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Alex Weiss

Alex has been gaming since the early 90s. He prefers the Super Nintendo but can occasionally be pulled away to make a video or two. Follow him on Twitter @Chronoslinger

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7 comments

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Bigjoe91

Great video Alex. I checked and I only played Pro Skater 2, but might pick up Pro Skater one now.

Ambient_Malice

For reference, this is a song from TH3 N64 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_Tfr4qwH0&list=PL9983B779A344F84E&index=15

And TH1 N64 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGlJimX5Ww&list=PL9983B779A344F84E&index=1

Tony Hawk 1's sounds significantly muddier, but ultimately I'm a bit baffled why the devs didn't just bite the bullet and invest in some good audio encoding and make use of a larger cartridge. While music on the N64 was tricky, thanks to the fact it was handled by the CPU\RSP coprocessor, it was quite possible, for example, to play MP3 on the N64. With a 64MB cartridge, it would have been possible to have maybe a half or reasonably high quality music.

My guess is that the devs either simply didn't want to use the larger cartridges because they meant lower profit margins, or they were struggling with the N64 hardware, and used some easier methods.

Ambient_Malice

I've only ever played the N64\PS1 version of Tony Hawk 3. But my observations apply to the original, as well, I believe. The key technical differences between PS1 and N64 are as follows:

Crisper textures on PS1. This is a combination of possibly higher texture quality on the PS1 and the PS1's lack of bilinear filtering making low quality textures look crisp, but grainy.

Draw distance on the PS1 version of TH3 was noticably higher.

The N64 version runs smoother than the PS1 version. The lower draw distance may contribute to the hgher framerate.

The music on the N64 version of TH3 was reasonable, but consisted of sequenced loops of the songs. There were fewer songs, and the songs were minimal - consisting of perhaps a verse and refrain each. The cartridge size of TH3 on N64 was 16MB. This is 1\4 of the N64's maximum cartridge size. Considering TH3 was the last N64 game ever released, in 2002, I think the devs may have been using up surplus cartridges or something. TH1 N64 was published in 2000, and used a 12MB cartridge. If the devs had used a larger cartridge, such as the more common 32MB cartridge, I believe the game could have contained more music, at higher quality.

An often overlooked visual distinction between the N64 and PS1 versions of games like this is the PS1's characteristic wobbling geometry. This effect is caused by the PS1's lack of a floating point unit, and becomes worse if the game is run at higher resolutions via emulation. While workarounds to the problem existed, they were rarely used - a notable exception being the Crash Bandicoot series.

The PS1 version's FMV video bonuses are also worth considering. The N64 was actually rather good at playing videos, but with a maximum cartridge size of 64MB, the amount of video was limited. This is one area where the cheap, large, but much slower CDs had an advantage over the smaller, but much faster cartridges. If you like to watch bail videos, the PS1 version has a distinct advantage.

Aggro Sky

I always preferred the superior Dreamcast version :)

NintendoLegend

Great video. Debating the merits of N64 vs. PS1 games brings back memories from my childhood, and my friend who once bought a WWF game for both just to see the differences. Same story there: N64 played a little smoother at its higher framerate, but the PlayStation iteration had superior music, along with ring entrance videos and other content. Good times either way, I suppose.

Chronoslinger

@Ambient_Malice I agree with everything you said, thanks for watching!

Chronoslinger

@NintendoLegend It really is amazing how the Nintendo 64 utilized such a small cart space, especially Rare.

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