Nintendo 64
Released across the world from 1996 to 1997, the Nintendo 64 is the successor to the SNES and went head to head with the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation.
N64 Related Articles
Released across the world from 1996 to 1997, the Nintendo 64 is the successor to the SNES.
Nintendo 64 was considered controversial at the time because Nintendo opted to stick with cartridges over the quick-developing CD-ROM. This was primarily driven by Nintendo’s concerns over losing control of the cartridge licence and production process. This was still very profitable for them. Nintendo cited that piracy was their main concern, however. The cartridge approach still had some fans though, with the medium being able to deliver faster load times.
The N64 is a fifth-generation console that saw 3D gaming popularised. Super Mario 64 is one game that is considered a pioneer of the third-person 3D game.
Nintendo lost a significant amount of market share due to releasing the N64 as late as 1996. This provided the Sony PlayStation with a chance to gain almost a two-year head start. Perhaps naivety from Nintendo, and to be fair Sega too. Nobody expected Sony to deliver a console that was trailblazing in technical terms as well as Sony’s commercial arrangements with developers.
The Nintendo 64 continued to retail until 2003.
A lifelong avid gamer and computing enthusiast, Matt has decades of Retro Gaming experience. Now over 40 years old, Matt now even considers himself retro, but fortunately, nobody has developed a Matt emulator (not yet at least!).