Is N64 Classic Now?

[NE146]

It'll be classic when the kids who had the system in their golden childhood elementary school days reach their late teens/mid 20's and start reminiscing about it.

..Which is coming real soon you old fogies :D

[bangtango]

FACTS (CONTINUED): As for the Sega Master System, their library was full of arcade conversions or inferior versions of Genesis titles. Not to mention "Great" sports titles. There just weren't enough "Phantasy Stars" to ensure that gamers would keep buying the system year after year. I had a lot of fun with mine and wish I still had it. I think it is a very nice system, really I do, but don't live with the notion that it should of sold 10-15 million units, regardless of the specs.

FACTS: The third party support wasn't there on SMS and Nintendo may have used unethical tactics but that is a moot point. Maybe if Sega had actually moved units out of the stores, they could have had some leverage. Nintendo had to sell at least a few systems, themselves, to ensure they got the third party support they did. They didn't just wake up one morning to find 50 companies ready to develop for them the second NES was released.

FACT: You said "without NES in the picture". And without NES in the picture, Master System's library would've been much larger. There's absolutely no reason to believe that all those third parties that were on NES wouldn't have been on SMS instead had NES not been around. You think NES was some magical machine that solely caused Capcom, Konami, Natsume, Jaleco, et al to make console games?

Hell, if Nintendo hadn't made a console, they likely would've put their games on SMS too.

FACT: *BangTango takes a hard left hook to the jaw and falls to the canvas, he is out for the ten count. The challenger has been knocked out. BangTango's FACTchecker is broken in the fall..........*

J-Factor, considering the blinking NES issues with the toaster model and the inferior picture quality of the top-loader, I will say that your last point made a lot of sense.

I wish the hell Nintendo had put their games on the Master System. At least then, we wouldn't have a blinking console or a dire need to replace 72-pin connectors all the time. We also wouldn't be stuck spending our days blowing on cartridges in vain. Sega's hardware was much better, I admit it. The original Master System looked and operated a lot better than either model of the NES. I really wish I still had the one I used to own in the 80's. I'm seriously thinking about posting a WTB in the selling forums right now.

[RegSNES]

Guess there's no stone-written definition of the term classic. So is the N64 classic to me? It may not give me the same warm and fuzzies that my SNES does but I still loved it. So yes, the N64 is classic to me. I don't care if the system is hated on. People like what they like and people dislike what they dislike. At least I've seen people give valid reasons for not liking the N64 instead of just saying "because it sucks."

The last N64 game I bought was this year, actually. Goemon's Great Adventure. Now if I can just find a copy of Mystical Ninja: Staring Goemon, I think my N64 collection will be complete. :P

[Memnon]

I define 'classic' as timeless. The 1964 Mustang, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings books, stuff that's well crafted and holds appeal across generations, no matter the era. And I define anything 'retro' if it's at least 2 generations old (give or take).

I agree with the above poster who said that video games have a faster generational turnover than other pop-culture genres. I feel that the SNES and Genesis are retro, simply because their 2D sprite graphics provide such an utterly different gaming experience than what you get in today's 3rd/4th generation 3D graphics.
I also agree that one's age will largely shape what they consider classic. A 45 year old man may balk at anything newer than Pong being considered classic, but a 20 year old who grew up on Diddy Kong Racing won't be persuaded that it's anyting but classic.

[dreamcaster]

I'll be 21 next month and I was 12 when I got my Nintendo 64 in August 1997.

But at the same time I hold the SNES in extremely I high regard.

I bought my SNES when I was 10 in September 1995 and I loved. Stupidest thing I ever did was sell it.

And before that I was gaming on my 286PC, which we got in mid-1989.

I grew up with my fair share of 2D games, but thanks to my PC I got a taste of 3D VERY early on. F-15 Strike Eagle II featured 3D polygon graphics in a real-time 3D world, and found this game to be the most technically impressive game I owned.

It was games like this that, even when I was 5 or 6, realise that 3D was the FUTURE, but it was going to take a while to come.

Then I got my SNES and whilst I loved Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Kart, the game I spent the most amount of time on (and I still rank as my favourite game of all time) was Stunt Race FX. 3D polygon graphics on a home CONSOLE. Every time I played that game I sat there thinking, "wow, this is just one of a few 3D games, soon they'll be everywhere!".

And then the Saturn, PSX and later the N64 came out. I considered getting a PSX for Destruction Derby and Need For Speed, but wasn't too sure whether Sony was going to be here today, gone tomorrow.

The Saturn had the games I wanted to play. Virtua Fighter, Sega Rally and Daytona USA. But by 1997, the Saturn was already starting to disappear off store shelves. I was scared by this and didn't want to invest in a dead weight. Sure, SR and Daytona were awesome, but I was worried that there wouldn't be much else later on.

Then there was the brand new N64. Cheaper than the competition, analogue joystick control (having bought a joystick for my PC years ago specifically for F-15 Strike Eagle II, I saw how important analogue control was).

The N64 also had four controller ports. Remembering how much fun Micro Machines and NBA Jam was on the SNES with my friends, I saw four controller ports as yet another sign of a future standard and guarantee of fun.

And most importantly - solid, 3D graphics. F-15 Strike Eagle II and Stunt Race FX whet my appetite and I have to admit, I was - and still am - a BIG sucker for 3D polygons. Heck, I remember when I was REALLY young, and saw an ad for a Vectrex. Those vector graphics were like parallel lines to my heart. :P

So yeah, I bought myself an N64 - with my only reservation being the cartridge format, but - no load times was nice. The N64 went on to provide me with 5 solid years of console entertainment, and only once - in around late 1999, did I consider getting a PSX (only for Gran Turismo).

I love the N64, I always will but it I was not my virgin console, and I was well grounded in other older gaming platforms long before the N64 came out.

Oh, and as for the less than mature presentation a lot of N64 games had - even at when I was a shallow teenager, I put gameplay well before graphics and Super Mario 64 delivered more fun and gameplay joy than any 'mature' title from that era ever could.

[poopnes]

Wow, I didn't know there was this much hate for the 64. Not that I don't understand how most of you guys feel, the 64 was definitely lacking in 3rd party software.

I was 16 when I got my 64 on launch day. I bought a Playstation the following January. I realized quickly that the 64 alone wasn't going to cut it. The PS1 obviously was getting the majority of the 3rd party support that made the NES and SNES so great. Now that doesn't mean I didn't love the 64 and every 1st party title that it brought me, it just means that a gamer can't survive on Nintendo titles alone.

Neither the 64 or Gamecube were failures in my eyes, but they definitely were eye openers for Nintedo and their fans that they were doing something wrong. I think Nintendo has finally realized that they need those 3rd parties to create games for them. That gamers want those games. We want a well balanced "diet" of all kinds of games.

So long live Blurry 64!! I still love you and your 3 prong controller (that I think works absolutely wonderful for the games that the 64 did best).

[dreamcaster]

The N64 made me a Nintendo fanboy.

The GameCube is what drove me away from them.

[Kejoriv]

i dont consider it classic. i consider anything snes and before classic.