My Experience with the Game Boy Advance

The thing that started me back into the handhelds was the next installment of the Zelda series: The Oracle games. I bought them on release day, and assumed I could play them in my Super Game Boy. But alas, it was not to be. That night I had to figure out if I wanted to go buy a Game Boy Color, or if I could wait the approximately 3 weeks for the Game Boy Advance. I decided on the latter option, since the GBA could play everything made up until that point plus any future games.

Continuing with what was started in the second run of N64s, 3 color options were available for the GBA. So I got a Glacier-colored GBA on release day at midnight. I played my old games like Metroid II and Link’s Awakening on them because I liked the color upgrades (never having owned a GBC), but not very often. Mostly I played the Oracle games, as that was my only option to play them, while I could play the others on my Super Game Boy on a lit TV screen. That year we spent Christmas at my parents’ house. My younger brother Mitch got Mario Kart Super Circuit, and he also happened to have a GameLink cable, so we were able to play 2 player on GBA a few times.

In the next year or two, I bought a couple of GBA games, mainly because they were heavily discounted at the K-Mart that was closing down (where Anne was working): Castlevania – Circle of the Moon and X-Men – Reign of Apocalypse (I think it was 2 for 1 on top of a discount). But I didn’t play them all that often.  It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy them, per se; just that I would rather play a console that was lit up and easier to see.

I started playing Castlevania while I was in the hospital waiting for my first child to be born. We had a lot of time to kill so I decided playing that (and Rogue Leader on GameCube) was the best way to spend it.

I bought a few accessories, such as the Worm light and an AC adapter. The light made it easier to play at night or in darker parts of the house, but it left a glare on the screen. The best option was bright but indirect light which was hard to find. There were a couple of places that had good light without the glare (like the bathroom), but most places weren’t optimal. Obviously the AC adapter made it easier to play without having to go through batteries by the case. The adapter took the spot where batteries and the cover were, and had a small port for the cord that could be disconnected.

One thing that made me glad to have bought a GBA was when The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was released. It featured some GBA/GC connectivity, so I bought a cable and started using the GBA to play as Tingle. It would also be useful for some other games later on. 

I mainly played my games on vacation or occasionally around the house, but I didn’t take it with me very often to places like school or when I ran errands. I bought the Game Boy Player, an add-on for the GameCube. It was the first time Nintendo made good on the promise of an add-on using the expansion port in North America. Since it was basically another GBA, I could play all my games I had in color and on a lit and much larger TV screen. This made it much easier to see without needing the worm light or sitting in a particular part of the house to see.

Later I would buy ALttP/Four Swords and The Minish Cap to stay updated on my Zelda games, but I ended up playing them more on the Game Boy Player because the TV screen was illuminated. Just like what I had done with the Super Game Boy, I treated the GBA less as a portable handheld and more of a mini-console.

My brother Mitch had a few games but the one I remember best is the Spider-Man game he had. Interestingly enough, it was the first game that I actually felt kinda like Spider-Man when I played it. Most others didn’t take advantage of how Spider-Man moves. Eventually, Mitch sold off his GBA stuff and didn’t play games as much. But he gave me a nice case to keep my GBA and games in. It was pretty convenient and kept everything portable I owned at the time. It was made to hold both regular Game Boy and GBA games as well as accessories. 

My youngest brother Brady was more into the Game Boy stuff, and got an SP. I liked the light up part of it, but thought that the narrowness of it made it a hassle to hold like the original Game Boy. I preferred the horizontal configuration of the original GBA.

Besides my general lack of interest in portable gaming, my biggest problem was lack of funds (and to some degree, time). By this point, I was a poor, working college student with a small family. So by necessity, I only bought the things I really, really wanted (Zeldas, mainly). Things continued on much this way for about 10 years. I fell behind on keeping up with the latest portable system by missing the GBA SP, the DS, the DS Lite, and the DSi. Even though I knew I was missing out on 2 Zelda Games (Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks), I just couldn’t justify the cost for how little I expected to play them. I think if I lived closer to my brothers, or had a couple of good friends who also had GBAs, I probably would have kept up a bit better.

When the DS came out, I was tempted to get one because it was horizontally oriented and had a GBA slot, but there were two things that kept me from getting one: lack of funds, and the fact that it wouldn’t play GB/GBC games.

One time I borrowed my brother’s copy of ALttP/FS and got to play Four Swords using the GB Player and my GBA with my son Avery. I went through the game once, but didn’t know about having to go through it 3 times to completely finish it. I also used it to play FSA once or twice, but because of an incorrect assumption about how the game worked, I didn’t play it at all for years. In my mind, it was one of those, “someday” things – meaning someday I’ll get around to playing it when I get all the equipment necessary (I eventually did).

As mentioned earlier, I had no one to play with, but Avery was starting to get to the age where he could play with me, so I was looking forward to being able to play certain things with him once he could understand the intricacies of the games. It was different than when I had 4 younger brothers or roommates to play with, because I had motivation to buy multiple controllers for the N64 and such.

Over the years, we took the GBA stuff with us on vacations, but didn’t use them a whole lot otherwise. Years later after both Avery and I got 3DS handhelds, I bought a silver GBA SP and another copy of ALttP/FS from eBay for cheap. I wanted to try playing Four Swords with Avery, but the used SP ended up having connectivity and charging issues, then it broke. We bought my other son Logan a red GBA SP for Christmas, along with another copy of ALttP/FS used from eBay. He played that game a lot, and became quite the expert at only age 3. 

We also ended up buying another SP, two more copies of ALttP/FS, and some more GameLink cables so we could finally play Four Swords with four players. I had the original GBA and wormlight, Avery and Logan each had an SP, and my daughter or wife played on the GB Player. We also used this setup to play The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, in which we played the game on our Wii and had to drag the TV/GameCube downstairs to be the fourth GBA.

Logan ended up breaking his SP when he dropped it onto a hard floor (which cracked the screen), so we had to get a replacement. It was blue, and to be unique I swapped some shell pieces with his old red one so his is now multi-colored. We also bought him Link’s Awakening DX, Oracle of Ages, and the GBA re-releases of Zelda 1 and Zelda 2 for Christmas. Most of the time when I bought an SP used, it came with random GB, GBC, and GBA games. In this way we ended up with a bunch of games we never intended to own. However, they ended up being interesting in the context that I can show my kids the difference between regular GB games, GBC games, black-cartridge games, Super GB enhanced games, and GBA games and how they all work differently in the various configurations. Later we would add Mario Kart Super Circuit and Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 to Logan's collection when we bought some used games from the same card shop I used to frequent as a teen. Some of the other games we ended up with from eBay purchases are Advance Wars, a Spongebob game, Sims 2 Pets, and the Cheetah Girls.

I attempted modding the orignal GBA with LEDs using some instructions I found online, but was unsuccessful. However, in early 2018 I was able to get a whole backlit modding kit from eBay and successfully modded it, so now it has a nice backlit screen. The only gripe I have with it is that I couldn't screw the outer shell back together all the way because it flexes the motherboard (or something) enough to make it not turn on. Also, some of the screen elements leave "ghosts" for a few seconds once they're scrolled offscreen. Although I'm happy with the results, I'll just stick with the DS Lite for any GBA games unless they require a Gamelink cable. 

The Game Boy Advance

After dominating the handheld market since 1989, Nintendo finally released a major upgrade to their flagship portable system in 2001. It is true that there had been a couple of small updates in the previous 4 to 5 years, such as the Game Boy Pocket or Game Boy Color, but the design and architecture of the system wasn’t radically changed and had been more or less the same since its release. The Game Boy Advance would be different though.

It had a 32-bit processor, but by this time processors were starting to be made differently, and the "bit count" was less important. What the hardware could do graphically was very comparable to the SNES, and so it represented a major upgrade from the 4 shaded dot-matrix graphics of the original Game Boy. Because of this, many SNES games were ported to the GBA with minor upgrades. Like the SNES, the various sprites had some “special effects” that could be utilized like transparency or rotation/scaling.

The system had a horizontally oriented form factor which made it easier to hold. It had the same buttons as the previous system (B, A, Start, Select), but with the addition of L and R shoulder buttons. It had a jack for a GameLink cable on the top, and the headphone jack, volume dial, and power switch on the bottom.

Like the older GB, it had only one speaker, but would put out stereo when using headphones. It used only 2 AA batteries and had around a 30 hour life. While the sound and music were much better than the original GB, there was a certain, “poppy-ness” to it, almost similar to the Virtual Boy. The GBA had a green light indicating power that would turn red when the batteries were nearing the end of their life.

Continuing with the tradition started on the GBC and the later run of N64 consoles, the GBA was available in multiple colors, including purple, black, white, orange, and clear blue. Later on, more colors and special editions would also be sold.

A major selling point was that it was backwards compatible with every GB and GBC game made up until that point. When it detected a GBC or GB game, it booted up in GBC mode, allowing the player to colorize older games in the same way using the same palettes. When an original GB or GBC game was turned on, the familiar “ding” played, but the word “Game Boy” was displayed in color, during which players could select which palette they wanted to use. But a newer tone with an animated logo was displayed when a GBA game was played. GBA games were actually smaller than the older games and fit perfectly in the GBA, but older games would stick out above the top of the system. It had a wider screen, allowing for more things to be seen at once. When playing an older game, the L and R buttons served to toggle the screen between its original resolution with black bars on the sides, or to stretch the picture.

While the original Game Boy allowed 2 players through the use of a GameLink cable (and more with an additional adapter), the GBA could support 4-player games using 3 cables because each one had a connection point in the middle of the cable allowing another player to link in. Some games also supported download play, meaning that only one copy of the game was required, slightly reducing the amount of equipment needed to play 2-player. 

Later when the GameCube would be released, the use of a different cable allowed players to connect the GBA to the GC and unlock certain features. For example, a GBA with Metroid Fusion hooked up to a GC with Metroid Prime unlocked a special gallery, the Fusion Suit, and a hidden copy of the original Metroid. On The Wind Waker, hooking up a GBA with no cartridge to the GC let a second player assist Link as Tingle. Playing the GBA version of Splinter Cell hooked up to the GC version equipped the player with some additional weapons while the GBA player could scout out locations in advance to warn the other player of enemies. Finally, one of the most promoted uses was The Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures, where the main game took place on screen, but when players went into a house or cave, the action took place on the individual GBA's screen. Essentially, the GBA served as a controller that happened to have its own screen when needed.

It seemed like the GBA to GC connection was emphasized heavily by Nintendo, more so than the N64/GB connection had been. But it would continue the tradition of having a handheld and a console connect together.

The only major criticism of the GBA was the lack of a lit screen. It still required a fairly bright room or being outside to play. Accessories like the Worm Light made things a little better, but would often leave a glare on the screen. Nintendo released a solution in the form of the Game Boy Advance SP.

The SP was a major redesign for the GBA, as it now had a clam shell style case that could be opened and closed via a hinge. The major selling feature was that it had a front-lit screen that could be toggled on and off with a new button. The folding nature of it also made it smaller and easier to carry around. Later models would replace the front-lit screen with a back-lit screen, reducing washed out colors and glare. Another upgrade was the internal rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery. Instead of using AA batteries, it could just be plugged into the wall outlet to charge up the battery for around 10 hours of play with the light on (more with no light, obviously). In addition to the green/red power light, an orange light indicating the battery charging status was added.

But there were a few sacrifices that were made with the SP. Firstly, the design made the SP just as vertically narrow as the original GB/GBC, so it was harder to hold for those with bigger hands. Second, the headphone jack had to be sacrificed and was actually combined with the AC adapter jack. In order to use headphones, a separate adapter needed to be plugged into the jack, meaning that one could not both use headphones and charge the system simultaneously. Another change was that games would be loaded into the front, and not the rear of the system. 

Like the GBA, the GBA SP also came in many colors. The clam shell design also helped save the screen from being scratched up while in a purse, backpack, or pocket. Some games also started including the “Sleep” feature, where a game can be paused and the system closed while conserving battery power. This was especially useful for games that could only be saved at certain times/places, so the player wouldn’t lose any progress. To wake the system up, usually it required a 3-button combination so that it wouldn’t happen accidentally in a pocket. The design would stay and be improved upon in Nintendo’s next handheld, the Nintendo DS.

All together, over 1,000 games were released for the GBA. It was superseded by the DS only 3 years later, but games continued to be developed for it until 2008 because the DS had GBA backwards compatibility. 





Stop Skeletons from Fighting's video on the GBA/GC Link Cable

My Experience with the Nintendo 64

After being a little disappointed by the Virtual Boy, I was pumped for the Nintendo 64 and skeptical at the same time. The jump from 8 to 16-bit yielded pretty much the same type of games, just with better graphics/sound. The jump from 2D to 3D was going to change things from a fundamental level. I wasn’t sure how a Mario or Zelda game would translate.

I had been saving for it for about 9 months, starting with the $100 I got from my grandma for Christmas. I had planned on adding like $20 each month, but didn’t really end up saving as much as I'd hoped because buying comics/cards/etc. got in the way. It was supposed to come out on September 29, 1996, which was a Sunday. I was quite bummed as my family was Mormon and I wouldn’t be able to get it until Monday after school, should any be left.

In the month leading up to the release Wal-Mart had a display that I would look at. Once I saw what Super Mario 64 was like I was sold. At that time, the electronics department was in the center of the store and had a “wall” around it (to prevent theft, I assume). But the TV that the demo was hooked up to could be seen from quite a ways away; it was visible to nearly one-third of the store. I would tag along with my mom on trips to Wal-Mart just to see it or play it if nobody else was already doing so.

Then on Saturday, September 28, I went to Wal-Mart with my two youngest brothers. I can’t remember what I was going to buy, but I really just wanted one last glance at the 64. As usual, as soon as the TV was visible my eyes were glued to the screen as I walked toward electronics and up to the controller. Just my luck, some little brat was playing it. I decided I could wait my turn and bide my time. After about 5 minutes, I heard a mother behind me talking to her 6 year old son. “Look at the new Nintendo!” I turned and smiled, hoping to see the look of wonder in either of their eyes at the beauty of the spectacle before them. To my shock and surprise, they weren’t even looking at the TV screen. They were, instead, holding the N64 box. My first thought was that surely these were just empty display boxes. I picked one up and it was heavy. 

I don’t know how, or why, but the store had put them out 1 day too early! I grabbed one and started celebrating, only to realize that I didn’t have my money with me. And then the panic set in. As soon as word gets out that they’re available early, there will be a run on them, and I’ll be in the same boat as before. So I did what any desperate teenager would do – I left my 5- and 8-year-old brothers there alone and unattended to guard one for me while I ran home to get money.

I dashed home as quickly as I could to get the money and returned. Luckily nothing had happened to them, and only one had been sold in my absence. I had panicked for nothing. Oh well. I paid for the console and Super Mario 64 and went home to hook it up, only to discover the 64 didn’t have an RF jack - just the multi-out. “How did they expect me to hook this up?! Am I gonna have to buy a new TV just for this!?” I looked through the setup manual (the one nobody reads because it’s easy to hook up) and found I had to go buy an adapter. Now the questions were 1) Would Wal-Mart have the adapter on launch day, and 2) Could I afford it? Thankfully the answer to both questions was ‘yes.’

I only had $3 after buying the system, game, and adapter. I wished I could have bought a second controller that day, but Mario was only 1 player, and I was kinda wiped as far as money goes for a while. As one might expect, I (and my brothers) played the new game pretty much non-stop for a while. Just like when I got the SNES, friends and tertiary friends all came to visit. On Monday, school couldn’t get out soon enough. My friend Edgar and I skipped our study hall to go play – the only class I ever ditched in high school. We played the heck out of Mario 64 and I loved going online (when the web was fairly new) to read how good Mario 64 was and how much better the N64 was than its competition.

That next Thanksgiving, my room was crowded with most of my cousins wanting to play or watch the N64. In December I would buy Shadows of the Empire, a Star Wars game I had been greatly anticipating. Some of the hype videos for it showed lightsabers, so I was pumped. The Special Editions of the Star Wars Trilogy were just about out, and this game just added to the excitement. The first stage was the best version of the Hoth battle ever made up to that point, but most of the rest of the stages were a mediocre 3rd person shooter. I did, however, like the fact that this game’s story was not just a rehash of something seen in the movies – it was mostly backstory to events occurring between Empire and Jedi. 

Later for Christmas, we received Wave Race 64 from my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jerry (and family), the ones who had previously given us Golf for the NES. It was a fun jet-ski racing game, but I really wanted to play it with 2 players. By the time I could afford a second controller, there were none to be found. That year there were several big items that were in high demand for Christmas, and the Nintendo 64 was one of them (along with Tickle-Me Elmo). There was an article in the newspaper about the rush and demand on N64s, but I just sat back and was glad to not have to go through it.

It wouldn’t be until late January that I happened to find a second controller. I was in Boise with my brothers to play a little laser tag at Q-Zar (may it rest in peace). While I was there, I popped over to a few places to see if they happened to have one. Toys’Я’Us happened to have a 3rd party controller, the Shark Pad. It was made of clear plastic (which I didn’t like because clear plastic is brittle), the thumbstick cap would fall off occasionally, and the control stick design was dissimilar enough that it made some slight differences in the outcome of play. But I was desperate, so I got it. It came with little insert plastic tabs so that I could “color code” it, should I have multiple versions of it and didn’t want to mix them up. However, it did also have a turbo and slow feature, but I didn’t use them at all.

Edgar also bought Shadows of the Empire with me, and bought a used N64 from a friend a couple days later. He was a huge game enthusiast and had multiple systems like me, but he also branched out into non-Nintendo territory. My friend Brooks’ family got an N64 for Christmas. They had completely skipped the 16-bit era and this was the first system they got since the original NES. They had a few games that I liked – NHL Hockey and Pilotwings 64.

Two Memory Cards, a Rumble Pak,
and a Jumper Pak with pry-tool.

I bought a memory card to go into the controller, even though I didn’t own any games that really utilized this capability at the time. It was mainly for some of the games I rented, like Turok 64 – a FPS that was very well done. The problem with renting cartridge based games is that your save file is on the cartridge, and unless you pay to rent the game for days on end, your save file will almost certainly be erased by the time you rent it again. But with the memory card, I could keep my save file at home, and when I rented the game a second time I could pick up where I left off.

The new video rental store in town had N64 games, and even imported some Japanese titles early. They would use nippers to clip off part of the plastic on the cartridge so it would fit in an American N64. I rented StarFox 64 to see if I liked it, and I did, so I bought it as soon as the North American version was released. It came with the Rumble Pack, and that has almost always stayed in the controller ever since.

I can count the times I rented N64 games on one hand, unfortunately. It was a combination of having to wait for stores to start getting a supply of games I wanted to play and not having extra money after buying comics, my small N64 library, and all the accessories I got. Also, by the time stores had a decent supply of games I would be at college or in Japan. 

Around this time, supply had finally caught up with demand and Wal-Mart had controllers in stock. I bought a black and a blue one, bringing my total to 4. Now we could play 4-player StarFox 64, but my brothers didn’t like it as much because I always won. I also learned how the control stick worked by taking my controllers apart to clean them and stretch the spring to extend its life. Looking back, I wish I had also lubricated the control stick base - something I only learned about in 2015.

Mario Kart 64 came out and I borrowed that from a friend for a while. It was a major improvement on the first game and ignited the Mario Kart craze that has existed ever since. Whenever we played multiplayer, I hooked the N64 up to the bigger TV upstairs so we could all see better.

Occasionally I would hook up the 64 to the stereo to listen to game music (like I had done with the SNES), but the problem was that I couldn’t see anything if I did so. The SNES had 2 ways of connecting so I could have it hooked up to the TV and the stereo simultaneously, but there was no such luck with the N64. I tried to get some kind of video adapter to get it to work, but the only solution was to buy a $40 RF-RCA adapter from Radio Shit, and I would rather have bought another game.

I gave up my paper route before I went to college, so my funds to buy games stopped. I didn’t take the N64 with me because I didn’t have a TV there, and didn’t feel like I should take the one Matt and I had bought. Besides, if everything went well there, I wouldn’t have much time to play it anyway. But I should have at least taken one of the Game Boys so I could play Link’s Awakening or something. During Thanksgiving break, I went to play my system and noticed something was wrong. My black controller had a small but peculiar little nick on the plastic on it. It had bugged me because I would stare at it while the game was loading or something. But the nick was now gone! I asked my brother where my controller was, and he acted confused, like he didn’t know what I was talking about. I was more forceful and finally he confessed. Some time before, my cousin Jessica had spilled soda onto the controller and had made the buttons sticky. When they heard I was coming home they ran out and bought a replacement. I took the original one and was able to clean out the soda from it and get it working like normal. Now that I had 4 official controllers, I gave the Shark Pad one away to the cousins (the same ones who spilled on it in the first place).

My family got Goldeneye007 for Christmas, but I didn’t have any interest in playing at the time, as I had other matters and errands on my mind, like getting my wisdom teeth out and talking to my friends on mIRC (a chat program). When I went back home for a cousin’s wedding, I started playing Goldeneye007 and got hooked.

A couple months later I bought a cheap used 25” TV for $5 at Deseret Industries, and I had decided to basically not attend my classes. When I went home in March, I took the N64 back to college with me (without the sports games I didn’t care about). I anticipated my brothers pulling some stunt preventing me from taking it, so I had removed the jumper pack from the control deck so that nobody could use it should shenanigans happen. 

I pretty much played Goldeneye 24/7 for a few days, and when I wasn’t playing it, someone else from my dorm was. I was determined to beat all levels on 00 Agent and earn all the cheat codes. We started having 4 player games almost every night in our little room, and posted a few house rules to mitigate some of the underhanded ways to cheat (like staring at the ceiling or peeking at someone else’s screen. Occasionally we would play other games like 4-player StarFox64 but others didn’t like the radar system.

About 2 months later, I left for Japan, and missed out on 2 years worth of games while being closer than ever to Nintendo’s headquarters, ironically. While I was there, I saw Mario Party and thought it was a brilliant concept for a game. I also saw and got to test play Rogue Squadron. But the big one that I missed was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I hovered around demos at stores, and picked up some of the literature and brochures about it. I even bought the soundtrack, though I didn’t keep the CD because my friend had paid for half of it and I just copied it to a mini-disk. I also sent home a few drawings I made from the brochure. My family got the game for Christmas, and to their credit, they kept the box and manual in pretty good shape for me. 

When I got home I had instructed them to have Goldeneye ready on the big TV, but when I got back I really, really wanted to play Ocarina. I wanted to do nothing but catch up on movies, games, and other things for the first month or so. My mom didn’t understand, but Michael did, as he had gone through the same thing.

I got a temp job around town and used some of the money to buy both Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64. The main reason I bought DK64 was because it came with a free RAM expansion pack (like how StarFox64 came with the rumble pack). I decided to save it until some future date to play and focus on Perfect Dark instead. I didn’t end up playing it for the first time until about a year and a half later.

A few weeks later, I moved out of my parents’ house and went to live in Orem, UT with Edgar, where he promised me a room, a bed, and a job. I took my N64, SNES, and the 13” TV, as Matt was now out of the country. But I left my brothers’ SNES and N64 sports games, the NES, and any “family games”. Somehow Shadows of the Empire, Starfox64, Goldeneye007, and Wave Race64 got lost or sold somewhere. My family ended up getting their own Jungle Green N64 to play the sports games, and my youngest brother Brady played games more like me. At first, I played mainly PD and Ocarina in Orem with any free time I had. I also bought Rogue Squadron used from Hollywood Videos and played that a lot. My SNES was hooked up to the 13” TV but my N64 was hooked up to Edgar’s 27” TV in our bedroom.

A couple months later, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask came out. Edgar had pre-ordered it from Babbage’s, but I decided to buy it from Target on launch morning – which happened to be the same day as the PS2 launch. It felt good to walk past the long line of campers waiting for the PS2 and just go straight to the register. This was the second game I had been able to get launch day since being back in the US (the other being Perfect Dark), and it felt nice to play it simultaneously with Edgar and exchange tips instead of playing catchup on a game that most people had already completed. The other thing I bought while living in Orem is a watermelon colored controller. It was mainly because I liked the semi-transparent look, but also because they were better made and had solved a few engineering issues that the original run of controllers had.

While I lived there, there were also frequent Perfect Dark 4-player games, similar to what happened in my dorm room with Goldeneye007. But since PD was a superior game with much better customization options and record keeping, it motivated us to play more and do better. Another nice feature was that the apartment had surround sound, so I got to experience that for the first time.

When I started dating Anne, I had her play Super Mario 64 in my room while I cleaned up and organized my stuff. She also helped me do some spider hunting on Majora’s Mask.

After I got married, I moved to Ogden and had SNES and N64 hooked up to the 13” TV in the front room. Anne would play Zelda: ALttP and LA while I was at work, as she had nothing to do and hadn’t found a job yet. Within a week of being married, we went to buy a VCR so we had a little entertainment. I specifically bought a VCR that had RCA inputs so that we could hook up multiple systems through it, essentially using the VCR as a receiver. We found a nicer one that had the inputs I wanted, but then got another VCR as a wedding present. We had to track down where it was sold to try and exchange it and couldn’t figure out what store it came from, so we finally had to call and make up a story about the stop button being broken.

Later we would get a 25” monaural TV as a wedding gift. We enjoyed it for a week but then I lamented that we didn’t have the RCA jacks on it. Anne suggested that we return the TV and pay the $10 to upgrade it to the stereo version. Once we did, it was much easier to hook up multiple systems between the TV and VCR’s inputs. We also got a better TV stand to accommodate the bigger TV, and we put the systems in the cabinet underneath. To make room for the systems and the DVD system we bought, we got some wire racks to make the SNES and N64 “bunkbeds” of sorts. Meanwhile, the NESv2 and the 13” TV were relegated to the bedroom (my mom had given me all the old video game stuff).  

About a year later, we had some kids over to play games, and afterwards I couldn’t find Majora’s Mask. I assumed one of them had stolen it. I begrudgingly replaced it with a used copy I bought from Hollywood Video. However, later when we moved from our apartment to our condo we were having to turn the loveseat at all kinds of angles to get it through the door and around corners. When we did so, I heard something rattling inside the couch. I reached in, and it was my original copy of Majora’s Mask.

Ever since moving to our condo, the N64 has been hooked up ever since to the big TV downstairs. For quite a while we had a TV that could do a side-by-side dual input screen, so we could have it and the GameCube/Wii playing simultaneously. Years later, I replaced all of the lost and/or sold games and repaired the controllers as much as possible to keep it in good condition. 

The Nintendo 64

Nearing the end of the Bit Wars, SEGA and Sony both had 32-bit, CD-based consoles, both released in 1995. The change in medium from cartridge to CD meant that developers weren’t hampered by space limitations when making games, but it also came with the downside of slow load times. Nintendo had made the decision to skip the 32-bit stage and move straight onto a 64-bit console and stick with cartridges (the Virtual Boy had a 32-bit processor, but it wasn’t counted in the “console” category). Atari had previously released the Jaguar, which purported to be a 64-bit system (it really wasn’t – it just had 2 different 32-bit processors) which may have pushed Nintendo in that direction.

Code named “Project Reality,” and once released would be called the Ultra 64, Nintendo put the bit count in the name itself so there would be no question. It was originally slated to be released in 1995 but was delayed for an entire year, possibly prompting Nintendo to release the Virtual Boy in the meantime. Another part of the buildup was to work with Midway to release some arcade games that would later be ported onto the Ultra 64. Near the release date, the name was changed to just the Nintendo 64, dropping the "Ultra."

The console signaled the jump from 2D to 3D graphics, something Nintendo had dabbled with in StarFox and other games that used the FX chip. But this switch was a major paradigm shift. And to make things more confusing, for the first time there were 3 major consoles on the market. Other companies besides Nintendo and SEGA had released consoles over the years, but none of them had much market share. But Sony had taken a major bite into the market with the PlayStation (the irony was that it was originally going to be the SNES-CD add on). Also, comparing systems was made harder now. Comparisons between the Sega Master System and the NES were easy, as were the arguments over Genesis vs. the SNES or the Game Boy vs. the Game Gear. But major differences in the hardware and media the systems used muddied the waters.

The Nintendo 64 was a black console that was less “boxy” than the SNES with its rounded corners and feet. Like the SNES, cartridges were top loaded and the cartridge slot had a spring-loaded cover to prevent dust from getting in; but it lacked the eject lever the SNES featured – games were meant to just be pulled out on the N64. The front of the console featured a slightly raised portion that had a small, removable cover, under which was a “jumper pak”. The lid was labeled with “Memory Expansion,” leaving users to speculate that it was for a future add-on. The bottom of the system featured another expansion port, just like the SNES and NES both had sported.

The top expansion port cover cleverly hid an air vent next to the cartridge slot, and on top of the system were the same two buttons as the NES and SNES – a sliding Power button but a pressable Reset button. The back of the console only had one AV port, a departure from their previous 2 systems. It used the exact same multi-out cord as the SNES for the red/white/yellow RCA jacks. For those needing the old RF switch style connector, an adapter was available (for 12 bucks – plus tax).

In a major improvement, the power transformer for the N64 was not on the plug, but on the part that connected to the back of the console. This made it so the plug was a regular bare plug, and not the big, black “wall wart” box that took up multiple slots on a power strip.

But the feature of the console that really stood out were the 4 different controller ports. It sold the N64 as a real multiplayer system, and didn’t require the additional 4-player controller adapters or any special software. For the first time, 4-player games were going to be easy (as long as one had 4 controllers).

The controller was another unique selling point. The controller featured red, yellow, blue, green, and dark gray buttons – normal for those with a Japanese Super Famicom, but more colorful to an American audience used to the lavender and purple scheme of the SNES. The large A and B buttons were green and blue, and the four new C buttons (called C-Up, C-Down, C-Right, and C-Left) were yellow, but there were no X and Y buttons. Dark gray L and R on the shoulders of the controller made a return, but there was a new Z button on the back of the controller that felt almost like a pistol trigger. Finally, the red Start button was in the very center of the controller, but the Select button was discontinued.

It had the D-pad like all Nintendo products, but also had an analogue stick, capable of sensing 360 degree motion and 8 levels of pressure. The Virtual Boy was the first controller to feature grips, rather than a flat “paddle,” and the N64 continued with this tradition. But instead of having 2 grips, it had 3 – giving the controller an odd shape. The intent was that it could be held in 3 different configurations.

• Holding the middle and the right lobes was the most common configuration. It gives the left hand access to the control stick for the thumb, and the Z-button in the back for the index finger. The right hand had access to the B, A, R, and four C buttons.
• Holding the middle and left lobes reduced the number of buttons accessible, but doubled the number of directional controls. The left hand had access to the D-Pad and L button, while the right hand had the control stick and Z button.
• Holding the left and right lobes essentially meant the left hand traded the control stick for the D-pad and the Z button for the L button. This was for games that relied on an 8 directional control, like fighting games. The right hand had access to the B, A, R, and four C buttons.

The back of the controller had a connection port that was originally billed as a memory card slot. Being a cartridge based system, it was likely that the cartridge themselves would contain the save files, just like on past systems. But the advantage to having a memory card like the CD-based systems had were enough to justify including it with the Nintendo 64. Most of the time, they would serve as a backup to the save files on the cartridge, or as a way of transporting a save file or character profile to a friend’s copy of the game. The standard controller that came packaged with the system was a light gray, but additional controllers were available in black, red, blue, green, and yellow.

The games were similar in size to the SNES cartridges, but with fewer edges and corners. One thing that they lacked was a sleeve or protective cover like all Nintendo games had had up until that point. Nintendo’s method of region locking was mechanical. Like the SNES, small plastic tabs inside the system and slots for those tabs on the games prevented a Japanese game being inserted into an American system and vice versa. But it was easily overcome by removing the plastic piece in the system or making notches into the cartridge’s plastic. While other systems switched to disc-based optical media, Nintendo stuck with cartridges citing piracy prevention and loading time speed as good reasons to stay the course. 

Demand for the Nintendo 64 was high during the holiday season of 1996, and finding certain games and accessories (like controllers) was difficult. The price was set at $200, but did not include a game like past systems. So to be playable, the actual cost to consumers was more in the $250 range. Nintendo’s logo for the system was a 4-sided, 3D N that rotated and was very colorful.

The must-have game at release was Super Mario 64. It moved Mario from a side scrolling world into an open exploration. What made this game stand out were not only the colors, the smooth animation, the anti-aliasing, and the great controls, but just how open the world was. Other games for other systems felt like you were running in a tunnel. Instead of stomping and collecting power-ups, Super Mario 64 focused on using Mario’s new gymnastic-like moves while revisiting 15 worlds multiple times using Peach’s castle as a hub (incidentally, this is the first time in the west that she is called Peach, being only known as Princess Toadstool before). The game was given a perfect or near perfect score by most magazines and websites, showing that quality doesn’t need 600 MB of storage or FMV.

Soon Nintendo was releasing other games from their signature franchises. But unlike previous consoles, Nintendo didn’t have as much influence on 3rd party developers. Many of them released more games on the other two consoles citing the cost of the cartridges as a main contributing factor. This started Nintendo down the path of using their own in-house 1st and 2nd party games and franchises as the major selling points of their consoles and not relying on 3rd party companies.

Not long after its release, Nintendo started showing a new device that would attach to controllers in the memory card slot. It was called the Rumble Pak, and it was the first device to give feedback to players through the controller. It would “rumble” and vibrate using an off-centered weight on a small motor. When players’ characters would get hurt or there was an explosion on screen, or a gun fired, it would vibrate. Other games used it differently, such as indicating secrets or simulating a fish fighting back while trying to reel it in. At first it was widely lampooned by gamer websites, making references to adult “massage” toys. 

It was included with every copy of StarFox64, but could also be bought separately. Usually once someone tried it out, they enjoyed it and stopped the ridiculing. It wasn’t long after that Sony and Sega jumped on this train as well, making their controllers with built-in rumble features.

Goldeneye007 was a major milestone for the N64. It was a First-Person-Shooter that sported graphics that rivaled high end PCs, and was 4 player. Stories abound of the countless hours that were put into this game by kids and adults alike on the internet. But on top of the fun 4-player deathmatch modes, the single player campaign was the first major FPS to have mission objectives (besides get to the end and kill the enemies). Having to hack computers, plant bombs, open safes, and photograph evidence added a lot to the game.

One of the biggest games for the N64 was the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Like the Mario series, the Zelda games had to make the transition to 3D, and some major obstacles had to be overcome to translate it into the series we know and love today. Because it needed more buttons than Super Mario 64, they couldn’t afford to waste the 4 C-buttons to just control the camera. The solution was to have an automatic camera that could be centered at will with a single button, as well as a lock-on feature so that players didn’t swing at thin air constantly. Another innovation was to have a single action button that changed its function depending on the environment and situation. It greatly simplified the controls, and many games today owe their control schemes to this game.

Owing to the fact that when compared to CD-based systems, N64 cartridges were both expensive and held less data, Nintendo felt like they had to find a solution. Their answer was a console add-on called the N64DD, or Disk Drive. It essentially added a second N64 underneath the original console using the external port. It used proprietary disks that were cheaper than cartridges to manufacture, and could add another 64 MB of storage space.

Originally there was talk of having games on either cartridge, disk, or using both simultaneously. For example, on a sports game like Madden ’99, the cartridge could have the game engine on it and most of the programming, while the disk could hold the team rosters. When the ’00 roster came out, instead of buying a whole new game, an updated roster disk could be purchased for $10. Another possibility was to have a second quest for Ocarina of Time on a disk.

Very few DDs were made, and it was only released in Japan. By the time it came out, newer compression techniques had made putting games like Doom or Resident Evil on a standard N64 cartridge possible. Ultimately, it was similar to the SegaCD in the sense that it was an add-on that few people had and never caught on. 

In the wake of the cancelled DD in 1999, one thing Nintendo did release was the RAM expansion that was originally supposed to be part of the DD . The N64 normally had 4 MB of RAM, but had the option of an upgrade. This was done by replacing the Jumper Pak (which did nothing other than complete a circuit) in the top cover with the Expansion Pak. This doubled the RAM to 8 MB, allowing games to display more polygons at once and/or have higher resolution. It was available for purchase separately, but could also be obtained by purchasing a copy of Donkey Kong 64 in the same way the Rumble Pak came with StarFox 64.

The only games that absolutely required the RAM expansion were the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and Donkey Kong 64. About 35% of Perfect Dark could be played without one, but the single player mode and other features required it. Many other games used the expansion if it was detected to unlock certain features like hi-res mode, allowing 3 and 4 player modes, or improving the texture effects.

The only other major accessory was the Game Boy Transfer Pak. It was an adapter that was placed into the memory card slot on the controller, and then a Game Boy or Game Boy Color game is also placed into it. Once properly configured, data (such as characters or save files) could be transferred from certain GB/GBC games to their N64 counterparts.

As the N64 aged and became more commonplace, Nintendo released color variants of the control deck and controllers. They also slightly changed the way the control sticks were put together to combat an issue of the sticks wearing out.

Compared to the SNES, only about half the amount of games were made for the N64. It probably had to do a lot with the cost of the cartridges and the assumed lack of storage space when compared to a CD, but also with third party developers expressing their dissatisfaction with Nintendo’s business practices. To make up for it, Nintendo expanded their franchises and pushed their advantage with 4 player games. These included Mario Kart 64, Mario Party (a board game with many mini-games), and Super Smash Bros. (a 4-player fighting game featuring first party characters like Fox McCloud, Link, Mario, Pikachu, Kirby, and Samus Aran). They also capitalized on having RARE in their pocket with Donkey Kong 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Perfect Dark. It seemed like there were more “must-have” games and fewer mediocre ones, and the majority of the "must-haves" were 1st party games.

This particular era of video game consoles introduced something new in that there were 3 major consoles, and comparing them was a little more difficult. In particular, comparing the cartridge-based N64 to the CD-based systems was a little like comparing apples to oranges. Near the end of its life, the N64's competitors (Sega Saturn & Playstation) were replaced by their respective successors: the Sega DreamCast and the PlayStation 2. They each had newer and better features, and Nintendo would have to release their new system soon as well to catch up, as well as compete with a new 4th company: Microsoft.


Adam Koralik's recap of the N64.

Adam Koralik's recap of the 5th generation of video games.

Classic Gaming Quarterly's review of the launch of the N64.

MetalJesusRocks talks about a found N64DD device

Punching Weight video about the Expansion Pak memory upgrade