The Official Nintendo 64 Thread!

[SlidellMan]

Scarlet Sprites on Viewpoint 2064:

Here's also a proper playthrough of the game in question:

 

[Tanooki]

VIewpoint both a surprise and a disappointment that it both exists and was canned.  The N64 could really have used that one.  40 Winks would be another.  It sucked what finished games just got cut, so let's throw Dinosaur Planet in there given what we can see if it now largely bugfixed and repaired.

[+Living Room Arcade]

Thanks, @Rick Dangerous for creating this thread!  IMO, N64 should have it's own forum here at Atari Age.  One thread is not sufficient to discuss the world of N64, I think.  

Edited March 24 by Living Room Arcade

[roots.genoa]

Speaking of unreleased games:

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/03/game-preservationists-unearth-new-footage-of-cancelled-n64-racer

 

 

[Tanooki]

And again another game that isn't lost, but is currently as of a year ago found, bought, and then selfishly hoarded it appears from the comment in that video.  Purposely lost history is disgusting. :\

[SlidellMan]

Wario Castle in SM64:

 

[SlidellMan]

A train demo by Kaze Emanuar:

 

[shane857]

♫Is there anybody out there?♫ 😂

[shane857]

On 3/24/2024 at 4:38 AM, Tanooki said:

VIewpoint both a surprise and a disappointment that it both exists and was canned.  The N64 could really have used that one.  40 Winks would be another.  It sucked what finished games just got cut, so let's throw Dinosaur Planet in there given what we can see if it now largely bugfixed and repaired.

40 winks. That game should have got a physical release...

[roots.genoa]

49 minutes ago, shane857 said:

♫Is there anybody out there?♫ 😂

The previous post was posted yesterday, that topic isn't exactly dead.

 

45 minutes ago, shane857 said:

40 winks. That game should have got a physical release...

You mean like this: https://www.pikointeractive.com/home/40-Winks-N64-NTSC-AVAILABLE-p132666160

[shane857]

12 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

The previous post was posted yesterday, that topic isn't exactly dead.

 

You mean like this: https://www.pikointeractive.com/home/40-Winks-N64-NTSC-AVAILABLE-p132666160

Nice. Shame the PAL version is backorder.

[Tanooki]

14 hours ago, shane857 said:

40 winks. That game should have got a physical release...

Thankfully Eli released it in recent years through his Piko Interactive company so better late than never.  Shame that others like Viewpoint won't likely get that fix.  I'd like to see the finally patched to work/completed more or less Dino Planet done up, I'd buy that, as would I if someone ever fixed the stupid translation from crashing it, Animal Crossing as well.

[shane857]

4 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Thankfully Eli released it in recent years through his Piko Interactive company so better late than never.  Shame that others like Viewpoint won't likely get that fix.  I'd like to see the finally patched to work/completed more or less Dino Planet done up, I'd buy that, as would I if someone ever fixed the stupid translation from crashing it, Animal Crossing as well.

Yes, I agree Dōbutsu no Mori+(Animal Forest/Crossing) is one I would definitely purchase.

[Tanooki]

@shane857 I forgot one I'd love to have, Wonder Project J2 which seems like a lot of fun from a translated rom I put an hour on years and years ago.

[SlidellMan]

Speaking of Wonder Project J2, whatever happened to Givro/Almanic, the original developers?

[shane857]

I have a lot of original released N64 games. Are there any homebrews on physical cart worth buying? 🤔

[Punisher5.0]

1 hour ago, shane857 said:

I have a lot of original released N64 games. Are there any homebrews on physical cart worth buying? 🤔

Xenocrisis. It would've been cool if they used more features of the N64 but its still a good game.

[SlidellMan]

Kaze Emanuar's SM64 Through the Ages:

 

[Tanooki]

Sadly on the homebrew front no, the N64 was kind of screwed.

 

The best way to grow a collection is to fish the nuggets out of the prototype pile which is a mix of lost and recovered media, or finished projects that got bought up and finally published like 40 Winks through Piko Interactive.

 

Stuff like Wonder Project J2, Doubutsu no Mori(Animal Crossing), Lost Legion GX, the two original Custom Robo titles we missed, (if you can tolerate it) Neon Genesis Evangelion, and a handful of others from Japan have translations and are supremely worthy.  And then there's the proto stuff -- Dinosaur Planet which was finally fixed up to run through 100% with lame Fox removed for Saber, Viewpoint, 40 Winks, etc.

[SlidellMan]

The latest from Kaze Emanuar:

 

[Tanooki]

It's amazing as it is amazingly SAD this work he does exists.  I've felt this way about that, but going back over 20 years now to Dinosaur Planet as I saw it on the E3 floor in 2000.

 

It shows that while it was marketing PR bullshit in general as bean counters always hamstring projects, it wasn't all fluff in the press talking up how much the N64 really was capable of doing things back in the 90s thanks to the CGI interface computer at its core.  As you see when someone is given freedom (kaze) or a team (thanks to Nintendo, Rare) could really pull off with that hardware despite the few limits it had (largely storage space, but also the tiny buffer for textures.)

 

If you can for fun just excuse the lower polygon core, look at the obscene level of detailed quality looking visuals you see in that captains quarters in one, or the ships in that last one, and i'm not even talking in motion, but the screen caps in time used for the thumbnails to peddle interest in checking it out.  You rarely outside of RARE which rarely released games due to their long winded development times see a glimmer of what this thing could do the PS1 wished it could have.  PS1 was no slouch but it was gimped in pretty ehhh ways too, but the one that mattered at the time due to CGI and music pandering, was the CD due to space and that N64 lacked horribly being stuck with a more costly 64MB max (1/10th of a CD.)

 

It's cute but you can look at the added detail of the N64 copycats/remaster + type games that went to DS a decade later...and even those perks don't match what you see here.

[Tanooki]

On a nicer note... I was at the arcade expo yesterday and hit up the retail space... walked away with Batman Beyond for a more than fair (ie: not ebay) price.  Harder game, I need to re-learn it as you can't just FINAL FIGHT the thing... it never got a lot of love but it's pretty well done, better off than the GBC and PS1 titles at least.

[SlidellMan]

Brawlers, another rare, underrepresented genre on the N64.

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

Brawlers, another rare, underrepresented genre on the N64.

To be fair the genre kinda died with the 3D, until Devil May Cry and Bayonetta brought it back in another form (that I don't enjoy as much personally). On PlayStation, the most famous brawler was Fighting Force which is a piece of crap imho, and the only good BTU on that generation was Die Hard Arcade, which was at the same time the first and last true beat 'em up in 3D. 😔

[Tanooki]

Yup and that pile of crap is on N64 as well.  Story goes it was meant to be Streets of Rage, but Sega wasn't having it whatever the reason, so it was reskinned and well ...that.  And I guess maybe that's why Sega didn't give it the gold star.  I've had it a few times, and I get kind of fed up with it after not very long.  Batman Beyond is a better game than that one, not to knock it as it's not phenomenal either, but also it more than leaped over the fighting forces low bar.