And I mean a real N64 on a CRT; obviously I’ve played the emulated games, the remakes, etc etc - most lately the Mario 64 game on the Switch.

But I also had an N64 back at launch in 1996, and I played Mario back then too. Back then I had the same feelings of magic everyone did - an unbelievable sensation of wonder as we were able to move freely in 3D for the first time. It was like nothing else that had ever come before it .

And lately I’ve been collecting and playing a real NES and SNES and Genesis console, and each one of those holds up to the memory. The graphics! The sound! Amazing stuff.

But today I turned on the N64 for the first time - and oof. The title screen of Mario is still pretty incredible after getting used to the 16 bit generation, but once I started playing…. Pure “ehhhhh”. How did I put up with this back in the 90s? Damn. Mario is constantly a little blurry smear, and the frame rate is atrocious. I had craved the “authentic” feeling and it felt…. Authentic, but damn - it also felt *bad*.

Anyone else found they returned to the N64 and realized maybe they had been viewing those days through rose colored glasses?

(Pic not rel; random shot from online to illustrate my point)