Nintendo)
The fifth Nintendo Zelda game, but the first such title in 3D, Ocarina of Time was a paradigm shift for the franchise. A high concept action-adventure game with role-playing and puzzle elements, players controlled series hero, Link, as he explored an open world, protected by his trusty sword and shield, plus projectiles and magic spells. Link’s quest was to stop the evil Ganondorf, King of the Gerudo tribe, from obtaining the Triforce, a sacred relic that grants the wishes of whoever possesses it. As part of a player’s progression, they must learn to play and perform several songs on an ocarina, a formerly obscure musical instrument the game made famous. Despite the high concept, the game was a breeze to control thanks to the innovative context-sensitive actions that were highlighted on-screen, and Z-targeting, which let Link keep his focus on an enemy or other object as he moved about. Its sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, was released in 2000 and had better visuals and a more complex story enabled by the required Expansion Pak. Versions of both classic games are available on Nintendo’s later systems.
The Nintendo 64 Community Then and Now
As usual for most Nintendo systems, the Nintendo 64 had strong interest from fans even before its release. The magazines of the day helped fuel the fires of anticipation, which only grew along with the delays. Nintendo Power, as expected, was still the go-to magazine resource for dedicated Nintendo 64 fans.
Today, as the last of the major cartridge-based consoles, and the last of the Nintendo consoles to attempt to exceed the best technology that its generation offered, the Nintendo 64 holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers. Despite this, homebrew activities have been relatively limited, though devices like the development and backup unit, Doctor V64, or the development and flash-drive cartridge from Retroactive, 64drive, theoretically make running code on a real console easier.
As the official magazine, Nintendo Power helped fuel anticipation for Nintendo’s next great console. Shown here is issue 88, which discussed the console’s pending launch and its killer app, Super Mario 64. www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/nintendo-power/nintendo-power-issue-88#.Ui3ascakp5B.
The newest and perhaps most versatile such device is Krikzz’s Everdrive 64, which claims to run 99 percent of all known Nintendo 64 games, supports both SD and SDHC flash cards, and even includes a built in NES emulator. As a bonus, not only does the Everdrive 64 play games from any region, it can also be used on a Nintendo 64 from any region.
The front side of Krikzz’s Everdrive 64, which not only lets you play region free Nintendo 64 games, but also has a built-in NES emulator.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997, Acclaim)
The Native American warrior Turok dates back to a 1954 Western Publishing and Dell Comics comic book, Four Color Comics #596, which was set in a “lost land” featuring demons, aliens, and dinosaurs. Not long after, the popular character graduated to his own series, eventually ending up in Valiant Comics. Videogame publisher Acclaim, betting its future on internally developed games and licensed merchandise, bought out Valiant Comics and developer Iguana Entertainment in 1994, then set to work on Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the Nintendo 64. Acclaim’s finances were deteriorating rapidly, and Iguana Entertainment came through just in time. The game hit retail outlets late February 1997, stunning gamers with its intricate graphics—among the first to show what the Nintendo 64 was really capable of—and intriguing gameplay, with traditional first person shooter gameplay mixed with adventure game elements. The character controls were surprisingly versatile, and included jumping, swimming, climbing, crawling, and running. While the game spawned multiple sequels on a variety of platforms (delaying Acclaim’s inevitable demise until 2004), none, not even the excellent follow-up, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (1998), could match the impact of the original.
Collecting and Emulating Nintendo 64 Systems
Finding a Nintendo 64, various accessories, and loose games is easy and fairly inexpensive online or off. Boxed systems and, particularly boxed games, hold considerably more value and are more challenging to collect.
One of several later variations of the Nintendo 64 console, this one a limited edition yellow-and-blue console featuring a raised-relief Pikachu on top. The power is turned on by using the Poke Ball on/off switch, and Pikachu’s cheeks light up. Pressing Pickachu’s foot resets the console.
Nintendo 64 systems are made more collectible by their variety of colors (with matching controllers), as well as a series of special editions. The latter includes packages like the Star Wars Episode I Racer Limited Edition Set and the Pikachu Nintendo 64 Set, each themed on its included game. While the latter set was recommended for kids aged 12 and under, it was a particularly impressive bundle, with not only a copy of the Hey You, Pikachu! game cartridge, but also a special interactive console, Voice Recognition Unit and Microphone (only used with the one game), and an animated/talking Pokémon watch. It’s well worth picking up if you happen upon one at a yard sale or flea market.
Wave Race 64 on the Project 64 emulator.
Wave Race 64 (1996, Nintendo)
Wave Race 64 eschewed the top-down perspective of its primitive 1992 predecessor on the Game Boy, Wave Race, for a thrilling new third-person perspective. Boasting accurate wave physics, Wave Race 64 had some of the most realistic water effects of its era, adding to the excitement of its various race modes. Excellent controls made racing the jet skis or performing crazy stunts a pleasure rather than a pain. Wave Race 64’s sequel, Wave Race: Blue Storm, appeared on the GameCube in 2001. Blue Storm had even better water effects, but few other improvements over its predecessor. In fact, in some ways the series took a serious step back when many players found the game’s overly sensitive controls difficult to wrangle, particularly in comparison to its finely-tuned predecessor.
For those not into the intricacies and expense of physical items, there’s always emulation. While the earliest emulators, like UltraHLE, released in 1999, showed how much a higher resolution favored the Nintendo 64’s games, compatibility wasn’t always the greatest. Luckily, that began to change to the point where the emulators that are available today not only offer improved resolutions and smoother gameplay, but are also highly compatible.
Two of the best modern emulators are 1964 UltraFast and Project64, each of which runs on Windows PCs. Of course, many other emulators are available that also support other platforms, including Macintosh, Linux, and Android.
The Project64 emulator running Super Mario 64.
Perhaps the easiest way to get your Nintendo 64 fix today, however, is through Nintendo’s official Virtual Console digital store for the Wii and Wii U. While the selection is not particularly robust, new games are added on a regular basis and are relatively inexpensive, although you will need a Wii Classic Controller (Original or Pro) to join in on the fun.
1 http://wayback.archive.org/web/20090207173139/http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php?id=214&title=Interview:%20Tom%20Kalinske.
2 Richard L. Brandt, “Nintendo Battles for its Life,” Upside, 7.10, 1995, p. 50.
3 Because of all the extra technology packed into the cartridge, it’s actually noticeably heavier than other games for the system.
4 Richard L. Brandt, “Nintendo Battles for its Life,” Upside, 7.10, 1995, p. 50.
5 http://web.archive.org/web/20060221044930/http://www.ownt.com/qtakes/2003/gamestats/gamestats.shtm.
6 “Sega Dreamcast Sales Outstrip Expectations in N. America,” Comline Computers, 1999.