Would the N64 have been the best console so far if it used discs?

If only it had a better controller.Nifty_Shark

Had Nintendo used the CD format instead of sticking to cartridges, Square might not have left Nintendo, and Final Fantasy 7 would've been on N64. N64 would've been the best. Plus, the controller could've been better.

But it's good that Nintendo lost that battle, as it allowed the Playstation brand rise to domination, and we've seen many excellent games because of that.

I still think the N64 is the best console to date. Well the one with the best games ever (a lot of them).BaraChat

I'm glad the N64 didn't go with discs in a way. Sure they lost alot of 3rd party for it, and a bunch of other crap happened, but games like Ocarina of Time would NOT be possible on a disc-based system in that time frame. Mario 64 would not have such huge and wide open levels to play in. Goldeneye would never have existed.


zh666

But it's good that Nintendo lost that battle, as it allowed the Playstation brand rise to domination, and we've seen many excellent games because of that.

Ugotownedo

But there were many excellent games before than. Sony had nothing to do with that.

N64 could have done better if it used discs instead of cartridges. Nintendo used cartridges because they are harder for the average person to copy than discs. However, cartridges are much more expensive to develop for and that is why many third parties didn't support it.

Well for one, the N64 was much more powerful than the PS1, so it could handle bigger enviroments much easier, and because of the cart it didn't use load times. The closest thing I can think of on the PS1 with the scope of Ocarina of Time is Megaman Legends, and even the dungeons in that are restrictive to lame corridor levels. The areas within Megaman Legends are about half the size of the areas within Ocarina of Time... the entire world of Megaman Legends could fit nice and snuggly in just the Hyrule Field with room to spare, and Megaman Legends is broken into like 10 areas.

Soul Reaver is another example, although I haven't played it on the PS1, I heard its the worst version of it.

If you compare Crash Bandicout to Mario 64 or Brave Fencer Musashi to Zelda 64, then you'll get a good idea on what I'm getting at..zh666

The only thing that saved the N64 from being a complete flop were its graphics which at the time could only be produced on cartridges. There is no way that the Mario, Donkey Kong, and other franchises would have sold as well if the graphics had disks graphics. Quake 2 on the N64 blows away the PS1 version in terms of graphics.Only when open gl and video cards came out for computers could any gaming system compare to the N64 that was with in the reach of your average consumer when it comes to cost.

roulettethedog

The carts had nothing to do with the graphical capabilites. In fact they were somewhat of a hinder in that area, due to the limited storage for textures.

The N64 hardware was considerably more powerful than the PS1. Faster CPU and GPU, and more RAM. That's why games looked better on it.

Also, Nintendo had a market advantage over Sony. In one way or another they've been in the video game business since almost its beginning. And they had been the market leader for two console generations straight. Had they produced practically the same hardware as the PS1, and not have been delayed to the market, Sony probably wouldn't fared as well.

[QUOTE="zh666"]Well for one, the N64 was much more powerful than the PS1, so it could handle bigger enviroments much easier, and because of the cart it didn't use load times. The closest thing I can think of on the PS1 with the scope of Ocarina of Time is Megaman Legends, and even the dungeons in that are restrictive to lame corridor levels. The areas within Megaman Legends are about half the size of the areas within Ocarina of Time... the entire world of Megaman Legends could fit nice and snuggly in just the Hyrule Field with room to spare, and Megaman Legends is broken into like 10 areas.

Soul Reaver is another example, although I haven't played it on the PS1, I heard its the worst version of it.

If you compare Crash Bandicout to Mario 64 or Brave Fencer Musashi to Zelda 64, then you'll get a good idea on what I'm getting at..FirstDiscovery

PS. But I will admit the N64 had the advantage of more memory than the PS1 (PS1 had 2MB, N64 had 4MB--8MB with the Expansion Pak).

[QUOTE="FirstDiscovery"][QUOTE="zh666"]Well for one, the N64 was much more powerful than the PS1, so it could handle bigger enviroments much easier, and because of the cart it didn't use load times. The closest thing I can think of on the PS1 with the scope of Ocarina of Time is Megaman Legends, and even the dungeons in that are restrictive to lame corridor levels. The areas within Megaman Legends are about half the size of the areas within Ocarina of Time... the entire world of Megaman Legends could fit nice and snuggly in just the Hyrule Field with room to spare, and Megaman Legends is broken into like 10 areas.

Soul Reaver is another example, although I haven't played it on the PS1, I heard its the worst version of it.

If you compare Crash Bandicout to Mario 64 or Brave Fencer Musashi to Zelda 64, then you'll get a good idea on what I'm getting at..HuusAsking

PS. But I will admit the N64 had the advantage of more memory than the PS1 (PS1 had 2MB, N64 had 4MB--8MB with the Expansion Pak).

I'm glad the N64 didn't go with discs in a way. Sure they lost alot of 3rd party for it, and a bunch of other crap happened, but games like Ocarina of Time would NOT be possible on a disc-based system in that time frame. Mario 64 would not have such huge and wide open levels to play in. Goldeneye would never have existed.


zh666

The N64 would have still had blurry as hell textures if it was disk based. Nintendo didn't give the system enough texture memory and it was a massive bottleneck. Still, there's no doubt it would have been more successful. It would have made it easier for third parties to port stuff over as well. I still can't believe that capcom managed to fit RE2 - a 2 disk game on the PS1 onto a 64mb N64 cart. manicfoot

[QUOTE="zh666"]I'm glad the N64 didn't go with discs in a way. Sure they lost alot of 3rd party for it, and a bunch of other crap happened, but games like Ocarina of Time would NOT be possible on a disc-based system in that time frame. Mario 64 would not have such huge and wide open levels to play in. Goldeneye would never have existed.


kemar7856

[QUOTE="kemar7856"][QUOTE="zh666"]I'm glad the N64 didn't go with discs in a way. Sure they lost alot of 3rd party for it, and a bunch of other crap happened, but games like Ocarina of Time would NOT be possible on a disc-based system in that time frame. Mario 64 would not have such huge and wide open levels to play in. Goldeneye would never have existed.


Scythes777

you're thinking of the N64DD

[QUOTE="zh666"]I'm glad the N64 didn't go with discs in a way. Sure they lost alot of 3rd party for it, and a bunch of other crap happened, but games like Ocarina of Time would NOT be possible on a disc-based system in that time frame. Mario 64 would not have such huge and wide open levels to play in. Goldeneye would never have existed.


FirstDiscovery

And that would have DESTROYED games like Ocarina of Time and Mario 64. Hell, loading times killed Chrono Trigger on the PS1.

If only it had a better controller.Nifty_Shark

you're thinking of the N64DD

zh666

Which of course had more in common with Zip disks (remember those?) than CDs.

If only the N64 had a better analog stick....mastetofthedark

That wouldn't have changed a whole lot. Plus, it was the first ninty system to have an analog stick, so it was basically a prototype.

Quite possibly. I own one and still play my Zelda:OoT and Goldeneye. As a console it has many pros and few albeit serious drawbacks. First and foremost it was (and still is) the first console to have a 64-bit gpu that really showed when you compared the smooth graphics with the pixelated ones of PSX and Sega Saturn. Second the controller was the first to incorporate both a d-pad and a fully analog stick along with an ingenius z-button and the four yellow buttons. The N64 controller is my all time favourite along with the DualShock and has obviously influenced the Dreamcast and Xbox-e's controllers. Last operating with a cartridge there is immediate access to any data stored in it meaning zero loading time. To be honest I believe Nintendo kept the cartridge format not so much as for having virtually zero loading time, that itself is a valid reason enough, as for piracy issues. To duplicate a cartridge is difficult and expensive compared to how cheap is to do the same for CDs.

Ironically this proved a selling point for the Playstation, harming the sales of N64, because so many people buyed the PS with the prospect of installing those infamous mod-chips so that they could buy and play cheap illegal copies of the original games. Also the N64 had for some reason a very limited RAM memory, only a handfoul of MBytes or so that did not allow the developers to exploit the capabilities of the system to it's full potential, for example blurred backgrounds as a result of the lack of memory to load many textures simultaneously. Lastly the cartridge had only a percentage of the CD's memory storage again limiting the content of the actual game putting developers off making games for the PS instead.

After all being said I would say N64 would have had even more success than the PS if it used CDs busted by having the household name of Nintendo as opposed to Sony that had only it's first console.

Quite possibly. I own one and still play my Zelda:OoT and Goldeneye. As a console it has many pros and few albeit serious drawbacks. First and foremost it was (and still is) the first console to have a 64-bit gpu that really showed when you compared the smooth graphics with the pixelated ones of PSX and Sega Saturn. Second the controller was the first to incorporate both a d-pad and a fully analog stick along with an ingenius z-button and the four yellow buttons. The N64 controller is my all time favourite along with the DualShock and has obviously influenced the Dreamcast and Xbox-e's controllers. Last operating with a cartridge there is immediate access to any data stored in it meaning zero loading time. To be honest I believe Nintendo kept the cartridge format not so much as for having virtually zero loading time, that itself is a valid reason enough, as for piracy issues. To duplicate a cartridge is difficult and expensive compared to how cheap is to do the same for CDs.

Ironically this proved a selling point for the Playstation, harming the sales of N64, because so many people buyed the PS with the prospect of installing those infamous mod-chips so that they could buy and play cheap illegal copies of the original games. Also the N64 had for some reason a very limited RAM memory, only a handfoul of MBytes or so that did not allow the developers to exploit the capabilities of the system to it's full potential, for example blurred backgrounds as a result of the lack of memory to load many textures simultaneously. Lastly the cartridge had only a percentage of the CD's memory storage again limiting the content of the actual game putting developers off making games for the PS instead.

After all being said I would say N64 would have had even more success than the PS if it used CDs busted by having the household name of Nintendo as opposed to Sony that had only it's first console.

ragasaraswati

As I recall, more games ran in a 32-bit mode on the N64. Since 64-bit consumed twice as much memory. The big performance difference can from the fact that the N64 had a 93.75Mhz CPU and 62.5Mhz GPU. By contrast the Playstation ran a 33.86MHZ CPU, and, though I can't find the exact spec, presumably the GPU ran slower than the CPU.

Also while the N64's RAM may have been limited by todays standards, it actually had more than the Playstation.

[QUOTE="BaraChat"]I still think the N64 is the best console to date. Well the one with the best games ever (a lot of them).sAndroid17

[QUOTE="sAndroid17"][QUOTE="BaraChat"]I still think the N64 is the best console to date. Well the one with the best games ever (a lot of them).idk761

it is the best console ,

i dont see why it wasnt, sure it did not sell as many as playstation also it didnt stay out like 11 yrs if ps1 would have ran the normal cycle, even ps2, the sales numbers would have been way lower,

so based on these facts it is hard to call ps1 the run away success without those years adde on ,

ps1 didnt offer classics like

goldenye 007

super mario 64

turok

fzero mario party mariokart

duke nukem 64

hexen 64

doom 64

quake 1 and 2

paper mario

zelda oot and majoras mask by the way oot became the first rated 10 game here on gamespot and stayed that way til mgs 4 and gta iv earned it

also goldeneye and perfect dark should now be a 10 since they changed the system

how many ps1 games got high nines . out side of sonys and ff

werent many i know that much

sure ps1 has thousand of games, but how many are actually good in comparision to that list,

n64 may have had a small library but over half the library were ggood games, 8-10s here on gamespot ,

even marioparty when it was actually good,

4-7 lack , 8 was good, ds was better, gba was dismal

so ya back in n64 era i give n64 high marks,

so it didnt have ff

it made up for that with instant classics, believe it or not,. anything after n64, is the same ol , n64 revolutionized gaming, in the same way wii does today,

simply put it , nintendo revolutionizes gaming almost each time,

admit it, gc was not that good but it wasnt a bad one, sega gets that honor , every single generation that gone by after genesis, sega fell down ,

sms was ok , but genesis was their better years until these add-ons,

after that we know what happened,

sony was just lucky, they had the momentum to last until psp and ps3, now look who is building it, starting with gc slowly but surely nintendo gained respects to 3rd party ,

and as a result, wii and ds continue to dominate the market, well gba and ds always have,

but now theres 2 at the same time 2.04 million in november who can top that

this isnt even a xmas month that this happened. wait till december comes in ,

those who say wii is gonna stop selling, your full of it, with every inch of your mouth, they said it would be a novelty but here i sit looking for a replacement,

god back to subject.

nintendo 64 with or with out cd , still my number one console, beside wii snes ps1 genesis 360 and snes,

the rest did ok,

Nintendo's first major attempt at completely going against the grain. Mario 64 is a good example of how the 64 simply had a better 3d engine than the other consoles. In that case, it could be considered a sucess.

The thing that was a real slap in the face was that there was no CGI. This was a new technology that Nintendo fans were robbed of. Think it isn't a big deal? Play Mortal Kombat 4 for 64 and PS2. The endings are pretty pathetic for the 64. I worked at the old babbages store in the 90's when these games were released. This was the first time I seen a flood of people who wanted their money back for a game.

Not to mention the lack of a single traditional U.S. released rpg was a big "we don't care about you" stance on their part. If the Snes had not releases an overabundance of rpg's the system wouldn't have been a fraction as sucessfull as they were. I've always thought it was because they couldn't fit in the cgi, which pretty much became standard with rpg's. Simply put, they let alot of people down and had a pretty good idea that was going to happen and did it anyways. From then on, Nintendo had strayed from tradition and new technology(btw, infared motion sensor is not new technology).

it would have fared far better against the PS1 thats for sure, both FF and MGS were meant to be on the N64 originally but moved over due to a lack of a CD drive

but alot of developers werent very happy with Nintendo, ever since the NES days when they treated third parties very badly, telling them how many games to make and censuring what they released, as well as charging alot of royalty fees for every game sold.

i reckon 3rd parties were looking for a viable system to move to. alot moved to the Mega Drive/Genesis when they could, and became multi platform. they went to Sony because it treated them better.

so while i reckon the N64 could have done better with CDs, it would still have get tough competition from the playstation

Cartridges gave the N64 smoother graphics, no load times, and a much faster frame rate. I'm saying that's a pretty good deal. Now the controller on the other hand... Blockie123

Again, the graphics had nothing to do with the fact that it used carts. It was a superior CPU, GPU, and RAM that made this possible.

Carts did load a whole lot faster though. That's for sure.

[QUOTE="sAndroid17"][QUOTE="BaraChat"]I still think the N64 is the best console to date. Well the one with the best games ever (a lot of them).idk761

[QUOTE="idk761"][QUOTE="sAndroid17"] yeah me toosAndroid17

n64 has gameplay that requires skill(kinda,,,not nintendo, snes skill) but close.

In case you didn't know, the N64 did use discs. It was called the gamecube.Jedpak

Err, exactly what are you trying to imply?