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00:00Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we are looking at some of the most interesting
00:13facts you may not know about Nintendo's first 3D home console, the Nintendo 64.
00:19But, before we dive in, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and
00:38ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:42Known by a different name.
00:44Many Nintendo systems go by a codename while going through development, and the N64 is
00:59no different.
01:00It was first known internally as Project Reality.
01:04When it was revealed to the public, it was called the Ultra 64, or the Ultra Famicom in
01:09Japan.
01:1064 in reference to the 64 bits of processing power, and Famicom continuing the naming tradition
01:17of Nintendo's Japanese home consoles.
01:20This, interestingly, also didn't stick.
01:23While some claimed that the name was changed because Ultra Games was trademarked by Konami,
01:28Nintendo just wanted a unified international name.
01:32The title, Nintendo 64, simple and clean, came from Shigesato Itoi, creator of the Mother
01:39series.
01:40Funnily enough, prior to the N64's release, Nintendo partnered with Midway for some of
01:45the games it published in arcades that were planned to be ported to the console.
01:49Like Cruisin' USA and Killer Instinct, which feature the Ultra 64 branding.
01:56Sega says no.
01:57The graphics processing unit, or GPU, that powers the N64 was created by Silicon Graphics Incorporated,
02:05which was the first time the company branched out to the video game market.
02:09But Nintendo was not the company's first choice.
02:12It actually approached Sega first, and the CEO of its American branch, Tom Kalinske, was
02:18pretty impressed by the chipset.
02:20However, it seems that Sega of Japan was not, as they rejected SGI's tech.
02:26Silicon then went to Nintendo, and the two entered a partnership in early 1993.
02:31It's funny to think that, in an alternate world, the Sega Saturn could've ended up with
02:36the N64's technology.
02:38And remember, look for Sega Saturn.
02:43It's out there.
02:47Protecting against piracy.
02:49This is it.
02:52The power of N64.
02:54The driving force in the next generation of video games.
02:58The N64 would go on to be trounced in sales by Sony's first PlayStation.
03:04One of the biggest reasons for this was Nintendo's insistence to stick with cartridges instead
03:09of adopting discs, which could hold a lot more data.
03:13Since cartridges were more expensive to produce, many publishers and developers opted to go with
03:18Sony.
03:19Nintendo's decision was strange, considering its failed partnership with Sony itself to produce
03:24a disc-based add-on for the Super NES, which would eventually become the PlayStation.
03:29While there were certain benefits to cartridges over CDs, many believe the biggest factor in
03:34the decision was to protect against piracy.
03:37It was easier to pirate games printed on discs, as Nintendo had learned in Japan with the Famicom
03:43disc system, something that North American players never got an equivalent of.
03:48Nintendo is obviously extremely protective of its IP, so its reasoning was sound.
03:53Still, it hurt them in the long run.
03:56An important logo.
03:58A logo is important for a brand or a product, and the Nintendo 64 has a great one.
04:04On top of it being a 3D-N, obviously due to the console being Nintendo's jump to 3D gaming,
04:10it's also visually engaging thanks to its color scheme.
04:13But there's a reason Nintendo chose those specific colors.
04:18In addition to the system's controllers coming in gray and black, other colors at launch were
04:22red, green, blue, and yellow, the same colors used in the N64 logo.
04:29Three ways to play.
04:30And today we're talking about this guy, the Nintendo 64 Gamepad.
04:35Over time, the N64's controller has been viewed as… a bit odd.
04:40The three-pronged shape is definitely unorthodox, but it was Nintendo's way to plan for various
04:45types of gaming, since 3D was so new at the time.
04:50Most games would end up using the middle and right prongs, having the joystick and buttons
04:54respectively, and that's how most players probably remember using it.
04:58However, the few 2D games on the system allowed use of the left prong instead of the middle,
05:04having the D-pad.
05:05The third way to play, and the one that was least used by developers, had you hold the
05:10left and middle prongs, excluding the buttons.
05:14This was meant to replicate moving and aiming in FPS games on PC.
05:18This truly was a step forward for its generation.
05:21A Christmas delay.
05:23Yo, listen up!
05:24We will not live in a two-dimensional world!
05:27We won't go in one direction, or see where we can set it.
05:30The Nintendo 64 was originally meant to release around Christmas of 1995, but was delayed to
05:37the following April.
05:39Nintendo stated this was to give developers more time to work on games, but it was then
05:44delayed again to June in Japan and September in North America.
05:49Nintendo originally wanted to release the system worldwide at the same time, but these scrapped
05:54plans and the second delay were due to concerns about a lack of supply not meeting demand.
06:00Nintendo ended up using these delays as a marketing strategy, with taglines like, wait for it,
06:06and is it worth the wait?
06:08Only if you want the best.
06:11Christmas woes.
06:19Another Christmas story comes in 1997, when the N64 was struggling a bit to keep up with
06:24the PlayStation sales.
06:26Nintendo's lineup was looking rough, since several games that were meant to release around
06:30the time were delayed.
06:32These were Ocarina of Time, Yoshi's Story, Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr.,
06:39Banjo-Kazooie, and Conker's Quest, which would eventually get reworked into Conker's Bad
06:44Fur Day.
06:45Those last two came from Rare, which actually ended up saving the day.
06:49The studio reworked its racing game, Pro-Am 64, by tying it to a popular IP.
06:55Thus, Diddy Kong Racing was born, and announced last minute as Nintendo's big holiday game.
07:02Nintendo also lowered manufacturing prices for cartridges and announced a roughly 15% price
07:07cut for first and third party games.
07:10Not that this ended up helping sales much in the long run.
07:15The final one!
07:24Cartridges of many colors.
07:27One of the more fun, but ultimately inconsequential things about the N64's cartridges was that
07:33they could come in different colors.
07:35Nintendo made 13 colors available, including the common gray.
07:40Gold and silver were a bit more expensive to produce, but most of the others cost the same.
07:44However, companies that wanted something other than gray were required to order at least
07:5050,000 copies, at least up until 1999.
07:54And if the common gray was chosen, Nintendo did not allow companies to change their minds.
07:59This is perhaps why some of the color options were never chosen, including pink and beige.
08:05Outsold in Japan.
08:15Despite Nintendo being a Japanese company, the N64 was not nearly as successful there as it was in North America.
08:23It only sold 5.5 million units in Japan, falling just behind the Sega Saturn at 5.75 million, and much further behind the PlayStation's nearly 20 million.
08:35Of course, the N64 demolished the Saturn in the US, 20.63 million versus 1.8 million, but the PlayStation sold nearly twice as much in the US.
08:47Regardless, you might think that the N64 would have performed better in Nintendo's home country, but too many people were swayed by the PlayStation and the future of gaming that was brought with it.
08:58A shorter lifespan than its predecessor.
09:12Another sad fact about the N64's performance in Japan is that its predecessor, the Super Famicom, actually lasted longer.
09:21And we don't just mean in comparison.
09:23The Nintendo 64 was discontinued worldwide on April 30th, 2002.
09:29Surprisingly, Nintendo was still supporting its 16-bit console in certain regions at the time.
09:35It was discontinued in some regions in the late 90s, but in others, namely Brazil, Korea, and Japan, it lasted until 2003.
09:44It's weird to think about.
09:46Japanese players could have gone into a store and bought a Super Famicom after the N64 was already taken off shelves.
09:52A meager lineup.
09:59There weren't many options to choose from when it came to games at the N64's launch.
10:03Most players were fine with this, as Super Mario 64 was one of them.
10:08North American players only had one other option, Pilotwings 64, and Japanese players had a third option, Saikyo Habu Shogi.
10:17There were meant to be two other games there.
10:20The port of the arcade's Cruisin' USA was delayed right before launch over quality concerns.
10:26And Mario Kart 64 fell behind schedule since Nintendo allocated resources to Super Mario 64.
10:33Another interesting, albeit sad, fact is that the system only received 388 games throughout its life, with 85 of them being exclusive to Japan.
10:43For comparison, the PlayStation received more than 4,000 games, with this wide divide being an obvious consequence of Nintendo choosing cartridges over discs.
10:54The last game.
11:03The very last official game to release on the Nintendo 64 was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
11:10This is interesting for a couple of reasons.
11:13It was released on the platform on August 20th, 2002.
11:17This was almost a year after it was released on the PlayStation 2 and, important for the Nintendo-centricity of this list, the GameCube.
11:25This was also around three months after the N64 had been discontinued worldwide, on April 30th.
11:32So, we have to imagine that most players did not play it here.
11:37The best-selling game.
11:44This might come as a shock to absolutely none of you, but the best-selling game on the Nintendo 64 was its first, Super Mario 64.
11:53Groundbreaking in every sense, it still captures the joy and imagination of players today, and has cultivated a passionate following in the speedrunning community.
12:02What you may not know is that, despite the PlayStation being a much higher seller than the N64, Super Mario 64 still outsold the highest-selling game on Sony's first platform, though only just.
12:16While Gran Turismo sold 10.85 million copies, Mario's first 3D adventure reached 11.9 million.
12:28Mario is good for you.
12:36In 2013, a group of scientists published a study, in which they tested the effects of video games on the grey matter of the brain, an important part of our central nervous system.
12:45Across two months, they had their participants play Super Mario 64 for at least 30 minutes a day.
12:52And they found that doing so increased the grey matter in parts of the brain linked to motor performance, memory, planning, and navigation.
13:00Not only that, they also hypothesized that playing these types of games could combat the risk of mental stress, such as PTSD, and neurodegenerative diseases.
13:10So, the next time someone tries to tell you that video games are bad for you, you can at least prove to them that Mario isn't.
13:17The Alec 64.
13:19Back in the day, Nintendo would release arcade systems that were conversions of their hardware so that players could test out their games before purchase.
13:27The company famously did this with the Nintendo Versus system, released in the US prior to the NES, so that they could test out public reception following the 1983 crash caused by Atari.
13:40However, future endeavors would not be so famous.
13:43During the N64 era, Nintendo partnered with the Seda Corporation for the Alec 64.
13:49Like the Nintendo Versus system, it was a collection of games with improved sound design.
13:54It was available from 1998 to 2003, but it was only released in Japan and, naturally, featured mostly Japan-exclusive games.
14:04Being first.
14:06Despite being the less popular of the two systems, there are a few features from the N64 controller that were implemented in later versions of that for the PlayStation.
14:16One was the control stick.
14:18Its well-received use in 3D games made it clear this was the future, and Sony would later release the dual analog controller with two joysticks not present in the original design.
14:29Although, Nintendo's was digital while Sony's was analog, which was a bit more expensive.
14:34Additionally, the most famous accessory for the N64 was the rumble pack, which slotted into a controller and introduced vibration to home consoles.
14:43Vibration was included in the Japanese version of the dual analog, but became a key feature later in all versions of the very first DualShock.
14:52PlayStation Underground couldn't resist the temptation to look under the cover and see how it works.
14:57In each handle is an actuator.
14:59The Hyundai Comboy 64
15:01In the 90s, Nintendo had trouble releasing its products in South Korea due to a trade embargo.
15:06To get around this, they utilized a loophole by partnering with a Korean manufacturer, Hyundai.
15:12Hyundai.
15:13Yes, the car brand.
15:15South Korean players could still purchase Nintendo's consoles just under the Hyundai Comboy branding.
15:21Not long after this version of the Nintendo 64 was released, however, this import ban was lifted, allowing Nintendo to sell their platform without issue.
15:30Thus, the Hyundai Comboy 64 is an incredibly rare collectible, even more so than Hyundai's versions of the NES and Super Nintendo.
15:39The iCube Player
15:42Another alternate version of the N64 could be found in China, though it's a bit more interesting of a case.
15:48That is the Nintendo iCube Player.
15:51This was kind of a weird variant of the N64 that Nintendo actually released super late.
15:58In 2003, Nintendo released the iCube Player, but this wasn't just a branding switch.
16:04Nintendo founded the iCube Company the previous year alongside Wei Yin, a Taiwanese-American engineer.
16:11And this alternate platform was made as a plug-and-play system to get around China's ban on home consoles.
16:18Nintendo also had to jump through several other hoops to get it approved.
16:22While the last game to release for it, Animal Crossing, came out in 2006, the service used to download new games to the iCube Player remained active until 2016.
16:33As an additional fun fact, Nintendo has used iCube to work on emulators for older game catalogs, including the N64 on both the Wii U and Switch.
16:44The BioSensor
16:45There have been many Nintendo peripherals over the years, and not all of them have made it out of Japan.
16:52For the N64, one interesting device was the BioSensor.
16:56It was used exclusively in, and came bundled with, Tetris 64.
17:01Players could attach a clip to their earlobe, which was connected by wire to a pack that was inserted into their controller.
17:08The device would read your heartbeat, and gameplay would adapt to its speed.
17:12The faster your heartbeat, the harder the game would become by giving you more complex block shapes to work with.
17:18Certainly an interesting gimmick, but it would understandably be difficult to make use of it in many games.
17:25Recognizing Your Voice
17:27Another N64 peripheral that received little use was the Voice Recognition Unit.
17:41It was a microphone that plugged into your system, and recognized certain commands from you to bring about different effects in-game.
17:48It was bundled with Hey You Pikachu, a bland pet simulation title, which is how most of us probably remember it since it was the only game in North America to use it.
17:58In Japan, there was an additional game it worked with, Densha Dei Go 64, a train simulation game.
18:05However, there were plans for it to be used with a third game, The Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask.
18:12These plans were scrapped, but can still be accessed in the game's code.
18:16In 2018, a ROM hacker named Zoinkitty dug through its internal data and found the commands, though they were all still in Japanese.
18:25Wide Boy 64
18:28A successor to a similar device on the Famicom, the Wide Boy 64 was a peripheral exclusive to developers and news outlets.
18:36This large cartridge slotted into the N64 and came in two versions.
18:41One that allowed Game Boy games to be played on the TV, and one meant for Game Boy Advance games.
18:47Companies had to purchase this directly from Nintendo, for the surprisingly high price of $1,400.
18:55With this, it was easier to take screenshots, capture footage, or, in the case of outlets, review handheld games.
19:02But because it was never available to the public, it has become a highly sought-after collectible in certain circles.
19:09Online connectivity.
19:11It's a really interesting and ambitious failure from Nintendo, as it was only really on the market for over a year or so, like a year and a half.
19:20But it had been in planning since before the 64 even came out.
19:25By now you've probably heard of the 64DD, a disk drive add-on for the N64 that was never released outside of Japan due to it being a huge commercial flop.
19:35One of the more interesting things about it was its ability to connect to the internet, even if a lot of the planned ideas ended up getting scrapped after it failed.
19:43However, this isn't the only way the Nintendo 64 could go online.
20:03Only in the US, players had SharkWire online, made by Interact, the same company behind the GameShark.
20:10Though clearly unlicensed, it used a dial-up connection to let players download cheat codes and save data, as well as access gaming articles from Interact's partners.
20:21An even more obscure case of online connectivity was with Murita Shogi 64, a sequel to the Japan-only launch title Saikyo Habu Shogi.
20:31This had a modem connection port built directly into the cartridge, allowing players to compete against others throughout Japan.
20:39The Nintendo Gateway System
20:42Unless you traveled a lot between the early 90s and late 2000s, and had money to burn, you might have forgotten about the Nintendo Gateway System.
20:51This was a partnership with LodgeNet, which saw multiple Nintendo consoles placed inside airplanes and hotel rooms.
20:59It was somewhat successful during the SNES era, but by 1998 with the N64, the two companies extended their partnership for another ten years.
21:09Millions and millions of hotel guests played N64 games this way.
21:14It was such a hit that, by 2000, brand new games started appearing as part of the service almost as soon as they launched in stores.
21:23Considering the N64 was struggling to keep up with the PlayStation, we imagine this eased the burden.
21:29A joystick for PC
21:32A stranger peripheral than the ones we've already talked about is one that wasn't even for the N64.
21:38In mid-1997, Nintendo partnered with a manufacturer named Laurel Group to produce a joystick for Windows 95 called the NJS-3D1, also referred to as the Nintendo 3D1 joystick.
21:52It features the same color scheme as the standard gray N64 controller, and even bears the console's logo.
22:00Yep, you could only use it on PC.
22:03We're not exactly sure why Nintendo chose to greenlight an N64-themed joystick you couldn't even use on the platform, but there you have it.
22:11Sweet.
22:13Awesome, this works.
22:16Shaking Hands
22:18Nintendo is, famously, a family-friendly company.
22:28While you can find multiple violent games on its platforms these days, things didn't go so smoothly in the past.
22:35And that was especially true if games featured violence towards other people, like in GoldenEye 007.
22:41James Bond murders all kinds of people throughout the game, which initially caused an issue.
22:48Shigeru Miyamoto suggested a specific scene to keep with Nintendo's public image.
22:53An ending in which Bond visited all of his enemies in the hospital, shaking their hands.
22:58That would not have been a great idea, and Rare obviously didn't go with it.
23:03But the studio did include a roll call for the characters during the credits to emphasize it as a work of fiction.
23:19An impressive port.
23:24You okay?
23:26Still in one piece.
23:28Although N64 cartridges clearly had less space than the PlayStation's discs, there were obviously some games that were still released on both platforms.
23:37However, by far the most impressive of these cases was Resident Evil 2.
23:43It was released a year after the PS version, which came on two discs.
23:48Since CDs could hold around 650 megabytes of data, and N64 cartridges could hold only 64 megabytes,
23:56we have to assume the developers at Capcom either performed some type of technological wizardry,
24:01or sold their souls to make this work.
24:03The team somehow managed to compress all the assets, while including extra features like alternate costumes,
24:10an item randomizer, and new collectibles that expanded on series lore.
24:15It also used surround sound, and had better quality music and character animations,
24:20and it is genuinely surprising how good this port is.
24:25Where am I?
24:26It worked!
24:27Oh Sherry, you're gonna be okay.
24:31A problem with the expansion pack.
24:34Here is the expansion pack.
24:39Install the expansion pack, just put it in, press down, you know it's in far enough.
24:46As most players are aware, the expansion pack was a small accessory you inserted into your N64 that increased the console's RAM.
24:54It was required to play a few games, like Majora's Mask and Donkey Kong 64, the latter of which it came bundled with.
25:02But it was helpful in all games, increasing their resolution and improving their graphics.
25:07There is one exception though.
25:10Space Station Silicon Valley.
25:12There was a bug in the North American version of the game that, when played with the expansion pack, would cause it to crash.
25:19In fact, a second version of the cartridge had to be issued so that people could actually play it.
25:25Getting past the region lock.
25:27Most players might assume that they can't play Japanese games on their North American N64, and vice versa.
25:34But there's a surprisingly simple way to get around the system's region lock.
25:39The problem comes down to the slightly different shape of the cartridge from each region, making it so that they don't fit inside the console.
25:47However, all you have to do is remove the back of the cart with a screwdriver, and replace it with the back of a cart you don't care about from your region.
25:55And voila! You can now play Japanese games on your North American system.
26:00Sadly, this wouldn't work for European cartridges, since the PAL versions of games run a fair bit slower than the others.
26:07Cancelled Cabbage.
26:09Cabbage was first announced in 1997, in development for the 64DD, that future failed add-on for the system.
26:18It was essentially a pet simulation game, where players would care for a strange fictional creature.
26:24And it would have used the disk drive's internal real-time clock, as well as Game Boy connectivity to bring your cabbage with you.
26:31Nintendo never showed off any footage of cabbage, and elements of it went into Nintendogs and Animal Crossing.
26:38Its cancellation was due to several factors.
26:41It was a joint creative effort between Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata, future president of Nintendo who was then at HAL Laboratory,
26:49Shigesato Itoi, creator of Mother, and Sunikazu Ishihara, CEO of the Pokemon Company.
26:56But the 64DD ended up a huge failure.
26:59Itoi got busy with what would become Mother 3, and Ishihara had the Pokemon Empire to oversee.
27:05Still, it's interesting to know where the roots of Nintendogs and Animal Crossing began.
27:10Moving on.
27:11There are a handful of interesting cases of games beginning development on the N64 before moving on to Nintendo's next console, the GameCube.
27:26One of the most famous examples is Rare's Dinosaur Planet, which was reworked to be Star Fox Adventures upon Miyamoto's request.
27:34Other first-party titles are Luigi's Mansion, Eternal Darkness, Sanity's Requiem, and Pikmin, which was quite different conceptually than what we eventually got.
27:44Additionally, Earthbound 64 disappeared for years before its story was reworked for the GBA title, Mother 3.
27:51It also happened with non-first-party titles as well, including Die Hard 64, which became Die Hard Vendetta, and Resident Evil Zero.
28:00Doctor Marcus?
28:01No, you can't be. What's going on?
28:05Do you know of any other fun facts about the N64 that other players might not?
28:10Share your knowledge with us in the comments, and we'll see you next time.
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