I really wasn’t planning on buying a Nintendo 64 right away, especially when it launched in late September of 1996. I was more than happy with my PlayStation at home, and was honestly playing video games more in mall arcades or at karaoke places/bars than I was at home at the time. Honestly, when I played Super Mario 64 on an import Nintendo 64 that summer, I wasn’t blown away personally… not enough to run out and preorder a console, as I did with the PlayStation a year earlier.
Sometimes, though… circumstances change.
As I often did after leaving work, I decided to drive out to a plaza in Springfield, MA the day of the Nintendo 64’s launch. Admittedly, I was there to scope out any potential PlayStation game deals, like clearances. I stopped into Lechmere HomeImage, which carried some (but not a lot) of video games… and, there, at the entrance, was one remaining Nintendo 64. One left? Impulse took over. I snagged it, along with the two games available in Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, and sped home. There would be no karaoke trip on this night. It was a video game night.
September 2026 marked 30 years since then.
Unfortunately, the initial link I make to the launch period of the Nintendo 64 is how it overlapped a difficult time in my life. My paternal grandmother was in hospice care due to cancer at that time, and she passed only a couple of weeks after the launch. I was living with her when things had taken a turn for the worse, and I dealt with it badly. I withdrew pretty badly for a time after that, rarely leaving the house and trying to dull the pain with video games– including spending a fair amount of time with the new console. While I never really got into Super Mario 64 like others did, spending time in the Jolly Roger Bay level was comforting at the time for me. Dire, Dire Docks is a music track that I will always associate with this time in my life. Admittedly, in 1996, it was a sad association. That association unfortunately lingered for many years.
The other thing that, perhaps unfairly, looms large in my early recollection of experience with the Nintendo 64 is that I was clearly a PlayStation guy at the time. The N64 was a complementary piece, not really needed but there if I wanted it. Not that there weren’t games on the console that got my attention, because some absolutely did back then. NBA HangTime for the console is, to me, the best home version of the game… unless it was emulated, which was still a ways off. I played the heck out of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire; heck, I remember playing that during a snowstorm when a transformer blew and then power was out for a day or so. When I started working for FuncoLand in August of 1998, NFL Blitz was a double-dip for both the PlayStation and N64 for me. I played a lot of South Park, Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth, and Rogue Squadron during that holiday season… and I was introduced to WCW/nWo Revenge, a game that renewed my interest in wrestling in general at the time.
After I got a PlayStation 2 in early 2001, though, my time with the Nintendo 64 began to wind down. I wound up trading it in towards games a year or so later. I was recovering from a health problem that knocked me out of the workforce, and money was tight… so having “trade bait” to afford games I wanted was convenient. Given that the (then-) new PlayStation 2 and the still-relevant original PlayStation were taking up the lion’s share of my time, and that the recently-released Gamecube was the Nintendo “thing” at the time, I didn’t miss the N64. It just felt like a passing thing that had its time and that time had passed.
Honestly, for me, the Nintendo 64 remained an afterthought until 2012. That was the year that I started getting back into older video games and consoles. The NES, SNES, and Genesis were the focuses for me early on, but I also got an N64 that year. Admittedly, while I had a few games for it, it was– again– a console that was cool to have, but not really grabbing my attention.
That changed with the 20th anniversary of the console in 2016. I was still at least intrigued by the idea of making YouTube videos, rough as they were, and thought about making videos commemorating the anniversary… similar to what I wanted to do for the original PlayStation a year prior. It was a decently okay time to buy N64 games, though not as cheap as it was a few years prior. I was finding decent deals and landed some quality games at my usual “retro” game store visits. The collection slowly grew, though they were pretty much all cartridges only. While I never got around to making those videos, I was happy that the anniversary finally got me to start giving the N64 more attention.
Now, 30 years later? I have well over 250 Nintendo 64 cartridges. A little over 30 of these are complete in box, something I never imagined having again. Like it was back in the late 1990s, my Nintendo 64 sits right next to my PlayStation. The difference is that, after all of this time, I finally appreciate the Nintendo 64 for what it is. I’m happy to play it. I’m liking the games that I’m either playing again after a long time or games that I’m discovering for the first time. It’s no longer some weird competition, where I’m more a “PlayStation guy” than an “N64 guy”. Instead, I look fondly at both platforms and realize just how enjoyable a time it was. I can relive that time, through a more understanding and appreciative lens, and just enjoy myself. And… even though the circumstances of my life then still reside within my memory, I’m far enough removed from them to not let them cloud or interfere with my perception.
Sure, I still (and always will) miss my paternal grandmother, as she was truly my best friend and protector for more than 20 years of my life… but I’m not sad now. If anything, that Dire, Dire Docks association is now a positive one, as it makes me think of her and all of the great times we had.
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