It surely has its technical flaws but that’s not what mattered to most buyers. Most people bought it to experience fun games and on that end it delivered. remember that at the time gaming was still breaking into main stream society and 3D games were on the frontier both technically and design wise.
Games like Ocarina of Time and Mario 64 really contributed to the design patterns of how 3d games could look like. Back in the day you simply didn’t have as many choices when it came to hardware. What really hurt its game catalog was that apparently it was hard to program for. Who knows what other games we might have seen if the barrier had been lower.
Speaking of the controller: yes, it wasn’t so good and the center joystick tended to wear out too quickly. Rumble pak was a fun gadget and really added to the immersion. What was terrible on the other hand was that the console lacked internal storage and many games would require you to purchase an additional memory pack (which slotted into the controller). That wasn’t just a technical deficiency but felt very anti consumer.
Any older disk based console also required a memory card.
Pretty sure the controller was the first to have an analogue joystick.
I think a lot of the quirks of the N64 were because they were essentially first drafts. A lot of first, a lot of ground breaking tech.
Nobody knew what they were doing, at that time: nothing was wrong
What was terrible on the other hand was that the console lacked internal storage and many games would require you to purchase an additional memory pack (which slotted into the controller). That wasn’t just a technical deficiency but felt very anti consumer.
I never had many n64 games but I only remember one actually needing the external memory pak. Most first-party games could just save to the cartridge, it’s only a few third parties that cheaped out and didn’t implement that. Meanwhile the PS1 was memory cards only.
Also I don’t think any console had internal storage until the Xbox which introduced a hard disk while the GameCube and PS2 were still using memory cards!
Ok, now that you mention it: I think the difference is that (at least in my region) the PlayStation was sold with a memory card included. Standalone memory cards for it were cheap. N64 came without a memory pack and they were more expensive.
IIRC PS also had a more granular slot size (eg gran turismo takes up 1 slot while final fantasy takes up 3 slots) while on the N64 it was large and fixed (each game takes up one large slot even if that slot doesn’t use up all the data).
In hindsight that has me wondering why they didn’t go for dynamic slot size 🤔. Maybe because a save file could grow over time and they wanted to ensure that you could always overwrite/update?
I doubt you’ll get any disagreement on your take for the controller. It was definitely an odd and experimental one, though I do remember thinking it was really cool looking when it came out. I was also 6 and not the best judge of functionality.
That having been said, the cartridge decision was in line with Nintendo’s recent plays at the time that had paid out for them in a big way, and that they continue to follow today. They had made a gamble on the Game Boy a few years prior that absolutely blew up in their favor. When the Game Boy came out, the Game Gear was it’s competitor and Game Gear had a color screen and a lot more screen real estate. Nintendo made the choice to focus on power efficiency (up to almost a half a day of playtime on four double-A batteries versus the Game Gear with about three and a half hours of play time on six double-A’s) and production cost reduction. Some of those design philosophies carried forward to the N64.
Additionally, something a lot of people seem to be unaware of these days is how absolutely stark the difference in loading times was between something like the PS1 discs and the N64 cartridge. I grew up on the SNES and N64 and when I first played a PS1 game the load times made me not want to touch a Sony console for quite a while.
Anyways, that’s my two cents. No disagreements here that cartridges held the N64 back in some ways but the tradeoffs made it an amazing system and miles above the competition for me, personally. Good gameplay and quality of life will always beat more power in my book.
Cartridges were also a very solid copy right enforcement mechanism. By contrast PlayStation games were much easier to pirate although manufacturers kept adding on new mechanisms to prevent just that as time went on.
I always liked the ergonomics of the N64 controller. The recreation of those ergonomics using the Wiimote+nunchuk was one of my favorite things about the Wii lol
The nunchuck was sublime (when it worked), but the ergonomics of the wiimote were ridiculous. Pointing at the screen required an unnatural wrist angle that wasn’t sustainable for long gaming sessions, and trying to turn it horizontal to use as a standard controller was simply ass.
It was definitely a product of its time, but it paved the way to what we have now. It’s important to note the N64 was the first console to have an analog stick, so nobody really knew where to place it. They put it in the middle since it was something extra not all games would use.
That said, the hardware limitations didn’t matter that much as long as the games were stellar. Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time are maybe the most influential games of all time, up there with Doom and Quake.
Since you’ve gotten the answers, I have a question.
How are you liking the game? Are you playing the one from 2021 where you play as Star Lord? If so, I honestly kinda fucking loved it. From the gorgeous scenery and visuals, to the way the characters were written and voiced. I felt the game was just long enough to be great and not overly long, but tbh I kinda want a sequel.
They’re a team of misfits who go about the galaxy doing stuff, mostly good stuff but sometimes petty. That’s it!
It’s actually better to not have seen the movies or read the comics or played the somewhat rightfully forgotten telltale game as this game’s version of the characters differs from all and it’s best to take it as it is rather than having “I wish it was more like the movies” in the back of your head.
I’m disappointed that TellTale was shut down. Anyway yeah it’s not the game I’m talking about I assume you know that cause your pointing out other examples I just want to be clear.
The game is separate to the movies. There’s nothing to need to know before hand. Plus the movies are based on comics anyway and didn’t require prior knowledge to watch them, the game is also based on the comic characters. The origins of the characters in the game differ somewhat to the movies as well so there isn’t any benefit or advantage you’re missing by not having seen the movies.
Play Wonderputt Forever if you like physics-based and/or golf games. I found it pretty fun and fairly challenging in the later levels.
Desta is also a really interesting narrative turn-based tactics game with some poignant emotional moments (it can actually be a bit heavy at times, especially if you’ve dealt with LGBTQ+ prejudice personally).
And I’m also really glad Netflix resurrected Cut The Rope from its grave. New puzzle daily and several months worth (i.e. hundreds) of puzzles to play if you’d like to catch up.
I’ve been getting back into Guild Wars 2 lately! Nobara Linux has made the game run the smoothest it’s even been, and ReShade has it looking even better.
Always a great game to get back into. Or get into in the first place.
The latest patch was kind of disappointing and I hope they do tweak some of the issues, but I’m still looking forward to the new expansion reveal tomorrow. The teasers were pretty neat so far.
Apart from my “main”, a druid, I’ve now also leveled a priest and warrior to 70. I didn’t enjoy playing the priest at all, and just spent all the event currency once I hit max level and won’t touch that character again. The warrior was actually fine, and I’m still playing a bit here and there at max level. On my druid I’m still clearing all the raids once per day, it’s still generally fun, but I’ve switched to tanking for a change of pace.
A lovely story. Ive had a brilliant experience myself with my 4 year old neurodiverse son who took great comfort in playing Ori and the Blind Forest, and finished the game himself and found all the secret areas I couldn’t.
Then at 5, he watched me play Super Hexagon and wanted to play that. He’s gotten to the hardest level and asks for my help, but he’s beyond my skill level.
As far as the argument against the issue you mentionrd, the logical argument was complete in the first paragraph:
the academic community has failed to produce any negative relationship between video games and real life.
bin.pol.social
Najnowsze