Round 1: The Nintendo 64
In this corner we have the classic holy grail of cartridge-based gaming, the Nintendo 64. Estimated to have sold just over thirty-three million units world wide, this system has been ranked number 1 time and again by users. The compact durability of the machine dictates a long life-span, meaning if treated right, the N64 can last for years and still go strong with little or no signs of wear and tear. Designed to utilize trilinear filtering for its graphics system the N64 would produce great imagery for game play. Its major drawback, however, was a limited amount of Ram space due to its Rom-cartridges. This sometimes could produce blurs on the screen. Built to last, the N64 is a tank that all of you retro gamers can still get your hands on today.
The Games:
As much nostalgia that surrounds the games for N64, gamers may be surprised to find out that there were only 387 games released for the console in all. Nintendo's mandate that the console stick to the traditional grounds of being a cartridge based system sent many third party publisher's into the cd-rom embracing arms of Sony and Sega. The result of this is that there are actually very few games to play for the N64 that are really worth remembering. If you truly think about it then going back today with the purchase of just twenty games you could own pretty much every good game the system ever had to offer; certainly all the great ones. To this day the top three are still 007: Goldeneye, which brought about the rise of the first person shooter; Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which set the standard for adventure gaming; and Mario 64, which remains the most popular game for N64 to this day. Other popular titles include Banjo Kazooie, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Star Fox, Turok, and Perfect Dark.