Hardware I want to try and give Nintendo 64 a fair chance at gaming.

[Robert Newbie]

Bit of a contradiction there, innit?

Hehe, as a video game enthusiast, I know about the Harmony of Dissonance(tm). This is part of the experience.

For example, I'm not a JRPG person, but you hear so much about Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc. that you decide to put personal tastes aside. Then, you find games like Super Mario RPG, Grandia, or Persona 3 FES to be especially memorable. You may never be a big JRPG person, but giving something an honest try may yield some good results.

TL;DR: The N64 does have a limited library, but there are games worth checking out.

 

[icegod]

I looked into it a bit deeper.

NTSC games on a Pal N64, plays through Pal60, which is roughly the same as NTSC.

However:
- There are reports of sound issues
- Some tv's display Black/White picture.


I did some tests myself today. I didn't see anything odd on my main crt tv, nor did I hear any weird audio bugs. However, I did have one HDTV that did display in black/White.

My suggestion: Get a Summercart, get the NTSC set, and see if it works. If it doesn't, you can still get a Jap device, or just get the Pal rom set. Honestly, I grew up with the Pal versions and it never bothered me.

 

[VmprHntrD]

I'd ignore a mister entirely unless you have zero interest in every using a real cartridge and that's that, it's just a rom loader. A summecart64 is the most cost effective but also most capable kit on the market to run games off a cartridge as a good way to test things out, but also even if you had a library to play english translated games, lost prototypes, pet projects and more.

If you're starting out fresh, and have a tolerance for time, I would kind of track along the years the games came out to a point because if you move too far up (late 90s into the 00s) it may feel jarring going backwards due to advancements in quality.

I'd call some basics from Nintendo must try things like Mario 64, Pilotwings, Wave Race, all 1996 stuff and into the following year with Mario kart too. When it comes to 3rd party games, Capcom only put 2 out, but both are worth having even if they were on Ps1 too for the novelty of it, but also due to some quality enhacements both have in some respects. Konami put a number of solid games out, franchise titles, but also some unique experiences too. Lucasarts didn't fail to impress with their Star Wars or Indiana Jones games, all worth a look. Rare is an island of quality being 2nd party then and you can either love or hate it when it comes to their overkill collectable nonsense with games more often than not, but on the one they didn't Conker, or their FPS games, they were peak quality stuff either way.

The thing is it's hard to throw too many recommendations because taste has a factor, but also genre interest. The system was fairly heavy on quality racing titles, and also king of the couch co-op in general but really with WWF and WCW wrestling titles.

 

[shadowflare7799]

I'm interested in which games you're considering playing. Super Mario 64 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are peak N64 to me. I said in a recent post that Nintendo and Rare carried the N64, and it's still surreal thinking about how Capcom, Konami, and Squaresoft were all putting their best on a rival console. A Nintendo console without Final Fantasy? Castlevania? Mega Man? Absolutely crazy times.

Speaking of Capcom, Angel Studios' (Rockstar San Diego) port of Resident Evil 2 is definitely worth checking out. Of all of Rare's contributions, my personal favorite is Goldeneye 007. I know I'm turning this into a software topic, but I couldn't help myself.

Goldeneye for sure. That was a great game For PS2 some underrated games such as spy fiction, the getaway black monday which I actually did like it wasnt as great as gta but still a good game at best I think. Contra Shattered soldier was a great game to for the ps2. RARE made a lot of good video games back in the day so you can't go wrong with them sunsoft to.

 

[skawo]

How does that work, since the CPU runs at a lower clock speed on PAL consoles. I don't think there's any ability to change the clock speed without hardware modding?

No, the CPU and RSP clocks are the same on both consoles. The refresh rate is just changed in software. See, for example:

https://github.com/zeldaret/oot/blob/b4c29fa50b8bd9ffb67138e56032c0432298d593/src/libultra/io/vimodepalhpf1.c vs https://github.com/zeldaret/oot/blo...c0432298d593/src/libultra/io/vimodentschaf1.c

https://github.com/zeldaret/oot/blob/b4c29fa50b8bd9ffb67138e56032c0432298d593/src/code/game.c#L343

 

[auntnadia]

I completely understand the desire for native gaming, though N64 is one of the few times I’d choose emulation, if only for the resolution upgrade. The original N64 was a blurry experience, which stands out even more nowadays.

That said, Rogue Squadron is just one N64 gem that doesn’t emulate at all well. I gives the perfect setup would be a mixture of both.,,

 

[Jayro]

(I actually only played OOT on 3ds. Never finished the og one. ever. And MM I hate that it has the timelimit. hard pass)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hasn't beaten or really enjoyed these games. I'm really hoping the Switch 2 version makes OoT more approachable for newcomers.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hasn't beaten or really enjoyed these games. I'm really hoping the Switch 2 version makes OoT more approachable for newcomers.

I never played OoT so the NS2 remake will be a must and I'm still hoping we'll get that Zelda Wii U Tech Demo released whatever it was. Twilight Princess II?



Surprised no one leaked it to the internets.

 

[Fabax01]

How does that work, since the CPU runs at a lower clock speed on PAL consoles. I don't think there's any ability to change the clock speed without hardware modding?

Only thing different is crystal and multiplier select if pin is high/low, 64brew

By the way, I wonder why people say that about ntsc games on pal N64...
Maybe it's because on 99% of the pal consoles, such as PSX, output in ntsc mode it is slower.
But it's not the case.

(CRYSTAL * MULTIPLIER) / 5 = VIDEO CLOCK

note: colorburst carrier is made by crystal / 4, so yes encoding is fixed.

NTSC
14,31818182 CRYSTAL
High PIN = 17 MULTIPLIER
(14,31818182*17)/5=48,68181818 VIDEO CLOCK

PAL
17,734475 CRYSTAL
Low PIN = 14 MULTIPLIER
(17,734475*14)/5=49,65653 VIDEO CLOCK

No, the CPU and RSP clocks are the same on both consoles. The refresh rate is just changed in software. See, for example:
https://github.com/zeldaret/oot/blo...c0432298d593/src/libultra/io/vimodentschaf1.c

Let's look at skawo's link. Take note of HSYNC.

With this information we can do this calculation, copied from here.
VIDEO CLOCK=REFRESH*L*(HSYNC+1)

ntsc mode L can be 263p or 525i (so 262,5p)
so on pal console we do this:
49656530=x*263*3094 --> x = 61,02Hz
most title are low rez so it should be enough for proof;
if you don't care for crazy math just borrow ossc and you'll see 61.02 on the screen;
and I'm too lazy to bother calculating interlaced mode, but by logic it should be around 61,10 - 61,20 hz.

Refresh rate is even higher than 60hz. That is the reason many digital TVs freak out and roll vs. the majority of CRT that don't give a fuck as long it is in their tolerance, see arcade boards and all their non-standard sync rates.
Also, in some TVs (mostly samsungs) there are encoding issues with composite even if the screen doesn't roll...
Many thanks Nintendo for not offering RGB scart output!



Fun fact: once I found a tv that can be tricked into accepting 61hz signal with a composite switchbox: connect correct 59.94hz source such as ps2, start ntsc n64 game, then push switch button - screen doesn't roll.
Same TV had issues with low resolution DVI or even 70hz VGA for computers, so it got sold.