"Why I Dislike The N64", or "What is the Deal With the N64?"

[johnnymad]

I have a pretty big N64 collection but have been thinking about selling off most of it and just keeping a few that are actually good. Picked up around 130 boxed N64 games about a year ago. Got them from a guy who used to own a video store and I couldn't pass up his price. Most of the games aren't very good and have not aged well. There are a few good ones but man are there some bad ones too.

[MrFlutterPie]

Please note when I say "hate" or "hating" in regards to trivial things like video games I mean it in the internet sense where anything a person  doesn't like/share the same opinion as me automatically are hating on it. The internet has a way of blowing everything up in a massive hyperbole.   

I made sure that I used proper language further in the sentence by switching my terminology to "dislike" as this is a more accurate appraisal of the situation.

As for the trendy comment I prefaced it by saying "I feel like..." which means it is a personal opinion of mine and not an accusation. 

[synbiosfan]

Please note when I say "hate" or "hating" in regards to trivial things like video games I mean it in the internet sense where anything a person  doesn't like/share the same opinion as me automatically are hating on it. The internet has a way of blowing everything up in a massive hyperbole.   

I made sure that I used proper language further in the sentence by switching my terminology to "dislike" as this is a more accurate appraisal of the situation.

As for the trendy comment I prefaced it by saying "I feel like..." which means it is a personal opinion of mine and not an accusation. 

Please remember this as most of it is assumed by us, vex.

If not you may not feel comfortable here

[MrFlutterPie]

I dunno I feel pretty comfortable here... :-"

[synbiosfan]

I dunno I feel pretty comfortable here... :-"

I edited it after realizing you might think I was referring to you

And you did, lol.

[MrFlutterPie]

In B4 da edit

I had a feeling you were referring to Vex.

[Bernie]

Never understood the dis-like for the N64.  It was bad ass for its time.  I remember paying for mine in advance, and waiting in line on release day to pick it up.  One of the most exciting systems I have ever owned, and got myself all worked up over.  No regrets to this day...  I only wish they had released the sequel to ShadowGate 64 that we never saw... 

[seieienbu]

Even at the time I didn't find N64 graphics pleasing to look at.  I felt that hardware was still too weak to have decent looking fully 3D worlds; most N64 games were too blurry and foggy for me to enjoy.  Beyond that I pretty much didn't enjoy the gameplay in Mario 64, Zelda 64, or any of multitudes of 3D platformers.

I knew where 3D games were at. The PC. I knew that as soon as I had Wolfenstein 3D, and especially DOOM. DOOM was the reason I bought a proper soundcard for my PC and upgraded from a 33mhz 386, to a 100mhz 486 DX4. When GL Quake was released for Quake, I had no reason to look at consoles anymore. I began to care more about what type of 3DFX video card I had, processor, RAM, etc.

Golden Eye was mentioned here. I looked at that with a bit of snobbery, and thought, "Wow, I feel sorry for people who think this is so cool...".  Huh, what's that, I know, I see 4 players can play on a single TV screen. You can see what the other players are doing, though... No thanks, I don't want a turn playing...

I had Quake World. and Blood. and DOOM. etc... I also disliked the controls. I preferred a keyboard and mouse.

During Goldeneye's heyday my friends and I would bring our computers over to one of our houses on the  weekends and play Quake 1 on LAN, and a bit later Quake 2 or 3.  I never understood why people would want to play an FPS that looked worse with only a quarter of the screen while using shitty controls.  What I find funny is people still claim that Goldeneye was good at the time or even incredibly that it still holds up today.

[HailingTheThings]

I rarely play my 64. I have to be in this mood, you know, like a weird mood to play really shitty games like Castlevania 64. Man, that game takes me back.

I remember getting so excited to play that game back in the day. A friend invited me to stay at his house for the weekend, We rented that game, some shitty action movie on VHS (can't remember) and ordered a pizza.

His Mom left us alone because she's an awesome parent. So, what'd we do? Drank her beer and smoked her cigarettes, while eating pizza and playing MF Castlevania!

We decided the game wasn't very fun about an hour - hour + 1/2 into it.

We watched the shitty action movie then I think we ended up drawing and playing Monopoly or something like that before falling asleep unfulfilled. Thanks Nintendo. Thanks Konami. Yeah. Fun times.

On a positive note, the next day we went out and had an adventure of sorts. By that, I mean we hung out at someone else's house, I think. It was a long time ago. I don't know... Anyways.. Yay! Fun!

[Medic_wheat]

I liked the system. It was one of the first systens I bought with my own money and many of the games. There is a good selection of games that I enjoy growing up and a few more I am discovering now.

I say if you are still able to find fun games on a system you thought you knew maybe saying the system wasn't all that great is gaming eyes wide shut.

[MrFulci]

.....


During Goldeneye's heyday my friends and I would bring our computers over to one of our houses on the  weekends and play Quake 1 on LAN, and a bit later Quake 2 or 3.  I never understood why people would want to play an FPS that looked worse with only a quarter of the screen while using shitty controls.  What I find funny is people still claim that Goldeneye was good at the time or even incredibly that it still holds up today.

The people who speak fondly of Goldeneye, did not have a proper PC-setup during that time for multiplayer FPS gaming, or they didn't know of anyone else doing similar with a PC. During that time it was LAN or Modem-to-Modem, until Quake-World, TEN, and all that other stuff came along. LAN you needed multiple computers, monitors, etc. Modem-to-modem, which had it's own issues. However, I managed a lot with modem-to-modem.

A multiplayer game of Goldeneye would be easier and cheaper to setup during that time, however, I could not deal with playing an FPS like that. I witnessed it, I played with a group before, and I couldn't tolerate it. I can appreciate it, but during that time, I could not tolerate it. I had, and still have, no desire to play Goldeneye or any FPS on a console.

Now people can do pretty much the same stuff with the modern consoles. Still no support (That I know of) for custom maps and such. Do FPS games on modern consoles support keyboard and mouse yet?

Anyway, DOOM64 was interesting, different monsters and such, but I never played it on an N64, I played it through a custom WAD on a PC. . Just search for the DOOM64 WAD, and you can play it on Zandronum, Z-DOOM, or any of those modern DOOM mods that add online multiplayer, 3D acceleration, etc. I still go online occasionally and play DOOM, on the PC.

.

[vexcollects]

.....


During Goldeneye's heyday my friends and I would bring our computers over to one of our houses on the  weekends and play Quake 1 on LAN, and a bit later Quake 2 or 3.  I never understood why people would want to play an FPS that looked worse with only a quarter of the screen while using shitty controls.  What I find funny is people still claim that Goldeneye was good at the time or even incredibly that it still holds up today.

The people who speak fondly of Goldeneye, did not have a proper PC-setup during that time for multiplayer FPS gaming, or they didn't know of anyone else doing similar with a PC. During that time it was LAN or Modem-to-Modem, until Quake-World, TEN, and all that other stuff came along. LAN you needed multiple computers, monitors, etc. Modem-to-modem, which had it's own issues. However, I managed a lot with modem-to-modem.

A multiplayer game of Goldeneye would be easier and cheaper to setup during that time, however, I could not deal with playing an FPS like that. I witnessed it, I played with a group before, and I couldn't tolerate it. I can appreciate it, but during that time, I could not tolerate it. I had, and still have, no desire to play Goldeneye or any FPS on a console.

Now people can do pretty much the same stuff with the modern consoles. Still no support (That I know of) for custom maps and such. Do FPS games on modern consoles support keyboard and mouse yet?

Anyway, DOOM64 was interesting, different monsters and such, but I never played it on an N64, I played it through a custom WAD on a PC. . Just search for the DOOM64 WAD, and you can play it on Zandronum, Z-DOOM, or any of those modern DOOM mods that add online multiplayer, 3D acceleration, etc. I still go online occasionally and play DOOM, on the PC.

.

Now Doom 64 I liked. I still own it. The sound effects are perfect. It controls really well. It's fast, smooth, and not clunky. It's fun and still has that sudden scare element to it. The atmosphere is spot on also. The visuals are still muddy but not as bad as I had remembered. It has actually aged nicely. Back on release day I paid $120 for it thanks to Nintendo's choice to stick with carts... Although I prefer carts for collection sake, it was so expensive. I rebought it a few months ago for $5. Ha! It's weird how game values are all over the place for what seems like arbitrary reasons.

[vexcollects]

Please note when I say "hate" or "hating" in regards to trivial things like video games I mean it in the internet sense where anything a person  doesn't like/share the same opinion as me automatically are hating on it. The internet has a way of blowing everything up in a massive hyperbole.   

I made sure that I used proper language further in the sentence by switching my terminology to "dislike" as this is a more accurate appraisal of the situation.

As for the trendy comment I prefaced it by saying "I feel like..." which means it is a personal opinion of mine and not an accusation. 

Please remember this as most of it is assumed by us, vex.

If not you may not feel comfortable here

Oh...... I'm comfortable here. I wasn't offended. I don't post much to forums because I'm not one to think highly of my own opinion enough to thrust it out into the world, but every so often........ I guess my momentary dislike of the n64 got the better of me. Played some Twinbee and totally calmed down. 

[MrFulci]

..................

Now Doom 64 I liked. I still own it. The sound effects are perfect. It controls really well. It's fast, smooth, and not clunky. It's fun and still has that sudden scare element to it. The atmosphere is spot on also. The visuals are still muddy but not as bad as I had remembered. It has actually aged nicely. Back on release day I paid $120 for it thanks to Nintendo's choice to stick with carts... Although I prefer carts for collection sake, it was so expensive. I rebought it a few months ago for $5. Ha! It's weird how game values are all over the place for what seems like arbitrary reasons.

$120? Wow. I bought Super Mario 3 for NES at Launch, that was $60 or so. A few PC games for $50.. Usually I'd wait for the price to get to $30-$40, which never took too long with the PC games. I never bought many games at launch. Atlantean, when I buy it, may be the most expensive, "Launch" title I've bought, haha. Anyway..

I don't mean to poo-poo on the N64, just dipping my feet into gaming again, and digging out games, posting here again, so things come to mind. I think back on things, and yeah, I stopped with "New" consoles, for the most part (Exception being Jaguar), after 16-bit. The PC had more of what I wanted; Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper 1, 2, Bullfrog was nice.  FPS games. Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3, and other Turn based strategy. Real time strategy, also. All that stuff wasn't really around on consoles. The stuff I wanted on consoles, I already had plenty of shoot-em-ups, platform games, etc.

It reminds me of visiting someone a few years ago, and the person wanting me to play some Call of Duty on the 360. I tried, and I just hated it on the split screen. The control is too awkward for me, same goes for the split-screen. It's like, when I tried to play Theme Park on the Jaguar, after having it on the PC. The thought of, "Wow, why even continue playing this..."  I bought Theme Park when for the Jaguar when it was discontinued, so it was a $5 curiosity buy.

Back on topic, I think the last game I played on N64, was when someone wanted me to play Gauntlet 64 with them. I played for about an hour or so. It wasn't my taste, though. Also, not quite my thing. I'm pretty sure the movement was 3Dish. I'd rather play 8 eyes, or Gauntlet 2 on the NES. Gauntlet 64, that's not quite my thing. it's like how I enjoy 2D fighters, but dislike 3D fighters.

Got kinda stuck in certain ways. Getting older!

.

[ClodBuster]

From the early promo video tapes that were given away for free, I wasn't really sure if I could like the blocky polygonal graphics style, pop-ups, collision clipping and distance fog. I didn't know the words for these graphical phenomens and techniques back then, but seeing Mario having transformed from a round-shaped plumper into a edged stature, I at least know there was something wrong.

But then that was becoming the graphical style of the video- and PC games back then, so I had to accept it.

Even though I knew shooters from the computer in the form of Doom and Quake, I still liked Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and GoldenEye 007 a lot. The former transformed the control of PC FPS perfectly to the console with fast 4-way movement (c-buttons, felt like using WASD), precision aiming (as long as the control stick didn't wear out), an unbelievably smooth refresh rate (thanks to the fog?) and a lot of out-of-the-world enemies. Oh, and the enourmous stages, there was so much to discover. The later Turok games messed around with the control and the graphics, too bad. They also tried to copy the glorious Unreal Tournament ('99) with Turok: Rage Wars, and I didn't like it.

For GoldenEye 007, the unique feature back then were the mission system, weapon reload, realisticly shaped level design after real-world objects, and smart behaving enemies with hit zones. You just didn't get this whole package anywhere else at the time it was released. The controls weren't as slick as Turok's, but since the whole game was running on a lower speed and less pure action-oriented, it was perfectly acceptable and suited the game very well. I still play it today some times, mostly for revisiting my favourite levels (Faciltiy and Bunker #1) on 00 agent hard mode.

Perfect Dark followed the GE007 formula, but there's something in it that doesn't let me enjoy it as much as I did with its predecessor. It might be the weapons, the levels or the general slightly altered control feel itself. GE007 nailed it, but PD failed on trying to expand it too much. And then there was the annoying permanent-drop in framerate which even got worse in many enemy-polluted areas.

Do FPS games on modern consoles support keyboard and mouse yet?

Half Life on PS2 did natively through the USB ports of the console, but that's the exception of the rule. Today there are some converters available to use keyboard/mouse controls on console, but since they emulate joypad input, all I can guess is their precision varies a lot and isn't on par with native k/m support.

Played that Doom64 WAD too using jDoom back then. I guess the real thing plays and looks a little bit different in some places. Have you ever tried the Goldeneye WAD? Hilarious trying to put a genuine 3D game with vertical axis into a 3D environment without vertical axis, but at least they tried.





For those who haven't seen it yet (anyone?), here's the N64 episode that let me to learn of the GameSack show: