Remember nintendo's arrogance during nintendo 64's release?

[Richter Belmount]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEcZtunL3yg

[Hawksmoor]

I mostly remember two things about the N64 launch - the system being sold out everywhere and impossible to find, and the games being upwards of $80 at launch. I felt then, as I do now, that the unavailability of the system was a designed shortage and is a ploy Nintendo has become very fond of over the years

[retroman]

PilotWings and Mario 64 being the only games to choose from is something else I remember from the launch.

[buzz_n64]

Just like Michael Jordan, and other top athletes, I don't have a problem with arrogance if they can back it up, and they did. In 1996 and 1997, they were outselling, and outperforming all of their competition. Up until 1999, the N64 stood out for having the best graphics, 4 player input built in, expansion capability, top franchises, and innovated gaming with being the first with controller vibration support. Playstation later overtook the market because of its wider library of games because of ease of development, cheaper prices, and RPG fanatics.

Nintendo 64's launch was a success, Super Mario 64 was innovative, and I don't see evidence anywhere to demonstrate it as a failure.

[megasdkirby]

I don't think Nintendo was as arrogant as they were during the NES era.

[rkotm]

I don't think Nintendo was as arrogant as they were during the NES era.

No way--they were modest compared to N64 days-Id say NES days were humble yet confident about their machine. And yes i do remember their arrogance, er, lets say they felt like this was end all be all of a gaming system. I remember all that hype for what seemed ages until it was released (the Ultra 64 days too) and being throroughly pissed off at myself for buying into the hype machine with their 2 games every 4 months attitude (or "quality over quantity!")
I desperately wanted a Playstation by early 1997, as there were some games available at the time (Pilotwings-yay.., Mario 64-Awesome, Wave Race-meh, Shadows Of The Empire-awesome and scary at the time, Killer Instinct Gold-Great to average, id already exhausted much of my excitement from KI on SNES, MK Trilogy-good, and Turok-decent). Id been an avid Nintendo fan since 93 and finally was fed up of waiting for games and they didnt live up to the next gen amazing-OMG-this is awesome what they promised feeling that Nintendo wanted for it. And finally with PSX i was happy. Nice library, great variety, and games i wanted to play. Now the N64 was fine, but not the hype it was for me or my brother (who was main spokesman for the system to my parents).

[Postermen]

I remember the list of upcoming titles for the N64 before launch included games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. It was the first Nintendo system I got at launch, and consequently, my last.

[swlovinist]

Any game company that is on top has been arrogant in the past. The ones that are most remembered are the ones that fell on their face with promises. I am not defending Nintendo, but rather implying that most any console maker has done and said stupid things, only to have their console show something differently.

[The 1 2 P]

I remember but I didn't even get into that gen until 1998 when my girlfriend bought me a PS1. I had already compared both systems at the time and there was no way I was going to get a N64 over the PS1. I ended up still being able to play an N64 at my friends house and later got my own(two actually) a few years ago. I still think their launch was one of the worst ever. Sure the system sold out but it only had two games, neither of which I was even remotely interested in.

They learned their lesson from their arrogance that gen. However, they've been so successful with the one-two punch of the Wii and Ds for the past several years that you just know that arrogance is coming back. Well, it already is but not as bad as before....atleast not yet.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Do you?

Oh yes. Good thing I had a Saturn and PS1 at the time. I didn't feel a thing.

[Greg2600]

I didn't really care, until Goldeneye came out.

[Polygon]

Just like Michael Jordan, and other top athletes, I don't have a problem with arrogance if they can back it up, and they did. In 1996 and 1997, they were outselling, and outperforming all of their competition. Up until 1999, the N64 stood out for having the best graphics, 4 player input built in, expansion capability, top franchises, and innovated gaming with being the first with controller vibration support. Playstation later overtook the market because of its wider library of games because of ease of development, cheaper prices, and RPG fanatics.

Nintendo 64's launch was a success, Super Mario 64 was innovative, and I don't see evidence anywhere to demonstrate it as a failure.

This pretty much sums it up.

[Push Upstairs]

I do recall pre-release talk of how the system was going to be really really great, but I was into computer games at the time, so I didn't really care.

[tomaitheous]

Arrogant? Yeah. Nintendo of America had some serious competition with Sega in America. But it was NEC in Japan that gave them their first real competition. And in Japan, NEC wasn't a close 2nd for very long. The CD system kept them in the race against the SFC, but not directly threatening it. But Nintendo in general was considered the successor. I do think Nintendo of America and NOJ were pretty arrogant in thinking they would have the number one spot again. Superior hardware doesn't mean shit if developers aren't on board. Part of their arrogance was sticking with cart base media. Disregarding ANY advantages CD media technically has over it and vice versa, it came down to cost. The cart cost was directly passed on to the developer. Resulting in less profit than a CD based game. Did Nintendo really think that their name alone would negate that? Then add in the demand for CD based gaming, and you have a lose/lose situation.

Slightly offtopic:

It's like history is completely different for N64 fan(atics). Will they ever take off their rose tinted glasses? Not in a million years.

I remember waiting... and waiting.... and waiting for something desirable to come out on the n64, so I could purchase one. I had the PS1 and wasn't loyal to Sony at all. I had great memories of the NES too. N64 was just a huge let down that people are always trying to prop up as some sort of success. Commercial success, gaming failure. I ended up borrowing my brother's N64 to play Zelda OOT, Zelda MM(which REALLY sucked ass), SM64 (which was only about above average. The gameplay was pretty good, but most of the stage layouts are you got farther along were just meh), Goldeneye (never did see what the hype was. PC had better out at the time), and I can't remember what else. The PS1 was just killing the N64's library. It's no wonder Nintendo had such a hard time with the GC (which I was REALLY hoping would take Sony down. Was really hate'n Song by then). People and developers were cautious and leery. Nintendo never really recovered from the N64 era, to make it with the GC. The decision to go with smaller media discs (1.5gig vs 4 or 9gig) was seen as a reflection of the N64 and carts too. The parallels seemed laughably close.

Compared to the NES and SNES, the N64 was completely laughable. If you're bias and like the everything about it, at least have the balls to admit it. Not create some elaborate lie or circular excuses. I only knew of two people that had an n64 - one of our gamer friend that was a complete Nintendo fanatic and wouldn't touch the PS1 (always bringing up stupid conversations about how the N64 was better than the PS1, but none of us cared). And my little brother-in-law at the time, who wanted a PS1 instead. Nintendo64 only survived because of there name and a few popular re-occuring first party title characters. And even those were sparse. I always though the games looked better on the n64, it's just that its library was nowhere near as awesome as the PS1.

It's been my experience, that trying to have a real conversation about the PS1 and the N64 with an N64 fan, is about as fruitful as talking to a brick wall. One would think that over the years, this would have subsided as gamers move out of their circle to play other systems and expanded the retro gaming experience. But I honestly don't see any evidence of this. But I digress...

[Steven]

Still remember their ad when the system got delayed.

Want the best? Then wait til _____!

Er, something like that. Did strike me as cocky, indeed, lol.

[Polygon]

*snip*

That sounded a lot like fanboy rhetoric to me.

[buzz_n64]

I'll admit I'm somewhat of a N64 fanboy, hell it's in my screen name. I actually have been using this screen name on the internet since around '97-'98, slightly before I even had a Nintendo 64. I also bought a Playstation when the DualShock came out.

Here are the basic negatives and positives of the 3 main systems from 1996.

Saturn

Good-
Nights, Virtua On, House of the Dead, Panzar Dragoon...
Netplay option
Arguably more powerful than the Playstation
Analog controller that came out before the N64 in America.
Cheap media.
Expansion for memory available.
CD player

Bad-
Difficult for developers to design games for.
No killer Sonic title.
2 controller ports.
Importing necessary for games at the end of the console's life cycle.


Playstation

Good-
Crash, Spyro, Twisted Metal, Tomb Raider series, Resident Evil series...
Wide selection of genres, and RPG heaven.
DualShock built in to controllers later on.
Easy to develop for.
Cheap media.
CD player

Bad-
Unimpressive graphics.
No Mario, Sonic, Zelda...
2 controller ports.
No expansion feature provided. (Later models even had the ports removed)

N64

Good-
Super Mario 64, Zelda, Goldeneye...
4 controller ports
Vibration and analog options.
Memory expansion feature.
No loading time.
Superior graphics, less blocky.

Bad-
Expensive games for developers and buyers.
Small media capacity.
Almost no RPGs (not something bad in my opinion)
Smaller library of games.

Verdict- Up to you. In my biased opinion, the Nintendo 64 because I'm a Mario fanatic.

[SparTonberry]

As to how successful the N64 was... didn't the Japanese N64 stink up the sales charts as much as the US Saturn? :P
(as I result, I recall the N64 being largely supported by western developers, with Japanese support being fairly small.
Also as a result, the Super Famicom was still supported through 2000 (nearing the GameCube's launch), while NoA pulled the plug in 1998. )

[kedawa]

Zelda most certainly was not a factor in 1996, but it was the game that got me to buy an N64, and I never regretted it.
I just never liked the N64 controller or the fact that the system sucked ass at handling 2D graphics.
It has the most unbalanced library of any successful console ever; no good fighting games, no good RPGs, very few puzzle games, etc.
I would have hated the thing if I didn't own a Saturn and PS to make up for its deficiencies.
BTW, a friend of mine has about a dozen N64 consoles, and he offered me one, but I don't know which colour I should get. I'm pretty sure he has at least one of each colour of the translucent systems.

[Haoie]

Sony sure showed them in the 32B era.