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[Koji]

Beleave it or not Starfox Command is actually the sequel to Starfox 64. They were in the making of it for N64 and Playstation killed the system! They held onto it until they realized the Ds could handle it. Of, course they changed a few things but It really is the sequel!

Actually, you're wrong... on a lot of points.

Star Fox command is actually a remake of Star Fox 2 that was destined for the SNES, but was canceled just prior to completion. This was because the N64 was already released and Star Fox 64 already in production, they thought it wouldn't be worth the production costs to get it released.

Check around for the Star Fox 2 SNES rom as it was released on the internet a few years ago and you can see the similarities. The big difference is Star Fox Command is over all a lot larger (and of course looks better due to the more powerful DS versus SNES + SuperFX2 chip)

Playstation didn't kill the N64, N64 continued to have games made and produced till 2000 (or was it 2001?). Games stopped being made for the N64 because nintendo released the gamecube. The same way Sony stopped making PS1 games soon after the PS2 was released.


I dislike the whole "port train". If they are going to make a game, I'd rather see a sequel or a new game from the same series then just the same game I was playing 10 years ago. 007 is one of those games will probably never see ported just because it'd be a licensing nightmare... At first glance banjo-kazooie and many other Rare made games would seem unlikely, but Rare and Nintendo still seem to have a pretty good relationship and microsoft never seems to mind being able to make a quick buck in the portable market.

[sWampy]

I dislike the whole "port train". If they are going to make a game, I'd rather see a sequel or a new game from the same series then just the same game I was playing 10 years ago. 007 is one of those games will probably never see ported just because it'd be a licensing nightmare... At first glance banjo-kazooie and many other Rare made games would seem unlikely, but Rare and Nintendo still seem to have a pretty good relationship and microsoft never seems to mind being able to make a quick buck in the portable market.

There are a ton of the old n64 games I never played through, and would love to be able to play through on a portable platform, and a ton of the ones I played years ago I'd like to play through again.   I'm not going to sit down and play them on a computer using an emulator, but on the nds where I can pick it up play 10 minutes while waiting for my wife to get finished getting dressed, close the lid when she finally comes out and pick right back up while where I left off in bed that night while she watches the weather since she can't seem to figure out weather.com.  

I keep my psp for the sole purpose of playing neogeo/sega/snes games, but it won't do n64, so right now, ports are my only hope.

[bitblt]

Errrm, StarFox has been ported.

Starfox  is a completely new game isn't it, it doesn't seem anything like starfox 64 to me.

True, StarFox Command is a "sequel" not a "port". To get technical the word "port" refers to when a game uses common source code from the original game. For example DSDoom is a true "port" because the 3D engine uses the original source code developed by John Carmack of iD Software.

I believe Super Mario 64 DS is more of a "remake" than a "port". I think most of the 3D engine core is brand new code optimized specifically for the DS. Only the textures, models, and maps are somewhat the same. I believe Mario 64 DS was created to demonstrate that the DS was capable of playing N64 "like" games. The DS definitely doesn't have the processing power to emulate N64, or PS1 for that matter.

My point is that we will probably see more sequels of N64/SNES games (i.e StarFox, Zelda, etc.) in the future, but I don't think we will see more N64 remakes or ports. Also, an N64 emulator for DS is not going to happen.

[sWampy]

Errrm, StarFox has been ported.

Starfox  is a completely new game isn't it, it doesn't seem anything like starfox 64 to me.

I believe Super Mario 64 DS is more of a "remake" than a "port". I think most of the 3D engine core is brand new code optimized specifically for the DS. Only the textures, models, and maps are somewhat the same. I believe Mario 64 DS was created to demonstrate that the DS was capable of playing N64 "like" games. The DS definitely doesn't have the processing power to emulate N64, or PS1 for that matter.

I realize they aren't emulated, but if you have the textures, models, maps for a 3d game, and access to the original game code/development environments, moving the n64 games to the ds should be trivial compared to completely remaking the games from scratch.

[Koji]

sWampy: That is debatable... I honestly am not so sure that porting N64 games would be as simple as everyone is thinking. Yes, the DS is quite a capable machine... but look back at the truly powerful 3d games on the N64... Most ran with fairly poor frame rates (10-15fps range) though, at least to me, the models seemed less advanced. But another thing I've noticed is the general draw towards fixed angled games on the DS where most N64 games were free cameras. This could be a move to simply controls, but it also means there is a lot less to render. FF3 as an example, you don't have to render the back of the buildings because you can never turn the camera to see the back of them.

That said, nintendo seems to be pressuring developers to focus on frame rate more then they did on the N64. Most games are running at least 30fps with a good portion running a full 60fps in full 3D which is a huge improvement.

Really, the only N64 port made has been Mario 64, which was a first generation N64 game and it showed as compared to games like Perfect Dark and even OoT so it's hard to get an accurate comparison between the two systems capabilities that way.

[dai_uk]

Koji,

I find your building thing difficult to understand, with a good engine there would be no more to render as the engine shouldn't render what isn't in view.

Look back at Mario 64, to my mind that had a slick engine on the N64, very little break up and if you play it on an emulator on PC you'll notice how texture resolutions increase when an object is near - this is all normal nowdays in a decent engine but for the time was unheard of - Mario 64 is still the showcase game of the N64 in my opinion.

OOT was clever too, but none pulled it off as well as mario64, other games had limited field of vision (with fog), pop up or very low textures.

I'd love to see them port OOT to DS but at the moment all focus will be on the Wii, this is a shame as Nintendo's GBA offerings slowed once the Cube was released too.

Although I'm not keen on the game Metroid on the DS is very clever and looks great, I only wish the DS had the Z Buffering capability of the 64, mario never looked blocky on the 64 - the ds doesn't appear to have this so stuff looks more Playstation one like in my opinion.

I do love my Ds though so don't flame me too badly!

[Koji]

Not going to flame you, and you do bring up a good point. There is a matter of engine complexity though, a fixed view will be simpler to render then a full view. Models can be less complex, 2d images can far easier replace 3d models to make things "pop out".

Comparing the DS graphics to the PS1 is an exaggeration imo. The PS1 really didn't have the power to have a lot of "true" 3d games. There were a few like crash bandicoot and spyro, but the majority used some sort of 2d/3d crossbred engines. Where the PS1 shone was in the massive amount of storage that let it have those huge cutscenes. The especially big kicker is the lack of PS1 real time lighting effects.

The DS is a really capable peice of hardware, games like Mario Kart compared to their N64 equivalent doesn't even leave room for comparison... it's just hard to judge precisely where it stands compared to the N64 because we don't have a lot of ported games... Someone who knows the DS and N64 hardware more intimately might know better... I sure don't.

[dai_uk]

Good point too, Mario Kart DS looks really good and runs at a steady frame rate.

Re:PS1 there were a couple of very good 3d games but I guess you're right - sony's teams pushed the machine but most others (not all - MGS is especially good) just used the sony dev kit I expect !

Interestingly most consoles follow a similar pattern, with the manufacturer / their software houses producing the best looking titles as they have more resources - and a few lead companies.