Nintendo 64 Retrospective Extravaganza | Ashens

CeX Website: webuy.com, YT / cex
Do YOU remember the Nintendo 64? I certainly do, and will show you things about it for nearly an hour if you watch this video!
We've got weird controllers, a plethora of "paks", some nonsense with import adapters and a Power Rangers game so bad a magazine gave it -25%! Oh, and that Superman game, unfortunately.
Big thanks again to Jon Firth-Clark who play the games while I finagled the record-o-tron. (Setup for those interested: N64 to Retrotink 5X via S-Video cable, then into an Elgato HD60 S.)
Also a further tip 'o' the hat to CeX for trusting me to borrow some of their stuff and not get jam all over it.

[@ArtyI]

I am 100% in for these old console retrospectives

[@chrisslater1985]

Totally

[@zlocish]

he does it because of sponsor

[@aprofondir]

​@@zlocishhe's been doing these kinds of videos for years

[@MikeRox83]

​@@zlocishso?

[@theworldisfullofrightwingcnts]

​@@zlocish you could say he's a cex worker

[@daamion737]

Ashens having cex in this video made me quite happy. I hope he has cex more in the future as it is very fun to watch these videos that feature cex.

[@WilliamHButtlicker]

You made my day, good sir! Godspeed, I say!

[@emerje0]

Hey, you know what they say, cex sells (video games).

[@SmD-ff5xd]

It really is "sex"? They didn't just run with the joke? Me and my friends used to(I still do & always will) call it C E X, or "cecks" but I think that's like an old word for trousers or something

[@emerje0]

@@SmD-ff5xd That's "kecks". 😉

[@TorutheRedFox]

@@SmD-ff5xd no it's official most ppl pronounce it "kex"

[@johnran6015]

Me and three friends in middle school playing 4 player Goldeneye on a 13 inch TV with 4 teeny tiny split screens, it was somehow the greatest thing in the world.

[@tabsntoot]

When I first got the game to play I felt like I was really bond so good times

[@Bond007er]

I played on a 50 inch HD TV lol four big screens and made levels look big

[@anonony9081]

The N64 launch in Canada lined up with my birthday almost perfectly so I got N64 at my birthday party and for the entire party me and about 20 kids sat around the tv in complete awe playing Mario 64. We were going to play laser tag and no one wanted to go, but we went and afterwards everyone rushed back to the living room to play more Mario 64 for the rest of the party .That game truly was transformative.

[@davidstephens3235]

Unfortunately Nintendo basically stole the game from argonaut games.

[@RobbieRobot.]

Sick! That must have been an awesome birthday 😎 My mum owned a after school and holiday club and she would get all the new consoles when they came out and I remember the day we got the 64 and mate I remember the crowd around the table all watching the timer waiting for their turn 😂 amazing memories mate! 👍👍

[@BubbleTea033]

​​@davidstephens3235​ What? Argonaut took that prototype and made Croc, which feels completely different from Mario 64. It would be more accurate to say that Croc started as a pitch to Nintendo for a Yoshi game. Nintendo rejected the proposal because they didn't want to license their characters out to another company, but they hired some of the developers who worked on the pitch. A bit crazy to say they "stole" anything from Argonauts.

[@stephenthomas1492]

I feel that's why Virtual Reality headsets aren't doing well. Who wants to exercise, which is pretty much required, when they can just sit down and use a controller. I miss laser-tag, it was a great way to have fun and keep in shape, too.

[@RobbieRobot.]

@@stephenthomas1492 yeah man quasar (UK laser tag) was sick AF loved going in with just me and a mate and made loads of new on the day friends. And you're right I would much prefer to sit with a controller 🎮 and game with buddies then stand up ..standing up was for when you was about to win and you start jumping while playing still 🤣🤣

[@SusanIvanova2257]

I hope cex' budget allows for a few more of these, I'd love ashens talk about all the weird plastic controller contraptions from the Wii era

[@dreampillet]

I'm sure they must have the budget; cex sells.

[@IvanovIvanAKrutoi]

Could've been worse - they could've called it CBT (Computer Boutique Trade) Store.

[@Elastane]

@@IvanovIvanAKrutoi used to be called Computer exchange to be fair :P

[@SiiruulianPhantele]

@@Elastane When i worked there as a teenager many years ago we all knew it stood for "Complete Entertainment Exchange" so even to this day i call it "C-E-X" and refuse to pronounce it the edgy hilarious way lol

[@ViralHijack]

If you have a dead Memory Pak, you might need to open it up and replace the CR2032 battery. I did that with a couple of mine recently and they would save again. The third party ones are easier to change out than the official ones because the batteries aren't usually soldered in.

[@drunkrdm]

yup, i have the memory card plus he showed and it still works with a new battery.

[@elisabeth5111]

There's also a more modern forever pak 64 by 4fourlayer technologies. They're awesome and you never have to worry about them running out of juice (they don't use a battery). However unfortunately they are the size of a standard Nintendo mem pak storage wise.

[@Canadiansamurai]

One 3rd party one I bought brand new on amazon had a finicky battery. Worked after I soldered in a new battery! I was so sick of losing my save data in Rayman 2

[@Randon_Tain]

I have an Interact memory pak like the one shown and I've opened it up and it does indeed have a 2032 battery in a standard battery holder inside of it keeping the ram chips alive, if you take it out you lose all the save data so back up your save before putting in a new battery!

[@Randon_Tain]

BTW Interact also sold the PC memory pak reader "Dex Drive" that let you plug a memory pak into a pc and read/backup and restore game data to and from original and aftermarket memory paks. Still got mine and it works though only on an old PC running Win 98, it mostly worked under XP but not as well.

[@Fig93Jam]

My father, being the semi-hoarder he was, actually kept all the N64 game boxes from all the games my parents ever bought me (about 15 in total) and they are all in mint condition. When I discovered that in the attic during a cleanout I was beyond amazed

[@crapparc]

My brother took everything SNES related when he left home, completely the opposite to your dad. That included Christmas gifts that I'd gotten and the first game I ever bought with my own money.

[@patrickmccutcheon8860]

@@crapparc I tried to remember and consider that my little brother plays video games too, when I moved out. I left a lot of stuff back at my folks for him to play.

[@theblackslash666]

I used to work for CeX, I once dispatched some NES games to you from my store and I believe you used them in a video at one point! Megaman 2 was one of them I think? Two other staff members and I had a bit of a fan moment when we saw your name pop up on the eCom sheet 😅

[@DarrenOConnor3]

It's not often that you find a GDPR violation in a KZbin comment

[@noname1210hh]

@@DarrenOConnor3 🤓

[@ddk7987]

@@DarrenOConnor3 Is this really a GDPR violation? "Man once bought products in store". I think people are being overly sensitive. Ashens mentioned shopping at CEX, there is literally no new information in this.

[@scarpergirl]

​​@@ddk7987 The law doesn't account for being "overly sensitive", it's literally black and white. If an employee shares confidential information about a customer, that would be a breach. That would include the fact they made a purchase from the store, and what it is they purchased. Is it serious enough that anyone would take action? Probably not, especially given Ashens' openness about what he purchased and where from, but then it introduces the question of whether this employee is holding other confidential information he's withholding; i.e. the customer's personal phone number, email address, home address etc. But those haven't been shared so it's probably not going anywhere. It's not a big deal in this situation but these laws are sweeping and general for reasons that protect many others.

[@ddk7987]

@@scarpergirl This is not confidential information. A man may have purchased megaman 2 at some point is not confidential. It is so incredibly vague it is probably true for thousands of people. Confidential information is information that would help identify an individiual AS an individual. Well known video game collector may have bought a video game from store is not that.

[@daemonspudguy]

Paul being the one to give Lightspeed Rescue a score that breaks the rating scale sounds about right, honestly.

[@MudSluggerBP]

Explains his inability to mark 25 points on the Cliffhanger edition of Price of Shite 😂😂

[@grouchydude3448]

This video brought a rush of nostalgia that I completely forgot about. As an adult, it made me realize how much my parents spoiled me and how much i miss them now.

[@YoshiSkiller05]

Fun Fact: One N64 game was released with corrupted, glitched music, with lots of Midi errors, corrupted instrument samples and more. It's called Donald Duck Goin Quackers, which is actually a port of the Dreamcast/PC version (that actually has some great, underrated music!), but has a few original songs that to this day are not as audible as they should be. The game's TCRF article explains a lot of the music errors. It's crazy!

[@QuinquinoMan]

That's crazy. I grew up with the PC version. What an epic Music OST!

[@YoshiSkiller05]

@@QuinquinoMan I love the PC version's ost too. The n64 version however has some exclusive songs that are to this day not audible as they are supposed to.

[@YoshiSkiller05]

Fans are working on a repair patch however, which is supposed to be released this year. Noice.

[@CatDogFan98]

I feel sorry for the composer. He created a stripped down midi version for the N64 version alongside his original music, and the dev team imports it so incorrectly and faulty. I mean, the N64 version of the game seems to be more known than the PC and Dreamcast versions for whatever reason, which contributes to the fact that few people don't know the actual HQ music...

[@Andrew-hn3jp]

The N64 is a magnificent specimen of a game console. It's truly a beast.

[@AnthroFox99]

The ending has me thinking I should use the voucher online, and order it like that.

[@leatherworkstation]

*burp*

[@PedroBenolielBonito]

And do it then.

[@EmeraldHill-vo1cs]

Well its been 6 hours, did ya git it? Enquiring minds need to know.

[@HeisenbergFam]

"there was Nintendo, then there were 64 of them" S tier storytelling, im flabbergasted

[@YokiDokiPanic]

I keep seeing you everywhere!

[@myheartandactionsareutterl9058]

@@YokiDokiPanic He is the one who knocks

[@nobel11]

I can't get enough of these Ashens CeX videos.

[@danm8004]

Cex tapes

[@Cruelboypurple]

Fun fact, the Pikachu console still has the 64 DD connector, probably because it'd be more expensive to redesign the board just for a console revision they just didn't put a door for it on the plastic mold

[@flandrble]

the bottom port is soldered to the top port to hold them together afaik

[@TheGabtraf]

Also it acts as a support so your not bending the board when jamming a cartridge in.

[@emmettturner9452]

Funner factier (?): The Pikachu consoles used N64 boards that were fully manufactured for standard consoles before being reworked into Pikachu consoles. This is evident by the original power LED being installed and then cut off with remnant legs left soldered in. The blinking LED cheek PCB then taps power from the main board using bodge wires. The others are right about the expansion slot: It acts as a socket for the removable cartridge slot so it must remain in place. The real reason they walked it off isn’t because the 64DD failed. It’s because the port was mostly used for piracy while the 64DD was essentially canceled years earlier and only finally got a limited released to meet contractual obligations with their development partner, RandNet. This is evident because even the 64DD was ready before launch in 1996 as shown by the retail American version (production sample) found second hand in Washington state (near Nintendo’s headquarters). My theory is that Nintendo was ready to switch as a last ditch effort if it seemed like cartridges were causing the system to fail. It probably would’ve ended up much like PC Engine Super CD-ROM² in Japan where nearly all game development switched to it, old hardware was upgraded, and future hardware came with it built in. Imagine that: A N64 with a built-in 64DD.

[@emmettturner9452]

@@flandrbleNot soldered. The top port has pins that go through the board to connect to the bottom port. The bottom port is the only one solders and it acts like a socket for the top slot using holes in the PCB. It’s very easy to break the wings on the left and right if you don’t pull it out perfectly straight but it will simply pull out and slide back in without tools. I’ve demonstrated it many times if you look.

[@XxEvanxX97]

Grew up playing Diddy Kong racing and Mario party 2 on this legendary system as a kid with my 2 older brothers as well as taking turns watching each other as we played through Ogre Battle 64. We only had 4 games, but it was all we needed to enjoy it

[@mhmrules]

Mario Party 2 is my jam! :D

[@TheySeeMeTrollen]

Best part about rare replay, It regularly on sale digitally for under 10. The digital version comes with goldeneye (until the licenses expire again)

[@Gigidag77]

Beetle Adventure racing...that took me back. Amazing game

[@kevmscotland]

Body Harvest was amazing. You glossed over the fact it has a time travelling mechanic too so you visit all these open worlds across various time periods fighting the Alien Invasion. And the reason its "GTA like before GTA" - is that its from DMA Design - the same folk behind GTA. It's almost like a prototype of a 3D GTA. And I love it. I'd imagine Rockstar* still have the IP somewhere in their vault and I'd love them to revisit it.

[@davidmcgill1000]

Would be amusing to see Rockstar North get the license to Lemmings back and make another game.

[@diverguy3556]

Matt McMuscles did a great video on the history of Body Harvest.

[@MathewHaswell]

@@davidmcgill1000 Sadly, Lemmings is now just another undead IP in Sony's dragon-hoard.

[@kevintaylor8934]

Body Harvest was bastard hard

[@bryanmoberg8408]

@@kevintaylor8934 it really was, even using cheats it could be brutal

[@sweetchenandhellaran]

Always a good day when Ashens uploads a new video.

[@bongwatersupreme6353]

I first heard about cex thanks to ashens. Before that I was cexless, just whimsically trudging along through my world without cex but that’s ok now because I have all the cex I could ever desire

[@mjc0961]

"Don't expect to see your favorite games" Body Harvest is one of my favorite games. :)

[@striderbri1]

Seeing Body Harvest knocked a memory loose in my brain. I remember loving the idea of the game, but never quite getting the hang of it. Also, WWF No Mercy, for those combined wrestling/video game fans, is really considered of one the best wrestling games ever made, and it still holds up tremendously today.

[@Seventeen_Seconds]

I could watch retro gaming videos all day especially the N64 and Dreamcast stuff. Goldeneye was an absolute game changer.

[@functionatthejunction]

Goldeneye didnt really do anything unique though.

[@ezedjay]

I will not pardon the pun 😂

[@Seventeen_Seconds]

@@ezedjay well it changed the way we played multiplayer first person shooters. I always preferred the single player campaigns myself but I appreciate how good it was at the time.

[@ozzyp97]

@@functionatthejunction Goldeneye is a lot like Halo before Halo, it set a lot of the standards for what a console fps should be. Multiplayer is the big thing, but it's also one of the first games you can set up for modern dual stick controls, using the d-pad for movement and the stick for aim.

[@TheBadger74]

Used to rent games for our N64 from the Blockbuster at the end our street. Those were the bloody days!

[@tncorgi92]

I still have my Blockbuster card, old and wrinkled. And the card is too. We used to rent the console and Mario Kart. Enough times where I could easily have just bought the damn things and saved money.

[@kristenblount8422]

Anytime I see a N64 all I can think about is playing Goldeneye in "big head" mode. Those were the days 😅

[@ezedjay]

When you started piling up the passports I nearly died 😂 * And then the explorer64 added in too. I'm crying here "Incredibly the answer is.......YES"😂 Great retrospective 👍

[@davy_K]

Amazed he didn't blow an internal fuse or something towering up those adaptors!! :)

[@emmettturner9452]

@@davy_KThe import adapters don’t use any power. They literally just connect the ROM and save pins to the top cart and connect the CIC security chip pins to the rear slot… though I guess they have to power both cartridges, the port was designed to power things like the capture cart for Mario Artist and the Morita Shogi 64 modem cart.

[@Josh12323]

Wow 64 whole bits! Gaming will never get better than this.

[@91111satan]

Great content as always..Great to see someone who genuinely enjoys talking about retro tat

[@truebluethecat]

Those controler paks have batteries in them like some of the older nes and gameboy games do (zelda, pokemon) replacing the battery could bring it back to life.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

The N64 used RDRAM, which was high performance RAM at the time but had some peculiarities and SDRAM quickly surpassed it. I had a PC with RDRAM, and it REQUIRED installing DIMMs in pairs, you couldn't leave a socket open. I presume this is why the N64 requires either a jumper pak or an expansion pak. And yeah, Nintendo loved their Paks. You could actually play Goldeneye with two controllers, holding each by the center prong, to use two sticks and two triggers, for a relatively modern take on movement/aiming. The N64 analog stick isn't actually analog; it's a digital optical device. The X and Y axes have gimbals that move a slitted quadrant past an optical sensor which counts how often the beam breaks to determine how far the stick has been moved. It has no mechanism to detect what position it starts in which is why you have to make sure the stick isn't held over when you start the console. This mechanism is immune to the stick drift that plagues modern consoles because there are no wear-prone potentiometers, but the gimbal mechanism itself was subject to plastic-on-plastic wear and either the stick or the gimbals would waller out, causing the familiar N64 floppy joystick. To this day there are companies that make replacement sticks and gimbals, and they're fairly easy to fix. I believe the N64 was the first console that actually offered a rumble feature. The PS1 started out with their SNES pad with two additional shoulder buttons, added two analog sticks for the Dual Analog, then added rumble to that for the DualShock controller which has been the pattern for game controllers since, but I believe the N64 did it first.

[@ShadowAngel1860]

No, it wasn't Nintendo. First of all, Force Feedback had been a thing in Arcade/Pinball Machines going back to the 70's and it was already in use in Joysticks on the PC and in 1994 Aura Systems launched the Interactor Vest (Mega Drive, SNES) that did Force Feedback based on Audio (it worked great with fighting games). The whole concept is really old, it just took console manufacturers ages to finally utilize it, probably due to costs. For consoles, it was Sony, who released their Dual Analogue Controller several days before the N64 was released and it actually had the force feedback motors, though only in the japanese version, for the non-japanese version, the motors were removed because there weren't any non-japese games that supported the feature at the time.

[@emmettturner9452]

It’s the same thing as “continuity RIMMs” to fill the unoccupied slots in a dual-channel RDRAM-based PC. “Continuity” just means a straight connection, just like a jumper, hence “jumper pak.” You can see that it merely connects some bus terminating components on the board at the end of the memory bus (removing the pak disconnects the terminators). I built my first Pentium 4 system with the retail boxed 1.3GHz Williamette, released just after the 1.4 and 1.5GHz versions. I paired it with the retail boxed Intel D850GB (NOT D850GBAL) board while my friend went with the Asus P4B. Anyway, we both got 2x32MB or 2x64MB RDRAM inside of our retail boxed P4 CPUs. They bundled that because the modules were almost unobtainium and the only real use for the RDRAM RIMMs back then was in Pentium 4 systems anyway (the i820-based Tualatin Pentium III boards had been recalled due to issues with the RDRAM chipset). I can’t recall if the continuity RIMMs came pre-populated with the boards or with the CPUs, but it was likely the boards. I remember telling my friend “just like the RDRAM inside the N64!” when we were building these ~Jan/Feb 2001.

[@emmettturner9452]

Being digital is why Nintendo only ever referred to their thumb stick as a “3D Control Stick” instead of analog. Also, you could recalibrate at any point using L + R + Start, which was implemented in every game as part of the devkit libraries and mandatory for licensing. Same as the Controller Pak management screen when you hold Start at boot. Fun fact: The L + R + Start button combination would be seen by the console as Button 15 instead of those three buttons, meaning the controller itself specifically recognized it even though it was the software on the console that would react and recalibrate (controller did nothing but send the Button 15 signal). You could exploit this to move beyond the intended range to glitch certain games. For example, you could get out of your vehicle and moonwalk backwards in Blast Corps, though some crappy 3rd part controller did that automatically since they would overdrive the range (The Rock 64, I’m looking at YOU!).

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

Shadow Angel already got here before me regarding Sony controllers, though _that said:_ Yeah, force feedback existed in the arcade and on PC, but I would not count Aura Systems' peripherals as they simply worked based on the audio output of the console; a game couldn't tell it "okay rumble NOW", it would just react based to the sound. While not the first machine capable of playing video games _period_ to have rumble, the N64 is indeed the first home console to support true programmable rumble like we see on modern consoles as far as I'm aware.

[@FrothingFanboy]

@@ShadowAngel1860 It's not like Nintendo ripped off Sony in terms of rumble; like you said, the Dual Analog beat the Rumble Pak to market by just 2 days, and they were both first shown to the public in the same month (November 1996). Effectively, it was a tie.

[@D_DC]

I love how these videos are sponsored in a non invasive way. Classic ashens really.

[@StevenJBen]

Two videos this close together? CEX must be funding a new Ashens movie : )

[@elchubbacabra]

You mean "the CEXtape"?

[@katierootham]

Yep, loved a bit of Goldeneye... Slappers mode, back in the day. Still got the N64 stashed away, with all the shizzle. Bloody loved that console 😍👍

[@CheatingSoi]

Honestly these are some of the most well-executed advertisements. Just giving very real examples of things you may have lying around and how you can make money.

[@gorillafacegwen9247]

I went from a Megadrive to a N64 i think on my 13th birthday. Can imagine how my mind was blown. I got Pilot wings as my first game and just adored it.

[@Properbellend]

Pilot Wings was shite.

[@gorillafacegwen9247]

Body harvest and blast corps were bangers.

[@ZekeDidNothingWrong]

Would absolutely be down for more of these retrospectives, they're very entertaining!

[@torentofilm]

So happy to see you doing retro gaming / PC stuff again. It's always been my favorite part of your channel. Also please bring back "thumbs up for Dingoo" as your official catchphrase

[@cubialpha]

i love the console retrospectives, you are so knowledgeable and sound like you could talk about em for hours

[@-UseSoap_]

Two lengthy videos within a month? Ashens is pulling out all the stops.

[@megamaxmax4]

I think I'll use the voucher online and get them ordered like that

[@milktwosugars6848]

Cough.... Burp 🤣🤣🤣

[@TweeterMan287]

Thank you for covering my favorite console

[@danielgreen6289]

One of my all time favorite games is Jet Force Gemini. Great run and gun with design elements that clearly influenced the later Ratchet & Clank.

[@kringhetto]

The old Game Boy Extravaganza episode was my first video of yours that I found. Glad to see the series still going.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

I have a strong memory of the Sega Nomad video. I had just moved into my house, my bed hadn't even arrived yet so I remember falling asleep on the couch in the living room with my Kindle tablet propped up on a chair watching KZbin videos. I would wake up and watch the food special ones, and you know I really enjoyed it when Stuart found a foreign food he liked. Sure it's funny how he'll roast disgusting foods but somehow I always found "That's actually quite nice. I'm having more of those later" pleasantly wholesome.

[@Jho-oh]

Can’t wait for the Dreamcast retrospective (hope he’s got Blue Stinger)

[@seanmcbay]

No game will ever impress me as much as seeing Mario 64 for the first time. You had to be there.

[@rockapartie]

Seeing it didn't impress me much, but playing it felt absolutely amazing and "unreal" for lack of a better word. But it also had a massive disadvantage: I couldn't go back to the brutal jank of other 3D games of the time, like Tomb Raider II.

[@SuperDropsX]

Blast Corps was probably the game I rented the most back in the day. Me and my brother were so into it, spending many a weekend to complete it. So great.

[@jabmaster1000]

Mickey’s speedway USA is one of the first games I think of when I think the N64. Brilliant game

[@Combicon]

"This has got to be the only console ever created where you reset by tickling a characters foot" Suda51: "write that down! Write that down!"

[@djdjdijon]

Classic ashens this is exactly why I subscribed back in 2008

[@joegates100]

I love ur videos I'm so glad your making videos Man I keep pulling up ur old videos even the couch adventure 😂

[@noahwilliams3718]

Love it when Ashens posts again

[@joshjamesfilms]

Really happy to see this in my sub box. I’ll be honest, some of the pound shop tat episodes I’ve tuned out of after a while. But the PlayStation retrospective was the first one I completely watched all the way through in a while! Wondering if you would ever be open to doing any old mobile phone reviews. Like get an old Nokia 3310 working, or Sony Ericsson (complete with game Deep Abyss)- or even the N-Gage and it’s games!

[@Chris-techgamesfood]

I love these videos, takes me back to my childhood 🎉

[@RussianSevereWeatherVideos]

I see an Ashens video and N64 ? I click like instantly!

[@travpots6318]

Great job. N64 control is great. A lot more stuff with the N64 than I knew of.

[@sebastianwlodarczyk]

I'll give that to CEX, it's quite clever how they've managed to make a KZbin sponsorship in a way in which vids sponsored by them are likely to be demonetized:D Fun fact (that comment section will be aware of already)- that bottom port on the Pokemon version is still there, it's just missing a hole in the case. Btw, that's an interesting post-credits scene:]

[@Sergeantmajormario]

I remember Forsaken64 was one of the few games that used the D-Pad. Up and Down would swap your primary weapons and Left and Right would swap your secondary

[@ozzyp97]

In a lot of fps games you could also use the d-pad for movement and the stick for aim. It was never the default, but plenty of N64 shooters support normal dual stick style controls if set up like this.

[@philbrook5655]

Man, Forsaken was bad.

[@Mike-sy5zn]

That controller at 16:34 when detached from whatever monstrosity that base thing is kind of reminds me of an Atari Jaguar controller.

[@LukeKraus360]

Been watching since I was like 13 and still get hype for a new upload especially a long one like this

[@TheHylianBatman]

My favorite console. Great to see Beetles Adventure Racing and WWF No Mercy! Two games I've loved after their heyday! If CEX makes it so we can get these videos, I certainly won't complain!

[@simpleanswer8954]

I had a third party rumble pak with a memory card slot in the front. It had a switch you were supposed to use to switch it from rumble to memory mode, but in my experience you could just ignore it and they both worked all the time. It was also neat because the way the memory pak stuck out the front allowed it to be used as a weird stand when you put the controller down.

[@fmsyntheses]

You've made me nostalgic for something that I never experienced. Well done.

[@pocketsuke]

"and then use the voucher online and get them ordered like that" 49:09 best bit. :) Including the burp. (editing error)

[@eilrahc__]

The N64 was probably the first console I got really, really excited about, I still have a lot of nostalgia for it. It was great to see WWF No Mercy getting some love here, 23 years on it's still revered by wrestling fans. It is worth mentioning however that it was not the first of its kind, but really the best one and the culmination of years of tweaking of the Virtual Pro Wrestling (the name of the Japanese equivalent to the series) engine, and had several predecessors, two of which - WCW vs. nWo World Tour and WCW/nWo Revenge - were the best selling wrestling games for N64.

[@LaskyLabs]

Apparently one of the reasons they included four controller ports was due to the urging from development studios like Rare. In the rare replay video they filmed for Goldeneye, they mentioned really pushing Nintendo for it. Nintendo was very: ohh... It's not that big here in Japan... It'll cost like fifty cents more... Rare responded with: But four player Mario kart would be incredible. The rest is history.

[@LaskyLabs]

Also, the speed argument in favor of cartridges became moot as developers used compression, meaning data had to "load"/decompress. The real reason Nintendo did it is because they're assholes who wanted full control. "They've gotta buy their carts from us, and our lockout chip is a lot harder to crack this time, so I'd really hate to be a third party developer who doesn't wanna pay much for cartridges or for our licensing..." Why do you think the GameCube had Mini-DVD instead? On a completely unrelated note, we got so scammed in the US, getting these huge full sized cases for games on the GameCube, when Japan got those awesome mini cases. Not saying I don't like a full sized case, I just think they were unnecessary.

[@Introspective_Introvert]

Mischief Makers was amazing! _shake shake_ I loved going for the highest rankings in each level of that game; it's VERY fun, in my opinion, if you can get past the weird controls. There are so many fun and ridiculous things you can do in Mischief Makers; it's honestly one of my favorite games on the system.

[@BlendyStick]

Mischief Makers is excellent though it is one of those Japanese games where if you're not dashing/boosting around the level as fast as you can, it's gonna feel weird.

[@DijonFromage]

A friend sent me a copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day, and I went out and bought a N64 just to play it. I ended up with a rumble pack with a socket for the memory card on it, so I didn't have to keep switching them in and out. It worked pretty well for about twenty minutes.

[@theyalwayscomeinfall]

I will forever remember the Christmas that I got an N64. It was the year that the console was released. We had an insane blizzard in my area during Christmas that year. My parents were divorced so I went to my dad's Christmas eve and then went back to my mom's that night for Christmas in the morning. I will never forget the ride to my moms. The city was completely empty. We didn't see a single car on the road. All the stores that weren't considered essential were closed. I had never seen my town like that. It was like everyone else in the world just disappeared. I will never forget that.

[@Hypernova99]

Blast corps was a massive part of my childhood and a big reason why I bought rare replay on the xbox!

[@fencal2]

in regards to the expansion port it's actually still installed on the motherboard they just didn't include access. There's a channel (James channel) where he takes one apart

[@kerbal666]

Mischief Makers is one of the best platform games ever made very underrated IMO. Body Harvest was great if sluggish and I loved Chopper Attack ugly yet smooth controls.

[@kreejo]

Absolutely loved Body Harvest, I never owned it but my parents kept renting it from our local video rental shop. Good times!

[@Jpmizzle]

Mate please keep these coming they are the best hangover watch, I’ve saved this for later when I’m hanging out my ass

[@LaughingMan008]

Giving you a thumbs up and some props for enjoying and appreciating Beetle Adventure Racing. So few people do. And they are all nits.

[@bitequation314]

The pikachu N64 actually does still have the expansion port on the bottom of the motherboard, just without a hole in the case for it.

[@Kochiha]

My parents didn't get me an N64, since we were very much a PC family (we got Windows 95 and 98 both before anybody else I knew!), but so many of my friends had N64s it didn't matter. Something to watch out for with those third-party controllers is that a lot of the center return mechanisms on the control sticks like to wear out or even disintegrate, as happened to some of my friend's myriad. Thank goodness there are lots of 1:1 copies of the originals floating around and some 3D-printed parts that you can use to replace them, formed out of whatever cottage industries can survive without Nintendo striking them down in their increasingly-evil ways. And please remember: Mario Party 2 is debatably the greatest in the series, but it WILL cause permanent harm to the relationship of anybody you play it with.

[@TBoneTony]

RARE Replay is a must for any RARE fan who has an XBox One and/or XBox Series console. 30 RARE games, 7 of which are from the N64. (outside of licensed games like Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Mickey's Speedway USA and Golden Eye) Killer Instinct Gold Blast Corps Banjo Kazooie Jet Force Gemini Banjo Tooie Perfect Dark Conker's Bad Fur Day

[@Lachlant1984]

I think the gold controller was released to coincide with Ocerina Of Time, which was a gold colour cartridge. Either that or they were released to coincide with GoldenEye 007 which came out in Australia in 1998, it's so long ago that I can't remember, and we never had a gold controller with our N64.

[@jeffs1637]

Nintendo Power had a contest where you could qualify to win one if you beat a certain lap time on Mario Circuit in Mario Kart 64 and send in a photograph as proof.

[@Lachlant1984]

@@jeffs1637 I don't think Nintendo Power existed here in Australia, but I think these controllers were sold at retail outlets. I also believe they were bundled in various Nintendo 64 packages.

[@jeffs1637]

@@Lachlant1984interesting! I'm not sure if you could get the gold controllers any other ways here in the States, but I got mine through the NP contest. I'm curious how other areas may have been able to acquire the gold controllers.

[@Moothedog0]

You should make this a series. It would be rather enjoyable

[@jamesburchill7522]

He already did one on the PlayStation....so....

[@CpUIMasteR]

I’d say that WWF No Mercy is the quintessential and most influential wrestling game. There were predecessors to No Mercy like the WCW/NWO (World Tour & Revenge) games and the Virtual Pro Wrestling series that used the same game engine developed by AKI Corporation. No Mercy was the last wrestling game released for the N64 by AKI Corporation and is considered to be the best wrestling game ever to date.

[@liammustapha6643]

A sponsor skipper keeps the flow of the other Ashens videos alive!

[@rayceeya8659]

How has there not been a Blast Corp. remake or sequel? That game was flipping awesome!

[@freddiejohnson6137]

Because after the N64 days all the key staff at Rare left and it went down hill quickly. These days their IPs get passed around to any developers by Microsoft.

[@kip258]

It was re-released in Rare Replay

[@DirectorOfChaos9292]

The Backlash stages SUCKED

[@snowyalice]

My cat has discovered she can push open the cartridge slot as some sort of new toy. She knows she's not meant to do this. I also just remembered that an ex-roommate's rabbit bit through the cable of one of my controllers and should get the fixed.

[@MathewHaswell]

Octav1us King knows that pain. Their rotating gallery of Rats chew through the cables of their various tech. Even added a Twitch-chat emote depicting such an incident.

[@Emeraldrox303]

My rabbit as a kid ate through many sega controller cords. Too true of a pain

[@joeypizza2761]

Still have my Pikachu N64 I found at a garage sale and cleaned up. Cart reader recently died, this reminded me to go fix it up so thank you! Mystical Ninja was the best game on the console 👀

[@Scorpio2074]

I always wanted that freakin' Pikachu console back in the early 2000s! Would've been mind blowing to play Perfect Dark on that.

[@Broonie719]

I remember how sensitive the transfer pack used to be 😂

[@KingStr0ng]

Person: "Your mom's so fat, she doesn't sit in the house, she sits *AROUND* the house!" Transfer Pak: 😢

[@fov110]

N64 is the best console ever period

[@Cheyenne.b.castillo]

WWF No Mercy was definitely a game changer still enjoyable to this day and still one of my favorites.

[@kinnikuboneman]

All the Aki wrestling games are good

[@WiThErZ666]

My boxed copy of Road Rash 64 is probably the crowning jewel in my N64 game collection. I bloody love that game.

[@elwoodjacobs4353]

Who wants to bet the next one's gonna be Dreamcast?

[@wsninjacsr5465]

I loved Body Harvest!

[@babafrog1877]

I grew up (literally while I was 5-6) playing classics like the zelda games Mario 64 and all the others. I love this console so much and the image of the one I own thats all covered in stickers is so burned into my brain that its honestly pretty crazy seeing the basic stock standard look.

[@tommy6742]

Retrobit has a wireless controller called the Tribute 64 V2 controller that can be used with the N64(has receiver that can slot in the memory card) and PC emulation(2.4Ghz dongle). The Tribute 64 V2 is slightly larger and more ergonomic for large hands. The joystick, dpad, and buttons has all been moved slightly further outwards towards the edge of the controller. The bumper and Z buttons are also larger than the Hori Mini Pad. This is my favorite controller to play N64 games.

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

Not related to the N64, but since you mentioned Retro-Bit I'm going to take a moment to shill for their recently released Saturn Wireless Pro Controller: A modernized 2.4Ghz Sega Saturn controller with twin analog sticks (which can be clicked for two extra buttons), an additional pair of shoulder buttons, Select and Home buttons in addition to the original Start button, rumble motors and with a generally revised design all around to make it more comfortable to hold; including making it just a bit larger in just about every dimension. Really, _really_ good controller from the time I've spent with it so far. Biggest complaint is that C and Z mirror L and R respectively so you don't get as many buttons as you'd think, but they're apparently working on a firmware update to allow C and Z to mirror the clickable sticks which would be much better. Oh, and that it's kind of unusable as a 3D Control Pad replacement for playing on real Saturns due to bugs, but they're working on that too.

[@MrSnake9419]

Seeing the ocarina of time cartridge took me back - what a game.

[@davidstephens3235]

I remember the TV advertisement for it where it was just a black screen, then the cartridge slowly came into light, then disappeared again.

[@MathewHaswell]

Is the golden Ocarina of Time cartridge made of Gold Plastic Syndrome plastic?

[@startedtech]

​@@MathewHaswellI'm not sure, though there was a version that was actual sparkly gold plastic

[@C0nnie]

I can't wait for the gamecube episode !

[@boboyamyams]

Can I say that I am glad that you were still doing these and that you have the same couch? ❤😂

[@acerfaser]

Fantastic video. Funny, educational, nostalgic as all get out. Would love to see one on the original game boy and its plethora of insane addons.

[@blunderingfool]

Fun fact, that logo has exactly 64 faces and 64 edges... I even re-created it in blender to confirm such.

[@mechadeka]

??? You can make an N64 logo with way less polygons than that.

[@blunderingfool]

@@mechadeka I may have been thinking of 64 edges and vertices.

[@mechadeka]

@@blunderingfool But that's still wrong. You've created unnecessary coplanar faces in order to make this happen. This meme has been debunked so many times.

[@blunderingfool]

@@mechadeka I'm gonna have to go boot up the file and re-count.

[@blunderingfool]

@@mechadeka I lost the file, which sucks, so I got some paper out and did maths instead. Should be about 50 faces assuming we're not using n-gons so yea, I was wrong there I think. I must have been thinking of vertices or edges. I might go ahead and make another copy, if only to stick it in a Pavlov map.

[@alanswolfpack89]

You should do an entire video on Goldeneye itself