Which classic system did you find to be the largest disappointment?

[Nostalgicblight]

Well, I must admit: My beliefs (not that anyone has to agree) on a worthwhile console are that it must play the titles specifically made for that particular platform, and it must play it well. All other titles aren't left to the system, they are left to the developers. I couldn't really blame the sh**y titles for making the system itself a piece. The N64 at least made its games run smoothly.

[smokehouse]

Super Castlevania IV for the SNES has one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever and that game was on a 1 MB cartridge. Ninja Gaiden for the NES also has one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever and that game was on a <512 KB cartridge. Good music is good music, no mater what format it's on.

Regarding your screen shots, they are all low resolution, riddled with compression artifacts, and were captured using outdated equipment. We all know those games look much better in reality. Nice try though.


Ok smart ass, how about this then. Theses are shots taken by my capture card for some reviews I wrote:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/Game%20reviews/SMB%20RPG/PM-1-title.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/Game%20reviews/SMB%20RPG/PM-1-level.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/Game%20reviews/SMB%20RPG/PM-1-battle.jpg

For comparison these are scans I took from the GameCube using the SAME capture card and the same S-Vid cable:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/Game%20reviews/SMB%20RPG/PM-2-title.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/Game%20reviews/SMB%20RPG/PM-2-Level-2.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/Game%20reviews/SMB%20RPG/PM-2-Fight.jpg

How can you tell me the N64 was not blurry even on a game that had the anti-aliasing toned down? These pictures were not doctored in any way, the N64's output was just that bad.


On top of that, your soundtrack comparison is absurd. Sure, Castlevania IV was great…compared to the Genesis and for 1991. Compared to Symphony of the Night…it doesn’t compare. Why? Years of advancement.

The same goes for a NES cart, what was superb in 1992 is not so hot today. You might as well take that approach to everything. In that case, Laserdisc is still the shit and is up to par with HDDVD... Things change and what was top of the line at one time becomes yesterday's news at some point. The bleeps and blips of early systems cannot compare to what's available today.

Comparing apples to apples, it’s the PS1-vs-the N64. To this day the PS1 is considered a great CD player and the same went with many of its game soundtracks…something the N64 simply could not do.







































(Man, I just new badmouthing the N64 would stir up the fanboys...you can't say anything bad about that or the Dreamcast on this board without some nut blindly defending it...)

[RPG_Fanatic]

Hey smokehouse HAPPYBIRTHDAY:bday:
it says on the bottom of the fourms page that your 30 today. You should be out getting drunk right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rob2600]

...your soundtrack comparison is absurd. Sure, Castlevania IV was great…compared to the Genesis and for 1991. Compared to Symphony of the Night…it doesn’t compare. Why? Years of advancement.

The same goes for a NES cart, what was superb in 1992 is not so hot today. You might as well take that approach to everything. In that case, Laserdisc is still the shit and is up to par with HDDVD... Things change and what was top of the line at one time becomes yesterday's news at some point. The bleeps and blips of early systems cannot compare to what's available today.

By your logic, all music from the 1950s and 60s is garbage and all music from today is amazing, just because recording technology has advanced. Would you say Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys are better the Beatles and the Rolling Stones? After all, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys record their music digitally on computers. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones used analog 4-track magnetic tape from decades ago.

You're looking at video game music as tech specs. I'm looking at it as art.

Your screen shots of Paper Mario for N64 still don't portray how the game looks in reality. On my TV, a 27" standard definition Panasonic from 1999 with S-video, the characters and the text are crisp and clear.

[Kid Ice]

(Man, I just new badmouthing the N64 would stir up the fanboys...you can't say anything bad about that or the Dreamcast on this board without some nut blindly defending it...)

They're both good systems with great games. If you want to say the N64 was a disappointment, there are a number of good reasons to be disappointed. If you want to say it was the largest disappointment for you personally, you may have your reasons. "Disappointment" is 100% subjective, so you can say you were disappointed by just about anything.

What I don't get are the attacks on the N64 catalog and the idea that it "didn't have any good games". That's just ridiculous. The N64 thing started with someone stating it had "crap games". It's pretty hard to believe someone can play a bunch of Nintendo first party games for ANY one of their consoles and call them "crap". Next you inform us that you DESPISE the N64. If you want to attack the system so emphatically, just be prepared for people to disagree.

[sabre2922]

First off...re-read my post...or I'll just quote it for you:

"The N64 mostly had a library of garbage titles save a scant few worth mentioning, the graphics were blurry on most titles and the music was crap as well (thanks cart format)."

I went ahead a took the guesswork out for you via the highlighted areas.

I said MOST...not ALL...there is a distinct difference between the two.

As for the games you listed amd them not having blurry graphics...
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/temp/banjo_kazooie.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/temp/beetle_adventure_racing.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/temp/excitebike_64.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/temp/GoldenEYE.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/temp/legend_of_zelda_ocarina_of_time_the.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/temp/star_fox_64.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/smokehouse/temp/super_mario_64.jpg

You need to take off your rose colored fanboy glasses my friend. I am a lover of Nintendo and even I can admit that the N64 was a failure graphically. I don’t care about the potential, I care about the results. The N64 library is made up of MOSTLY (there’s that word again kid-o) blurry titles with overused anti aliasing. I don’t’ care what you think, if a picture speaks a thousand words then I just spoke 7000 of them.

BLURRY-ASS-GRAPHICS…


As for the sound…how you can even compare a cart based system to a CD based system is beyond me. Most PS1 games had soundtracks simply too large for the N64’s cart. Once again,

PS1 CD- 600 Megabytes
N64 cart- 512 Megabits

Big difference…Games like Symphony of the Night and it’s amazing soundtrack were simply too large for the N64 without being altered or compressed all to hell.


Nuff said, circle gets the square.

Agreed once again

You made many of the points I was going to make.


Also Rob2600 made a comment in a previous post that those games look better than said pix and my response to that is NO THEY DONT just try playing N64 on a modern SD (standard Def) TV and see what ya get = BLURRY FREAKING GRAPHICS thats what.
Ill take the PSones "jaggys" over fog filled blurrrrr any day.


In all respect Rob2600 your defense of the N64 is admirable but it has many signs of "fanboy fanatacism" written all over it.

The N64 was a decent game system from what is possibly the best GAME DEVELOPER of all time and that in itself should speak volumes.

For a company like Nintendo to release a "technically challenged" game console like the N64 after the great tech designs of both the NES and especially the SNES was a terrible let down to many gamers period.

The N64 was NOT almighty powerful even back then as you have stated in one of your previous posts it was powerful on PAPER AND THEORETICALLY but most of the games had enlarged polygons that were antialased TO DEATH......with very low polygon counts making up the majority of the fog filled environments.


------------------------------------------

Oh ya Im not finished yet:yipes:

The Gamecube is actually my favorite Nintendo system next to the SNES and I think of the Gamecube as the system that the N64 SHOULD HAVE BEEN but it was just a few years to late and after the big sharks Sony and Microsoft had jumped in and Sega had bowed out and changed everything.

-------------------------------------------------

In response to your downing the PS2:

Also the Playstation 2 is one of the best consoles ever released* for any TRUE gamer if nothing else than for its incredibly large and diverse library of all kinds of game genres and if you hate on the PS2 to the point that you deprived yourself of many of the greatest AAA games ever released on ANY console since the 16-bit era then you truly are a fanboy.

* I am a gamer I go where the games are. that is all.

[sabre2922]

(Man, I just new badmouthing the N64 would stir up the fanboys...you can't say anything bad about that or the Dreamcast on this board without some nut blindly defending it...)

Actually I USED to be a devoted Dreamcast "fanboy" but I could always understand and even agree with many of the criticisms that gamers had about the old DC.

The most hardcore fanboys (and yes I hate using that term/label or whatever but its the only real defining way to describe it) are the Halo and Nintendo elite although I think the latter are sometimes more scary than the "Halo kids" as I like to call them:evil laugh:

[Kid Ice]

Also the Playstation 2 is one of the best consoles ever released* for any TRUE gamer if nothing else than for its incredibly large and diverse library of all kinds of game genres and if you hate on the PS2 to the point that you deprived yourself of many of the greatest AAA games ever released on ANY console since the 16-bit era then you truly are a fanboy.

* I am a gamer I go where the games are. that is all.

I thought the * was going to be for a disclaimer.

But seriously, tell us what a TRUE gamer is. I don't want to sit around here being an UNTRUE gamer playing my N64.

[sabre2922]

I thought the * was going to be for a disclaimer.

But seriously, tell us what a TRUE gamer is. I don't want to sit around here being an UNTRUE gamer playing my N64.

Heh I thought that would get lost in translation.

That was not meant to be in any way tied into the N64 debate but was a response to some of those that threw in some of the PS2 hate in recent posts in this thread.

Not to hijack this thread but my point was this:

I cant believe that any gamer that IS NOT A FANBOY can hate on a system like the PS2, Xbox or Gamecube in any way.


The PS2 especially with its incredible game library with both PSone classics and PS2 games.

[bangtango]

They're both good systems with great games. If you want to say the N64 was a disappointment, there are a number of good reasons to be disappointed. If you want to say it was the largest disappointment for you personally, you may have your reasons. "Disappointment" is 100% subjective, so you can say you were disappointed by just about anything.

What I don't get are the attacks on the N64 catalog and the idea that it "didn't have any good games". That's just ridiculous. The N64 thing started with someone stating it had "crap games". It's pretty hard to believe someone can play a bunch of Nintendo first party games for ANY one of their consoles and call them "crap". Next you inform us that you DESPISE the N64. If you want to attack the system so emphatically, just be prepared for people to disagree.

I am one of those people who will disagree, not with you but the guy you quoted.

I believe Nintendo delivered on their promises concerning their first-party games, like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. Leading up to the N64 launch, they were claiming in Nintendo Power that those games were going to be unlike anything we had ever seen before (given when they were released). Nintendo said those games would be revolutionary, an entirely new experience for gamers. I still have a Nintendo Power issue saying that Mario 64 was going to change the way platform games were played. I'd say what we ended up getting was fairly accurate. Some may disagree with that assessment but that's what I think. Fact is, I wasn't even "ready" for Mario 64 and Zelda: OOT when they came out, that is how different the experience was. As a gamer who grew up on 8-bit and 16-bit systems, with 2D games, Nintendo put out something I could hardly comprehend at the time. That doesn't sound like a disappointment.

Nintendo did pretty well against the PS1 considering Sony had a shitload of third party games that never ended up on the N64. Shit, even the Saturn had third party games that never made it to N64. Let's see. Nintendo used the cartridge format, N64 games took forever to come out, the games cost a ton, the N64 missed out on several third party titles. Yet the Nintendo 64 managed to hang in there.

The fact that Tony Hawk 3 got ported on there months after web sites and magazines were claiming the system was dead is some proof to the legs that the N64 had. Some guy in a suit who made that decision knew damn well a reasonable amount of people would still buy an N64 game in 2002 and that they still had the system.

About the cost of N64 carts being high and the library being small, that isn't such a bad thing. Yeah, I can just see the executives at Nintendo crying in their beer over not getting versions of $9 bullshit budget titles like Kiss Pinball, Spec Ops, Racing and Saltwater Sportfishing. I had an N64 before getting a PS1 and around Christmas, I was guaranteed to get an AAA game, usually something with Mario, Donkey Kong or Link in it. All because those were the only N64 games on a shelf at times. Meanwhile, a lot of my friends who had PS1's would always bitch to me a day or two later about getting stuff like Kiss Pinball or Austin Powers under the tree just because garbage like that was all over the store and it was priced so cheap ROFL

[RPG_Fanatic]

i love how so many threads here turns into a "my system is better than your system" you guys make me laugh...I'm going to go play Mario 64 and a little Final Fantasy VII.

[Kid Ice]

i love how so many threads here turns into a "my system is better than your system" you guys make me laugh...I'm going to go play Mario 64 and a little Final Fantasy VII.

If that's true could you link us to a few of them? Thanks.


I cant believe that any gamer that IS NOT A FANBOY can hate on a system like the PS2, Xbox or Gamecube in any way.


The PS2 especially with its incredible game library with both PSone classics and PS2 games.

That quote kind of speaks for itself.

[sabre2922]

That quote kind of speaks for itself.


OK man so now IM A FUCKING FANBOY?

Why?? because I dont think that the N64 was a godsend and was an overall dissapointment but I DO think that a console that has what is probably THE BEST VARIETY AND SELECTION OF ANY HOME CONSOLE EVER MADE IS ?

IM all about the games and the PS2 has THE FUCKING GAMES so did Xbox 1 and to a slightly lesser extent the GAMECUBE and it had a HELL of a lot more good games overall than the N64 did.

The PSone and even Saturn had a larger selection of good to great games than the N64 did.

I highly doubt you would have made that comment about me if I had been defending the good ol N64 tooth and nail would you?

CALL me a FUCKING fanboy all you want but If liking a game console for nothing other than the quality and sheer numbers of games it provides and NOT based on blind love for anything branded NINTENDO OR MICROSOFT OR SONY is being a fanboy then so be it.

YOU my friend must have taken offense to my above posts for SOME REASON as they certainly werent DIRECTLY POINTED AT YOU.

[zektor]

Wow, you guys need to take a chill pill. My take on the N64:

Yep, it was blurry for the most part. I guess the hardware dev team thought that super anti-aliasing was the way to beat the PS1...no jaggies!

But, who the hell cares? I loved the N64. SM64 was fantastic. F-Zero was awesome. I was also involved in the dev scene at that time, and saw some amazing things created on the N64...but that is probably something that many have not experienced.

Is it the kill all console? No. Did it have a slew of really great games? No, not in my opinion. But, it did have a select bunch of titles that I will always love and remember, and it holds it's place as the last manufactured cartridge based home console (right?).

Either way, it's all good. Fun is the reason we even do this...remember that guys and gals.

[Rob2600]

I'll take the PSones "jaggys" over fog filled blurrrrr any day. ... The N64 was NOT almighty powerful even back then as you have stated in one of your previous posts it was powerful on PAPER AND THEORETICALLY but most of the games had enlarged polygons that were antialased TO DEATH......with very low polygon counts making up the majority of the fog filled environments.

What are you talking about? When comparing games that were released on both the Nintendo 64 and the Sony PlayStation, the Nintendo 64 versions almost always had better graphics (Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Shadow Man, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Resident Evil 2, Quake II, Madden NFL, F1 World Grand Prix, Nightmare Creatures, etc.)


I can just see the executives at Nintendo crying in their beer over not getting versions of $9 bullshit budget titles like Kiss Pinball, Spec Ops, Racing and Saltwater Sportfishing... a lot of my friends who had PS1's would always bitch to me a day or two later about getting stuff like Kiss Pinball or Austin Powers under the tree just because garbage like that was all over the store and it was priced so cheap

Don't forget Spice World, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, Irritating Stick, and The Flintstones: Bedrock Bowling, which had nothing to do with bowling.

[sabre2922]

Wow, you guys need to take a chill pill.


Naaa this is too fun :angel:

[Push Upstairs]

(Man, I just new badmouthing the N64 would stir up the fanboys...you can't say anything bad about that or the Dreamcast on this board without some nut blindly defending it...)

I'm a SEGA devotee and the Dreamcast is near the bottom of my favorite SEGA console list. The games just weren't there for me...aside from "Power Stone 2".

Also, I'd own a Gamecube but I'll never touch an N64 ever again.

[Kid Ice]

OK man so now IM A FUCKING FANBOY?

Why?? because I dont think that the N64 was a godsend and was an overall dissapointment but I DO think that a console that has what is probably THE BEST VARIETY AND SELECTION OF ANY HOME CONSOLE EVER MADE IS ?

I thought the lack of Silent Hill games on the N64 was appalling.

[smokehouse]

By your logic, all music from the 1950s and 60s is garbage and all music from today is amazing, just because recording technology has advanced. Would you say Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys are better the Beatles and the Rolling Stones? After all, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys record their music digitally on computers. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones used analog 4-track magnetic tape from decades ago.

You're looking at video game music as tech specs. I'm looking at it as art.

Your screen shots of Paper Mario for N64 still don't portray how the game looks in reality. On my TV, a 27" standard definition Panasonic from 1999 with S-video, the characters and the text are crisp and clear.


Once again you’re comparing something entirely different here. Your use of the 50’s music-vs-modern music is completely off from what we’re talking about here. I happen to be a fan of analog music thinking it’s far better than digital. Thus my extensive record collection.

With that aside you’re still comparing the blips and blurts of the early consoles to the CD and multichannel DVD audio found today…

Give most people a CD with real music and one with 8-bit mono recorded NES sound chip blips and see which one most choose.





As for the video grabs…you must have one hell of a TV my friend…you win.

Look at the grab from the GC and then the N64. Other than being a bit bright (I told you I did no doctoring of the pics), the GC shot is completely clear. Like I said, I used the same damn cable for both simply unplugging one from the N64 and moving it to the GC. The shots are accurate. As for your magical TV, I have a 32” Proscan, 32” Sony Wega and a 51” Hitachi HD set and all look the same with the N64…fuzzy.

[smokehouse]

What I don't get are the attacks on the N64 catalog and the idea that it "didn't have any good games". That's just ridiculous. The N64 thing started with someone stating it had "crap games". It's pretty hard to believe someone can play a bunch of Nintendo first party games for ANY one of their consoles and call them "crap". Next you inform us that you DESPISE the N64. If you want to attack the system so emphatically, just be prepared for people to disagree.

Here’s my comment that started all of this:


The N64 mostly had a library of garbage titles save a scant few worth mentioning, the graphics were blurry on most titles and the music was crap as well (thanks cart format). I also hate the controller with a passion.

I then followed with this:


I said MOST...not ALL...there is a distinct difference between the two.

There are good N64 titles…they’re just few and far between. Consider me a person that looks forward a bit. I look at games as “Will this be fun in 15 years?”. Classic titles like Mega Man, Mario, Metroid, Sonic, Final Fantasy really never loose their fun factor. Most the the N64 library consists of racing sims, sports sims, FPS titles and other games that are instantly outdated the second something better comes along. Most N64 racing titles (and PS1 racing titles for that matter) look so shitty now, they’re almost impossible to play without constantly think “Man, this game looks like shit”. A large majority of the N64 library is now so defunct, most will play something modern to get their fix.

If someone wants to play Hydro Thunder…will they reach for the N64 cart or the near perfect arcade translation found on Midway’s Arcade Treasures 3? This is what I’m talking about. The same can be said for the PS1…how many will reach for Gran Turismo instead of Gran Turismo 2 or 3…or HD?

My point is that there are some games that are instant classics like Mario 64, the two Zelda titles, Paper Mario and others but compared to the rest of the N64 library, it’s mostly only the Nintendo produced titles that are still playable.


Thus the “mostly crap” statement.

[Kid Ice]

My point is that there are some games that are instant classics like Mario 64, the two Zelda titles, Paper Mario and others but compared to the rest of the N64 library, it’s mostly only the Nintendo produced titles that are still playable.


Thus the “mostly crap” statement.

OK...is that so different than the other Nintendo systems? Using that logic I could say the NES and SNES libraries were "mostly crap".

Actually if you look at the VCS and Playstation libraries, they were mostly crap too. IMO if a system has more than 100 games and 25% or more are good, you have a nice system there.

But like I said, if you're disappointed you're disappointed and no one's going to talk you out of that. And yes the graphics are blurry. Can we move on now? This used to be a good thread.

[j_factor]

OK...is that so different than the other Nintendo systems? Using that logic I could say the NES and SNES libraries were "mostly crap".

I suppose you could say anything, but if you did say that, I don't think many people would agree with you, even if they did agree with the logic. "It’s mostly only the Nintendo produced titles that are still playable" is definitely not a statement true of NES or SNES.

[smokehouse]

OK...is that so different than the other Nintendo systems? Using that logic I could say the NES and SNES libraries were "mostly crap".

Actually if you look at the VCS and Playstation libraries, they were mostly crap too. IMO if a system has more than 100 games and 25% or more are good, you have a nice system there.

But like I said, if you're disappointed you're disappointed and no one's going to talk you out of that. And yes the graphics are blurry. Can we move on now? This used to be a good thread.

I agree that it is all personal opinion but personally, I can’t find 100 N64 titles I consider “decent”. I can for the NES and SNES however…

I also consider the Master System, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast, Game Cube, XBOX, 3DO, TG-16 and others to be in the same boat. All have good games worth playing but not a single one has 100 titles that I consider good. Hell, most of those don’t even have 25 titles I consider decent.




I will stop with the N64 bashing though…I got a bit carried away. I’m just so passionate about Nintendo that I was deeply scarred by the N64. I know that sounds lame but figuring that to this day I think that the SNES is still the best system ever released, I had HIGH hopes for it’s successor only to be let down in a huge way.

[courtesi96]

I think the INTV and Coleco were my biggest disappointments. The controllers absolutely sucked! The games were great but it would get to a point where I would seriously ask myself, "Sure the graphics will suck, but at least the 2600 version doesn't cause pain."

[Fuyukaze]

Genesis or the Game Gear. The Genesis has great games but sadly they are few and far between. I've managed to get around 70 or so and still havent found any that wow me as much as many SNES titles do.

I'd have said the N64 because it's lack of RPGs but for some reason I dont mind it. Actualy, I think it's more to do with how I've generaly glossed over the entire existance of the system in general. Out of sight, out of mind eh? Even if there were 30 games tops I'd want to own let alone call good.

[Nostalgicblight]

They're both good systems with great games. If you want to say the N64 was a disappointment, there are a number of good reasons to be disappointed. If you want to say it was the largest disappointment for you personally, you may have your reasons. "Disappointment" is 100% subjective, so you can say you were disappointed by just about anything.

Well, I believe this man spoke the truth (which may also be subjective), but I find it quite amusing that this has nearly turned into a war between an assumed "fanboy" and a birthday boy. Gratz on thirty, by the way. I mean, if everyone would stop dogging for a moment, maybe another system could be brought to light, like the obvious Virtual Boy or something. Amazing. Simply amazing behavior.:2gunfire::texaschain:

Almost like the cats in my neighborhood.

[ApolloBoy]

I'm kinda tempted to say the N64 as well, since I never really enjoyed playing it much during its heyday, but I think the Odyssey 2 is the most disappointing system I've ever had. IMO, the games are generic-looking, too easy and slightly too repetitive for my tastes. I considered selling it once, until I realized nobody really wants an O2.

[Kid Ice]

Well, I believe this man spoke the truth (which may also be subjective), but I find it quite amusing that this has nearly turned into a war between an assumed "fanboy" and a birthday boy. Gratz on thirty, by the way. I mean, if everyone would stop dogging for a moment, maybe another system could be brought to light, like the obvious Virtual Boy or something. Amazing. Simply amazing behavior.:2gunfire::texaschain:

Almost like the cats in my neighborhood.

Actually I thought it was a reasonable argument. But it's behind us now.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

A lot of people say the N64... and I can see why- I think. But I recently sold my original PSX... And I guess, personally, it wasn't my favorite system. I got it way after I got my N64... which I still love... and I played quite a few games on it, but most of the popular games were very single player friendly... Tomb Raider series... resident evils... dino crisis... RPG's... Metal Gear... (I'm not including more MP friendly sports titles which I don't get must use from) And the thing that really was cool about the N64 were the multplayer games... I came right out of the package ready to do the 4 player thing... It was a very community friendly system... I had 4 brothers at home and only one game system could be played at a time (so it was the one that got the most use). Then I went to college, and the system became very central, socially, on our dorm floor (hours upon hours of countless Bond and Perfect Dark Matches)... And again a lot of the good games on PSX were single player titles. So evetually I stopped playing my playstation long before I stopped playing my N64, and it turns out my PS collected more dust than any other system I've bought... Which may be why I never got a PS2. Again, not saying the PS was a bad system, the N64 just had some great multiplayer games when I needed a system to be more socially friendly.

[Aussie2B]

Sheesh, I don't know what's more sad and pathetic, the entire library of music available on the cartridge medium being labeled as "blips and blurts", especially the brilliant composition of Castlevania IV, or that Final Fantasy VII is mentioned at the same time as if it's so infinitely superior. It's almost laughable.

News flash: Final Fantasy VII has MIDI music. The majority of the PlayStation library does, and even plenty of PS2 games do too. Not only did FFVII use MIDI, but it used some of the most pathetic, poor quality synth of any notable PlayStation title. Many N64 titles, however, used really top quality samples that sound more realistic than much of what's on PlayStation. Also, there is plenty of N64 music that has recorded snippets inserted here and there to make it not sound 100% programmed.

I'm just pulling this out of my ass, but I'd venture to say that the Sega CD library, and maybe even the Turbo/PC Engine CD-ROM library, has a higher percentage of use of redbook audio than the PlayStation.

But in the end, audio quality doesn't matter because good composition is good composition regardless of what tools the composers used, and limitations often bring out the best in music when a person is challenged to do the best with what they have. If N64 has "crap music", and even older video game music is even worse by your standards, well, then, I guess I love listening to crap because I've spent hundreds of dollars buying the official soundtracks for Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, F-Zero X, plenty of soundtracks for SNES and weaker systems, and I'm looking to get many, many more.

[Rob2600]

Amen, Aussie2B. To quote an earlier post I made in this thread, "Super Castlevania IV for the SNES has one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever and that game was on a 1 MB cartridge. Ninja Gaiden for the NES also has one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever and that game was on a <512 KB cartridge. Good music is good music, no mater what format it's on."

[kirin jensen]

I'm kinda tempted to say the N64 as well, since I never really enjoyed playing it much during its heyday, but I think the Odyssey 2 is the most disappointing system I've ever had. IMO, the games are generic-looking, too easy and slightly too repetitive for my tastes. I considered selling it once, until I realized nobody really wants an O2.

Okay, this is the third O2 vote, so let me ask those of you who listed it:

1) What games did you actually have/play for it?

2) Have you played the Challenger sreries of games?

3) Did you try any of the homebrews?

[Superman]

The only thing I was dissapointed with was the Gameboy Advance. It was very similar to the Gameboy Color and there still wasn't backlight so you were limited to playing it during the day, trying to play it under a light source or getting a light add on.

[Greg2600]

Wow, I just read this post, after posting about the Jaguar many moons ago, and was shocked by the livid debate over the N64. I simply cannot call it a disappointment compared to so many of the other bomb systems, like everything Atari after the 2600, 3DO, Neo Geo, everything Sega after the Genesis, and God Forbid if you spent hundreds of dollars on a PS3 already. Goldeneye, Mario, Mariokart, Rush 2, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, to name a few which I played a ton. N64 was top notch for the first few years. The only stinker was the lack of cinematic cutscenes, which were available on the Playstation. However, the PS1 games were of much poorer graphics. I never had a problem, back then, with the N64's blurriness or the sound/music.

Now, some titles, particularly follow ups, greatly disappointed me personally. Rush 2049 to follow Rush 2, Perfect Dark and TWINE to follow Goldeneye, and the god aweful EA WCW games. Nintendo's first party games were a disappointment after the first batch. Would have loved another Mario 64 or Mario Kart, or any Punch out or Metroid. I recall a running joke with my friend was that we'd go to Blockbuster, and look at all the N64 games, and see nothing interested us at all. So I would agree that the ratio of bad games was high.

However, Playstation had a mountain of bad games. When a PC PS1 emulator became readily possible, I got a bunch of PS1 games I always wanted to play and tried them, and quickly couldn't believe how bad they were. PS1 did have a lot of PC/CD game ports, which was nice, but playing the PC versions were better graphically and had network play.

Morale of the story? N64 was not Nintendo's finest, but it was still a good system with a few very good games. Many of which were absolutely break throughs in gaming technology and play. Cannot be as disappointing as systems like the Jaguar, which was so highly billed, yet was ghastly. Or the Dreamcast, which people still rave about, but SEGA betrayed them all on.

[Aswald]

The Sega Genesis.

At a short-lived second-hand store down in town (most of them are), They had one that was defective. It turned out to be a cracked circuit board; easy enough to fix. It was given to me, if I could fix it, it was mine.

I brought it back a couple of months later. It had nothing that really impressed me; quite frankly, the whole 16-Bit generation did nothing that the 8-Bit generation hadn't done.

[blue lander]

I think one of the differences between the Jaguar and the N64 is that the Jag was a quick dissapointment, whereas the N64 was a dissapointment over the course of several years. I never thought the Jaguar would succeed, but even if I did, it was pretty evident early on that it wouldn't. How long after launch did the Jaguar end up on the discount shelves?

The N64, on the other hand, was years of patiently waiting for the next Mario 64 or Zelda to come out. Just waiting for something to be worth buying while your Playstation playing friends were rolling in games.

[Aswald]

Wasn't the Jaguar doomed to disappoint? We are talking Tramiel-Atari, after all...

The problem with the Jaguar was absolutely identical to that of the Atari 7800: you nver had the feeling that Atari knew what it was doing. For a console to succeed, you must- after the first few years in the 1970s- release it with a good initial lineup, and give gamers reason to believe that a wide variety of GOOD games, especially RPGs and arcade games, are on the way. Neither console managed to do that.

Remember that awful infomercial in the cave?

[Rob2600]

It had nothing that really impressed me

My friend's Sega Genesis impressed me for two years. I enjoyed playing Joe Montana Football, Space Harrier II, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, etc. Then, I received a SNES for Christmas in 1991 and wasn't impressed with the Genesis anymore.


quite frankly, the whole 16-Bit generation did nothing that the 8-Bit generation hadn't done.

I disagree. Yes, flying games, racing games, first-person games, and one-on-one fighting games were done on 8-bit consoles, but not *nearly* as well. Games like Pilotwings, StarFox, F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, etc. would have been unplayable on 8-bit consoles.

[Aswald]

That was sort of it- they did it better, but nothing really new. That didn't happen unti Mario 64.

But then again, that sort of echoed the arcade scene; same things, but with better cosmetics. So I suppose that the 16-Bit generation did serve a pupose there. Who wants to play an arcade-to-home game with overly-inferior graphics and sound?

[blue lander]

Wasn't the Jaguar doomed to disappoint? We are talking Tramiel-Atari, after all...


Exactly, which is why I don't think it was disappointing at all. Despite all the hype, you knew that success was a long shot. When the system crashed and burned, I expected it so I wasn't dissapointed. In fact, I was glad I could get the system and games for next to nothing!

[Aswald]

I still can't get over that crummy infomercial. It was worse than anything for the Atari 7800.

Hell, looking at Galaxian for the CV, IT probably would have had a better version of Galaga. And, had they been 100% completed, Joust and Dig-Dug would have been nearly as good. It will be interesting, comparing Opcode's Ms. Pac-Man to that of the 7800.

[8bitgamer]

Game Boy Color.

Dark is still dark, now matter what the color.

http://brettweisswords.blogspot.com/

[vintagegamecrazy]

I would have to say the 3DO, I never understood it back then, though it looked cool. Even now I have found a few good games but it still don't hold my interest. I will also go with the Nomad, too much blur and a battery hog = useless in my eyes. The Lynx also was dissappointing, system is wonderful with features but most games just sucked and couldn't hold my attention.

[aaron7]

Jaguar. Awesome system, crappy games, and it died out quick. I remember them at Toys R Us for $19.99 :beaten: