Nintendo N64 Console

The N64 came out, in my honest opinion, in the wrong time. It was during the transition time of cartridges to CDs that the N64 came out and the developers at Nintendo opted to stay with their tried and tested cartridges.

During its press releases, the N64 seemed promising and was met with great anticipation by the gaming community. By its release, everyone was happy to learn that the console itself did not cost that much even in today’s standards. The consoles itself look great, with its grey shell and compact design, a button on the center, a cartridge hole and four inputs for controllers. The controller featured a new innovative design for its time; it had thumb sticks in the middle, the N64 was the first to feature that. Newer concepts were introduced in its game titles like the “roam anywhere” environment of their flagship title “Super Mario 64”. The graphics looked amazing and the sound even more superb. The future looked great for the N64

What shocked everyone was the prices of the game cartridges. Even for that time, the prices on which the games were marked up was unprecedented even in today’s gaming industry. This was the downfall of the N64, at a time when the Sony Playstation and the Sega Dreamcast was breaking into the scene of CD technology replacing cartridges. Production costs for making cartridges were high, thus the even higher mark up for the N64 games on the shelves. Game developers would later redesign games for the N64, trying to fit data into a cartridge that was originally written for CD’s. The end result for the N64 converted games were half-assed, scaled-down versions of the original games.

Later on N64’s life, merchants leaned more towards Playstation and Dreamcast games, largely in part of there wasn’t really any demand for the N64 games because they were too pricy, had limited titles and all together abandoned the N64 console and its cartridges in favor of the now more fashionable and most of all affordable CD games. The N64 is now just a sad footnote in the quest for the perfect gaming console.

Though the N64 was innovative for its time, a simple decision between cartridges or CD’s killed it. If you have an N64, keep it safe and take care of it. It would surely fetch a good price when the day comes. A relic of a forgotten era when cartridges rained supreme.

Nintendo 64 Dynamic Drive Technical Specifications

* Dimensions: 10.2 inches x 7.5 inches x 3.1 inches
* Weight: 3.53 lbs
* Magnetic Disk Storage Medium
* Error Correction Support
* Utilizes N64 console for data processing
* Battery-backed real-time Clock
* Built-in 36 megabit ROM (contains data files to assist developers, such as sounds and fonts)
* Ports: 4 inch front loading disk feed
* 4MB RAM expansion (installed in console Memory Expansion slot)
* Seek Time: Under 75 ms
* Data Transfer Rate: 1MB/sec
* "Burst Access" Streams
* Media: Hot-Swappable (multiple disk support), High Density, Double-Sided disks with 64.45 MB total capacity and Read/Write capability on their dynamic writable space of 1 - 38 MB. Shielded against data-loss. Disk dimensions 260mm (3.98 inches) x 190mm (4.06 inches) x 78.7mm (4 inches).

Nintendo 64 (1996-2001)

Manufacturer: Nintendo
Format: Cartridge
Controller Ports: 4
Save Capability: Controller packs, most cartridges save via internal battery
Number of games: 300+
Video Output: RF, Composite, S-Video
Initial Price: $199