Mario Kart 64 vs Diddy Kong Racing: Who wins the race?

The Nintendo 64’s library is peppered with classics, including two standout kart racers in Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing. Powered by their own merits, each title exhibited strong, unique features that gave the system a powerful one-two punch in a young genre. More importantly, each game is responsible for tons of memories, flying tempers, and late comebacks amongst friends. Whether you were hosting a childhood sleepover, having a few coworkers over for drinks after a long week, or just kicking back and playing either game on your own, you could always find refuge in Mario Kart 64’s Block Fort or Diddy Kong Racing’s challenging ... Read more
Posted 3 weeks ago

N64 Controller Showdown

This year has allowed me to spend more time with my Nintendo 64 than ever before. This extra time allowance also helped me to decide that acquiring more games and controllers for the console would be a beneficial move. After thoroughly enjoying most of the games I've acquired, I have to admit that I'm also quite fond of the controllers I now own. After giving each of my new controllers quite a bit of play time I feel I can now discuss the three different N64 controllers and how I feel about them. First up I'll discuss the unbranded fire orange ... Read more
Posted 5 months ago

GT64: Championship Edition

A short while ago I reviewed World Driver Championship, a game I played in an attempt to find out if the Nintendo 64 ever had a Gran Turismo killer. Although I've come to really enjoy World Driver Championship, the game that caused me to start this quest was GT64 Championship Edition. I had played GT64 through an emulator quite a few years ago, but due to limitations in the emulator I never really got into the meat of the game. After acquiring a real cartridge I felt it was time for me ... Read more
Posted 5 months ago

Peripheral Vision: Third-party Fire Orange N64 Controller

Ever since I bought and reviewed Retro Bit's Tribute 64 I've wished they made one in the fire orange color. Sadly, they do not, although an orange version was part of the 2019 color poll on their social media -- and it lost.. to Classic Grey! So what is a person to do when they're too cheap for their own good? Go to Amazon and buy a third-party controller in the exact same color to tide them over until they can find the genuine article. I could have ... Read more
Posted 5 months ago

Peripheral Vision: ASCII Pad PS No.800 Controller

Along side the Interact Barracuda and Nuby's "The Rock", there sits yet another controller I own for the Playstation that baffles me as to how it passed the R&D stage. I'm more familiar with ASCIIWare's SNES and Genesis era controllers, and many of them are actually really nice. The slim, boxy design of the PS No.800 controller just leaves me scratching my head as to who thought this was a good idea. With the official Playstation logo on the front I first thought this was an odd Sony controller, but later I ... Read more
Posted 5 months ago

World Driver Championship

The Nintendo 64 has a lot of great racing games, but most of them are kart racers or adapted from the arcade. Don't get me wrong, I do love those types of games, but I've always wondered if the N64 ever birthed a competitor for Sony's racing simulation Gran Turismo. After a bit of internet research I came up with a few candidates that may be able to answer that question. The one I decided to try first is World Driver Championship. World Driver Championship isn't exactly a racing simulator, but ... Read more
Posted 5 months ago

Building the Ultimate Game Boy

Throughout my thrift store journeys I've purchased a handful of Game Boy consoles, most of which were in desperate need of repair or restoration. Some only needed elbow grease and care, but the others, sadly, were so far gone they became relegated to the parts bin. A few years ago I looked into my parts bin and saw an AGS-101 and a AGB-001 sitting there. I could feel the desire to become a part of something better burning deep within their souls, so I decided it was time to make my own backlit GBA (or as I call it the ... Read more
Posted 5 months ago