Ah, the graphics-based console wars. Been going on since the '90s, despite especially the last couple console generations proving that realistic graphics are less relevant to a game’s overall quality than ever. Nintendo’s been doing just fine with “underpowered” hardware since the Wii (N64 and GameCube could keep up with their contemporaries hardware-wise but Nintendo made poor storage format decisions that held those consoles back - imagine what a CD-based N64 could’ve been…). The Wii U didn’t sell as well but it still was by no means a bad console (though Nintendo can thank the 3DS keeping them profitable enough to produce the Switch during that time - looking at the games that came out then, you can tell Nintendo knew their “main” console in that era was actually the 3DS). Heck, the Wii U maybe could’ve gotten the third-party support it desperately needed if Nintendo didn’t push them to shoehorn in funky gamepad features so hard.
Getting a CD on the N64 would have allowed for some cooler videos in the middle of the game (and would probably have made things cheaper for developers), but, in my opinion, the thing that really killed the N64 is the tiny (4k) texture cache combined with high latency RAM on the system.
That’s why N64 games have a “look” that can be easily identified.
Ah, the graphics-based console wars. Been going on since the '90s, despite especially the last couple console generations proving that realistic graphics are less relevant to a game’s overall quality than ever. Nintendo’s been doing just fine with “underpowered” hardware since the Wii (N64 and GameCube could keep up with their contemporaries hardware-wise but Nintendo made poor storage format decisions that held those consoles back - imagine what a CD-based N64 could’ve been…). The Wii U didn’t sell as well but it still was by no means a bad console (though Nintendo can thank the 3DS keeping them profitable enough to produce the Switch during that time - looking at the games that came out then, you can tell Nintendo knew their “main” console in that era was actually the 3DS). Heck, the Wii U maybe could’ve gotten the third-party support it desperately needed if Nintendo didn’t push them to shoehorn in funky gamepad features so hard.
Getting a CD on the N64 would have allowed for some cooler videos in the middle of the game (and would probably have made things cheaper for developers), but, in my opinion, the thing that really killed the N64 is the tiny (4k) texture cache combined with high latency RAM on the system.
That’s why N64 games have a “look” that can be easily identified.