Get N or Get Out! The N64 thread

[Steamflogger Boss]

Shit, I forgot about Mario golf, the N64 version of that is possibly my favourite golf game of all time. I do remember having some fun with Hybrid Heaven back in the day, purely for how odd it was. I also remember really enjoying Geomon 64, despite an atrocious camera. Sillicome Valley was a cracker as well, though I'm pretty sure that made it out for the PS1?

You should try a small indie game called Neo Turf Masters.

AKA Big Tournament Golf. The ACA NeoGeo versions are now using that name for some reason. I like both Turf Masters and Mario Golf quite a bit, though. I'm curious if any staff from Neo Turf Masters was shared with Irem's Major Title games since they have some similarities.

Never heard of these, I have to try them now.

[WelshMegalodon]

it's like the atari 2600 era of 3D gaming

Let's all agree to stop perpetuating this myth desu

Has anyone here played the Windows version of Hydro Thunder? How does it compare to the Dreamcast version?

[Bratwurst]

AKA Big Tournament Golf. The ACA NeoGeo versions are now using that name for some reason. I like both Turf Masters and Mario Golf quite a bit, though. I'm curious if any staff from Neo Turf Masters was shared with Irem's Major Title games since they have some similarities.

I thought this was a given since Nazca was formed from ex-Irem employees?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Has anyone here played the Windows version of Hydro Thunder? How does it compare to the Dreamcast version?

I have only played the PC port and it's 640x480 screen resolution only, but worked just fine with my USB gamepad (if memory serves, analogue acceleration & braking could be mapped onto the right stick, which is the way I like my vehicular games). I see no reason not to get Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition, particularly so if you keep a 32-bit Windows PC for the sake of computer gaming. One of my favourite such collections, right next to Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced (with it's Konami Code enhancements) and - dare I say it - Game & Watch Gallery Advance. Namedropping the latest two here just to give you idea what sort of "good" can be expected of it. For instance, San Francisco Rush 2049 sports the stunt wings from its console versions, as well as very solid performance. Sure enough, it's pretty playable in the Midway Arcade Treasures' GameCube iteration, but only digital buttons for accelerate & brake when playing that with a controller, hence playing the PC port FEELS better to me.
Mind you, the original print is that of a botched build, so make sure you install at least two patches should you get one of those first print copies.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I was never overly excited by any of that generation back in the day - Saturn was the closest to ending up on my xmas wishlist but my parents made the decision for me when they got a swanky (for its time) Pentium PC. Star Wars, Battletech and Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2 was my gaming life instead. Played all three big consoles a bit in stop demo kiosks... N64-wise I breezed through some 150 cc cups first time on Mario Kart and did first few stages of Lylat Wars without breaking a sweat. That pretty much put me off, I think I was too old for where the difficulty was aimed at and was already outgrowing the SNES (I rented a tonne of games from Blockbuster and generally completed them in the 3 day rental period - new games were £45 FFS).

Most of the good stuff on N64 has gotten re-releases (Rare comp on xbone, Zelda on Gamecube/3DS), add to that the awful controller, so I've never felt the need to pick one up after finding that Sin & Punishment ran great emulated. Was Goldeneye ever anything more than a multiplayer event? I always saw the raging boner people have for that game as the same rabid nostalgia I have for a lot of naff Master System titles. The single player side was something PC FPS titles had done before and better.

[cicada88]

Was Goldeneye ever anything more than a multiplayer event? I always saw the raging boner people have for that game as the same rabid nostalgia I have for a lot of naff Master System titles. The single player side was something PC FPS titles had done before and better.

I'm not sure I would say it was "better" than a good PC FPS, but the single player with all the objectives was pretty damn fun at the time.

But speaking from someone who was an American teenager at the time, every guy I knew was playing multiplayer GoldenEye. Even people that didn't play many other games. 1 out of every 4/5 guys or so had a N64 and this game, so for a good 6 months people were playing the shit out of this game. Again, I'm sure if you had a good PC setup with LAN running Quake or whatever, it blew GoldenEye out of the water. But for the average non-techy kid, that was never happening. GoldenEye was happening everywhere.

[Imhotep]

Was Goldeneye ever anything more than a multiplayer event? ... The single player side was something PC FPS titles had done before and better.

I think it was the other way round. Objective-based single player missions with unfolding events during levels, enemies with an advanced AI, mandatory stealth approach etc. was special for any FPS at the time and in some cases maybe even pioneered by this game. The multiplayer on the other hand was extremely pedestrian compared to something like quake, but much more directly accessible because of the splitscreen format.

[Xyga]

Again, I'm sure if you had a good PC setup with LAN running Quake or whatever, it blew GoldenEye out of the water. But for the average non-techy kid, that was never happening. GoldenEye was happening everywhere.

this.

In the 90's consoles were still considerably more accessible both price and complexity-wise. They were simple mainstream entertainment products, while anyone could witness computers meant much more overall investment (ever-complaining pre-XP era users, bulk bc laptops and flat panels were still luxuries, expensive complex parts and media, various software issues, expensive early internet, etc)

Teens who had a decent personal computer, buying parts, doing lan-parties etc, were already pretty much geeks by default with either greater support (money/approval) from their parents, or not-too-shitty summer jobs.

Today the line's blurred because we have a lot of choice, PC caught up and mobile dominates as we have many accessibility solutions for all purses, but reminding of back then it's pretty clear why consoles were so popular.

The N64 in the continuity of other gens was so much the embodiment of that, even if it ended up defeated by Sony's more generic but versatile formula.

So yeah of course GoldenEye was awesome even in single player, because anyone could see it, own it, share it easily.
Comparatively the higher-end gaming that PCs offered, especially FPSes that were already becoming the preferred genre for performance show-offs, was almost a thing of obscurity.

TL;DR console gamers did not envy PC gamers.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Having replayed it recently, I think Goldeneye 007 still holds up fairly well. Its particular brand of aiming and the open-ended, yet still focused (usually, at least) do set it apart from the high-tier PC FPSes (the Doom series, Quake, Half-Life). I think it's impossible to argue that it is actually a better game than them, but as a single-player game it is pretty solid. The only real criticism I would throw out is that the turrets really suck as enemies and cause the game to grind to a halt whenever they appear, especially on the highest modes, so the final few stages' heavy use of them really makes them a drag.

I think the only truly essential N64 games are Sin and Punishment, F-Zero X, and Star Fox 64. Maybe Zelda: Majora's Mask, but that's more of a personal favorite than something I could hold up as one of the best out there. (As far as the F-Zero discussion from earlier goes, there really isn't that much of a gap in quality between X and GX. GX is better, but X is still phenomenal. The only real weakness X has is that, as kitten says, it is absolutely butt-ugly, but I don't feel like that's that big of a deal.) I do want to play Doom 64 and maybe the Treasure games someday, though.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Goldeneye was the absolute hotness back then. Can confirm since I lived it too.

[WelshMegalodon]

TL;DR console gamers did not envy PC gamers.

Why am I tempted to resummarize your post as "console owners were poorfags"?

Though it would explain more than a few other things about the "gamer" subculture...

[Steamflogger Boss]

Console gaming was waaaaay more fun than PC back then. I had both. Now everything is the same, meh.

[Xyga]

TL;DR console gamers did not envy PC gamers.

Why am I tempted to resummarize your post as "console owners were poorfags"?

That would be misunderstanding. All I said is those were two different market segments, not looking the same way, a different demand and offer, not set apart exclusively by money even if it was a factor.

People who as 90's teens were into computers early were not just for playing games and fun, but for the geek stuff dimension on top of that as well. When I say investment it's not just money then but also the time/will to deal with anything else than just playing.
If you didn't give a crap about all the computer stuff and wanted to play the cool games of various genres all the cool kids talked about, you bought a console and games and that was it.
If you wanted a worthy PC setup instead to do things you can't with a console, the starting money could be a problem, but as I said there were other means than just parent's pockets.

Funny you use that term by the way, it reminds me that the pc vs. console feud wasn't really a thing at the time. Few people would actually be in a situation where that kind of rivalry would show as the two crowds rarely interacted enough on the topic of video games to start pissing contests.
(while the consoles war was real)
It's only later with the expansion of the internet, that the early PC crowd finally received the opportunity to 'meet' dirty console peasants online and let them realize geeks are condescending assholes you can't punch over a network , and so it became 'real'...in the form of a meme.

[Flashman]

I had a massive nostalgia trip last year and purchased a Ultra HDMI modded N64 after not having a working one for many years (though I salvaged and cleaned up the expansion pack from my original childhood system) I cleaned up all my old games, and got ready to have a blast. I did enjoy the old classics - Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, Starwars Rogue Squadron / Battle for Naboo, WWF No Mercy / Wrestlemania 2000, Ocarina of Time, Mario Cart 64 and Doom 64.

I hate to say it though, I've not got back into a lot of the games as much as I thought I would and I've not really got the use out of the system I should have. Games that haven't held up mainly due to camera angles and awkward controls are the likes of Mario 64, Shadows of the Empire (used to love that one as a kid) Duke Nukem and Castlevania 64 - I'm a huge Vania fan and forced myself to the end of that one, but it was a slog.

I was originally going to go for a full PAL set of all the games (cart only) as I've got about 80 from childhood and over here they are mostly quite cheap - Worms Armageddon goes for about £12 and even some of the rarer ones like Conker's and Mario Party 3 aren't through the roof. However I've lost my lustre for that project now and I think I'll just get around to getting an Everdrive for it at some point.

[kitten]

has anyone purchased the retro-bit hori pad imitations? are they any good?

[tacoguy64]

I thought the system had some decent arcade ports and sports games. While not always the definitive version of a game like with NFL Blitz, the game was still plenty of fun to play and it maintained 60fps. Then the n64 always had the loading time advantage when it came to the other systems port. Anyways none of these games are ground breaking or must plays but they are good arcade sports games.

-NFL Blitz. It's a good port of the arcade game. First one is a bit more bare bones so I'd go with a later edition like 99 or 2000. The graphics had to suffer but it was for a good cause cuz these games are fluid.

-ISS was also on the PS1 as well i think but i remember reading the n64 version was better. This series is still one of my favorite soccer games. They made 3 so i'd start with either 98 or 2000.

-NBA Hang Time has a PS1 port that i never played so i cant compare but this game was good on the N64. I would pick it up if you liked NBA Jam

-NBA Show Time same as with Hang time. The DC port had the nicer graphics but the N64 version still held its own rather well.

-Ken Griffey Jr. This was exclusive to the system i believe. Fun little arcade baseball game worth picking up as well.

-Tony Hawk Pro Skater- IMO the worst of all the ports. They are still very fun games to play on the system and have better graphics than the PS1 version but thats about it. Just mentioning it since the game is still good despite that and worth to play if you are curious. The N64 loses when it comes to presentation.

-Mario Golf/ Mario Tennis. They already been mention but they're just that good lol.

Not Sports games but a few fighting games.

-Killer Instinct Gold. I believe this was the KI 2 port from the arcade. Never played it on the arcade but it's a solid fighter on the system. i'm ok with the n64 game pad but you might want to get a stick for this.

MK Trilogy/MK 4. I know these games got ported on everything but just like with everything, the n64 wins in load times.

Super Smash Bros. Probably my least favorite of the series. Its still fun to play but the series just keeps improving all this time.

[orange808]

All Star Baseball 99 was a good one as well. Walked a fine line between sim and accessibility.

Unfortunately, baseball without super deformed anime inspired characters usually falls out of bounds with some audiences.

Still a pretty good game, though.

Nice use of the controller. The yellow arrows lent themselves to bases. The analog stick was good for "feeling" the pitching in two player (with the pitching dot hidden) and the rumble feature let you know when you were close to the edge of the strike zone.

Pretty good stuff at the time.

[cave hermit]

I'm actually planning on ordering one of those retrobit hori controller clones real soon myself, they look nice although apparently the analog stick is a bit sensitive.

I got around to trying out some 64dd and Aleck64 stuff on my everdrive; what the N64 community has done with 64dd stuff is really impressive, not only translating them but converting them to a standalone cartridge ROM format.

As for the Aleck64 stuff... I can't imagine how it failed as a platform with such classics as Tower and Shaft and Vivid Dolls

[Flashman]

Are those Hori controllers the ones where the stick and the D-pad positions have been reversed? They look nice from what I remember but I reckon that would take a bit of getting used to.

All this N64 talk has put me in the mood for finally getting a flash cart sorted. I’m thinking of cheaping out on this and just getting the Everdrive 64 2.5 - I’ve gone down the road of getting the higher end flash carts in the past and never using the extra features (SD2SNES for example) as I understand it the 2.5 just requires you to reset the game after saving and is incompatible with a few games such as Pokemon Stadium 2 (I’ll survive ) anything else I should know about that’ll justify the extra £60 on the V3 of X7?

[Austin]

I decided to fire up my N64 earlier this morning and put a few hours into Quake (made it about halfway through the game) and a couple of puzzle titles (Dr. Mario 64 and New Tetris). I had my system modded with the UltraHDMI earlier in the year and I have to say, with Quake in particular, things really pop. The added lighting is really helped by the clearer image the UltraHDMI provides, especially after disabling the in-game filter in the Quake options menu. It's so much more satisfying to experience than playing in composite or s-video, where you get a much more smeared image.

Most Nintendo 64 games apply a filter and so even with the Ultra HDMI, they still look extremely soft. Occasionally however I run into something like Quake where I am really glad I plunked down the cash for the mod. Bust-A-Move 2 and Puyo Puyo Sun are other examples that just look satisfyingly crisp via the mod.

Dr. Mario 64 is a fun port of the game. More features, more modes, etc. Gameplay is fairly snappy and feels solid overall. Visuals also work pretty well with the HDMI mod. Flash mode is pretty neat--it's like Tetris 2/Tetris Flash, but Dr. Mario. Shame that it forces you to play that mode against an A.I. controlled opponent, I really would have liked to see that be a completely solo experience.

New Tetris was one I put a ridiculous amount of time into back in the day. It was always cathartic to play solo, but it also made for one of the more entertaining multiplayer experiences among friends and I when it was current. It's held up pretty well and I really like the aesthetic along with the power block mechanic. I was noticing some input lag though, seemingly more so when the screen really filled up with blocks, something I didn't notice back in the day. That's definitely a negative about the game.

All this N64 talk has put me in the mood for finally getting a flash cart sorted. I’m thinking of cheaping out on this and just getting the Everdrive 64 2.5 - I’ve gone down the road of getting the higher end flash carts in the past and never using the extra features (SD2SNES for example) as I understand it the 2.5 just requires you to reset the game after saving and is incompatible with a few games such as Pokemon Stadium 2 (I’ll survive ) anything else I should know about that’ll justify the extra £60 on the V3 of X7?

The 2.5 is perfectly fine. I upgraded to a 3 just to have the latest and the greatest (gave the 2.5 to my brother so he'd have more reason to boot up the console on a more frequent basis), but I was perfectly happy with the older cart. The features weren't all that different, you just have to remind yourself to hit reset when you are done with games that save to the cart.

[tacoguy64]

All Star Baseball 99 was a good one as well. Walked a fine line between sim and accessibility.

Unfortunately, baseball without super deformed anime inspired characters usually falls out of bounds with some audiences.

Still a pretty good game, though.

Nice use of the controller. The yellow arrows lent themselves to bases. The analog stick was good for "feeling" the pitching in two player (with the pitching dot hidden) and the rumble feature let you know when you were close to the edge of the strike zone.

Pretty good stuff at the time.

Yes i liked All Star Baseball but just didnt mention it since it was more of a sim. Same with NBA Courtside, and NFL QB Club. Didn't really play any of the EA offerings so I can't say anything about them. In general, I think this is one of the last console I played sports games this extensively. The DC had a better sim line up with their 2k series but I think n64 has it beat in arcade sports games department.

As for controllers, I have to admit for some games like Mario 64 the controller just feels perfect. Racing games feel good too and so do most the sports games. FPS games felt like i had to get used to again. But I think that had more to do with some of the setups for the games than anything and the fact that it wasn't till Halo when the industry figured out FPS controls for consoles. With that said, the controller is still just fine for the FPS genre.


Finally, there is this new Zelda Expansion coming out for the 64DD that i'm very curious to try out. Looks really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWSG0U_nLWc

[kitten]

started a mario 64 run yesterday (after the smw revisit) and hit 120 stars just now. 3rd time doing that, overall. i have always hated this game, and each time i go back to it i've forgotten everything and hope that it just clicks this time. though i still definitely dislike it, i did find myself enjoying a few parts and feel like i at least "get it" at this point. i really fucking loathe the camera in this game and nearly wanted to chew my own hair during the 100-coin run of tick-tock clock.

[tacoguy64]

started a mario 64 run yesterday (after the smw revisit) and hit 120 stars just now. 3rd time doing that, overall. i have always hated this game, and each time i go back to it i've forgotten everything and hope that it just clicks this time. though i still definitely dislike it, i did find myself enjoying a few parts and feel like i at least "get it" at this point. i really fucking loathe the camera in this game and nearly wanted to chew my own hair during the 100-coin run of tick-tock clock.

I think the biggest problem people cite in why they hate this game is mainly the camera issues and the super tight controls. The camera is probably the biggest offender, with it getting stuck behind some weird angles, not being able to rotate. This either forces you to slow down and try to use the over the shoulder camera, or miss a jump completely even though it feels like you should have made it. They sort of remedy this in the earlier levels by not having so many parts where missing a jump results in falling off a cliff. The later levels like in tick tock-clock, you miss a jump, there is a good chance you will die.

As for controls? I think it's just people hating on the N64 controller but could be wrong. SM64 was made for the controller in mind and imo it still feels great to me even today.

[ZellSF]

Wetrix is the best N64 game. Though I prefer the PS2 sequel since it just controls better (worse graphics and sound though).

Pokemon Puzzle League is great if you somehow don't have a SNES and Tetris Attack.

Wipeout 64 is great, if you don't have a PSX and three other classic Wipeout games to play.

Doom 64 is great, but better on PC.

Not quite sure why I got a N64.

Has anyone here played the Windows version of Hydro Thunder? How does it compare to the Dreamcast version?

There's two Windows versions of Hydro Thunder. One released separately, and one in the Midway Arcade Treasures collection.

Unfortunately, other than remembering that they're different ports, I don't remember anything about either of them.

[Sumez]

Doom 64 is great, but better on PC.

Huh

[ZellSF]

Doom 64 is great, but better on PC.

Huh

I'm not sure what you mean with "Huh", but it sounds like you're confused about it. There's like five unofficial Doom 64 ports to the PC. Doom 64 EX is the most accurate. Doom 64: Retribution runs on the most modern Doom engine. There's also (probably) an official port coming soon, but I would expect it to be worse than the two I mentioned.

[Sumez]

Ok, but any N64 game you port to PC would be better on PC.

[kitten]

Wetrix is the best N64 game.

hell yea

Ok, but any N64 game you port to PC would be better on PC.

doom 64 in particular is just really sabotaged by its control scheme to the point it's worth mentioning it's a lot better on pc

[Marc]

Ninty just need to clean up a bunch of their N64 stuff and put it out as one collection for Switch, like Rare did. As if

[tacoguy64]

Yeah these comparisons to pc versions aren't really fair. I was a pc gamer myself and i prefer playing fps games on the pc, but I still enjoy the n64s great library of fps games.

Ninty just need to clean up a bunch of their N64 stuff and put it out as one collection for Switch, like Rare did. As if

Yes they should but they would never do it. Seems like they would rather just keep their old games to either online service or their mini consoles. Now that I think of it, they never release a "best of" or compilation of their games.