The Waves of Wave Race 64 | MVG
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- Wave Race 64 released on the Nintendo 64 in 1996 and with it came amazing jet ski arcade action, awesome sound and music and most of all amazing looking water physics that still holds up all these years later. In todays episode we take a closer look at the Waves of Wave Race 64 and deep dive to see how it was done by the skilled development team at Nintendo EAD.
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► All Music : Wave Race 64 (1996) - Kazumi Totaka.
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#waverace64 #nintendo64 - เกม
Can't forget the amazing jazz fusion soundtrack! Impossible to have a frown on your face playing this game!
A definite leap in graphics. I remember playing Wave Race 64 for the first time and being blown away. The gameplay reflected in the waves making those fancy graphics part of the gameplay.
Second game I owned on 64. First one I ever played on it. Spent so many nights playing the hell out of this.
What was the name of the first game ? (which you put aside and took Wave Race 64 instead)?
@@Tigrou7777 Mario 64
@@badnetcode6228 Nope. Got the 64 for Christmas.
@@harryballz4260 same. Got mine X-mas of 97. I had this, MRC: Multi Racing Championship and F1 Pole Position...
Same, racing my siblings.
I miss those days 😭
I love this breakdown of old games, specially when source code is involved.
I second this
The impressive part is how they animated so well the rider to work with the waves and physics.
I was thinking the same, it looks so natural.
I guess and hope that it's some sort of early animation blending driven by the water physics, like applying the force to the hands and feet of the character, then dividing and applying to each part of the arms and legs, then dividing further and adding to the head and body. It looks super good indeed.
@@du0lol inverse kinematics
@@SufferDYT Was it a thing back in the N64 days? I thought it became a thing much later, though maybe it was just improved over time, come to think of it.
MVG is so good I just watched a 10 minute video about 26 year old water wave physics
I know right
Amen
Also in Southern Island track, at least in championship mode, everytime you do a lap, the tide gets lower, which is another thing that impressed me back then in this game.
Hi, Wave Race is one of my favorite game of all time! If someone is interested, I uploaded a WR64 footage last week, please take a look th-cam.com/video/fFSMxU5UrAU/w-d-xo.html
Probably one of the most underrated game of the n64. When I think about this console this is the game that comes to mind with Mario, they both blew my mind so much back then and I still feel the urge to play it again nowadays, with the nice smooth control, wave riding and all, it was amazing.. I'm just sad that 20 years later we don't have any game to take over wave race.. It's not like the technology from today can't handle it, we could have so much fun with beautiful water and waves and such..
Pity really
On Playstation they need to bring Jet Moto back man, it's not Wave Race but it's a damn good jetski series
@@mathprodigy it's just not the same without SingleTrac, the og developers. They also did the first two twisted metal games.
I wouldn't say it's underrated. It seems very highly praised.
Damn TM2 was awesome. I think it's the best but I never did play black or the ps3 game
@@Bawkr I had the ps3 twisted metal, it didn’t feel as fun to play as 2
I'm right with you. Wave Race 64 is one of the best games in the Nintendo 64 library. It's visually impressive and the wave interaction feels fantastic. I'm surprised more people don't praise it.
Because while it's technically fantastic, the gameplay is kind of boring.
@@31redorange08 That depends on the kind of gameplay you enjoy of course. For me it had a lot of replay value because there was a lot of room for mastering the in-game physics. It's the same kind of satisfaction as nailing it when you're downhill mountainbiking.
The water effects on Mario were quite good as well (compared to what were on previous systems), this is what made me buy the n64 back in the day.
Surprisingly I didn't get the same wow effect with Waverace, I guess the graphics were overshadowed by the fact I found this game too repetitive after a few races.
Hi, Wave Race is one of my favorite game of all time! If someone is interested, I uploaded a WR64 footage last week, please take a look th-cam.com/video/fFSMxU5UrAU/w-d-xo.html
It was Wave Race and Mario 64 that had me drooling over an N64
For those who don't know, Diddy Kong Racing had VERY fun water physics, racing with hoverboats. And also - Pilot Wings 64 was one of the first N64 games that really showed off what the system could do. My friend had rented it one day, and I was CAPTIVATED. It was my first and most wanted N64 game. I didn't even bother to get Mario 64.
That's interesting, I had just asked about Pilot Wings 64 in my own comment on this video. I seem to group it, Wave Race, and SM64 together in my memory as some of the first games available for 64. But I never did play Pilot Wings or Wave Race.
I had both launch titles, but spent a lot more time on Pilot Wings for awhile. Man it was breathtaking for the time.
@@nthgth Dude... shooting those missles was like that scene in Independence Day! And they were unlimited! What a gift from the developers 😁
It was the first 3D game I'd ever seen (aside from Vitrua Fighter and Doom). For some reason, I didn't even know the N64 existed. I just went to my friend's one evening, and they had rented one from the video store. We had tons on fun just flying around in the gyrocopter, exploring the absolutely gigantic map of the mini USA. I distinctly remember how thrilled we were as we narrowly avoided hitting the space shuttle launching by INCHES.
Also, I remember playing the Mario 64 demo in stores (not long after), and I shot myself out of the cannon, and it actually made my heart race as I started falling to the ground. Idk... ppl these days might not realize how amazing the switch to 3D was for video games. It was a whole new world of possibilities and realism. 😊
@@jaredbond7908 Absolutely, all of that, totally agree! I spent hours exploring the "Little States" too, sometimes pretending to take a road trip by driving the gyrocopter on the roads which it was not good at 😄
Did you notice how both those launch games launch you from a canon, and how the R button has almost the same gameplay effect and makes almost the same sound effect in both games?
If any game could come to the Nintendo Online N64 interface, it’s Diddy Kong Racing. It will always hold a special place in my heart as my first video game I played on my first ever system. Not sure if they can release with Microsoft owning Rare, but with Banjo and Kazooie on there already, I can dream.
Perfect blend between technology and gameplay. One of the best game ever made.
Yes please more videos like this.
It's a cool and innovative game, but it's certainly not one of the best games ever made.
For you. Not for me. de gustibus non est disputandum.
@@arnox4554 No. It is one of the best games ever made.
@@rexlr695 No, it's not. Some of the best games ever made include Unreal Tournament, Ocarina of Time, The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Quake, and etc.
Wave Race is a neat and well-designed game but it is NOT one of the best games ever made. Hell, it's not even one of the best games Rare's ever made.
@@arnox4554 All the games you named I would not argue against, for sure. But I would always put Wave Race 64 on that list.
I'm glad to see fellow appreciators of Waverace's water simulation. Like many I was blown away upon its initial release. Its not just the look either it's the feel it gave. Just felt perfect. I remember fondly bobbing along while playing. Nintendo really got his title right. Glad I've still got my N64 copies and even happier to see it on Switch now!
"Fondly bobbing along" this is pretty close to sounding dirty lol
@@mathprodigy lmao I saw the sentence after I typed and felt a little uncomfortable but decided to leave it.
I went to a high school digipen program. We had the programmer for these waves talk with our class. Very cool day.
That wave race intro brang back a flood of nostalgia. With the epic 90s music, sweeping camera shots and that obscene lens flare.
I don't know what it is but anything to do with water in videogames fascinates me. Digital Foundry did a couple of videos on water effects in games including the Wave Race games if anyone wants another perspective. Oh and why can't I emulate Splashdown on PCSX2? The waves in that game seem impossible to emulate for some reason...
For what I remember Splashdown must be using DX11 renderer and 1x resolution to make it playable fps and no glitch
@@bpcgos Thanks for that. I'll give it another go....
games that have issues on PCSX2 usually work well on software mode
I guess on PCSX2 the problem might be in the GPU emulation
Anything water in animation (both drawn and CG) is fascinating. Like how it took 318,000 man-hours to render the 7-minute crossing of the Red Sea sequence in "The Prince of Egypt."
Still one of my most favourite games of all time, I remember my brother bringing an N64 home at Christmas and playing this, the water effects blew my mind at the time. Great music, great gameplay. The sequel never caught me the same way as this one. A true classic for me
Love seeing you dissect the code of old game engines a bit; it helps my own programming a lot. Keep up the great work
Dude knows his sh_t..
I was waiting all video for the "and I was contracted to make this port"
This just instantly takes me back to those summer days off from school, swimming at a friends house, playing Wave Race, Rush, or Blast Corps.
When the N64 came out in Australia I was first in line at Target! After awhile they dropped the price from $400 to $300, and if you bought for $400 but sent Nintendo a letter, they would send you a game! I got wave race and was super happy with it, but my box had bad creases on it from new exactly like MVG's box!
I was 9 years old. This game was incredible, zero expectations, months over months of pure fun. Also the sequel on GameCube was cool
Played this game for the first time like less then a week ago. I cannot believe that they achieved this on an n64. And the game itself is just a blast
Wave Race is one of those games I spent a lot of time learning on. I was a young future gamer.... Doom 64, Chameleon Twist, San Francisco Rush and Wave Race were my first video games 😁
San Francisco Rush. That game is SO underrated. Sat up late into many nights trying to snag Mountain Dew cans.
Love the feeling of floating off the jumps and hills in that game. So much fun.
@@fensoxx THAT and accidentally finding the secret stunt track hidden under the map of the downtown course (At least I believe it was that one)
@@R3AL-AIM hmmm I don’t remember that. Have to check it out. And I put many many many hours in! That’s the beauty of that game though right there
Stunt track was sickkk. I remember trying to hit the corner of those kicker ramps to basically glitch the car into a few dozen barrel rolls. Sometimes you’d land and sometimes it would just explode 😄
I would argue that the level Aspen Lake on Blue Storm has the best water effects I had ever seen until that point. Both my friend and I literally had our jaws on the floor playing that level for the first time.
The water in Wave Race back in circa 1996/97 had a similar "wow" effect on me that the buildings and clouds in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 did when it started putting out promo videos around 2018.
It was a quantum leap forward.
Except it was happening on a console.
I find this interesting. The waves looked incredible, and in some ways, still do, seeming like it shouldn't be able to happen on an N64. It goes to show you that an engineer is an invaluable asset, while hardware is just hardware.
Engineers also design hardware :P
@@phattjohnson they do. But software engineers are the difference between wave race and ride to hell retribution...
One of the games I bought with my N64,
I tried to convince my friend about it and analogue sticks back in the day, but he was a Sony "Dpad only" person until Sony of course released their Dual Shock!
I still love how convincing the water effects are in Wave Race 64. Blows my mind how sparse the list is of things coming close to it is in years surrounding its release.
How could that be a thing nintendo had the best dpads of the era heck they pretty much still do
Great game, technically impressive with great physics. Spent hours chasing records against friends and brother. It was so rewarding when you get the wave perfectly, cut through it and shave of couple milliseconds.
I'm getting old 😁
I like these video series in which you pull back the curtain a little bit on how certain things were achieved with the hardware of the period.
I remember renting this game week after week from the local video rental shop. It was so brandless and without story that I thought it was a "cheap" game, but I had countless hours of fun with it. In my mind, back then, before I even knew English, I felt like I'd found a hidden gem nobody knew about. It's interesting to finally find out that it was loved by so many people. Definitely one of my favorite games ever.
Wave race 64 is a underrated work of art. Everything is so on point. So many fond memories. A true masterpiece
All these years later, and still nobody has made a better feeling water game.
bold bullshit. hydro thunder just wipes the floor with this... both old and remake (especially the remake)
even mobilegames overrun this junk (yes, I see that EVERYBODY is very nostalgic about it so not too shocked I see such biased comments :D )
@@nattila7713 Lies. I agree with the OP here. I've played a lot of water sport/based game through multiple gens on most systems, including Hydro Thunder on the OG Xbox. Does the water look better visually? Yes. Does it feel better to race on? No. Not even remotely. Even Blue Storm didn't feel as good as WR64 did. It just had something off or missing to it, the way the riders jostled on the Jetski standing up. You had to actively try to balance the rider as you hit each wave, and felt the weight as you crashed down from a jump. No other game has managed to capture that since.
Crash Warped and Hydro Thunder wants to know your location.
The water in that game still amazes me
I remember reviews at the time saying that it was the best looking water in any game to date. I don’t think they were wrong.
There were no good looking water in any game on any system when it released.
@@V3ntilator Thinking back the only other time I was impressed with water was in Half Life 2.
Wow. I immediately felt nostalgic as soon as you played that intro cutscene and music from Wave Race 64. I haven't thought about that music in decades. That's still some pretty impressive water physics!
Easily the most nostalgic retro game for me. I never had consoles growing up, we were an Amiga 500/PC family. But my cousins had an n64. So at Christmas and holidays when we were there it would always be multiplayer wave race and goldeneye with the all the cousins
@@Cimone90 sounds like damn good times
That intro music still gives me chills. Amazing game
I didn't see this game until about 4 years ago when I finally got my first N64, and someone recommended it to me. I was shocked at how good it looked, and how well it played. I have no idea how I managed to never see this one growing up. Thanks for the breakdown of how wave generation works!
this is what I subscribe to you for, deep dives into why the games of my past live in my head rent-free..
I've been obsessed with water graphics for years. This video was absolutely awesome! Thanks for the insight.
Raced to watch the waves on this video. 64 seconds in and not disappointed.
That intro, gives me chills. Brings my back to a snowy morning when I first played it at my parents house Christmas day
Literal waves of nostalgia
Blue Storm is one of the most underrated games of all time. So many reviewers thought the controls were bad, but they just had a learning curve and were actually extremely tight once you understood you need to use the analog triggers while turning.
Glad someone else knows of Blue Storm's quality. There was a lot of tech in that game for a racer. I wish we got a sequel or a revival of that game with an online community through emulation.
@@Dzzy123 I only knew as well because IGN got it right at the time. They were saying “hey everyone has this wrong, this game is actually really great!”
weather effects (storm) was amazing. I played it again from time time which is quite rare.
Man, I loved Wave Race. That soundtrack is unforgettable.
My friend and I used to trade my cart back and forth, topping each other's times each go. I felt like a pro at that game after sharpening against my friend for so long, we had a blast. I still have the cart. Really appreciate your video and the respect you showed to the game.
Damn, MVG. You ballin' with these video releases.
You're sucha' legend! Thank you for the insider content. As someone who was born in 1991, when I booted wave race 64 up for the first time I was blown away by the graphics and physics of the water. Everyone in the room was in disbelief of how real the water appeared. Classic.
I wish they made a new Wave Race. Blue Storm was a technical showpiece as well!
I love videos like this, that dig into how impressive visual effects are pulled off in games. Bravo sir!
The fact that they were not only able to achieve this effect but were able to integrate it into the game design in such impactful ways is astounding. The waves gave every course its own unique feel.
Wave Race 64 was a launch title in Australia. It was my first game, day 1. Absolute classic.
Fascinating! I always felt that Nintendo puts a lot of effort in making water and water effects believable, something that is shown in games like Wave Race (and its sequel), Pikmin, Mario Sunshine and Paper Mario on the Switch.
When this game first came out, we all lost our shit. We were dumbfounded with how beautiful and realistic it looked. I remember spending hours just riding and being in awe of how amazing the graphics and physics were. It's funny looking back how crap it looks today.
This and 1080 snowboarding were 2 games that really set the N64 apart back in the day.
I liked how 1080 and Wave Race shared some characters. It made for some nice world building.
I used to wake up early before school just to get a few races in. That wireframe mode tho. Awesome video!
Analysis-videos like that one are exactly the reason why i love this channel so much !!
I adored this game. The ambiance created by the audio and visuals made me so happy to spend hours perfecting every bob, bank and splash across the waves.
Great video; thank you!
At Christmas, my brother and I got a N64 with Mario 64 packed in, 2 controllers, and some strange looking game box named "Wave Race". Turned out to be a magical game. The graphics, the sound, and the music blew our minds for months after we started playing it!
Shortly after I was born my parents bought us me and my sister a Nintendo 64 with USA copies of Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 with two controllers. This video just revived some of my earliest memories in my life since I played this game as young as I can remember.
English is not our mother tongue so we had no idea what we were supposed to do and I was just a toddler to not even notice that my older sister pulled the trick of disconnecting the second controller and me believing we were both playing lol. That same N64 with the same 2 controllers is still at my parent's home collecting dust.
This is a video I've always wanted someone to make. Thank you!
I'll always remember when I played the second level during sunset for the first time. I was getting the CGI experiment in real time that they were selling to me years ago. Nothing other systems could offer. Also the music....what a great moment that was.
Thanks to talk about this game ! No other games was able to make so much fun waves than waverace 64 !
Wave Race brings back wonderful memories. My cousins and I would play it all the time. Of course we had the single player games but when we’d hang out together we’d play stuff like Wave Race, 1080, Golden Eye, Cruis’n USA, Mario Party. You couldn’t beat the N64 in terms of couch multiplayer! Wonderful times and memories
Thank you. Wave Race 64 is my favorite game of all time! Thanks again for the deep dive. Always wondered this.
Such a great game and completely under rated. I have been dabbling in speedrunning it and its amazing how technical it is. Theres so much more to it than just going fast. I appreciate videos like this that break down more of the under the hood aspects. Thanks!
I too remember this game from 97(Europe). It was such a fun game, and the waves are truly the star as your video proves.
And yeah, I want more videos from you in general!
The longer, the better!
You are the Anton Petrov of video-game TH-camrs, a lecturer for us all😀
That transition at 3:28 just shows how much superior CRT TV's were at displaying older games, the color is unparalleled. That's part of the reason why older games always looked better in your head then when you play them now, because they did when you played them on a CRT.
This was one of my all time favorite games on N64 I remember getting it at launch and playing this for years on and off never getting tired of it.
this was such an incredible game. Jumping ober the ship-wreck and racing alongside the orca was mind-blowing..
some of the best memories when it comes to gaming.
Love these kind of videos! Specifically that Tomb Raider on GBA video was superb! Please do more of these.
Awesome video! I remember back in 1996 this game made a big impact on how realistic the wave physics were. At the time it was heads and shoulders above anything else out there. I loved it as a kid, and I’m glad it’s on the N64 expansion pack.
One of my favourites for the N64, the music was also very memorable.
Wait, a Waverace video from MVG?
Am I in heaven rn? ♥
My friend had wave race 64 and I have fond memories playing that game for hours and hours on end. Thanks for this awesome deep dive!
Still have all three wave race games. Classics I tell ya.
My first N64 game, just gained a whole bunch of extra appreciation for the game that I previously didn't have. Thanks for what you do MVG.
One thing I loved about Wave Race 64 is that the 3 laps on the same course play completely different. I always remember the mist lifting on the 2nd lap of the river.
You better INTEND that pun!
I remember being wowed by this game (and Blue Storm), all that bobbing up and down in the water still feels so natural.
The best Sega game Nintendo ever made!
The Stamper brothers are absolute legends. It was such a joy disassembling and learning from their early ZX Spectrum code way back when I was about sixteen and they were known as Ultimate (Play the Game) aka Ashby Computers and Graphics.
One of my favorite games of all time. The N64 was the first 3D capable console I ever played. I remember trying to peek around trees in Mario 64. It is amazing how far we've come in such a short time.
Drake Lake was my favourite stage. The music and the scenery was dreamlike.
Great video! Please bring more of those! Thanks for the amazing work!
Literally, I’ve wondered this for decades. Thank you for explaining!
Thank you for showing us the inner working of the waves. It’s more impressive than I thought. Awesome episode.
I have such fond memories of this game. I didn't own it, but my aunt and uncle did (my aunt also introduced me to the Zelda series on NES and Battletoads). I spent a lot of time at their house during the summers and my younger brother and I would play this game all the time. I introduced my kids to it a few years ago and they enjoy playing it to this day. Always wondered how the water worked... These behind the code videos are amazing for someone like me who knows enough to know what they did, but not how they did it.
I truly, truly love these dives into how things like this were achieved with limited resources. It's so interesting to look at in a world where you can generate water in a game engine in 3 seconds and not have to worry about performance etc of the system it's running on due to the comparatively huge amount of computing power available today.
I played this game as a kid and even today its a BLAST to play. Super fun and challenging game. The water physics is truly amazing and adds to the chaotic fun on doing backflips on my jet ski
I absolutely loved WR64. Still have my original copy. Very addictive gameplay and seemed to hold attention much longer than any other race games of the time.
I played so much wave race 64 because those wave physics definitely blew my mind as a kid. I was always curious about how the waves in the game and basically assumed this is the way it worked, but was still such a cool feature I wish more games could have used.
Back in the late 90s my older neighbor friend Malcolm had an N64, I was a computer kid hacking away on projects, but when over at his house we'd play on his N64 together. We'd walk downtown to the video rental place and peruse the N64 games and some VHS movies. Wave Race was one of the games I remember playing, along with Snowboard 1080, Aerogauge, Goldeneye, etc... Kids these days will never know how cool the 90s were.
Referring to Mario 64 as "app" just twisted my brain a bit.
Yea haha a cartridge application lmao
THANK YOU! I've wanted a deep dive into this for ages, with the prior best being Digital Foundry.
my #1 favorite game of all time, i remember getting my first 64 when they came out, this game has the best memories of my life attached to it
The wave physics in Wave Race 64 is still looking good to till this day given the hardware limitations. Still baffles me that we haven't seen a brand new Wave Race game since GameCube era. Seems like the big N these days loves milking Mario Sports series + Switch Sports & Switch Online to the point that those games (& service) lose their charms compared to predecessors released on previous consoles (GameCube, Wii, Wii U & 3DS especially the Virtual Console).
Wave Race 64 was available on the console release day here in Australia. I Picked up my N64, extra black controller, memory pack, Super Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 all on the first morning they were for sale. I had them on pre-order at Myer in Perth. There were a few people waiting for the doors to open that morning. :)
Yes please do more of these man! I too grew up on this technology and it's fascinating to have it broke down MVG.
Thanks for the in depth tech breakdown. I love seeing the code side of all this, especially for stuff from the 90's.
Thanks MVG. I love these videos about gaming tech and how they made certain effects. I agree that it was mind-blowing for it's time.
All of your videos deliver a lot of inspiration and respect for the coders.
This one is no exception!
Thanks a lot for the perfect explanation!
MVG, before even watching this video, I wanted to say thank you for making this! Even in 1996 I noticed that the waves of Wave Race 64 were bounds farther along, tech-wise, to what any other game was doing. Those waves, the physics and how they impacted the jet-skis, were super, super impressive for their time! I am so glad someone else noticed, and that you have a platform and the knowledge to talk about it! Can't wait to see what you have to say, here we go!