The Official Nintendo 64 Thread!

[Tanooki]

So I guess we're finding now, 25+ years later, the N64 was far more capable than the developers basically bothered to do with it, even in ways including Rare in this as well.  I think Mario deserves a pass, even if it is nice like that after the fact, it was a launch title after all so you don't go all in from then or it's a downhill slide into consumer boredom.

[WavyGravy]

I don't think it's that people didn't bother, I think the machine has a lot of gotchas that we have a lot better tools for identifying and resolving now, and devs were under time pressure. 

It's cool to see so much N64 homebrew, though. As much as the Saturn and Jag get talked about having untapped potential, I think the N64 has to be right up there. The system has a hell of a lot of grunt for its time, hooked up to maybe one of the worst RAM setups of all time, so it's always interesting to see how things need to be approached in such an unbalanced system.

[SlidellMan]

Well said, Wavy Gravy.

[Tanooki]

I think you're misinterpreting my didn't bother as being lazy.  I'm saying they didn't bother as they weren't allowed for one reason or another.  Time, bean counters, etc.  From what I recall from 20 years ago when WarioWorld got the crap hacked out of it, and the N64 tech docs along with the GBC and GBA were utterly stolen, released, and picked to pieces people have long realized the system had a lot more room to work with that just went dormant.  Whether it was lack of time, resources, ability, corporate suit bean counters, whatever the case pushed against it being pushed harder.  Rare was an outlier and they did much more than realistically anyone else did, but even they had to deal with that crap and having massive financial bailouts by Nintendo for games that delayed for anything from many months to years.  The system is as said, unbalanced, some bits are so woefully crap for the amount of room given, like the cache, which leaves textures commonly with the easy way out looking blurry/muddy stretching a smaller image to a larger area to save space.  After all that thing was based on a stripped down version of their very costly CGI workstations used for some quality movie (etc) graphics in the era.

[SlidellMan]

Just imagine Charles Martinet saying Ash's lines from Army of Darkness for that mod...

[M-S]

If Kaze ends up releasing his engine to the public the N64 could start getting some really good homebrew games, it wouldn't even need to be only SM64 clones considering how flexible the engine is.

[Gentlegamer]

2 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

Just imagine Charles Martinet saying Ash's lines from Army of Darkness for that mod...

Groovy

[SlidellMan]

1 hour ago, M-S said:

If Kaze ends up releasing his engine to the public the N64 could start getting some really good homebrew games, it wouldn't even need to be only SM64 clones considering how flexible the engine is.

He plans on making it open source when it is finished.

[Tanooki]

I await our future N64 game making overlords.

 

And knowing the die hard base of Macross fans, and the fact the man who has the existing code and working beta ROM online (Opus), really wished it was done I'd love to see this engine put to use to FINISH THAT GAME as a big fat epic middle finger to Harmony Gold which were just as liable as Gametek going under for that one going up in flames.   Robotech Crystal Dreams still needs to happen.

[Tanooki]

Also I don't think I mentioned it but a couple weeks back I got a beautful Atomic Purple N64 console complete in box (except for generic cardboard fold that held the atomic) and since then this weekend I dug up deals on Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol1 and both Top Gear Rally 1 & 2.   I really need to dig back into the system, I have new choices now.

[KidGameR186496]

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I await our future N64 game making overlords.

 

And knowing the die hard base of Macross fans, and the fact the man who has the existing code and working beta ROM online (Opus), really wished it was done I'd love to see this engine put to use to FINISH THAT GAME as a big fat epic middle finger to Harmony Gold which were just as liable as Gametek going under for that one going up in flames.   Robotech Crystal Dreams still needs to happen.

I didn't know there was somebody who wants to finish the Macross 64 Game. That's news to me...

7 hours ago, M-S said:

If Kaze ends up releasing his engine to the public the N64 could start getting some really good homebrew games, it wouldn't even need to be only SM64 clones considering how flexible the engine is.

Let your prayers be heard for more N64 homebrews!

6 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

He plans on making it open source when it is finished.

Awesome 😀

[KidGameR186496]

Speaking of homebrew, have you guys ever checked out this N64 demo?

 

https://youtu.be/_Yh4khdcGL8?si=EX9YzOdl9J_XhHCq

[roots.genoa]

11 hours ago, M-S said:

If Kaze ends up releasing his engine to the public the N64 could start getting some really good homebrew games, it wouldn't even need to be only SM64 clones considering how flexible the engine is.

I'm also eager to see N64 homebrew games that are not SM64 hacks... I wish I could write about Kaze's work more often on my website but most of their videos get stricken after a while. 😑

[Tanooki]

@KidGameR186496  I didn’t flatly say someone did really. Opus worked on it in the 90s and would love to see it finished.  I’m thinking maybe with tools this crafted maybe it’s time to do it due to all the macross fans about because a solid kit would be a great start. 

[Punisher5.0]

14 hours ago, KidGameR186496 said:

Speaking of homebrew, have you guys ever checked out this N64 demo?

 

https://youtu.be/_Yh4khdcGL8?si=EX9YzOdl9J_XhHCq

I've never seen this. Anyone know if the dev ever released it for flashcarts?

[Reaperman]

With all the Analogue and MiSTer talk surrounding N64, I've been playing this thing. I've been buying all the analog systems lately so I'm sure I'll keep that trend going--they still owe me my last two orders.

 

Today's N64 adventure was tackling F-Zero X, completing the lowest tier of jack and queen cups.

This is probably more time than I've previously spent on this game, even though it does exactly what I keep saying I want racers to do.

I usually get distracted by other racers after less than one cup.

 

I went 'back' to f-zero x after getting my rear royally handed to me by F-Zero X Climax--which is how playing that always goes for me

'makes sense, I clearly haven't put in the time yet, despite Climax being the subject of probably half of my posts in this thread.

 

I wish there was a beetle adventure racing hack that lets me save to controller pak #2. 

that's another n64 racer I generally neglect, and starting it up again today I was instantly greeted with that reminder why

Edited October 29, 2023 by Reaperman

[Tanooki]

F-Zero Climax, I imported that well over a decade ago, closer to 15 years back when entities like play-asia wanted just $2 to ship a game as they did for years using cheap chinese postage rates.  I still have it CIB because it's the last best F-Zero game, a perfect marriage of F-Zero and F-Zero X and it's 64DD expansion too.

 

As much as I think we know beetle is a good game, I never had it, brother did, and I never was huge on the NFS engine so that one just doesn't suck me in with all those nitros and stuff.  My jam (FZX aside) on n64 was the Top Gear series, rally in particular, but also that overdrive one, along with crusin' usa as that just has charm as basic and early it is.  And then there was the phenonenal Ridge Racer from NST+Namco that was peak awesome for an arcade style racer.

 

I can't wait to dig up some time to pick away at those N64 games again, and that MIdway package for the first time.  THat one was on the floor at my start at Midway in the day since it was a late late N64 release, as was the last Blitz title, even the PAL Gauntlet too which I messed with bit to help out.  

[NE146]

15 hours ago, Reaperman said:

With all the Analogue and MiSTer talk surrounding N64, I've been playing this thing. I've been buying all the analog systems lately so I'm sure I'll keep that trend going--they still owe me my last two orders.

 

Today's N64 adventure was tackling F-Zero X, completing the lowest tier of jack and queen cups.

This is probably more time than I've previously spent on this game, even though it does exactly what I keep saying I want racers to do.

I usually get distracted by other racers after less than one cup.

 

I went 'back' to f-zero x after getting my rear royally handed to me by F-Zero X Climax--which is how playing that always goes for me

'makes sense, I clearly haven't put in the time yet, despite Climax being the subject of probably half of my posts in this thread.

 

I wish there was a beetle adventure racing hack that lets me save to controller pak #2. 

that's another n64 racer I generally neglect, and starting it up again today I was instantly greeted with that reminder why

Hey, I've been playing N64 as of late and in particular F-Zero X too. Just last night even. I got the N64 with S-Video output to a Retrotink 5X and it turns out I don't like it with F-Zero.. It gives the graininess to the tracks and the movement kind of gets confusing. I'm sure there are 'tweaks' you can do to the retrotink but I don't have the patience for that tbh.. I was just thinking I'll move the N64 back to the CRT over composite and call it a day. THEN all the games by default would look exactly how it should: Nicely blurred!  

[Tanooki]

@NE146 I don't mind the ultra crisp with the details that even a higher end CRT would have shown in the day (like those fuzzy squares on fog, etc.) but I get it.  Now that I have a set of the things I have put the N64 on the 9" monitor before and even at that size it's utterly viewable, playable, and I'd argue perhaps even nicer looking in some respects since the mud is muted a bit with the smaller view area, improvement by the collapsed view space.  That atomic purple system I have up in the box, could easily bring that thing down and just leave it on the TV if I cared to (though the modded one kept the original output intact.)  Something about it, both ways is nice really, and as it is the HDMI one I have setup to mimic a very soft minimal scanline a TV would have had anyway (not the harsh bs people fanticize was reality that defaults usually.)

[Reaperman]

3 hours ago, NE146 said:

I got the N64 with S-Video output to a Retrotink 5X and it turns out I don't like it with F-Zero.. It gives the graininess to the tracks and the movement kind of gets confusing. 

That weird noise-grid is really there with my CRTs too. I'd been flipping back and forth between s-video and composite and I see it in both.  It's just a thing f-zero does.

 

This morning I played around, and I think that pattern might only there in menus, at the start of a race, and during the conclusion animation(?)

When I paused, I could never catch it in game, so if it's there, maybe the pause menu removes it. I'll need some darker-sky races to check more.

 

I got 3rd in standard difficulty jack this morning and it was about all I had in me. I've been watching this hour-long f-zero x mechanics video again. Turns out I left a comment 2 years ago about it helping me, but I already know it will take more views. Once I master at least half of all that, I might be ready for the x-climax hack. Clearly it's possible, but I'm not ready even at lowest difficulty.

 

here's another (vid) from the guy who did the mechanics one.  About 25 seconds in any hope of ever being able to 'follow along' was dashed.

I'm also really digging the stick on the retro-bit wireless. The retro fighters wireless I have doesn't seem to analog nearly as well, also no vibration. And yes, I probably need to get a better example of f-zero x--it might have a bit too much ... 'character.' 😂

 

(embiggen)

Edited October 30, 2023 by Reaperman

[Atariboy]

Some cheap SNES/N64/GCN  S-Video cables have been known to create a sort of checkerboard pattern from poor shielding causing the chroma signal to interfere with the luma signal. Any chance that this is what you're seeing?

 

I remember seeing the effect especially in games with large areas of one color or with minor variations, which F-Zero X certainly has plenty of with things like the simplistic skyboxes that help keep the game at a rock solid 60 fps.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Atariboy

[Tanooki]

Are we talking about this kind of look within fogs and other elements on n64 games?  I've been trying to find a picture of it with no luck, but not sure what to call it until I found this image if that is it.  Even though the effect is kind of like this with the see through squares in fogs, clouds, lights, other odd effects.

 

[SlidellMan]

Sauraen's attempt at N64 Cel Shading.

[SlidellMan]

Modern Vintage Gamer on Portal 64:

The Truth About the Fast Inverse Square Root on the Nintendo 64:

Enjoy!

[+Black_Tiger]

On 10/31/2023 at 7:15 AM, Tanooki said:

Are we talking about this kind of look within fogs and other elements on n64 games?  I've been trying to find a picture of it with no luck, but not sure what to call it until I found this image if that is it.  Even though the effect is kind of like this with the see through squares in fogs, clouds, lights, other odd effects.

 

 

I only notice the actual dithering effects while outputting RGB video.

 

Using high quality s-video cables I never saw any sort of video artifacts, the stock output is just blurry and color isn't great compared to what the graphics actually look like.