Nintendo 64

Nintendo · 1996 – 2002

The Nintendo 64 delivered hardware capable of true 3D gaming and produced some of the most influential titles ever made — Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye 007. Its decision to stay with cartridges while Sony used CD-ROM cost it the majority of third-party support.

Released in Japan in 1996 and globally that year, the N64 used a MIPS R4300i CPU at 93.75 MHz and the custom Reality Coprocessor GPU, delivering 3D performance that impressed at launch. The console sold 33 million units — a respectable number, but far behind the PlayStation's 102 million — largely because Nintendo's cartridge format was more expensive to manufacture and hold less data than CD-ROM, driving Square, Namco, and many others to develop exclusively for Sony. What the N64 lost in third-party breadth it made up in first-party quality: Super Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and GoldenEye 007 remain among the most critically acclaimed games ever made, and their influence on 3D game design is still felt today.