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The Nintendo 64 Appreciation/Collecting/Emulation Thread.
- Thread starter Seik
- Start date
theSlacker
Member
Do wish I got in on that kickstarter for that second book. Oh well.
Coreda
Member
I still have an original Adaptoid. Works a treat. They made a second batch in around '09 or something IIRC, which was snapped up quickly (and sold for quite a bit).
Thanks, that sounds okay I guess? Besides the pictures I mostly wondered about the text. Is it a good read? Great even? New ideas, insights on the console or its games, or already known facts and stories?
It looks so darn pretty, I might bite anyway.
I'd post pages but I don't think that complies with Neogaf's TOS given that it's still a newly released book.
EDIT: The publishing company has excerpts of the book here
To throw in my two cents, the text is a great job. They have put a lot of effort into making sure that it doesn't read like a translated project (for anyone that doesn't know, this was originally a french book). However, subtle translation bloops are present (like a sentence that makes sense but isn't commonly used in english and some uses of the exclamation mark) but it's super SUPER minor. The rest of the text (it's not just a game guide as you got developer interviews and forwards) is perfect, clear, informative and the presentation is just stellar. Images used are correct and nice looking. First thing friends tell me is that it looks and feels like a nice decent book.
Flizzzipper
Member
Just got my 64 RGB modded. I'll probably tackle some Blast Corps and Pilotwings as I never finished those back in the day. RGB doesn't look quite as good as I hoped but a definite improvement. I will probably try the HDMI mod in the future when it is more widely available.
Sadly the N64 just looks like trash most of the time on modern displays without some form of upscaling and/or filtering. Luckily the HDMI mod does provide some options in this regard.
RGB does look amazing on a CRT display though.
Thanks for the detailed impression! Looks decent from skimming over it. Didn't know there was a french version (wouldn't have even known that the book existed if it wasn't for this thread). Guess I'll take whichever I find cheaper, ha. Have to work on my french anyway.
PumpkinSpice
Banned
Is there a good place to source good condition N64 controllers online? I tried ebay but most of the ones I checked either didn't have the condition or said "great condition" when they are clearly disgusting.
Mostly I want good condition analog sticks.
Mostly I want good condition analog sticks.
sixteen-bit
Member
got this for Christmas, lmao
ResidentDante
Member
got this for Christmas, lmao
Wear it with pride! Awesome.
got this for Christmas, lmao
I got that shirt from Target a couple months ago; people give me compliments all the time
everyone loves the N64
TheMoon
Member
The US was the one place that loved the N64 curiously. Also supported by the fact that it had huge Western dev support. Something that sounds ridiculous today for a Nintendo console.
D.Lo
Member
NOA did so well with the N64. It was Nintendo's downfall in Japan, but actually I think increased over the SNES in revenue in the US. It was huge in Australia too, the console was a multiplayer revolution, it was huge at my uni.
For $4 billion in losses, all the Xbox achieved market-wise was taking half the N64 userbase. The PS1 rolled straight into the PS2. The N64 market was sliced in half between the Gamecube (Nintendo fans) and Xbox (FPS fans).
IrishNinja
Member
as someone in college during that gen, yeah, this is absolutely what it looked like from my end too.
such a crazy time, when every dorm had an N64 & 4 controllers, but only half of em had mario kart...it was a shooter box for so many people.
IrishNinja
Member
see i dunno that they so much dropped it, as they likely had 0 idea what to do with it when the acquisition of Rare fell apart, and much of the team after that
D.Lo
Member
Yeah they kind of lucked into the shooter market on the N64, it wasn't planned. They clearly had a multiplayer plan but shooters really took off.
After Rare fell apart they should have funded Free Radical or someone. Or moneyhatted the bond games. Or given the Gamecube a bit more juice and RAM, it could easily have been the clear most powerful console if it was the same price as the others.
In the meantime Microsoft bought Bungie and funded them big time, and had a PC in box which made for the easiest PC ports ever. They also funded many western devs to make games for it. Like it was literally designed from the top to take the shooter market. Heck even the Rare purchase was designed to get the best of the N64 on their console. Didn't work out but they clearly planned on having PD Zero on Xbox ASAP.
After Rare fell apart they should have funded Free Radical or someone. Or moneyhatted the bond games. Or given the Gamecube a bit more juice and RAM, it could easily have been the clear most powerful console if it was the same price as the others.
In the meantime Microsoft bought Bungie and funded them big time, and had a PC in box which made for the easiest PC ports ever. They also funded many western devs to make games for it. Like it was literally designed from the top to take the shooter market. Heck even the Rare purchase was designed to get the best of the N64 on their console. Didn't work out but they clearly planned on having PD Zero on Xbox ASAP.
IrishNinja
Member
never thought of them buying Free Radical, but if the GC had even more power, what do you think that would've done for it? sucks that the PS2 was gonna eat everyone's lunch anyway & nintendo took from that gen what they did, but here we are
D.Lo
Member
It had the best in-game polygon performance of the generation (with bump mapping, at 60FPS too, in Rogue Squadron III) as it was. I think with 30% more juice it would have had the best version of multiplats, which would be a decent selling point. Such an amazing efficient console design.
But this thread is about the N64 which was the opposite, the most powerful of its generation but severely bottlenecked at various points. Another thing that made it like the original Xbox lol.
I never once thought a lack of power was an issue of the GCN. I think the lack of DVD playback and the fact that it was perceived as a "toy" by teenagers is what prevented it from selling better.
Nintendo clearly felt the same way. You can see it in how it influenced their design of the Wii: It had a slim, appliance-like design, the controllers had none of the colorful buttons that preceding Nintendo systems had, and the Wii remote even looked like a media remote.
It sounds absurd, but if Nintendo kept everything about the Wii the same, but didn't nail the look of the sleek look of the chassis as well as the controller, I think it would have only sold a quarter of what it ended up selling.
Unfortunately, it's those little superficial details that seem to sway public opinion more than anything else.
Nintendo clearly felt the same way. You can see it in how it influenced their design of the Wii: It had a slim, appliance-like design, the controllers had none of the colorful buttons that preceding Nintendo systems had, and the Wii remote even looked like a media remote.
It sounds absurd, but if Nintendo kept everything about the Wii the same, but didn't nail the look of the sleek look of the chassis as well as the controller, I think it would have only sold a quarter of what it ended up selling.
Unfortunately, it's those little superficial details that seem to sway public opinion more than anything else.
TheMoon
Member
yup, power was a complete non issue. it was the mini DVDs, controls unsuitable for painless multiplatform conversions (missing button, Z-button clusterfuck) and the lack of good online play options.
D.Lo
Member
Not actually suggesting that should have been a goal, but it was so well designed (specifically as the antithesis of the bottlenecked N64) they ended up with the top performing console in polygons despite it being half the price of the others for most of its life. It could easily have had some extra juice, and those 'toy' complainers would have shut right up if it was clearly the most powerful, instead of looking worse than it was in many cases because it got bad PS2 ports.
DVD playback was absolutely a huge thing though I will 100% agree there. I personally got a PS2 as my first DVD player and so did almost everyone I know.
Disagree with the Wii shape though, it was certainly the right choice, but it was the controller that was the billion dollar idea.
I never got the complaints about the Z button, it was basically a select button. The controller did make certain PS2 ports a bit funny. But online was overblown, ivory tower media company reviewers took a dump on it for that (which was an issue), but surely only a tiny percent of PS2 owners were online that generation, it really just wasn't a thing yet for most of the market. It was like gamespot/IGN complaining about games not having widescreen, surround sound and progressive scan that generation, making that more important than the actual game itself in many cases, when 99.9% of players were connecting via composite to an older CRT, just elitist nonsense.
TheMoon
Member
problem was more that there was just one of them, meaning multiplats that used both triggers (and stick clicks) were fucked on GCN.
D.Lo
Member
Did games really need all those buttons? Yeah I guess they built out on what the PS2 had.
It's funny how controllers now actually have less input options than the PS2 controller (which had analogue on every button) because Sony just threw every idea a competitor came up with on their pads in as many places as possible.
TheMoon
Member
one example I can think of is that Freedom Fighters and I think some Tom Clancy games were hampered by this. Those types of games.
SSX Tricky as well.
Yeah I think I rather get that for PS2(and I own it on Gamecube).
Shin Johnpv
Member
Game-tech.us just put up 200 more UltraHDMI kits and it looks like badassconsoles has them too.
https://www.game-tech.us/product/ultrahdmi-upgrade-kit-1080p-for-your-n64/
https://www.game-tech.us/product/ultrahdmi-upgrade-kit-1080p-for-your-n64/
sixteen-bit
Member
snow day feels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yU6WQd6Om4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yU6WQd6Om4
ResidentDante
Member
Everdrive 64 arrived yesterday! Already have a Mega Everdrive, loving both so far!
this made me feel warm and toasty
theSlacker
Member
Everdrive 64 arrived yesterday! Already have a Mega Everdrive, loving both so far!
I like the box it comes in. Never seen anyone post that before and just assumed it would be in some media mail thing. Maybe next blackfriday I'll finally get the ones I want.
ahhhhhhhh so nice
ResidentDante
Member
The Mega Everdrive is sexier packaged though, it arrived in a mini Mega Drive/Genesis clam shell:
Both items are bought directly from Krikkz btw!
Best thing to own ever for the N64, I love mine, hope you love yours.
theSlacker
Member
The Mega Everdrive is sexier packaged though, it arrived in a mini Mega Drive/Genesis clam shell:
Both items are bought directly from Krikkz btw!
Yeah I agree. Didn't even realize it was a mini clam shell and just thought it was full sized. I've wounder why he doesn't make his own cases for a few of the other "top tier" carts he makes. I like his labels and what not more then stone age gamer I think.
IrishNinja
Member
congrats! don't recall mine coming in such a fancy box, that must be a newer thing!
sixteen-bit
Member
How does the Mega Everdrive clamshell compare to the the MD Sunsoft releases or Namco Famicom clamshells? It looks cute.
theSlacker
Member
Namco
Famicom clamshells were the best. The perfect size and durability.
t
CrashPrime
Member
I can only assume I am in the minority, but I really do appreciate the native internal resolution of the n64, and I do not like the often odd looking and very era-inappropriate 1080p renders of old n64 games.
That said, I was watching an install of the UltraHDMI mod install last night on youtube which led me to My Life in Gaming's wonderful special on the UltraHDMI, and the GameShark technique to remove the anti-aliasing filter. What impressed me was the combo of the UltraHDMI's De-blur and GameShark codes.
Try4ce mentioned that the UltraHDMI was using something called deconvolution to sharpen up the blurry mess that can happen when looking at the n64 under a modern screen. Do emulators support deconvolution?
Also Try4ce briefly mentioned that some people even prefer "pixelated textures", then showed a clip of Zelda appearing clear, but it was only shown briefly so I couldn't get my head around what was going on. He mentioned this was only available through emulation. What was this technique? Internal resolution increase?
That said, I was watching an install of the UltraHDMI mod install last night on youtube which led me to My Life in Gaming's wonderful special on the UltraHDMI, and the GameShark technique to remove the anti-aliasing filter. What impressed me was the combo of the UltraHDMI's De-blur and GameShark codes.
Try4ce mentioned that the UltraHDMI was using something called deconvolution to sharpen up the blurry mess that can happen when looking at the n64 under a modern screen. Do emulators support deconvolution?
Also Try4ce briefly mentioned that some people even prefer "pixelated textures", then showed a clip of Zelda appearing clear, but it was only shown briefly so I couldn't get my head around what was going on. He mentioned this was only available through emulation. What was this technique? Internal resolution increase?
PumpkinSpice
Banned
I really like it too. The low res + blurry horizontal lines gives a really unique look and games that were deigned for the platform really only look right on native hardware.
I think a lot of the people that say "N64 graphics just don't hold up" have only used it in emulators for the last decade.
Deconvolution is an algorithm to undo horizontal blur filter applied as part of the output. Emulators don't need to do this at all cause they can just skip that step.
No it's just doing a nearest neighbor instead of blurry scale of textures. It looks really bad IMO. PS1/Saturn games were mostly designed around it (plus could have way higher res textures anyway) so it doesn't look as bad there, but if you tried playing like Banjo Kazooie with non-blurry textures you'd just have giant squares applied over polygons... it would look terrible.
MegaManTrigger
Banned
Hello everyone.
I've got a question as I'm not too sure of my options. Basically, I found my N64 in storage but I am still looking for the grey controller that it came with (I at least have the translucent purple).
What I'm wondering is in the event that my grey N64 controller is too worn out, are there decent third party options? I've heard of Cirka controllers being sold in my local places, but I'm not too sure if it's good quality. I know Horii sold those valuable controllers, but I'm mainly just looking for something serviceable for party games.
I've got a question as I'm not too sure of my options. Basically, I found my N64 in storage but I am still looking for the grey controller that it came with (I at least have the translucent purple).
What I'm wondering is in the event that my grey N64 controller is too worn out, are there decent third party options? I've heard of Cirka controllers being sold in my local places, but I'm not too sure if it's good quality. I know Horii sold those valuable controllers, but I'm mainly just looking for something serviceable for party games.
elmalloc
Member
You can find originals (OEM) if you look. I have 3 new Gold OEM controllers (from Japan).
Barrow Roll
Member
Maybe this is not the right thread to ask about this sort of thing, but does anyone here have any experience with the Raphnet N64 to Gamecube/Wii adapter cable?
http://raphnet.com/products/n64_to_wii/index.php
I saw some talk earlier in the thread about the Gamecube to N64 adapter, but I haven't seen any mention of the reverse. I'm itching to replay Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask with the original controller, but with the better image quality of the Gamecube and Virtual Console ports. My main concern is making sure the analog stick feels right because aiming in those ports with the Gamecube controller feels really twitchy and difficult.
http://raphnet.com/products/n64_to_wii/index.php
I saw some talk earlier in the thread about the Gamecube to N64 adapter, but I haven't seen any mention of the reverse. I'm itching to replay Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask with the original controller, but with the better image quality of the Gamecube and Virtual Console ports. My main concern is making sure the analog stick feels right because aiming in those ports with the Gamecube controller feels really twitchy and difficult.
I have it. It works well and the analogue stick feels like an N64 controller on N64 hardware. It's how I played N64 games for a while before going down the RGB rabbit hole.
And yea, that is definitely an appropriate question in this thread (in my opinion).