Happy 13th Birthday Nintendo 64 (9-29-96) [Archive]

Lostdwarf

09-29-2009, 08:34 PM

Today marks the 13th anniversary of the Nintendo 64. Released today September 29, 1996. Argued by critics as one of the least popular of the Nintendo systems, the nintendo 64 lived up to its name back in the day. With titles such as Mario 64, and LOZ: Ocarina Of Time this was surely a revolution!

mike

betamax001

09-29-2009, 09:25 PM

Least popular? I think everyone I know who stil has there N64s from back in the day LOVED it. If any Nintendo is the least popular it would be Virtual Boy.

vivaeljason

09-29-2009, 09:40 PM

Seriously...who thinks the N64 is unpopular?

I love my N64, and I know I'm not alone. In terms of sales figures, the GameCube is the least popular console (not counting VB). Plus, I *still* play the damn thing. BlastCorps FTW!

Kiddo

09-29-2009, 09:43 PM

(EDIT: Ninja'd)

joshnickerson

09-29-2009, 09:47 PM

Woot! Welcome to the teenage years, my trusty N64!

Game Freak

09-29-2009, 09:57 PM

I personally treasure my SNES as my gaming godfather, but the n64 is not without it's classics. Zelda 64, Super Mario 64, and Star Fox 64 are among my faves.

GameCube was of equal greatness, IMO.

Lostdwarf

09-29-2009, 10:26 PM

not counting portable systems. regular consoles, the n64 ranks the lowest. the snes is the highest with the nes short after. don't get me wrong i loved the n64 but most critics criticized it for the weird shaped controller. many people have begged for a normal ps2 type controller for their n64's. hell i wish i had one. but the system was very revolutionary at the time like i said.

sebastiankirchoff

09-29-2009, 10:52 PM

Unpopular? Back in elementary school, it seemed everyone had an N64, and they all loved it...

I love the N64, though I prefer playing the PS1 over it anyday. It had many great games, and I spent a lot of time playing it recently. Happy birthday, N64!

Ed Oscuro

09-29-2009, 11:45 PM

Thirteen years already?!

Well...actually I'm surprised it didn't come up sooner. The system has been feeling old a while. I still get lots of fun out of its library though - should pick up some more cheapies while I can.

Sonicwolf

09-30-2009, 01:48 AM

I cant believe the N64 is 13. Its my favorite console of all.. So many great memories. Feels like just yesterday that I opened it on Christmas and pulled a Nintendo 64 kid freakout.

otaku

09-30-2009, 04:47 AM

while not as bad as virtual boy its not as good as super nes nes or even the wii. Might be better than the gamecube. I loved and played my 64 a ton.

WanganRunner

09-30-2009, 09:02 AM

"Unpopular" for a mainline Nintendo console is a relative term. It was unpopular compared to the enormous market penetration of the NES and SNES, but it was still a raging commercial success relative to, say, the Saturn.

The N64 is my favorite piece of Nintendo hardware, as it represents the period wherein I really became a serious gamer. I can't believe it's been 13 years since I first played Super Mario 64.

I was playing it yesterday, actually. There's your staying power.

The N64 will forever be thought of as home to some of the greatest and most revolutionary videogames of all time. Aside from potentially the NES, the 1st party N64 library is the best example of Nintendo's ingenuity and creativity in software design.

Zelda and Mario existed before, but their formulas were really reinvented from the ground up on the N64. Smash Brothers was created on the system, and it finally allowed F-Zero to come to real fruition.

Gentlegamer

09-30-2009, 11:19 AM

I completed Ocarina of Time for the first time a few weeks ago. I missed out on the N64 the first time around (traded it in after a month for a PlayStation back in 97).

I've been slowly making my way through Super Mario 64, which I had shunned back in the day because I was "tired" of Mario. Big mistake!

These console birthdays from after I graduated high school are really making me feel old. I'll just keep playing video games and feel young!

NEOFREAK9189

09-30-2009, 01:01 PM

Happy 13th Birthday Nintendo 64 I remember like was yesterday
get my n64

Damiean Dark

10-01-2009, 02:06 PM

Hi all! first post...

The N64

One of the best consoles ever but spoiled by its very poor third party support nintendo shot itself in the foot by thier refusal/greed to step into the new age and use a CD based system prefering to use the old pay them to use thier cartriges ruse.

It also seemed very hard to programme games for (remember Superman 64?) again only nintendo and Rare seemd to really be able to make it do great things.

They never really recovered with the Gamecube despite its great library of games they where still living of the memories by some publishers of the older days and they also didnt have that continuation thing where a third party game series would contiue on the newer systems (Eidos tomb raider on PS1 and then PS2)

The remarkable success of the Wii is great but nintendo seems to have lost that drive to make those amazing groundbreaking games of before and third part support has followed this with far to many simple party themed games.

cityside75

10-01-2009, 03:12 PM

It also seemed very hard to programme games for (remember Superman 64?) again only nintendo and Rare seemd to really be able to make it do great things.

Factor 5 did some amazing things on the N64.

A Black Falcon

10-01-2009, 04:41 PM

Happy birthday, my favorite console ever. :)

vivaeljason

10-01-2009, 04:51 PM

Factor 5 did some amazing things on the N64.

True that, especially Star Wars: Rogue Squadron...Other non-Nintendo/Rare games I was fond of were Body Harvest, Mischief Makers (although published by Nintendo, it was a Treasure game), Mystical Ninja 64 (though I'm a hardcore Mystical Ninja fan), and of course the first Turok.

While the VAST majority of non-Nintendo/Rare games did in fact stink, the quality of the N/R stuff as well as those above mentioned games more than compensated.

Baloo

10-01-2009, 05:31 PM

At 30 Million units sold, I'd say the N64 was a pretty successful and popular system. It did have some great games, especially from Factor-5.

Saturn is the one that was least-popular.

tom

10-01-2009, 05:41 PM

At 30 Million units sold, I'd say the N64 was a pretty successful and popular system. It did have some great games, especially from Factor-5.

Saturn is the one that was least-popular.

Saturn was not of Nintendo stable (sorry couldn't resist ;-)

But yes, N64 was pretty awful with gaming quality, it was non-existant. Recently played Pokemon Stadium, it looks so washed out (I don't wanna hear any 'get a decent monitor' crap), the US voices are terrible....ugh, basically N64 had crap graphics and a very little replay value gaming library..

Perfect Dark is excellent though, playing it right now. Well, right now I'm typing but you know what I mean.

otoko

10-01-2009, 06:04 PM

Saturn was not of Nintendo stable (sorry couldn't resist ;-)

But yes, N64 was pretty awful with gaming quality, it was non-existant. Recently played Pokemon Stadium, it looks so washed out (I don't wanna hear any 'get a decent monitor' crap), the US voices are terrible....ugh, basically N64 had crap graphics and a very little replay value gaming library..

Perfect Dark is excellent though, playing it right now. Well, right now I'm typing but you know what I mean.

Oh yes, Pokemon stadium was intended as a "full game" to begin with... -___-,,,

Hmm, This makes me want to play Conkers Bad Fur Day....

Snapple

10-01-2009, 06:12 PM

Feels longer than 13 years for me, to be honest.

Gamecube was definitely less popular than the N64. Now, N64 seemed to have a smaller library than other Nintendo consoles, but it had good games. Had some bad games too. Good were Goldeneye, Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Zelda, Smash Bros, Mischief Makers, and so on.

The mid-90s for me were all about RPGs though, and those were on the PS1, not N64. I did not like Quest 64 at all.

The 1 2 P

10-01-2009, 06:21 PM

The N64 was an ok system that played second fiddle to the PS1 and third fiddle to the Saturn if you had access to Japanese import games. Definitely had a good amount of exclusive games but that controller was horrid. It will still be remembered as Nintendo's last cartridge console.

Enigmus

10-01-2009, 08:07 PM

It's no wonder why I'm a gamer- born the same day as Pokemon's US release, and also the same year as the N64. 8-)

Still, this was a great system I still play (Atomic Purple unit and Rogue Squadron 4 days in a row!) and it deserved to be #1.

Still, the only reason it lost was the "OMG PSX CD GAMEZ 4 DA WORLD" hype. Still, happy b-day, N64! Congrats on being more powerful than the PSX!

Hep038

10-01-2009, 09:40 PM

TwinThumbs

10-05-2009, 11:58 PM

Happy belated birthday, N64. It was the N64 that really got me back into gaming (home consoles in particular). Still one of my fave consoles of all time. :hail:

heybtbm

10-06-2009, 08:41 AM

My memories of the N64 are essentially getting one for Christmas in 1996, playing Mario 64 to death, waiting for good games, buying Mario Kart 64, waiting for good games, then finally playing Rogue Squadron and Ocarina of Time to death before storing it away for the past 11 years.

Still have my original N64 and will never sell it. Will always prefer the PS1 when it comes to that generation though.

Leo_A

10-06-2009, 08:13 PM

not counting portable systems. regular consoles, the n64 ranks the lowest. the snes is the highest with the nes short after.

How'd you calculate that? lol

Going by sales numbers, they sold 33 million of them with 11 million for the top selling game. GameCube sold 11 million less consoles and it's best selling game only did 7 million. What's your logic for thinking the N64 was less popular than the GCN? It couldn't be based of sales numbers.

WCP

10-07-2009, 01:14 PM

I don't know why, but of all my retro gaming systems, the N64 is the one that I fire up the least. I bought a N64 the day it was released, and played Mario 64 for months and months. I was really into the N64 during it's first year of availability, but after awhile stopped caring about it, and started playing 3Dfx games on the PC. I played the hell out of the first Turok game, and WaveRace and Banjo-Kazooie and stuff like that. I'm not sure why I have zero desire to play those games again. Maybe it's the controller. Going back to the N64 controller just seems so weird.

Zthun

10-07-2009, 01:30 PM

Great games, but the hardware:

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p182/rockmanhero2003/Misc/n64-controller.jpg

kupomogli

10-07-2009, 03:46 PM

Aside from the Wii which is Nintendo's worst system, I'd also be in the N64 is one of their worst consoles. It wasn't without its great games though.

WCW/NWO, WCW/NWO Revenge, WWF Wresltlemania 2000, WWF No Mercy, Ogre Battle 64, Jet Force Gemini, Ocarina of Time(and only OoT,) Mario Party, Wave Race 64, and lots of multiplatform titles.

vivaeljason

10-07-2009, 05:19 PM

ice1605

10-08-2009, 11:52 AM

Ah, the N64. My friends and I were talking about it last night. They all like the N64 the best, but I prefer the NES/SNES. Regardless, the N64 was a great console, with awesome games. The controller never bothered me, even though I had always used NES/SNES/Genesis pads before I got one...

swlovinist

10-08-2009, 02:16 PM

It is safe to say that I love the system a ton(Have boxed US N64 set). Rogue Squadron is one of my favorites, and still love to play it from time to time. The N64 had it problems, but anyone who has spent some quality time with some of the mentioned games above can at least admit that the system was not complete crap. For me, it will be remembered as the system that updated core Nintendo Franchises into the 3D successfully, and was successful in having some great early FPS shooters on consoles, as well as some great platform games.

rgw825

10-09-2009, 12:41 PM

I never had many games for my 64 and i still don't have many games for it. But the few games i do have are some of the funnest games i own for any system. I'm currently 100% addicted and obsessed with Paper Mario. I'm surprised i never played this great game before now. I just got the game a week ago and i'd put it in my top 10 games i have ever played along side it's sequel The Thousand Year Door which i also bought within the last month.

I used to be addicted to the wrestling games, Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000, and No Mercy. Mario Party 1,2, and 3 never get old.

I can think of only a small hand full of games for other systems that i put more game time into than the few i have for my 64.