GoldenEye 007
The Nintendo 64 first-person shooter that redefined console multiplayer: four players split-screen deathmatch, and an iron-clad house rule banning Oddjob because his short stature slipped under auto-aim. Rare's landmark game sold over 8 million copies and owned living rooms until Halo arrived.
Released for the Nintendo 64 in August 1997, GoldenEye 007 was developed by Rare, a small team led by Martin Hollis that included several first-time game developers. Early in production, the developers weren't sure the N64 controller could handle free-roaming movement, so the game was nearly built as an on-rails shooter. MGM and Eon's broad Bond license gave Rare creative freedom to go well beyond the film, and the result became the third best-selling N64 game, behind Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64.
Its four-player split-screen deathmatch mode defined console multiplayer until Halo launched in 2001. The infamous house rule—no playing as Oddjob—emerged because his short stature made him nearly impossible to target with the game's auto-aim system. Rare's own developers later admitted on the record that picking Oddjob was 'definitely cheating,' cementing the ban in millions of dorm rooms and basements.
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Nintendo 64
Nintendo's leap into three dimensions, the N64 brought 3D polygon gaming into living rooms with its quirky three-pronged controller and a cartridge library anchored by Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Its rumble pak added tactile feedback, while its four controller ports made it the console of couch multiplayer legends.
Blowing Into Cartridges
The universal remedy for a glitching NES, SNES, or N64 game: pull the cartridge, blow hard across the contacts, and pray. It never actually worked—the real fix was just reseating the cart—but the ritual of blowing was so universal that every gamer swore by it, confirmation bias at its finest.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
A gunslinging dinosaur hunter ripped from a comic book and thrust into one of the N64's first must-play shooters. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter arrived in March 1997 with an arsenal that escalated from knife to sci-fi firepower — and jungle fog that wasn't artistic flourish, but an 8-megabyte cartridge's desperate compromise. It accidentally made every encounter feel like a hunt through an alien haze.
Mario Kart 64
The first 3D Mario Kart brought four-player split-screen racing to the Nintendo 64, turning every sleepover and dorm room into a competitive battleground. Shells flew, friendships were tested, and players argued eternally about which character had a hidden advantage.