today is Christmas yeah you got a truck
at least when I'm filming this it's
Christmas there's good chance this will
go up like the weekend after Christmas
takes place but I wanted to talk about
the 64 today mostly because it is
Christmas 2019 which means it has now
been 20 years since I opened up my
Nintendo 64 in 1999 and it was a very
exciting time and a little while ago a
few days ago we had a Christmas with one
part of the family and my nephew really
wanted some switch games and he was so
excited to open up Mario Tennis it kind
of reminded me of the old days when
you'd get that one gift that you really
really wanted specifically for me game
systems and you get so excited that
childlike excitement give me a little
bit of a nostalgia little bit of a
flashback there too when I opened my 64
it was a bit of a build up so today I
want to take a look at a premium
refurbished blue Nintendo 64 the clear
turquoise model from Gamestop to see how
it is of course because people like to
see how those show up anyway and what
what a condition they're in and I figure
we talked a little bit about the history
of me then at under 64 at Christmas time
and let me know down in the comments
about any big gift I guess you got at
Christmas that was really exciting to
you whether it was a I guess a game
system or a game something video game
related down below
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you know I've always had a soft spot for
the Nintendo 64 back during the 90s
there's a lot of buildup around the
release of the ultra 64 and I was there
long for the entire ride we really
weren't too sure what Nintendo was going
to release and outside of several rumors
with some being passed around online on
early message boards the power of the
system was exaggerated in some corners
and underestimated in others see it
turns out not everything online is true
this was something we didn't really know
back then because it was still kind of
new to be online and talking about video
games on forums so video game rumors
were still around back then right I mean
you hear about video game myths like
pushing the truck to get Moo but
building up to that ultra 64 and kind of
the mystery around it it was pretty easy
to plant some rumors online and have
them spread like crazy around Angel Fire
I think and like several other sites
where you could post like bulletins and
there were of course forums it was a bit
different because things were so new now
we know okay be careful with rumors and
all that but back then we didn't know
what was real and what wasn't in May of
1996 Nintendo revealed a ton of
information about the n64 to us gamers
with an initial price of two hundred and
fifty dollars in games that they could
expect to release during that launch
window of the system that price was
eventually changed to be more
competitive with the ps1 and Saturn
releasing $50 less at $200 there's still
a bunch of articles and press releases
you can find online that date back to
that day in May of 96 where they talked
about how powerful the system is and all
of the features the controller had
packed in I also noticed they discussed
the n64dd and that it would be sold
separately showing Nintendo really did
have plans to launch the attachment out
west oh and don't worry I didn't forget
about that n64dd that I have right now
we'll look at it just another time
needless to say I was very very hyped up
over the n64
I remember the mall in my area was
holding an event to show off Mario 64 in
person and you could even wait in line
to get hands-on with the game ahead of
release this was a weekend event and I
remember going but not getting a chance
to play it the line was way too long and
it would have taken hours just get near
the system they at least had a large
display above the kiosk and I was able
to get my first look at Mario jumping
out of the work pipe and running around
the castle
it was absolutely mind-blowing and
that's just putting it lightly
so that Christmas I asked for a Nintendo
64 and a copy of Mario 64 but there's
just one problem it was pretty much sold
out everywhere like you couldn't find
that in 10 or 64 in 96 that Christmas it
was so difficult to get it seriously so
I ended up basically figuring out I was
gonna be getting it and instead I got a
Super Nintendo that turned out to be my
cousin's old system because they ended
up getting these 64 so I ended up with
their system but what was really cool
about that and I looked back on it now
because I was such a Genesis kid at the
time and I was interested in the Super
Nintendo but I was really looking at
that 64 if I had made the jump directly
to the 64 I would have missed out on
what ended up being probably my favorite
system of all time in the Super Nintendo
in that massive library of games
especially since I got it 96 when most
of the stuff was already out and then
the following year I was all about that
Super Nintendo I'm actually kind of glad
technically then that I ended up with a
Super Nintendo instead of a 64 and then
the following year I ended up asking for
Super Nintendo games because I was so
entrenched in that system at the time
after getting at the Christmas before so
I asked for Mega Man x3 Chrono Trigger
and Mario RPG and you know what it was a
pretty good year
fast-forward to the next year in 1998
leading up to Christmas and I was set on
that Nintendo 64 well at least until
[Music]
was yeah the us that kind of caught
Pokemon fever at the time that included
me and all of my friends so that year
was all about Pokemon and peer pressure
the games cards TV show you name it we
all wanted it it was a crazy time and I
don't know if Pokemon had ever been
bigger seriously when it hit the western
shores people were going crazy over this
series I ended up getting pokemon blue a
link cable and some other Pokemon
related stuff that year so you know what
it was a pretty good year again okay
the next year was the year finally in
1999 I ended up getting the Nintendo 64
and actually think looking back on it I
ended up getting it at a great time sure
the 64 was years into its life at that
point and the ps2 was coming up soon but
getting it now meant the library of
games had grown significantly and the
overall system had become cheaper with
bundles even being available so with
that Christmas morning I ended up
opening up pokemon snap and an extra
atomic purple controller with the
standard black Nintendo 64 system I
found a picture of what I think it
looked like online I remember having to
open a large plastic casing to get to
the system in the game so this should be
it right here
don't even get me started on pokemon
snap because at this point the fact that
there's not a Pokemon snap - is insane
that is a massive missed opportunity
that I think anyway that the Pokemon
company and Nintendo should be taking
advantage of right now I just I really
liked the original Pokemon snap and the
fact that they've done nothing with that
franchise since the 64 just really
really hurts
now the n64 is a tank of a system so I
don't really expect much to be wrong
with it in the first place and this is
probably one of the safer systems to buy
from Gamestop straight up
they ended up doing an alright packing
job with bubble wrap all around the
system and the controller gamestop also
managed to match the correct Nintendo
branded controller with the system which
is something I was a bit concerned about
with no picture being available on their
website you know I have to admit for the
most part GameStop has been pretty good
with their used controllers this n64
controller is pretty clean and appears
to have been checked out with the
stickers from a third party on it the
stick is always the place to start when
checking one of these controllers out
and it feels like it hasn't been put
through the wringer with Mario Party
just yet it doesn't appear to have been
changed out for a different stick either
it just looks like it was taken care of
by its previous owner so that's good
either way can game stop continues to
pass the used controller tests and with
a special edition system like this that
is a relief power supply is also a first
party power supply however it does
appear that they sent me an off-brand AV
cable but this is probably the least
expensive part of this whole package so
it's not really that big of a deal a
quick look at the system shows some
scratching around the surface that can
be seen in the right light the overall
appearance of the system is actually
pretty good however and both the power
and reset buttons are not sticky at all
if you have a Nintendo 64 and either of
those buttons start to stick it's
actually pretty easy to fix it after
removing the lid those buttons will pop
right out and cleaning with some soapy
water it'll be good as new I did notice
that there was a refurbishment sticker
on the bottom of the system showing that
someone had opened it for some reason or
another my best guess is to clean is the
reset or the power button but we'll open
it up double check first though I wanted
to check to make sure that the system
actually worked and in fact I captured
all the gameplay footage in this video
from this intent of 64 and it hasn't had
any problems considering the system
doesn't have any moving parts outside of
the power and reset funds it's no
surprise that it would be working the
systems I've received from Gamestop that
had issues would typically have problems
with things like a laser to read discs
with for example so a system like the
Nintendo 64 is hard even for Game Stop
to mess up opening the 64 is easy as
long as you have a game bit driver they
sell packs of these online and it's
worth having a bunch of sizes handy
since it's a bit that
shows up on a lot of systems from the
90s after removing the jumper pack and
lid the top of the system comes off
showing us the large heatsink on top
also an interesting note about the
jumper pack that people may not know it
didn't serve much of a purpose outside
of letting the system startup see the
jumper pack it didn't have any RAM
inside which is something we used to
think back in the day the four megabytes
of RAM is located on the board inside
the system and the jumper pack just acts
like a placeholder for the expansion
pack basically it completes a loop
inside the system that allows it to post
and startup correctly but doesn't
provide anything beyond that it just
kind of hangs out waiting to be replaced
that's kind of a sad existence and I
think about it anyway with a couple of
Phillips head screws remove the heatsink
lifts away showing the motherboard the
64 was an interesting beast in the 90s
it was touted as the first real 64-bit
system and Nintendo pushed the power
narrative heavily versus the ps1 and the
Saturn the 64 used a central processing
unit and a coprocessor named the reality
coprocessor the CPU was clocked much
higher than the competition's offerings
at 93 megahertz and had twice the RAM
and that's before adding in the
expansion pack to double the RAM in the
64 now there were two big weaknesses of
the 64 that are generally pointed out
one being the cartridges and the other
being the unified memory inside the
system sony had decided to divide up the
memory inside their PlayStation at the
time whereas Nintendo just dropped the
entire 4 megabytes into a pool that
could be accessed at any time through
the GPU this is believed to have saved
Nintendo money during production process
but because latency was so high when
calls were made to the memory developers
really had to plan things out
specifically for the Nintendo 64 and
develop around that weakness the other
weakness being the cartridge is widely
talked about and I've covered it
somewhat already on this channel
Sony won't with CDs which were cheaper
and held far more data at the cost of
load times the gamble seemed to pay off
with companies like Square jumping off
of the Nintendo ship to join Sony with
their big flagship Final Fantasy series
going forward well I have to say this 64
is fine it works well it has some minor
scratching around it but for the most
part - 20 year-olds
them that looks I think pretty good
overall so okay good job the GameStop on
this one it's a 64 though I kind of
expected it to work considering it's
pretty much a tank and the fact that it
has the cover for the jumper pack and
the correct controller is probably the
part that I was rolling the dice on the
most when there wasn't a picture there
but hey looks good after getting my n64
for Christmas in 1999 I went on to rent
a ton of games from Blockbuster and
Hollywood video getting into the n64 now
man I had a much larger library of games
to pick from over the next year I would
do the classic rent a game on Friday and
spend the next two days trying to beat
it before taking a PAC Sunday night it
was a simpler time and I do miss the
days of driving to the store to rent a
game but now everything is delivered
digitally or by a machine that may or
may not give you a paper cut out of the
disk looking back on the Nintendo 64 it
may have been a boneheaded stubborn move
by Nintendo to release what they did
back in 1996 it was late to the party
lacked some big third-party games and
left a lot of us wondering what could
have been with a CD equipped n64
Nintendo pretty much admitted that
cartridges were not the future when
moving too many DVDs the next generation
and then sticking with disk based media
over the next few generations of home
consoles but now decades later it's
interesting to see how the landscape has
changed instead of talking about disk
based media being the next big thing
we're talking about Nintendo going back
to cartridges and solid-state drives
being inside of the PlayStation 5 and
the next Xbox
I mean we've even finally seen Final
Fantasy 7 go to a cartridge which was
unthinkable back on the Nintendo 64 and
one of the reasons that Square left
completely so yes over the last 20 years
from when I first opened my Nintendo 64
to opening this one today things have
certainly changed however it is
interesting to watch Nintendo go back to
where it all began
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