20 years on, we can now see this much-maligned console for what
it is: one of the most innovative gaming systems ever created
NINTENDO 64
The Expansion Pak
doubled the N64’s RAM to
8MB, and was required
for games such as
Majora’s Mask.The Nintendo 64 was born into a world
where there wasn’t yet an accepted
standard for the brave new world
of 3D gaming, and this led to some
playful experimentation by Nintendo’s
hardware designers. And nothing
typified the console’s inventive nature
more than its bizarre controller.
A strange-looking, three-pronged
affair, the N64 controller was a throw-
everything-at-the-wall kind of design
that was built to be held in different
ways for different game types. It could
be held like a normal controller for 2D
games, while the middle section of the
controller featured an analogue stick
and a trigger hidden underneath, which
could be used to pilot characters around
3D landscapes.While it would prove to be the
PlayStation’s more conventional dual-
handled design that stuck, the N64’s
analogue stick was a clever innovation
that would go on to become an industry
standard. Why, Sony even saw fit to
revise their own PlayStation controller
to shoehorn in a couple of analogue
sticks of their own.
Another controller mainstay that
first saw light of day on N64 – rumble
feedback, in the form of a bulky add-
on that slotted into the back of the
controller. Sadly, for all the N64’s
pioneering spirit, it was hamstrung by
its slavish devotion to the media of
yesteryear, its cartridges lacking the
space to hold the full-motion videos
that wowed PlayStation audiences.