The Official Nintendo 64 Thread!

[roots.genoa]

What pissed me off at the time if that several magazines ranked Fighting Force higher than Die Hard Arcade, just because it was in some way more 'modern'; DHA features a 2D gameplay (your character always faces left or right like in a 2D belt scroll game) and it's very short indeed (it can be beat in less than 30 minutes). Unfortunately, video game journalists were (and mostly still are) obsessed with the length of a game, not realizing that it doesn't matter that a game is short if it's exhilarating, while some very long games just feel like working.

[Tanooki]

Well did they really rank it higher honestly?  Or was this an earlier PRINT version of the Kane & Lynch bullshit over at Gamespot that burned it with fans to the ground with the 250K bribe from Square-Enix to give it higher marks, and when a reviewed didn't a shit storm exploded?

 

Maybe the concern over game length by journalists is projection of another small matter?

[roots.genoa]

I don't know to be honest, but I just think that a lot of game journalists (and gamers in general) don't get beat 'em ups to begin with and what makes them good. When someone claims that "a beat 'em up is repetitive but it's normal because every beat 'em up is", I know they have no idea what they're talking about. Yes, good beat 'em ups are actually rare. But Streets of Rage 2, The Ninja Warriors Again, Die Hard Arcade, and Double Dragon Advance for instance are not repetitive. Hell, Die Hard Arcade is so short you can almost beat the game without using the same technique twice.

[KidGameR186496]

An unreleased Nintendo 64 Game just dropped today!

 

 

[SlidellMan]

The latest from Kaze Emanuar:

 

[Gamemoose]

Don't know if anyone saw this yet, but a new flash cart is out: SummerCart64.  On top of the price ($125 or so with case, $108 for PCB) it's got a lot going for it from the get go (real time clock, auto save backup, ability to run emulators, etc.) but it also has 64DD hardware emulation baked in.  This cart is also open source.

[Tanooki]

Wow nice, finally someone putting out a quality kit without the price hiked shenanigans that krikzz pulled on his stuff that has been out there years now.  Kind of speaks to poor suppliers or taking advantage as costs should drop not increase over time.

[M-S]

There's also a flash cartridge that's open source and is built using a Raspberry Pi Pico, but of course it can't play 64DD games and doesn't have extra features, the only advantage it has is the low cost. The same developer also made a Digital HDMI mod using a Pico that looks way easier to install compared to the older ones. 

 

[SlidellMan]

Kaze does Pseudo-additive lighting:

and colored sparkles:

 

[+GoldenWheels]

Boy I bought Doom 64 for like...$1.50 a few weeks ago on steam, and have been enjoying it immensely. Plays great on the handheld too.

[Tanooki]

Doom 64 is grossly underrated because pewwww N64 sux, PS1 forever mentality that just dogs and dogs decades now.  So much of that system if you weren'te a quote unquote fanboy was just ignored or knocked down a peg just because it sucks it's not on CDs and not Sony blah blah...stfu nonsense.  Doom 64 was the true Doom 3 unlike the turd that got a 3 on it, it was challenging and honest to the franchise roots previous to its release.  The only true failing on the game, they fucked up gamma bad, it's super dark on most old TVs, you'd have to crank it and your TV itself brightness well up to see things and not just in shadows. :\  Another I guess to the fact they cheaped on a battery, but a mempak or password was just fine and equally acceptable in the era.  The modern rehash of it it's not really improved really or much on QOL, it's just honest, but not dark as F, you can play it far better, it just works, polished up some but works.  I had it originally as it was out for years on that KEX engine before it went commercial as Doom64EX and it was amazing, so I bought in when it went physical as nightdive deserves that credit.  I had it for a time on Switch but scaled my games back grossly towards things you can't get on Steam, so that went along with the 1-3 package as well as it felt redundant with Quake as well.  I did have digitals of D1-2(and I think 3) when they were asy ou said above 1.50 on a deep cut digital Switch sale so they're still there for handheld if I wanted.

[SlidellMan]

James Lambert may have had to pull the plug on Portal 64, but he has a new project that is actually original:

 

[M-S]

On 5/6/2024 at 3:01 PM, Tanooki said:

  Doom 64 was the true Doom 3 unlike the turd that got a 3 on it, it was challenging and honest to the franchise roots previous to its release.

 I think that if you play Doom 3 as it's own thing rather than a sequel it's a pretty good 2000s FPS, I at least like it more than Halo and others.

 

 Anyways, these are probably the biggest news regarding the Nintendo 64 in 2024, now there is a tool that can quickly convert supposedly any N64 game into a fully native PC executable, with quite literally no emulation. The results so far have been very positive, but I'm sure that soon enough someone will find a game that somehow glitches, maybe one that is completely rendered in 2D, still this is one of the most impressive showcases of recompilation ever, I know the PS3 and the first three Xbox generations do something similar for backwards compatibility, but even then only a part of the code is converted, not the whole game, there is more info about it in this video and on the links in the description: 

[Tanooki]

@M-S I do, or at least I try to.  I don't really consider it a Doom game, just another generic space FPS combat shooty game and it's better than some, worse than a good bit other due to one epically fucking stupid design choice I utterly hate.  The game seems hell bent after awhile into it turning into the never ending pop scare and damage from behind mechanic which at times is (or at least feels like) happens every 30 seconds.  YOu clear a room, then a cooridor 100%, moving onto the next, scratch scratch blood...down 20% to find a new imp back there.  You kill it, move a bit, wash rinse repeat...it's like they come out of the walls or teleport in and it gets aggravating, tiring, and utterly old and demotivating.  It got on my nerves enough I eventually just stopped caring to play the game as designed, popped a core to refill life as needed, and kept going as it made the game bearable. :\  Doom 64 to me was just clean cut honest true DOOM and that wasn't, more Doom in name.  I don't hate it, I just don't like it.

 

I stopped following the 64 decompilation to PC stuff after vanilla Mario 64 basically got removed for various bastardized and so-called improved this and that stuff, and then seeing early releases of coming Ocarina and Majora builds.  I did make an Ocarina one, and it worked, but I really didn't have the time.  Mario is far easier to fire up and poke a stick at by design with the stars.   I could think of a few games I'd love to drop a vanilla build of from 64 to PC if it happens.