Yeah I know that N64 is zombified, it's my 2nd unit, used only for imports or to scare unsuspecting guests
YOu want to scare guests, put some ketchup on there and a little voice chip going brains and have a green led inside the port and vent. That'll do it, as it's messed up enough to work.
I found a better way around chopping one up or even flipping the backs off dollar games, just going to be a matter of time now.
Two more: Army Men Air Combat and Battletanx: Global Assault.
Wrangled up 2 cheap N64 games of interest today - Nightmare Creatures which is fantastic and then Hybrid Heaven. First I'm enjoying so far did one stage, but did 1-1 on HH so far and I can't tell if the game is just absurdly hard or badly aged because the first dude I ran across in 1-2 killed me. I can't recall if I ever finished that back in the 90s but I did own it before.
I came across a couple copies of MK Mythologies but at $15 and $18 I left it though the 18 was CIB. I just need to know if it sucks or not on my own merits before bothering.
I like the Star Wars games on the N64. My favorite is Rogue Squadron.
You can also pick up Shadows of the Empire and Battle for Naboo for pretty cheap.
Shadows is my favorite and if I ever get in a mood for racing much again the Episode 1 racer is the best thing to come out of that movie. Rogue isn't bad, but it has some flaws that bug me they cleaned up in the sequel, and the main one being that you don't know clearly what the objectives are per map and can easily fail them for what appears to be no good reason and quite instantly. The GC titles list all the objectives and knock them off as you do them, but that said it's a quality game still. I never got into the Naboo one, but I only recall tooling around in some ground car like thing shooting droids and getting bored. I still truly believe bugs aside Indiana Jones was Factor 5's best effort for the N64.
Speaking of which while it's easy to be a tool and pay around $30 for it, you can fairly easily get Indiana JOnes and the Infernal Machine for $20 on ebay with a little effort, easier though in a lot with another game or two to dilute the value. If you do get it, just remember to save often as it likes to crash for no good reason other than to infuriate you because Lucas refused to let it have a complete team to finish it on time so it got shoveled out as is which is even kind of mind blowing NIntendo would have allowed that. I met the last man standing on that project at E3 in 2000 and he was furious the more he told me about the development cycle on it.
Last edited by Tanooki; 10-10-2015 at 11:28 PM.
Rogue Squadron is still my favorite. It looked pretty good with the RAM upgrade.
Rogue Squadron 2 is the game that sold me on buying my Gamecube.
Those Star Wars exclusives were the last time Nintendo had a good third-party relationship. Mostly the work of Howard Lincoln, I believe.
Transformers Beast Wars, the Japanese version only, is really not that bad of a fighting game. But it is the Japan version that is a lot better than the US version. There is a difference in the way the camera pans during the fight which changes the whole strategy of the game play. This game sells for around $10 on eBay and many time that is with free shipping.
If you are a fan then you might get into it.
Last edited by retro junkie; 10-11-2015 at 07:13 AM.
I think you're relatively right about Howard Lincoln, despite NCL interference he was able to wrangle up some really nice exclusives or partial (PC+Nintendo) exclusives back with the N64, some of those relations trickled into the GC as well, but once he was out and that moron chia pet head was in along with Iwata in Japan it was sayounara to the good stuff. N64 despite being spanked by the PS1 and the GC too by the PS2 they both had healthy third party support (more on GC for 1/2 it's life or so than N64 which was book-ended other than US companies like Midway and Activision.) If you roll down the line of exclusive third party games N64 was more or less the last, and then with non-exclusive but ports unlike N64 FC got quite a bit of really solid goodies of which at enough times it was the best release too.
Ever since Nintendo went into the self centered design+disrupting the market racket instead of fostering relationships and being unique in smaller better ways they fell off the deep end. If the Wii hadn't been so much of an anomaly that grannies and non-gaming adults bought it by the tens of millions they would have been rightly and bluntly put...fucked.
Anyway back on topic =) I over spent this weekend a bit so my wallet is pretty sad looking now. Yesterday for $10 was Hybrid Heaven and the awesome better version of Nightmare Creatures -- but today for another $20 was Fighting Force 64 and Hexen which I've neither touched before (slight DOS play with Hexen like 20 years ago though.) Can't wait to dig into that stuff here shortly. Non-related in my vintage toy buying stuff I pissed another $30 on that too with a metal 1940s~ toy phone yesterday for $10 and today with the box(wrecked) for $20 a Secret Agent Hideaway Pistol (it's a cap gun, never fired, based on the derringer which I think may just stay on my desk for coolness value.
I did forget how much at times N64 got the good stuff when it came from certain developers if you were into specific genres. iD games made it in force on the N64 and it was a mixed bag of shared name but new stages/content and also ports with DOOM, Hexen, Quake(port), Quake 2 (unique) and then non-iD were those Duke Nukem titles I hear ok things about (at least one of them.) Also if you loved racing games there's quite a lot too from more realistic like with World Driver Championship to the more future (Extreme G 1+2) or just karting or weird like South Park and Mario Kart. In a sad way the N64 was overlooked but it was very much the frat boy dude box given the hell of a lot of FPS, Sports, and Racing games it had along with some fighting titltes too and seeing N64s as I did in college there was no doubt.
7 HOURS LATER -- I get to finally playing Hexen 64, I haven't touhed Hexen the PC version and even then barely in the mid 90s when it came out. I remember it, I looked it up even. I am strongly questioning why the hell this game got rated into such mediocrity?? It it because it's a modded DOOM engine ported to N64 and not a 3D setup like DOOM64 was? Controls work, environments are gloomy and evil with the same low/high? level detail that the PC version in DOS had. Sure it's a memory card pig eating up nearly an entire one for a save game (wtf?!) but other than that what's the deal? It's hard. Even on easy it's hard especially until you end up getting your first projectile weapon as you go for a bit at first going with your hand melee weapon only. Perhaps people were just too turned on by the early 3D stuff like Quake did on PC or the edgy mouth of Duke Nukem but it's actually solid, takes some brain power to figure out how to get around (and not die too.) Underrated game for $5 that's for certain.
Fighting Force i played into at least stage 4, had a couple saves (seems to do it every 2 stages with a boss fight.) Game plays shockingly well, a nice 3D style Final FIght/Streets of Rage(perhaps more this due to the cop stuff) all the way. It can get some cheap moments if you're surrounded but just don't, or use that nasty backhand that always connects, turns you 180 around and allows a nice can of whoop ass to get laid down. FOr the period, solid graphics and audio along with good areas and a good bit of people and breakables in every place along with weapons. I kind of feel like I screwed up ignoring this one being unsure back in the 90s, but hey at least it's fresh now right? I can recommend this one too.
Last edited by Tanooki; 10-11-2015 at 08:11 PM.
Command and Conquer on 64. I know it's not the best port of the game, but a the time it was pretty damn fun ( i didn't have a computer when that game came out). Even still I enjoy playing it from time to time.
Good called MBuster, same with Starcraft 64 which had even the expansion pack brood war and more but it's a $40 game sadly.
...again with the friday the 13th hatchet victim looking N64, at least it's the right month for it.
* Mission Impossible - is an underrated title. I actually had a lot of fun with that one.
* Pokemon Puzzle League - it's basically just Tetris Attack but its super addicting.
* Chameleon Twist 1 & 2 - Fantastic platformers though they're painfully short in length.
* Glover - Another good platformer that gets too often forgotten.
* South Park Chef's Luv Shack - I am an avid fan of South Park and I found this game hilarious while playing with friends. Get a group of 4 or more people together, pop open some beers, and have a laugh.
* WinBack - Very similar to Metal Gear, is an okay game.
There's actually a lot of unearthed gems I've found on Nintendo 64. Mischief Makers, Beetle Adventure Racing, Snowboard Kids, Space Station Silicon Valley, all great games.
I thought of some I recall being recommended in the day but I've no experience with -- Rocket Robot on Wheels and Tonic Trouble both platformers. I haven't looked to ebay to see if they break the 20 dollar mark but I remember them being talked up.
Hey I want to put it out there since I had mentioned the look and cheap price of World Driving Championship awhile ago in this thread -- do not buy it. As far as car games go it has some physics and punishment problems with it that are fairly unfair. If you want a car on a dry road to take a turn like you're on ice, and if you like that the AI can hit you and make your car either nearly stop or spin around/ping pong off of walls while it just takes off, then it's for you, otherwise buy it for a buck or two like I did today and use it for replacement parts.
Oh that when I went in and snapped it up for the metal bracket inside, 4 screws, the back plate and the plastic black piece when I was there to get Kirby 64. I won't go into it, I'd be breaking the threads rules. :P
Last edited by Tanooki; 10-12-2015 at 08:22 PM.
I really liked World Driver Championship. Great graphics and a lot of car and track variety. The physics are challenging and the AI put up a good fight, but the only issues I remember are no car licenses (Doesn't matter to me) and the soundtrack isn't very good.
I usually mute the music and run the audio of that one through a contraption I've made to mix music from my MP3 player to the game's audio, allowing the combined output to be sent to my tv's speakers. Goes well with soundtracks like that of Outrun or Top Gear from the SuperNes.
Its career mode is excellent and one that I haven't seen equaled since then.
I more or less totally agree down to the career as it is fantastic but those issues make it just unplayablely unenjoyable to me sadly and yes the letterbox high resolution mode was awesome.