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Comment by bennysomething | Hacker News Reader

One of the ex rare Goldeneye Devs said in an interview that the N64 not having a cd drive lost them that generation. I think he's probably mostly right.

Cartridges were not only an anti piracy move, it saved on cost of console manufacturing (the N64 was still sold at a loss).

As you point out N64 games were originally a lot more expensive than playstation games.

Also Nintendo were really restrictive with who could develop for the N64, remember the whole "dream team" thing? Mean playstation had way more favourable licensing and you didn't need silicon graphics workstations (I think I'm correct in N64 dev requiring them?)

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Somehow the pros of N64 carts (mainly loading times and onboard game saves) were never really talked about. I had an N64 (which I purchased together with Goldeneye circa 1997). I can remember a feeling of thinking I had made a mistake because PS1 seemed much bigger and I had a feeling that it must have been better. But looking back, I feel like N64 had the better set of games. But maybe that's just because it's what I know. Honestly Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were probably enough to win that war all by themselves in my mind, but Mario Kart, Mario 64, Smash Bros, and Star Fox also got a lot of play time from me.

There were definite advantages to cartridges. I remember a few occasions where PS1 memory cards ate my save data, which never happened on N64. And I remember tedious disc swapping and long load times on a few games: Riven had a few discs and you'd have to switch when traveling from one area to another, and those were always fraught with the potential for game crashes.

On the other hand discs allowed much larger games. There was a crazy amount of variety on the PS1, though as a result also a lot of crap to sort through. I was a Nintendo-first fanboy at the time, but when the PS1 dropped in price to about $100 I picked one up, trading in N64 games I no longer played to help fund the purchase. I think it was around the time FFVII came out because I remember reserving it for day-1 release.

Ahh simpler times, working manual labor while in school. Sometimes I'm nostalgic for those days of unskilled (relatively) non knowledge-based work. It was much less stressful, even if the pay was crap.

The N64 controller did Nintendo no favors, particularly with games like Goldeneye. The original playstation controller didn't stand the test of time either, but once the analog sticks were added it became an instant classic.

The controller was weird then and is even weirder in hindsight but as I recall:

1. This was the first console controller with any analog stick at all.

2. Goldeneye, though it controls differently to modern shooters, was an excellent use of the single stick at the time. You could also use dual sticks by using two controllers at once - groundbreaking!

3. The Z-button was the first trigger-style button on console controllers.

4. The rumble pack was one of (if not) the first force feedback options for console controllers.

So obviously very many of the concepts in the N64 controller laid the groundwork for what became the standard controller design later, with dual triggers, dual sticks, and built-in force feedback.

Personally I think the N64 controller was less weird than:

1. Gamecube controller

2. Wiimote

3. Dual Screen handheld with touchscreen and stylus

4. Probably whatever the Wii-U had.

> Goldeneye, though it controls differently to modern shooters, was an excellent use of the single stick at the time. You could also use dual sticks by using two controllers at once - groundbreaking!

Wait, what!!? Can you really play dual-stick Goldeneye on original N64 hardware this way?

Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDQ_ri2ZbY4

Amazing!

> Gamecube controller

The Gamecube controller may have looked a bit funny, but it's at least recognizable by modern standards. I recall it being quite comfortable to use at the time. If you gave both it and the original N64 controller to a young person today who had no idea about Nintendo's history, I daresay she'd call the Gamecube controller the less weird of the two.

Also, it wasn't Nintendo, but I'd call the Dreamcast controller a bit weird. Gigantic, weirdly shaped, a dinky LCD smack dab in the center ...

> This was the first console controller with any analog stick at all.

Atari 5200 beat them there.

The wii u tablet controller is actually pretty comfortable to use.

I'll give them a pass on that one. In the era of the N64's design stage I don't think anyone knew what a good controller setup with (an) analog stick(s) would be like. Even the original Xbox came with an awful controller, though at least they got the layout right.

What was the dream team thing? I'm not familiar with that.

https://www.ign.com/articles/1999/06/08/sweet-dreams-are-mad...

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