Nintendo 64 Came Out 20 Years Ago And It's Still the GOAT
Yesterday marked the 20 year anniversary of the US release of Nintendo 64. With all of the lost childhood memories that I erased from my brain via excess alcohol consumption in college, I can still vividly remember the first time I found about about Nintendo 64. I was 10 years old, it was the middle of September at about 6:30am on a school day, and I was in the middle of my morning ritual, which was eating cereal at the kitchen table while I watched the same Sportscenter for the 2nd or 3rd time in a row (I used to wake up crazy early when I was little to either watch Sportscenter on ESPN or Looney Tunes on TNT). While I was watching baseball highlights, my mom came walking into the kitchen and rudely changed the channel on our tiny TV to the NBC news. I was about to get mad and yell at her, when I was suddenly distracted by a 3D Mario doing a mother effing backflip off of a ledge in front of a giant castle. The news anchor said that this was a new gaming system that was coming out at the end of the month, it would cost $199.99 and I immediately lost my shit. My parents got us an N64 for Christmas that year and, after beating Super Mario 64, I became a world class Mario Kart 64 player and I still am to this day. I’ll beat anybody, anytime, anywhere.
Even though I’m a magician with a green shell, I’ve definitely never been a gamer by any means, but N64 will always hold a special place in my heart. At the start of the Summer of ‘98, I broke both my radius and ulna bones in my left forearm at a lacrosse practice. In an instant, my summer before 7th grade, possibly the most formative summer of any person's life, was ruined. My arm was pretty much in the shape of a U and I was put in a Rookie of the Year type plaster cast.
As someone who spent 99% of his childhood outside, knowing that I was going to be sitting in a bed for minimum one month was needless to say a bummer. Also, I couldn’t use my left hand because of the cast limitations and the pain, so Nintendo 64 was out of the question, or so I thought. After about a week, I was bored out of my mind and decided I would give playing Nintendo 64 a try. I walked downstairs, grabbed the N64 and FIFA Soccer 64, brought everything up to my parents' bedroom and began figuring out how to operate an N64 controller with one hand. It was impossible at first, but after about two weeks of playing FIFA nonstop and showering infrequently, I was better with one hand than I would ever be with two. This became my distraction from the pain and boredom that summer, and it made the whole situation not seem as frustrating as it really was, while also giving my friends a reason to come visit (other than to watch Stripes when my parents weren't home).
Nintendo 64 will forever be my favorite gaming console, regardless of what comes out in the future. Every time I play N64 now, I think about sitting in bed that summer, playing as Sweden (still my team to this day) and practicing corner kicks and headers on the far post. To this day, that broken arm is by far the worst pain I’ve endured. I still have my N64 and it’s in great condition, but all electronics eventually break down, and when it stops working, that might hurt worse than my broken arm.
