The N64 was released in mid-1996 as Nintendo's front-runner in the original next-gen console wars. Although it was a much higher powered machine than Sony's Playstation or Sega's Saturn, the N64 always lagged behind in sales. Nintendo chose to sell the machine on the merits of its fast-loading cartridge system and the insignificant fact that it featured a 64-bit architecture - unfortunately for Nintendo, people were more impressed by high-capacity CD media, in-game movie sequences and pre-recorded soundtracks than fast loading and the size of the machine's pipeline. Developers often preferred the Playstation for their titles due to the N64's inability to provide media rich content which games such as the Final Fantasy series demanded. Although the hardware facilitated classics such as Goldeneye and the late Perfect Dark, it wasn't enough to win over the masses.
Fortunately the system is well-emulated, allowing us to play legendary games such as Zelda, Turok & Goldeneye. A fairly modern system is needed to play emulate the machine, and a 3D accelerated graphics card is an absolute must (onboard graphics won't cut the mustard here). Game ROMs are available from ripped cartridges, ranging in size (5MB-70MB).
Specs:
- CPU: MIPS R4300i, 93.75MHz, 64-bit, 24KB L1, 125 MIPS, 250 MB/sec Bus
- Graphics: SGI RCP, 62.5MHz, 100 MFLOPS, 150K Polygons/Sec, 32-bit Color, 500 MB/sec Bus
- Sound: SGI RCP, 64 2D Voices, ADPCM, 500 MB/sec Bus
- Data: 4MB (500 MB/s), Cartridge (32MB), Expansion 4MB RAM
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