PlayStation Vs. N64: How They Matched Up In 9 Crucial Areas

Titans clashed in the mid-1990s when the cutting-edge technology of Sony was pitted against the gaming pedigree of Nintendo.

In many ways, the original PlayStation’s battle against the N64 was the industry’s most significant rivalry.

Microsoft’s emergence as a major player in the console sector may have given Sony a credible rival where sales are concerned, but PSone versus N64 offered consumers a meaningful choice between two radically different ideologies.

Nintendo kept the faith in time-tested cartridges, Mario, Link and Rare, while Sony’s CD-ROM-packing powerhouse was single-handedly responsible for bringing gaming to a broader demographic.

This conflict defined the fifth-generation era of home consoles, and although Sony emerged victorious from a commercial standpoint with a whopping 102.49 million PlayStation sales, the debate about which machine is superior was never cut and dry.

Obviously sales figures count for a lot so it’s fair to say Sony’s beefy arsenal helped it win the war, but the Big N held its own in several battles, with minor victories on the hardware innovation and 'we've got Zelda and you haven't' fronts.

Hardware comparison throws up some noteworthy talking points and we can wax lyrical all day long about the legacy these gaming goliaths have left behind.

Raw figures rarely tell the whole story, but the N64 was the superior machine when its specs sheet was placed side by side with the PlayStation’s.

Sony’s debut console had a two-year head start, which gave Nintendo extra time to cook up the most powerful home console of its generation, on paper at least.

The N64 rocked a 93.7 Mhz 64-bit CPU chip with a 62.5 Mhz RCP and 4MB of RDRAM, which is geek speak for 'it was powerful as hell by 90s standards'.

By comparison, the PlayStation’s 33.8 Mhz 32-bit CPU, nameless graphics chip and 2MB of main RAM made Sony look like it had taken a knife to a gun fight.

But, like Sean Connery’s hapless character in the Untouchables, Nintendo was dealt a fatal blow by another weapon in its opponent’s arsenal - the CD-ROM drive.

Not only did this once cutting-edge tech attract a generation of gamers to Sony’s grey wonder, it drew in scores of third-party developers too, enticed by the promise of additional storage space, superior sound output and FMV cutscenes.

Nintendo’s faith in cartridges cost it the backing of some of the era’s biggest games developers and publishers - an issue that still persists for the Big N today - but the tried and tested medium did have plus points.

Some games for the CD-based PlayStation had loading times reminiscent of the ZX Spectrum and a single scratch to one of its discs could spell an instant game over.