Well, here's a fun little fact for you. Did you know that every single Nintendo 64 game ever released - across all regions - would be able to comfortably fit on one tiny Nintendo Switch game cartridge? You do now!
This interesting little tidbit was brought to our attention by Reddit user CorsairVI, who shared the fact online with the maths to prove it. As they explain, the maximum storage capacity of any official N64 game cartridge was 64MB, meaning that no game released for the system could be larger in size than that. In fact, most games would have been considerably less, but learning the exact file sizes for each game would be a monumental task.
A quick search online suggests that, across all regions, a grand total of 388 N64 games made it to retail. If you multiply the maximum of 64MB by 388, that leaves you with 24,832MB. In other words, that's 24.8 GB.
As you may know, the largest Switch cartridges available to publishers are 32GB in size, meaning that theoretically, you could take an official Switch cart from Nintendo and stick every single N64 game to ever exist on it.
Of course, as exciting as an official 'Complete N64 Library' Switch game would be, that will never, never happen (sorry). But it's still pretty amazing to think just how far technology has come over the last 20 years. Blimey.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 100
So what are we waiting for, bois?
(Oh right... Nintendo)
The calculation here is poor as so few games used the 64mb cartridge, judging by my own collection of around 251 games which comes to just over 4GB, I'd say they would easily fit on an 8GB cartridge altogether
The N64 did have a small library considering its relative success, from what I understand the Saturn library is around 1tb in size with the Dreamcast more than that even with much less games, I wouldn't even like to guess the size for the PS1 library
Can’t wait to get a few with Nintendo Online.
Ummmm...yes please?
Pretty sure they all fit on a 16GB SD card with space if you had all of the rom files as the average size was less than 32MB if you were to work it out most being between 16 and 32MB with only a small handful being above 32 and only 4 using the largest 64MB so the maths would be much better if the person doing this just added up all the game file sizes rather than multiplying the total amount of games by the largest size. Maybe I am being extra pedantic on this one though.
Currently playing through Glover for the first time and a) enjoying it quite a bit and b) feeling nostalgic for those collectathon 3D platforming days.
Fun fact time, or no real news time.
And the content of this article could fit on the back of a napkin
@Zenszulu I've just had a quick look at my local folder and I have 251 (non compressed) games for a total of just over 4gb
I think they'd easily fit onto an 8GB cartridge, we forget how poor the N64 was for textures and there is very little pre recorded audio, so most of these games are tiny even by the standards of the day
Most of the roms are under 64mb so all will fit in that massive massive 16gb cartridge.
Sounds like a great idea. I'd buy it! 😂
Prove it... 😉 yes that’s all I can say @NintendoLife 🙄
Sold day 1 for me x x x
@carlos82 If I recall it is just over 8GB but if you were to have all of them I don't know why you would have all the sports games just with roster upgrades and slight improvements and just have the best of each series in that regard. Also unless there is a translation for many of the Japanese games I don't see why most people would try and play them unless they have little text or ofcourse you actually can read Japanese. So if a full collection of English games would be release minus the yearly updates for sports games and just have the best in the series it would probably be around the 6-7 GB mark
Yeah, I don't know why we have to mess with mini consoles for N64, then.
I'd love to see a Homebrewer make a cartridge N64 emulator for the Switch in like 15 years with every ROM on it, working properly. Get to it, future readers!
Too bad it will never happen.
Out of curiosity, would NES and SNES games also work on one Switch cart? I assume yes, but what are the exact specifications?
Just give me a Tonic Trouble, Starshot, Buck Bumble and Glover release and I can walk away a happy man.
@Zenszulu yeah it's the same when people put rom collections on whichever console and put every game on, as if they are ever going to play them all
psst Nintendo, hint hint
@OneOneTwo-112 it's not a case of working in terms of would you be able to play them but in terms of fitting in the space provided on a Switch card then yes you could probably easily fit both the NES and Snes libraries on less than 8GB together as even though there are far more games the file sizes are a tiny fraction in most cases even compared to N64 games.
If Nintendo ever did this, they' d fill the cartridge with scans of the manuals too, just to fill the spare space.
I never had a Nintendo 64 and have always wanted to play Super Mario 64. I played the DS remake, but I don’t like the controls and I feel like it doesn’t do the original justice. I want it on the Switch!
@carlos82 exactly why but bad games on too and then keep them there. I understand if it's for a reason like had some kind of odd nostalgia fueled love for it but other than that I don't get it. With all the mini consoles out now and abilities to dump full rom collections on them people seem to do it just for the sake of it. I have a Snes mini and Playstation Classic but frequently remove games I don't think I will play again if they are bad.
Isn't this kind of......really obvious? Like, wow, that huge physical music collection you once had can now fit on your phone, in case you didn't know!
@EmmatheBest You can already emulate N64 games on Switch with RetroArch. Cartridges are a problem but you can always rip them and send them to a MicroSD. There are always ways.
As already pointed out, most N64 were only 16 or 32.
Ocarina of Time is only 32MB. So is Perfect Dark.
Quite a lot of games on the system were only 8 or 4MB (!)
As I recall it, only two games ever relesed on 64MB cartridges for the Nintendo64. So again, as pointed out, it's likely that the combined size is less than 10GB. ^^
Yay, Superman 64 for all switch owners !
@carlos82 it's not poor. They even imply as an absolute maximum it would come to that number.
Every now and then I stop and consider this and it still blow's my mind that I've got my entre Switch library stored on a micro SD card that's half the size of a postage stamp.
@carlos82 Not poor, read the article! And the outcome exactly the same...
@Pod Four games were released on 64MB carts Resident Evil 2, Conker, Pokemon Stadium 2 and the Pal version of Paper Mario because it had multiple languages on the cartridge several were in the 40MB region though but quite a few were Japanese exclusive ones. For the first couple of years the only two games that exceeded 16MB were Oot and Turok 2.
It may be possible - but it would take a steady hand, and think of the weight crushing down on that little Switch Cart. I reckon I could stack maybe 20 tops before I got the Jenga jiggles.
"Pffft, MY library would fit on a Nintendo DS cartridge. Possibly a Game Boy Advance one" - Virtual Boy.
Again, Nintendolife "breaking the news" here. Quality journalism...
If stating the obvious counts as news, I can't wait for the next NL article about how the sky is blue etc.
Kinda mental when you think about it.
@mazzel @KevTastic84 if you did that in a maths class you'd get marked down. We know for a fact that very few were 64mb so you can basically ignore that number, a few were 40mb but around half were 16 and under, so even averaging at 32mb would have been generous
@impurekind well even at the time you could have fit all of the best games on the system on a single PS1/Saturn disc
@Zenszulu same, I think I've got maybe 20 to 30 extra games on my mini's. I have them all on my PC as they take up no space but even on that I have a separate folder for those I'm likely to play
Imagine how much Nintendo would charge you for this game, though. It would be the most expensive Switch game ever.
Where can i preorder?
I for one enjoy when Nintendo Life does articles like this one. I never thought about if the N64 library could fit on Switch cartridge but now that I know, I can marvel at how technology has changed in my life time. Honestly though I probably don't read even half of the articles posted, but I usually check daily and click on the few that I am interested in. I don't really get why people get so bent out of shape about the articles they don't care for.
I think if there was an entire N64 library compilation on a Switch cartridge I would do a happy dance.
As someone who started gaming with the NES, it's crazy to think about how far we've come technologically.
@gokev13 I agree.
Not all of us have thought about this and for most it is a nice reminder of how things have changed and gives us a new perspective on the old hardware.
There is nothing wrong with that at all.
And just today I watched a Digital Foundry video explaining that N64 couldn’t have Final Fantasy 7, and now I know it was because of the size of the game. This article genuinely helped me understand that.
@EmmatheBest I will try
Nintendo has 32GB game cards for the switch? Well it’s a shame developers don’t use them instead of my micro sd card
So what would everyone pay for a switch cart with every 64 game on it?
I would easily pay $300...maybe more. Gotta have me some Waverace 64 😝
@carlos82 I think it comes down to people like saying they have hundreds of games they can play on a system and they are just there for some weird bragging rights. I find if you have too many to choose from just sitting on a system you either never play most or the choice overwelms people and they only play games for a few minutes at a time.
I have the entire NA library on my PC and its less than 5gb.
Wild stuff! I’m sure the modders will somehow run with this despite the N64 being so tough to emulate nicely.
@Zenszulu The actual total size of the entire N64 catalog across the three regions would actually be around 13 or 14GB total, max.
I have 2 DVD's for PC, one with the entire PAL collection on it, and another one with the entire USA NTSC collection on it, both with Project 64 and quite a bit of documents and so on included, and these discs are almost filled to the max, so 4,35GB each.
The JAP NTSC collection is probably of similar size, or maybe even a bit larger, due to more exclusive, Japan only titles, but either way, the Switch cartridge would not have to be bigger than 16GB, so you're right.
@OneOneTwo-112 The entire SNES catalog is only around a little over 2GB, and the entire NES catalog is quite a bit smaller, with some game ROMs being only 256KB or even less, so you could fit both of those entire archives on a 4GB Switch cartridge.
@Kabloop I can name 100 off top for the n64 that are worth playing
@ThanosReXXX but with that entire collection how many of those games are the same game just for a different region? If you removed all of the copies of the same game it would be far smaller which is what this article meant basically a single copy of each game if you included ever regional different version the number of games would obviously be far higher and so would the space the took up
@carlos82 Not really, it depends on the task. If the task was to say, what's the minimum number of cartridges you need to save all N64 games, then they are completely right. It was an estimation and they did it right by using the quickest way making a worst case calculation. You method is completely right for an analysis, but not an estimation. There is no point in arguing because the outcome is the same
@Zenszulu Well, that IS true, but both PAL and NTSC have their own benefits. One has the smoother frame rate in faster games, and the other has the bigger picture, without the letter boxing, which happened with certain titles. So, it would be nice to have complete collections, and being able to choose between the two whenever you'd like.
And then there's some, let's say "regional" purists, who would only want to play the versions they always have, but choice is still nice, so even in that scenario, it's great to have the option. It's basically also the reason why I have these two different discs.
I also have a smaller disc with some import stuff and translated ROMs on them, such as the Animal Crossing 64 game.
My point though, is that you were right about the 16GB, even if you included ALL games from all regions. They went from the point of view of a worst case scenario of all games being 64MB, while that's only a small handful of titles.
You could fit the entire romsets of N64, NES, SNES, GB, GBC, VB, MS, MD, TG16 and more if you’re bored.
Ta DA!
Give me a job now. K thanks.
How sweet it would be to have a N64 collection on one card. One can dream since NES online is bereft of N64 games
@ThanosReXXX I completely get with the whole regional thing and the slight technical differences because of that as the external hardware with the TVs often played a huge part in the discrepancies. Amazing when you think back that it was that which often left Pal gamers with poor unoptimised games rather than the hardware.
Playing NTSC games through a flash cart on the N64 on a 50hz tv can really can also cause havoc too which is amusing. Kind of miss those days of importing an a system and having to jump through hoops to get it running with different things.
Wasn't Resident Evil 2 on N64 larger than 64MB? I think I recall that a couple games were over the limit...
@Zenszulu Yeah, weird times indeed, and not just in games: I still remember when I bought my first super-deluxe region free VHS recorder, and I could buy all these cool anime movies and so on straight from the States, via a local import store...
@Severian no 64MB was the largest
@ThanosReXXX still odd how most video forms of media are still region locked to this day despite the vast majority of people now have a HDTV and they support every legacy video resolution and refresh rate for media. Although that is more to do with most governments not wanting you to avoid their tax on a product more than anything now so that is a different story.
Everyone is hating on the math. The math is worst case scenario, calm the hell down.
@Zenszulu also content is often handled by completely different distributors in different territories who have more than likely paid for exclusivity in that region, so I completely understand why there is resistance to allowing video content to be a free for all globally.
With streaming services the differences are even more apparent. For example in the UK we have a few key services (Sky, Netflix, Amazon, Disney+), we don't have HBO, CBS, Hulu, Peacock etc, but most of that content still comes to the UK, it's just typically consolidated into our 4 main services.
All the Nintendo 64 games are ripe for remasters/remakes on Switch.
Outside the obvious, Body Harvest deserves a proper remake!
@ukaskew while I agree than certain physical media is handled by different distributors there are many of the larger ones that handle their own distribution globally and is usually only content created independently or in individual countries that is handled by smaller distribution companies. So for the most part it really does come down to things like local tax now like VAT on why region locking physical media still occurs which can be avoided on certain things if they are imported.
Streaming is obviously the modern region locking now it has become pretty much the standard but that was always bound to happen since what is on things like BBC iPlayer is more than likely behind a paywall in other countries although not that it is hard to get around that on the free streaming places or even things like Netflix with a decent VPN. Amazon is actually smarter in that regard by locking it's streaming to the country you signed up in to your account rather than what location it thinks you are in. Now I am just going off on a brain fart though.
@TheFullAndy I would love Rockstar North to do that it would make a change from their more normal settings in games that they go for now and would be great with their modern engine. The game doesn't get the respect it deserves for being the blueprint for GTA3 and beyond as it was ahead of it's time in terms of the scale of all the levels
@Zenszulu
Absolutely, it was so atmospheric and original for the time and as you say the blueprints for GTA3 back when Rockstar were DMA.
If released today with a modern tune up it would still stand out as its own thing. Fantastic game.
@TheFullAndy the levels could also be linked together by wormholes in the barriers surrounding them to another time and location to make it a much more seamless open world also then giving you the option of taking vehicles from one time period to another. Not that I have given that aspect any thought it the past...
Now you're playing with ALL of the power!!!
@Zenszulu
Great idea! I confess I never completed it as it was too damn hard and massive!
@Zenszulu Yup, pretty much. Doesn't matter, though. Most modern screens can handle any kind of signal anyway, and less and less people watch normal TV. And collectors will just import whatever, so ultimately, the public wins...
@TheFullAndy the game is pretty difficult in terms of you have to get to certain places to save and sometimes failing to save enough civilians early in the level can really reduce your margin for error later in the level as too many will result in game over and once it is saved there is no way to go back and try again without restarting the game from the start. Obviously modern game design makes it seem more difficult in that regard than it should be but even at that time games had much less restrictive save features.
Yeah, but getting them to run properly on a Switch would probably require additional memory.
There exist 1TB microSD cards. Those cards are smaller than my thumbnail. So the most surprising thing is how small Switch game cards are.
The entire NES licensed ROM set is like 200MB "merged" (variations of each game compressed together to save space).
The SNES set is probably like a couple GB.
@Zenszulu Really only three games then. I believe the PAL version of Paper Mario has been confirmed to actually be only 48MB (64 is overdumped).
@RunninBlue TG16 might not fit if that includes the CD games, especially with the audio intact (none of that downsampling audio to MP3 to reduce space as was done in early days of Internet distribution).
-> Every N64 that's worth playing.
-> Any kind of compression to avoid the cartridge padding.
You could probably fit them on a 1 GB device.
Still waiting for a best of N64 compilation on switch
*angrily glares at nintendo
@FargusPelagius The same Nintendo who didn't include manuals on the NES and SNES Mini or on NSO, that Nintendo?
@OneOneTwo-112
I believe, the maximum on the SNES was 48 Mbit. I'm not entirely sure, though.
Now, if only a single Switch game could fit...
They can't even bother to do that most of the time.
Nintendo should`ve mandated that all carts must be complete.
Otherwise just be honest and make it a download-only game.
I am waiting to see how many Wii games could fit in the Switch.
@rdm22 some areas In that game creeped me tf out as a kid. That being said, it was a little strange but also unique. I enjoyed playing it occasionally. Tho I liked the bomberman hero series a lot more.
They should do that. That would be great!
@Kienda @gokev13 Thanks guys. Looks like @shani just got out of the wrong side of the bed or something.
Lots of people clearly find this "obvious" point interesting - it was one of the best performing stories for yesterday in terms of traffic.
@Damo Slow news day?
@RunninBlue Slow comment day?
Wow, I can't wait for this cartridge to come out!
@Crono1973 yes that same Nintendo. I have a whole digital stack of games with original manual scans on my 3DS and Wii U, so isn't as if they aren't available. I know NSO was pants but VC actually bothered.
Make it happen Nintendo
About 20 N64 games maximum that are actually worth playing. The rest of the space I'd just fill with the wonderful Wave Race 64 music. That and a generous dollop of cheerleading lesbian porn.
Bet the aforementioned cheerleading lesbians are, indeed extremely grateful that their potential lesbian partners don't taste like switch cartridges!
(licked one once to see if they were as bitter as Nintendo claimed they were)
Won't be doing that again!
In other news. Princess of Hearts remains officially dead after 23 years.
I think we will get an N64 Online channel in addition to our NES and SNES Onlines we already have. And while it wont have every game, it will end up with most major 1st and 2nd party entries and a few key 3rd party entries. I'll be pretty happy with that in light of an N64 game collection release as dreamed up here.
@Travisemo007 loved those Bomberman games. Also I could see Glover creeping out a kid. But I’m enjoying it as an adult. Very fun mechanics.
@carlos82 The calculation isn't "poor". They made it clear that they were taking the largest possible size a game could be, and also made it clear that many were smaller than that. They are calculating the biggest the answer possibly could be, and make that clear.
@Zenszulu Because every game has its fans. Who gets to decide which ones are good and which ones are bad? It's not some universally accepted thing. It's subjective.
I guess there would be enough room not just for all N64 games on a single Switch cartridge, but for all NES, all SNES, and all Game Boy games as well. Four generations of Nintendo (1983 - 2001) on a single Switch cart.
@carlos82 Quite a few well textured N64 games for its generation despite the tiny storage capacity of carts however, I always think of how things would've been if Nintendo just went CD.
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