Nintendo 64: overview, hardware, software, and legacy

The Nintendo 64 was initially developed from 1993 onwards in conjunction with workstation manufacturer Silicon Graphics under the project name "Project Reality" - which was later renamed "Ultra 64".

By using plug-in modules, the black copying problem should be avoided. In addition, long loading times were eliminated and the saving of game scores was possible directly on the module by means of a memory (battery-supported in some games). Compared to the CD-ROM, however, the production costs of the modules were much higher and due to the significantly lower storage capacity of only up to 64 MB (512 Mbit), it was hardly possible to integrate pre-rendered video and elaborate audio sequences into the games. For these and other reasons, such as the more complicated game programming, the Nintendo 64 was considered rather sparsely by game manufacturers from the beginning. The most famous developer in this regard is Square, which released its Final Fantasy series of role-playing games, which were especially important for the Japanese market, not for the Nintendo 64, but for the PlayStation. Nintendo itself, together with Rare, was by far the most important supplier of high-quality N64 games.

In 2001, software development for the Nintendo 64 ended after about 400 titles worldwide (including over 250 in Germany), about 225 million games sold, and nearly 33 million consoles sold. One of the last commercial successes was the game Paper Mario, which was also released in 2001.

Controller

The Nintendo 64's controller, a gamepad that fits onto one of the four ports on the console, has an unusual shape with three handles: The left handle features the directional pad and L-shoulder button used since NES days, the right handle features most of the ten buttons (noticeable: the four smaller C buttons), and the middle handle features the trigger-like Z-trigger button and a then-novel analog stick that most games made use of, as it allowed for sensitive control in 3D games. Due to the punctual springback of this analog stick, the risk of wear and tear was quite high if not handled properly. Especially in games of the Mario Party series, you had to turn the stick intensively in circles several times during the various mini-games, which inevitably led to a loss of power of the springback and deposition of abrasive material. For this reason, the analog stick suspension was changed for the successor console, the Nintendo GameCube, to minimize possible wear.

On the underside of the controller, a so-called Controller Pak can be used to save game scores or a Rumble Pak to create shake/vibration effects. The Controller Pak is not absolutely necessary for the Nintendo 64 because of the internal memory system. However, some manufacturers waived it so that some games require this Pak. Internally there is a 32 kilobyte SRAM chip of the type Toshiba TC55257DFL-85L and the necessary battery. The memory is divided into 128 pages, 123 of which are available for storing game saves, for which one to all 123 pages are needed, depending on the game. Regardless of how many pages are used, there is a limit of 16 saved game states per controller Pak.

Rumble Pak

The Rumble Pak was sold together with the game Lylat Wars in a bundle in 1997 and later also individually. This feature was copied by other manufacturers and is now standard in every console controller (except for the lack of Rumble function in the PS3 controller "Sixaxis" and the Wavebird controller for the Nintendo GameCube). Nintendo never offered a Pak that combined the functions of Rumble and Controller Pak, so at times the player was forced to choose between the Rumble effect and the save option - if a game did not support saving to the module. To get around this problem, later games gave players the option to swap Paks for a moment. Other manufacturers offered modules that could be switched between save and vibration, but this was not an optimal solution, as these modules did not work correctly with some games.

Expansion Pak

A special expansion is the Expansion Pak, which can be inserted into a small slot on the top of the console, increasing the RAM from 4 MB to 8 MB. In some games, this allows an optional higher texture size (called High-Resolution) to be selected, increasing the number of pixels from 320 × 240 to 640 × 480. However, the higher texture size requires more processing power, so you also get a lower refresh rate. For three titles (Donkey Kong 64, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and large parts of Perfect Dark) the Expansion Pak is even mandatory, which is why it was included with Donkey Kong 64. In order to use the Expansion Pak, you first have to remove the Jumper Pak, a kind of pseudo-module without additional RAM. In later bundles of the Nintendo 64, the Expansion Pak was already inserted and stuck with a sticker that says "Do not remove this label".

Transfer Pak

There was also the Transfer Pak from Nintendo for transferring Game Boy data into an N64 game. It has a slot itself, into which a Game Boy game module is inserted. This way a data exchange between GB and N64 module can take place. Only a few N64 games such as Pokémon Stadium as well as its successor Pokémon Stadium 2 used this feature. In Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, the Transfer Pak allowed the exchange of character data between Game Boy and Nintendo 64 versions of the respective game. Perfect Dark for Nintendo 64 also allowed cheats to be unlocked by connecting to the Game Boy version of the game.

Controller Pak

The Controller Pak was an accessory that, like the Rumble Pak and Transfer Pak, could be inserted into the slot on the back of the Nintendo 64 controller. It was a battery-powered memory module that could be purchased separately. This could be used to store data for selected games, identified by a special mark on the packaging. (e.g. Diddy Kong Racing, to save high score times).

Microphone Pak

Furthermore, the Microphone Pak for voice recognition and control in the Pokémon game Hey You, Pikachu! was only released in Japan and the USA. For this purpose, the voice recognition hardware ("Voice Recognition Unit" abbreviated VRU [NUS-020]) is connected to the fourth controller port of the Nintendo 64, while the actual microphone [NUS-021] is plugged into the Controller Pak slot on the bottom of the controller, but does not make an electrical connection there (the Japanese microphone is a headset). The VRUs are region-specific, and a VRU for the USA region cannot be used for Japanese games, and vice versa.