The History of the Nintendo 64

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 was released in Japan in 1996. It all started in 1992, when Nintendo was trying to create CD-ROM support for the SNES in partnership with Sony. At the time, it was approached by Silicon Graphics, which was looking for a partnership to develop a more advanced CPU. This is how the 64-bit VR4300 CPU was created. Silicon had approached Sega for this, but Sega rejected it due to CPU flaws. The partnership between Silicon and Nintendo was signed in 1993 as Project Reality, the same year that Nintendo and Sony tried to create a CD console called the Play Station, later released only by Sony in 1994. In 1994, the Silicon-Nintendo project was renamed Ultra 64. According to Silicon, the development of its hardware would take at least until 1995 to be released. In 1996, they announced that their console would be released that year, under the name Nintendo 64, since the name Ultra was claimed by Konami. The Nintendo 64 was released, but with support for cartridges, which was one of its biggest problems due to the high cost of these. At the time, they claimed that they were maintaining a successful model and avoiding the long loading times of CD games, but experts in the field said that they feared being challenged by Sony, creator of the CD-ROM together with Philips. This proved to be so true that their only CD-ROM console, the GameCube, released in 2001, used a specific CD media, a mini CD created by Nintendo, departing from the standards of the creators of traditional media.

N64 Hardware

Returning to the Nintendo 64, its CPU was 93.75 MHz, but it did not operate fully in 64 bits, with the console being considered 32 bits, thus being in the fifth generation of consoles. Its GPU was also developed by Silicon, known as RCP, or reality coprocessor. It also promised to be 64 bits and had 62.6 MHz. The GPU came with two integrated processors, the RSP and the RDP. Its palette was 16 million colors, with 2 million possible colors. The console had some new features compared to the others. It did not have a sound chip, with the audio processed by the RCP GPU, which brought 16-bit CD-quality audio with 24 PCM channels. Another new feature was the expandable sound quality up to 48 MHz. And finally, it innovated by bringing a different concept of RAM memory, with it being unified for CPU, audio and video, unlike those used in other consoles, which divided it into separate banks.

Expansion Pak, Rumble Pack and 64DD

It also came with the largest memory of a home console, 4MB, with the possibility of being expanded to 8MB using a cartridge called Expansion Pak. It also innovated by bringing to consoles a joypad with analog sticks and later with vibration mode through the Rumble Pack accessory, fitted to the controller itself. This joypad ended up inspiring the PSX DualShock. And finally, I highlight the 64DD, a peripheral similar to the zip drive, which was a floppy disk at the time. This peripheral was similar to the Famicom's Disk System, with games released for these disks. The device also had a modem to connect to the Randnet service for online gaming, similar to the SNES's Satellaview.

N64 Cases/Boxes

Similar to the Sega Saturn, the console also had transparent versions, in orange, pink, green, gray, blue, purple, red, yellow, lilac and aqua green.

N64 Cartridges

Among the well-known games, we have racing games, such as California Speed, Destruction Derby 64, F-Zero X, Hot Wheels, Hydro Thunder, Indy Racing, Lego Racers, Maro Kart 64, Ridge Racer 64, Re-Volt, V-Rally, Wave Race 64, Wipeout 64 and the franchises, Cruis'n, Automobili, F-1, Nascar, San Francisco Rush and Top Gear. Platform games, we had Banjo-Kazooie, Earthworm Jim 3D, Rayman, Super Mario 64, Yoshi Story, Donkey Kong 64, Kirby 64, and the franchises, Chameleon Twist and Gex. Adventure games, such as Mega Man 64, Mission Impossible, Power Rangers, and franchises such as Bomberman, Castlevania and Zelda. Sports games such as Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, NHL 99, World Cup '98, 1080 Snowboarding, as well as the Ozumo, All-Star Baseball, Bass, FIFA, International Superstar Soccer, J-League, Jikkyou Powerful Pro, Madden NFL, NBA, NFL Blitz, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, WCW, WWF and other franchises. Fighting games such as Fighters Destiny, Killer Instinct, Super Smash Bros., Super Robot Spirits, Transformers and Xena, as well as the Clay Fighter and Mortal Kombat franchises. Puzzle games such as Dr. Mario 64, Wetrix, The New Tetris, Tetrisphere and Magical Tetris Challenge, Puzzle Dama, and franchises such as Bomberman, Bust-a-Move, Pokemon and Puyo Puyo. Shooters, such as Doom 64, Perfect Dark, GoldenEye 007, Bangai-O, Nuclear Striker, Hexen, Robotron 64, Star Fox 64, Star Wars and franchises, such as Duke Nukem, Quake and Turok. Simulation, such as Pilotwings 64, Harvest Moon 64, Racing Simulation and Sim City 2000. Cartoons, such as Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, The Little Angels, Tigger, Taz-Mania, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, South Park, some from Disney, such as Toy Story, Mickey, Donald Duck, Bug's Life, The Emperor's New Groove and Tarzan and Japanese animation, such as Doraemon, Goemon, Evangelion and Rantarou. In addition to various game franchises, such as Star Wars, Bomberman, Mario, Pokemon and others.