Gaming Anniversaries June 23- Nintendo 64 & Super Mario 64

Nintendo 64

Released on June 23, 1996- The Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64

First planned in Japan as the Ultra 64. The Nintendo 64 sees a name change and release along with Super Mario 64. In the Japanese Market.

The Nintendo 64 is synonymous with the 90’s. Bringing most people from that era some of their favorite titles. Including, Star Fox 64, Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  The system is also home to plenty more favorites like Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64. Today we celebrate its anniversary as having been on the market for more than 21 years.

The Nintendo 64 seen its first concepts announced as the Ultra 64. Due to a licensing agreement with SGI Super Computers, that allowed a chip that could produce high power and detailed graphics in a tiny box, at a fraction of the cost of others on the market. The Nintendo 64 wouldn’t have been a thing had SGI been scooped up by its initial offer for Sega. Ultimately Sega said that the system just wasn’t powerful enough, and there were other issues. It seemed once again, Nintendo knew better.

The system saw its official release in Japan on this day, and several months later was released in North America with a soft launch on September 23, and an official launch on the 26’th.

The N64 did not come with a game on launch. However, it was released alongside the game Pilot Wings as well as Super Mario 64. Both of these games became absolutely iconic to the Nintendo 64’s library. Possibly because they were the only games available on release, more likely because they were fantastic games.

Although the Nintendo 64 did see success, due to the PlayStation having been out for a little while at this point, it’s sales weren’t quite what Nintendo had expected, even though the system ended up selling almost 35 million units.

 

 

 

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