I’m sure many of you guys, just as I did, back in the day, played some (or lots of) 4 player N64. It was groundbreaking. The days where there wasn’t any online multiplayer, and you had to be close to one another to get those sessions going. For me Golden Eye 007 and Mario Kart 64 took the lead above and beyond any other games in that era.
Well this is why I want highlight this excellent video from Modern Vintage Gamer.
Key points covered include:
The N64 was the first console to feature four controller ports as a standard
Developers created the split-screen effect by defining multiple viewports with their own cameras.
MVG demonstrates this concept with a custom C program showing a spinning cube.
The trade-off for having multiple players on one screen was a reduction in graphical detail and performance. This included decreased texture quality, a shorter draw distance, and a simpler geometry.
As a result of these limitations, some games, like Perfect Dark, suffered from significant frame rate issues when played in split-screen mode due to their ambitious scope for the hardware.
We strongly recommend you watch this video as it’s as entertaining as it is educational.