N64 graphics still look gorgeous almost 30 years later

Never played it (so can't comment on the gameplay) but videos I can see look clunky, lots of loading doors and certainly not as pretty or smooth as perfect dark in normal resolution mode. Tbh House of the dead on Saturn looks better.

Have you got examples of the best areas I should look for?

This game has massie backtracking with many enemies on screen, It was the game that invented the genre survivorvania.

Bc1gFPnnGx9HBloK.jpg
 
Your examples look good. Probably the larger games (32 MB and more).

There is a lot of reuse but that's to be expected anyway.

Why is it only a handful of games that really pushed it ? You have to wonder if the console was so well designed/documented if developers almost never achieved these results.
You may want to watch some of kaze emanuar's videos on the N64. Specifically the one below about why the textures were blurry and what could be done to make them look better.



He does point out cartridge size as a big problem but also point out ways that N64 games could have better textures. He himself is working on a Mario 64 mod where he's basically recreated the Mario 64 engine. The game so far runs at nearly 60fps on actual N64 hardware.
 
PS1 vs N64 was pick your poison. Extreme pixelation and warping textures vs fog and blur.

The Dreamcast was a glass of ice water in graphics hell when it released on 9/9/99.
 
PS1 vs N64 was pick your poison. Extreme pixelation and warping textures vs fog and blur.
But PS1 had an extra advantage, or a big handicap Nintendo inflicted on themselves: that stupid cartridge port...
The Dreamcast was a glass of ice water in graphics hell when it released on 9/9/99.
The Dreamcast was the first console with decent 3D that still look good 26 years later. And I'd say the same for PS2/NGC/XBox, Soul Calibur 2 still looks beautiful to me in 2025.
 
I do agree with the N64 being technically superior to its contemporaries in many ways. However, I do think that that generation of consoles was primitive enough that it allowed some devs to just cheat visual effects in really neat ways to make shit look good. Take Vagrant Story, one the best looking PS1 games, a lot of the lighting-related effects are cheated. From the common technique of baking lights to the cool technique of silhouetting characters with a colored line to make them appear lit from the side or behind. It's at least on par with many N64 games.
I get what you're saying, and I agree that a lot of devs on both PS1 and N64 were masters at "cheating" visual effects to push the hardware further than it seemed capable of. But it's also worth remembering how those games were actually perceived back then. Up until at least the PS3/360 era, games from the N64 and PS1 generation — especially the visually impressive ones — were still appreciated and even celebrated. That's exactly why there was constant demand for ports and remasters. Square re-released Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX across PS3 and PSP through the PSN. Nintendo revived Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64 on the 3DS with full remakes. Capcom kept Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 alive through ports and collections. Gamers also kept asking for updated versions of GoldenEye 007 (unreleased), Perfect Dark, and Majora's Mask, because those games were still considered classics worth preserving — not outdated embarrassments.

The shift really started in the 2010s, when memes, influencers, and social media discourse began reshaping gamer culture. To hype up modern games and diminish older ones, people started repeating the same prefab talking points: "N64/PS1 graphics were horrible," "everything was a blurry mess," etc. What used to be nuanced discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of that hardware turned into a kind of echo chamber — almost a dogma — where the complexity of that generation's achievements got reduced to a punchline.

So yeah, both consoles had developers doing clever tricks to achieve their look. But the way we talk about those tricks today has been shaped less by reality and more by years of meme-driven revisionism.
 
Last edited:
These games still look okay for the most part but gorgeous is overselling it I think. That said, you had to be there when this thing came out. The paradigm shift from the 2d to 3d eras was mindblowing at the time.
 
I just finished Shadow Man Remastered a couple of days ago. I had ignored this game all these years and if I could go back and tell myself to play it on the N64, I would. It hit Dreamcast and PC after the N64, but you can tell the N64 was the lead platform.The remaster itself is beautiful with reworked lighting and is spectacular in its own right as well.
 
Last edited:
Mario 64 was a gen ahead in July 1996. The next microcodes were a massive update for n64' graphics. Boss game studios, rare, factor 5, last kemco, iguana,and Nintendo were the best to squeeze the console.
 
Mario 64 was a gen ahead in July 1996. The next microcodes were a massive update for n64' graphics. Boss game studios, rare, factor 5, last kemco, iguana,and Nintendo were the best to squeeze the console.
Graphically wasnt. Gameplay and interactivity wise, sure it was. But on the visual side we had that very same year Sega Model 3 on the arcades, which was literally a generation ahead.
 
Are you trying to sell high res N64 emulator graphics as "N64 graphics"? How about you set the resolution to the N64 res when you want to show how N64 games look.
 
Even back then, the N64 graphics were crap. The games were good, yes, but I'm not falling for this revisionist bullshit.
So you think someone is trying to convince you for something that doesn't sound true so you are "not falling for it".

You sound like someone who doesn't have a first hand experience, because only then there would be a chance for you to "fall for it".

You had to be there dude.


Are you trying to sell high res N64 emulator graphics as "N64 graphics"? How about you set the resolution to the N64 res when you want to show how N64 games look.

I already posted some native res images but here's a refresher

UxW4UnRuqjRwcMq1.png


etIXfxJ5RhYbEvVS.png


lKZfeSdJeIWnOw7w.png


1cr0OTmtPm7QZ1uA.png


vz3IEDPqiHmHkRAJ.png


aWBEYi2MgK5BoIdV.png


MmR2IUCOmUVdTmwD.jpg


3lsm9JyRnWyveEGQ.png


ziXUfYnm5I8zjziS.jpg


LL53A9oGJt877VEl.jpg
 
Last edited:
So you think someone is trying to convince you for something that doesn't sound true so you are "not falling for it".

You sound like someone who doesn't have a first hand experience, because only then there would be a chance for you to "fall for it".

You had to be there dude.




I already posted some native res images but here's a refresher

UxW4UnRuqjRwcMq1.png


etIXfxJ5RhYbEvVS.png


lKZfeSdJeIWnOw7w.png


1cr0OTmtPm7QZ1uA.png


vz3IEDPqiHmHkRAJ.png


aWBEYi2MgK5BoIdV.png


MmR2IUCOmUVdTmwD.jpg


3lsm9JyRnWyveEGQ.png


ziXUfYnm5I8zjziS.jpg


LL53A9oGJt877VEl.jpg
Only Banjo looks good in terms of textures. Yoshi looks good in terms of art design.
 
Only Banjo looks good in terms of textures. Yoshi looks good in terms of art design.
There's also geometry. These games have a lot of 3D detail and unlimited draw distances without texture LOD. I remember really liking the 3D details in some Goldeneye maps, in one of the pictures you can see they even added sharp vertex shadows, giving the map some depth. I don't remember any other game having this feature in 1997.
 
So you think someone is trying to convince you for something that doesn't sound true so you are "not falling for it".

You sound like someone who doesn't have a first hand experience, because only then there would be a chance for you to "fall for it".

You had to be there dude.




I already posted some native res images but here's a refresher

UxW4UnRuqjRwcMq1.png


etIXfxJ5RhYbEvVS.png


lKZfeSdJeIWnOw7w.png


1cr0OTmtPm7QZ1uA.png


vz3IEDPqiHmHkRAJ.png


aWBEYi2MgK5BoIdV.png


MmR2IUCOmUVdTmwD.jpg


3lsm9JyRnWyveEGQ.png


ziXUfYnm5I8zjziS.jpg


LL53A9oGJt877VEl.jpg
kek.
I was there, man. I'm nearing my 40s at this point.
The N64 graphics were crap.
Sorry I don't have rose-tinted glasses.
 
Last edited:
Graphically wasnt. Gameplay and interactivity wise, sure it was. But on the visual side we had that very same year Sega Model 3 on the arcades, which was literally a generation ahead.





Yes but model 3 was in a different league.

I can't remember a single game that came close to blast corps or shadow man or NFL 99 /all star baseball from psone library
 
Last edited:
Are you trying to sell high res N64 emulator graphics as "N64 graphics"? How about you set the resolution to the N64 res when you want to show how N64 games look.
Do you really want to see what N64, PS1 and Saturn games look like on a TV?
Sure

Just make sure they're not any emulator up rezzed up textured bs and in their native warped self


Nothing on ps1 came close to perfect dark or conker or turok or rogue squadron or even Zelda

Like why can't people let both of these consoles rest in legend peace. Both fantastic.

N64 is a more powerful system I am sorry if that hurts your feelings
Tell me an easy site to upload and I'll make you see
 
Agree to disagree there. Not calling Siphonfilter a bad game though
Syphon Filter is a much better game than perfect dark, which I gave up on the final level.

PD is simply bad - my patience ran out and I no longer wanted to feed the trolls who developed this overrated piece of...
 
Last edited:
Anyway, here's a comparison of an accurate N64 representation between the default VI filtering ON VS OFF

v9LeDp3TuUKlH5JK.jpg
vY9ZJ9dSiJrABR6o.jpg


This can be done in all games. But it requires a gameshark cheat for the real console or a toggle in Parallel RDP.

Regardless, it's a very easy toggle on/off. I think they messed up for not having it like an option in every game.
Smearing vs jaggies, the eternal struggle. Could use this image comparison and call DLSS vs FSR and it would fool me.
 
You can't go wrong with the 3D Shmups of that era: G-Darius, Einhander, R-Type Delta, Raystorm, Raycrisis, Radiant Silvergun, Star Soldier Vanishing Earth all look great to this day.

Sci-fi worked particularly well in that era. I'm thinking Metal Gear Solid, DOOM 64, Sin and Punishment, Star Fox 64, Ghost in the Shell Perfect Dark etc etc
 
So you think someone is trying to convince you for something that doesn't sound true so you are "not falling for it".

You sound like someone who doesn't have a first hand experience, because only then there would be a chance for you to "fall for it".

You had to be there dude.




I already posted some native res images but here's a refresher

UxW4UnRuqjRwcMq1.png


etIXfxJ5RhYbEvVS.png


lKZfeSdJeIWnOw7w.png


1cr0OTmtPm7QZ1uA.png


vz3IEDPqiHmHkRAJ.png


aWBEYi2MgK5BoIdV.png


MmR2IUCOmUVdTmwD.jpg


3lsm9JyRnWyveEGQ.png


ziXUfYnm5I8zjziS.jpg


LL53A9oGJt877VEl.jpg
maionese-meme.gif
 
What you see in the image is exactly how it looks on TV. Note that the N64 looks better in still images than the PS1, but in motion, it's night and day.

Nintendo fans argue that their games are more complex. I don't care; they're ugly games.

KCncGd7.png

KCn1S7S.png

KCnhmKu.png

KCnNxZN.png

KCn4mhu.png
KCnmxDl.png
 
Last edited:
What you see in the image is exactly how it looks on TV. Note that the N64 looks better in still images than the PS1, but in motion, it's night and day.

Nintendo fans argue that their games are more complex. I don't care; they're ugly games.
Nights has some of the worst pop-up ever seen in a video game. But it's sharp.
Panzer Dragoon has some of the most basic visuals and props, only the main character look good. But it's sharp.
Soul Edge indeed looks great but you don't care about that, you just posted it because it looks sharp.

It's like the only metric in your book is image sharpness. As long as it's sharp it doesn't matter if it looks like garbage or not.

You are comparing Conker with Nights. Nights is completely on-rails, has very little freedom of movement and the 3D arenas are still completely covered by a very short distance pop-up. This is a game that proves how weak the Saturn is, not how much better is than the N64. You got it the other way around.

Conker has massive areas with unlimited draw distance, freedom of movement and way more complex geometry. It shows how much more capable the N64 is but it's always going to show that under a shitty video output and VI filters.

I get why you like Nights visuals more but sometimes you need to appreciate what's going on under the hood and not completely ignore it because "it's blurrier". You would say the same thing for Kaze's Return to Yoshi's Island. It doesn't matter how his game almost has 6th gen levels of geometry and much nicer textures at high frame rates, it's still blurrier on original hardware so it looks like shit to you.
 
Last edited:
But PS1 had an extra advantage, or a big handicap Nintendo inflicted on themselves: that stupid cartridge port...

The Dreamcast was the first console with decent 3D that still look good 26 years later. And I'd say the same for PS2/NGC/XBox, Soul Calibur 2 still looks beautiful to me in 2025.


Dreamcast was awesome, I still have mine (though don't play it but won't get rid of it), it just seems to often get forgotten but what a great console. Power Stone was the first game I ever played on it.
 
This is how the N64 can look if you are a smart developer who can overcome some of N64's stupid design choices.



Check out the Delphino Plaza demo at the end. It's the Gamecube map ported to N64.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom