Hello everyone, I recently bought an NTSC N64 from eBay and I'm loving it- the memories come flooding back, I find the N64 so innovative and so much fun. I was wondering, what is the consensus on the quality of the N64's design? Articles on the internet and Wikipedia consistently mention small texture cache, high memory latency and other bottlenecks which hamper the console's performance (mipmapping halving texture cache, using 64bit halving available memoery etc). This seems odd, because Nintendos consoles always seem to be very well designed and cost effective down to minute details- the SNES was slower than the Genesis but its capabilties with graphics and sound far surpassed the Genesis, and wasn't the Gamecube the only console of the previous generation to generate profit from hardware? It seems odd that Nintendo 'overlooked' such faults when producing the Nintendo 64. What is your opinion? Oh, and any information on the development of the N64 would be greatly appreciated =)
the comment regarding memory is only true if you choose to use a 64bit instruction set etc. no game that I know of used the 64bit features in an exclusive/entire manner, because it would make little sense. I ve never actually come across 64Bit instructions in games. Someone might want to inform me if they have though. yes, the RCL is quite limited as well. the thing with the n64 design is that it was early 3D days. Programmer's needs were understood at a basic level, but just as with previous hardware, it was expected that the programmers would adapt to the hardware, not the other way around as it is today. This in combination with a design mostly deriving from SGI and the use of orthodoxic microcodes (sort of like "modes" on the SNES but more open if you got the green light from nintendo, which Factor5 and Rare did at some point) that wasted resources because they were too stringent and accurate for games without any real added value. Nintendo and other companies had yet to come to grips and define what would be the industry standard for 3D, although vector based calculations seemed like the way to go. SGI's design for the n64 looked brilliant on paper, yet no previous experience was available so that they could accurately know what to expect, quality-wise, leave alone bottlenecks. Things became more and more apparent well into prototyping, at which point some features were tweaked (compare the U64 to the retail N64 and you ll find some minor differences there, too). Also keep in mind that the original expansion pak was 16MB and not 8MB as it was finally released. I ve seen a prototype of the former in person and some friends on this board own such an item too. I think members such as subbie, kammedo, marshallh etc would be more competent with regards a detailed analysis.
Well I don't know what the deal is with the N64 controller, but it just doesn't fit my hands comfortably. Two systems that hurt my hands are PSP and N64, I try to avoid both of them. Graphics wise N64 is a lovely beast. Linear filtered textures, mip mapping, z buffering, freaking awesome. Impossible on the competition. There are Nintendo tech demos that seem to work around a lot of these issues. The N64 version of Rayman 2 looked nearly as good as the Dreamcast version. Awesome little system N64. The PS1 version of Rayman 2 is total garbage. I have it. Not nice. But that bloody controller, ow ow! You can get PS2 to N64 adaptors though I think, I may get one of those and re ignite the N64 love.
I agree with the controller- back with my first N64 I was about 10, it was lush- but my hands are bigger now, and its just awkward to hold- my wrists are not at a natural angle.. Would have been better if the control stick was in the primary (left) position, but hey, there was a chance it would not catch on..
Forgive my ignorance on the subject.. so the console was developed and designed *for* Nintendo? I thought SGI had input on the technologies, I didn't realise they designed all the guts..
SGI had a ready-made console first offered to SEGA but they declined, so they went to nintendo and the rest you know
The control was alright IMO, the main problem is that Nintendo underestimated the impact of the analog stick, so they placed it as a secondary input device, instead of primary (where the Dpad was). Other issues are the design of the stick itself, which creates wear and tear to the point that it ceases to function (or becames erratic). The shoulder buttons were also a pain and sometimes didnt work properly. Yeah, funny that SGI was able to solve the issues SOJ was whinning about, yet SEGA ended up releasing a rushed buggy hardware instead (guess which one...)
Actually i like how the N64 deals with textures. At that time, it was quite an achievement (remember Saturn and PS1 issues). When i first saw Mario 64, it was like WOW. My only complaint is that in some games, i end up having problems to see what's going on and sometimes i even had headaches! The damn blurry textures... I can't even play Hexen on it.
I think Nintendo was seeking for a something with high performance (at that time) and choosing the RISC architecture was the right way to for that. Yes it's a lot more complicated to program since it has fewer instruction but your code end up a lot more optimized unlike CISC processor. This allowed them to make thing like video capture(If they have make good use of it is another story). You know CISC processor nowadays all include a RISC processor to help them going faster... <speculation> Also giving to SGI the responsibility of designing the hardware was a go shot for Nintendo at that time. SGI had all ready Indy workstation that Nintendo could use to start development on it immediately (Even if this work was not directly usable when design of n64 finished). Also not designing the hardware probably also free up some resource for Nintendo that could instead work on 3D game engine which was new for them a that time. Of all company that have make the 3D jump, I think they were the most successful company of all, Mario 64, starfox 64 & Zelda OOT are awesome. thanks to all the time they had polishing their game engine. </speculation> Only the joystick sucked overall IMO.
Let's not forget the main reason it was a bad design. It was a cartridge system in a CD era. At the end of the day that was its Achilles' heel
:lol: I still think the N64 has a great Hardware for the time, the only problem being the lack of space (as in no optical media support). That would had change quite alot of things imo
RISC hard to program? Far away from truth in my opinion. CISC is much more complicated with its too extended instruction set. Thats actually a good point. SGI had Indys ready, but bear in mind that the indys don't support the RCP out of the box, so they had to build up the GIO board -> expensive (around 2000 $ for the board back in the days only, not speaking of an indy which was one of the most powerful workstations back then)...
Perhaps Barc0de typed it wrong. Its a 4 MB expansion pack. There should be a 16 Megs expansion somewhere.
From a controller standpoint that would make sense, just look at the DC, Xbox and X360's controllers. Even the wiichuk has the thumbpad were it belongs, instead of a Dpad.
