For Rouge Squadrons inclusion of the N1 Starfighter: you have no idea how big this was. I was 12 years old and had been playing Rouge Squadron relentlessly. Saw Episode One in the theater, and then a couple months later I get my Nintendo Power in the mail saying there’s an exclusive Phantom Code hidden in Rouge! I lost my 12 year old mind when I unlocked it. It really was a brilliant marketing move. No one really had any idea that it was coming.
That and the N1 was by far the best fighter of the game. So good in fact they had to nerf it in the other two Rouge Squadron games. Fast as a close s-foil X-wing with similar durability, rapid fire laser canons more powerful than the A-Wings, and homing TORPEDOES that could blow up just about anything, plus R2 that could repair it on the fly and made for smaller target to hit, you could get Gold much easier in it.
I didn’t even own the game and I thought that was awesome. I thought my friend was lying when he told me that (there were a lot of rumors of cheats like that in games that almost always turned out to be untrue)
It's still crazy when you think about it. This game came out BEFORE Episode 1 and all this time there was an Episode 1 ship hidden inside it. Imagine if someone had somehow figured out the cheat code for the thing before Episode 1 released. Remember: The time of data mining games for stuff like this was still way in the future, you can mark Halo 3 as roughly the time where this became a common practice.
I had all 4 of these as a kid. Dang these bring back memories. There’s a few fun facts you didn’t mention though: Rogue Squadron - There’s a hidden Buick as a flyable craft. No seriously, a literal 1969 Buick Electra can be unlocked with cheats. It even has a unique description complete with voiceover. Battle for Naboo - The door at the end of the penultimate level can actually be destroyed by the player, but it takes a _massive_ amount of time. Also, during the Darth Maul bonus mission, Gavin Sykes appears as one of your enemies. If you shoot him down, he’ll scream out one of the same lines as when you die in campaign. Oh, and the Buick appears again. Episode 1 Racer - The fastest possible speed in the game is 1200 mph, or almost twice the speed of sound. Ironically, this is only possible with Ben Quadrinaros, the guy whose podracer blew up at the starting line in Episode 1. Shadows of the Empire - The star destroyer at the end of the game is meant to be the Executor; as in Darth Vader’s super star destroyer. Unfortunately, the N64 couldn’t handle it, so they had to change it to an Imperial-class. Also, it’s actually possible to escape the skyhook on your own. But even if you do, the game still ends as normal.
Watching this takes me back as a kid where I wanted the N64 so badly as a kid, because I wanted those Star Wars games. Interestingly enough my first exposure with Star Wars was Shadows Of The Empire and Rogue Squadron, then I watched the Original Trilogy soon afterward, been a fan of Star Wars ever since. Though a slight confession, Disney (and even the fanbase of Star Wars in general) have made it really hard to remain a SW fan in the last decade, I'm not gonna lie.
Disney’s made some bad choices but there’s some good stuff in there too. The toxic fan base is harder for me to deal with. I just want to share my love of Star Wars with people, not bitch about what I don’t like.
@playstation3.508 Thats a very foolish way of thinking, but if you want to believe that on your end fine. But don’t dictate to me of what happens after EP6, you’re proving the guy above me point on the fandom being toxic.. For me none of Disney stuff exists in my Star Wars, only legends and the 6 films.
I think its great that some people enjoy somethings in DSW, good for them. Glad there are some things in DSW that are decent. Me on the other hand I haven’t forgotten nor forgiven what Disney has done to this series, the constant spitting in the face of the fandom, disinformation spreading about the series, the sequel trilogy, their messy canon, giving the game rights to EA, not as many great SW games as before, the closing of LucasArts and canceling of a bunch of potentially great games in development, the disregarding of the EU only to rip it off, and their canon is inconsistent mess. Those are my reasons for detesting Disney SW. And I agree the fanbase is really toxic, even I can be very entitled. Think the biggest reason is because of the constant bullying in this fandom from a certain loud group of fans. Those kinds of people ruined my enjoyment of the films, and haven’t watched any of them in a long time. So yeah.
Ah SW Racer. My Father brought me a Nintendo 64 with this game as a package. Best day of my life. And man some of the maps where so fucking hard. Especially that Cloud map of the 4th level. The amount of times little old me struggled and restarted the track.... Man. Good old times.
I remember getting Shadows of the Empire and an N64 in early 1997. This was also when the Star Wars Special Edition was released in theaters. Having both of these Star Wars related things happen at the same time was exciting for me as a 12 year old; new Star Wars stuff was few and far between back then. The game blew me away.
Shadows of the Empire is easily my most favorite game from the N64 era and one of my all time favorites ever. I lost many hours of my life to the game. and after discovering the most insane and difficult cheat code ever to add in invincibility and unlimited weapons ammo (plus a couple of other changes like no fog and extended draw distance) it just made the game a lot more fun. And all of this in one of the N64's LAUNCH titles made it all the more amazing.
I loved all 4 of these games. I'd wish they'd not just repost them on modern systems( like racer) but do a clean-up and graphics update to them. It'd be so cool to see the race environments fleshed out our even shadows of the Empire a well. Also, cleaning up the gameplay and smoothing them out would be awesome too.
I got my N64 with Mario, Pilot Wings and Shadows of the Empire.... Still one of my favorite SW games. Of course by today standards it might be considered a bad game but for me the amount of variety and adventure and exploration and music blew my mind.
Hey man. I get the feeling I‘m slightly older than you. I was in Kindergarten when PM dropped. But I have specific memories playing Rogue Squadron, bringing my n64 the summer of it‘s release to church summer camp and playing it with the other kids. Specifically remember searching for the Nonnah, etc…I logged so many hours on that cart, I still have it probably, amongst childhood possessions. There was an older kid, a teenager working as a councilor who told me the Chicken Walker code, I never forgot that. The wonderment being 7 or 8, on an era when the Internet was geocities, CompuServe, instant messaging and dial up, new vehicles, the N1…it all just added wonderment. New Star Wars doesn’t really hit, adulthood doesn’t have that wonderment and games aren’t as fun, but thanks for letting me share the memory. I have memories of literally all these Star Wars games growing up, and these n64 titles particular defined my childhood in such a good way.
Getting the gold medal in rogue Squadron was very difficult (for two reasons: one, saving all three at-st in one mission was hard; second: getting high accuracy rate). Star Wars Racer was quite successful. Was the best rated from all Star Wars Episode 1 tie-ins that came out.
Fun Fact: In Shadows of the Empire, while hitting the AT-ST in the head causes way more damage way faster, it's actually even faster to hit it in the 'hips', the part between the legs that stores the power cells. Also, while there's a lot of difficulty in the Xizor's Palace level, I think it also gives you certain weapons to help deal with it. Like, in the bit where you're flying up and down to plant the pulse bombs, somewhere before that you can pick up a "stunner" weapon, which basically freezes all non-droid enemies in an area (maybe droids too? dunno) It super helps with the not getting shot bit. And other things like the disruptor, pulse cannon, and so on can help too. It's not like you're gonna need them later, after all. And yes, you can get significantly more than three if you find all the hidden spots where there's ammo for it. I think you can get at least nine shots for it, which I usually spam on the Gladiator Droid's head stage. Tip: Aim for a wall just below it, instead of a direct hit.
I’ve binged your Star Wars series through today, are you thinking about doing the rest of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series? I started my love of Star Wars games with the original Xbox, Jedi Knight II and Jedi Academy were my go to’s as a kid. Keep up the great work
I remember seeing shadows of the empire back in 1997 n64 kiosk it was one of the big reasons I wanted the n64 so badly (already had a ps1) but the graphic for that hoth mission was one of the most incredible things I ever seen in a game. it looked photo realistic to me back then. that, mario 64 and goldeneye was the "must have". And yeah, I got it (n64) for christmas 1997 luckily ;) however with Starfox/lylat wars, not star wars empire, but hey didnt matter much just went to a friend and borrowed his copy after x-mas. Anyway, my point remaind- shadows of empire was a great way to show off your n64. It was it days Crysis.
Found your channel through this video. Grew up playing Episode I: Racer on PC as a kid. Never got an N64 until 2004. I had so much fun going back and playing Shadows and Rogue Squadron in the mid-2000s. As an adult I bought a Racer copy for N64 and found the control scheme different but fun. Someday I’ll play Battle for Naboo. It’s been the one game I’ve always passed on. This video made me want to take a chance on it.
In case you didn't know, Racer on the N64 also supports a funky dual controller scheme via a cheat code. Basically it makes each engine independently controllable, it's genuinely pretty cool.
The "Podracer" name is interesting because I distinctly remember it being called Podracer as well. It wasn't until it was being rereleased on last gen that I realized it was just "Racer". I flipping loved this game.
One thing not mentioned about the v-wing in rogue squadron was the rapid-fire mode for the main blasters. When activated, the guns fire in unison at a much faster rate but will overheat when fired for too long. Then the guns won’t fire again until after they cool down. Most games have overheat mechanics that aren’t a huge issue, but in rogue squadron, rapid fire lasts about 1.5 seconds before the guns overheat and takes 5 times as long to cooldown and on top of that, there’s zero indicator of how hot the guns are.
2:45 I know I’m nitpicking, but the Roll button [R] for the Snowspeeder was used for braking right and the usual Brake button [Z] was for the left since it was “not a true flight craft, but a repulsor craft” - it couldn’t roll.
I got 3 of these all at launch 😁 rogue squadron is the only one I got with the guide and I spent HOURS looking at the pictorials and memorizing where all of the enemies were. I always struggled with getting gold until I was older but to find out it was made because of shadows was insane and shadows will always be my favorite non canon game
It’s really hard to explain how awesome Shadows of the Empire was when it came out in 1996. There was nothing else like it before and for a while after. Even Goldeneye, which came out the following year, had much better controls, and aged better, still didn’t have the massive scale of SotE. Of course Super Mario 64 was and still is one of the greatest games ever made, but it was very different and it came out around the same time so the developers probably never got to play it during SotE’s development. It may have aged poorly, but it deserves more credit for what it achieved at the time it was made. I don’t blame people who weren’t around at the time thinking this is a clunky mess, but I encourage them to look at the 3D games that came before it and hopefully they can appreciate what the developers made not only considering the technology but also that they had no other similar game to use as reference.
@@DevineInnovations Yeah. I remember playing the snowspeeder level in a store once and I even had a hard time figuring out what I was supposed to do. I played it again a little later and eventually I managed to make it through but then I got hit with the 3rd person shooter levels and gave up. At around the same time I also played Star Fox 64, which is a game so drastically better the difference has to be measured in a log scale. SF64 is also better by a huge margin than any SF game that followed, which is why I personally find the argument "it was 1996" somewhat unconvincing. I don't think I even tried to play Shadows again after that, until many years later, where my impressions were more or less the same. Not being 8 years old anymore I had a much easier time with the snowspeeder level but the next one just hurt me physically.
@@isodoubIetyeah SotE garnered mediocre reviews on release and deservedly so. While it was an early 3D third person shooter, 1) there were plenty of good FPSs with better fundamental gameplay and 2) it released shortly after Tomb Raider, a far better and more influential 3D third person game. Without the Battle of Hoth level to blow minds it probably would have done a lot worse. Lots of childhood nostalgia going on here and I get it; kid me liked it (and even got the toys, which was probably the point) but kid me was an idiot star wars brand loyalist. SotE is not worth a remaster and all the resources that would have to go into it. It’s just not a very good or notable game.
The actor that played Gavyn Sykes has one of the best retro media / computer youtube channels out there. I know at one point he talked about the Battle for Naboo game. The channel is called Retro Recepies.
Another SW game I loved to death was X-Wing: Alliance (on PC). And storywise it's a banger when you played Shadows before: they designed the story in a way that it connects on some specific spots with Shadows and the movies. There was even a whole mission - the one where you steal the Death Star plans - that was basically the same as in Shadows, but you get to play as one of the ships guarding outside of the imperial freighter (while Dash is inside stealing the plans)! Sensational, and it's all thanks to a development studio full of love and dedication!
"Entering cheat codes we unlock 3 bonus levels" Well yes, that's one way to do it. The intended way is for you to get all the medals for the missions. Bronze on all unlocks the first bonus level, silver on all unlocks the second and gold on all unlocks the third.
I remember loving the Tie Interceptor in Rogue Squadron. It was quick and nimble and I just loved the sound of the guns on the thing. Probably my favorite ship for every level.
man, I'm this close to buying a used N64 and getting all these games again. I grew up playing these as they were released, and they are still some of my all-time favorite games.
Shadows of the Empire was great, but I have to admit it's kinda weird to see its cutscences, but I never saw them before I remember of a rumor that said if you caught all challenge points you'd unlock a new level, I spent so much time trying to find them because of that
8:58 Seardon using a Sentinel Lander which was made for the Special Editions, Shadows of the Empire and this game (And also shows up in some of the later X-Wing titles like XWA and I think maybe XvT, plus being a main RTS game landing ship) was cool. he Lambda Shuttle's big brother with missiles and an ion canon on top of the eight forward guns. In Legends it has no rear gun, but the Disney version is smaller(Barely bigger than a Lambda honestly) and DOES have a rear gun, albiet mounted further forward than the Lambda.
The Speeder taking down walkers like in Rogue Squadron, always kinda bugged me. In the movie, the Rebels are using what ever vehicles they can get their hands on, but the games treat the thing like an actual combat vehicle. It's a search and rescue craft that had some blasters on it, the tow cable... was meant for towing. Luke using it in the movie to trip up the walker was him being resourceful, it's not what the craft was designed for though.
If I'm not mistaken, in expanded universe novels and the like, you can take down an AT-AT with an X-wings or a more powerful craft. You wouldn't opt for a speeder on purpose if you had access to something else.
Yea thats a canon issue. In the movie he literally says "it MIGHT be the only way of stopping them....". Even then, they had no idea. The reality is, everyone was so pumped to "finally do it like the movie" and bring down a walker that now anytime they had a walker in a game, ofc it HAD to be a snowspeeder because its soooo cool right?? The game itself mentions "use ur tow cables for walkers" yet all these missions take place BEFORE battle of hoth. Its so strange, that you can even tow cable a completely still walker and it still.....falls over. At least in the Battlefront games, the walkers had HP so you could just missile it to death or w/e.
32:34 "Another company had the copyright to POD" -- Planet of Death, 1997. Looks remarkably similar to some maps from Episode 1 Racer, but predates it by two years. POD is REALLY fun and VERY weird.
The V-Wing has a Rapid Fire Mode that you can switch to, so it firing slowly means you were using it wrong. Plus it has Locking Cluster Missiles if you got the Upgrades. So yeah, you were using the V-Wing wrong buddy.
It’s crazy how much better Shadows of the Empire looks on PC after only playing the N64 version for years. The cutscenes would have blown my mind back then. I never even knew the game existed on anything but N64 until a few years ago. I love the 64 version but damn is the PC version a whole lot cooler
The Moff in Rogue Squadron flying an imperial lander, always baffled me until I remembered the PC X wing and Tie Fighter games. The Moff was supposed to be flying an Alpha Class Starwing, made by Signus, which made the shuttles and landers, complete with folding wings. It also explains why the lander was firing missiles - not part of the lander load out, but standard on a Starwing. I guess Factor 5 couldn't import a Starwing for the N64.
I think the game that prevented LucasArts from calling Episode 1: Racer "Star Wars: Podracer" was a PC racing game called "POD: Planet of Death" by Ubisoft released in 1997. POD is not a bad racing game, but it isn't Wipeout (which was released two years earlier from POD)
I must have had a later version of the Rogue Squadron. The N1 wasn't hidden in the hanger and became available for a mission after beating it the first time. I also got access to the bonus levels, Falcon and Tie Interceptor by getting gold metals on all the levels. No cheats required. Maybe it was a game of the year addition? I don't know.
I finished this game 3 times way back in the day with a crappy N64 controller. I returned to it like 10 years later and was amazed how crappy the controls were. I couldn't believe I beat this game easily the first time around, but struggled the second time with a better N64 controller.
These are still some of my favourite Star Wars games. They had such a unique and interesting feel to each of them and I miss playing them quite often ❤
The team at Lucas Arts didn’t get a development kit for the 64 until late in the development of Shadows of the Empire, so the graphics aren’t what they could be
What do you mean, the v-wing fires slow? It has the fastest fire rate in the game, also seeker cluster missiles if you get the upgrade. It's what I used to get most of the gold medals back when I first played it.
Rogue Squadron was one of those games that I wanted the most. I remember my dad renting it for me every time we went to Blockbuster. The one we rented had all of the star-fighters unlocked including the Naboo fighter. I loved that game. I also thought Racers was called Pod Racers so you aren’t the only one. I never had this either but I would play it at the mall while my mom was shopping. I remember liking it at the time.
I love how game creators back in the day took so much into consideration even when making a game like Rogue Squadron to make sure the events in the game aligned with cannon, and now, the movies that are supposedly cannon don't even bother. Disney should take note.
A really well-produced, interesting video! It’s particularly impressive that you got through Shadows of the Empire with it running at the wrong speed! The PC version of the game has speed issues on modern systems, which is why Dash’s running animation looks a bit silly and why the blaster shots are super fast, amongst other things. I bought the GOG version and found it borderline unplayable. The speeder level in particular is ridiculously difficult at that speed. It was a slower, more consistent experience back in the day on period correct hardware.
Shadows of the empire was amazing. It had everything EXCEPT a movie. Books. Comics. Videos games. Toys. But a movie was never even considered. And worked
Really cool to see those SOTE cutscenes, instead of the weird matte pictures the N64 original had. I loved that game as a kid and still think it was amazingly inventive, but I agree it definitely had its flaws. Fingers crossed for these classics to come to the switch virtual N64 soon
I was Blessed enough to play these Games Religiously when I was a Child. Growing up definitely was a Middle Class Childhood. my parents didn’t have the Money to Get the Newest and Craziest Gaming systems at that Time. I was Grateful and Very entertained lol. I’m not much of a Gamer anymore, even though I have my PS4 Still and the Occasional Battlefield Game once each week. But I want to get myself a N64 and All the Starwars Games again, and enjoy my childhood once again.
2:05 the ps1 released 1 year before n64 in the usa. Every n64 game was basically done to out do the visuals of a ps1 while sacrificing audio fidelity while adding anti aliasing.
If only the n64 got those 3D cutscenes from the PC version of Shadows.... sigh . Good way to make the N64 look good by including content it didn't have
Fun fact. In racer on the n64, if you input RRDUAL at the cheat menu, you can use a controller in port 1 and port 4 to controller your racer like in the arcade machine. Using your analog sticks as the levers
Great Video! Good times Playing a chunk of these games! And I have some stories to tell. I am a HUGE Fan of Rogue Squadron! I played it the Most I think. I had some of those missions Planned out and memorized to the second in order to get Gold medals. I was so Proud of myself, when I got 13 Gold medals. and 2 silvers. Fest and Sullust man... and then I took my N64 to college and a roomate deleted my save file and started a new game as the name CUK. a He was a grade-A Dick. I played Shadows of the Empire as well, I beat it on Medium, That game was Frustratingly difficult! I thought I beat it on Jedi, but after looking at my saves again, it was only medium. I struggled so much in that gam i can't imagine 2 more levels of difficulty. Episode 1 racer was classic. Lots of fun but My friend always beat me, and I could never figure out why, he kept selecting the same pod, and I was just trying to figure out which pod best suited my needs. and then i figured out that you could buy upgrades for your pod, and he had Maxed out his Pod, leaving me with default. Ive never concidered Playing Battle of Naboo. but after your video, it looks pretty fun! i may pick it up if I ever see it.
If anyone is wondering why the aiming seems very "snappy" and not smooth, it's because the controller isn't handling analogue input from the thumb the same way the original N64 controller did. Aiming was much smoother and granular on the original N64 and controller.
For Rouge Squadrons inclusion of the N1 Starfighter: you have no idea how big this was. I was 12 years old and had been playing Rouge Squadron relentlessly. Saw Episode One in the theater, and then a couple months later I get my Nintendo Power in the mail saying there’s an exclusive Phantom Code hidden in Rouge! I lost my 12 year old mind when I unlocked it. It really was a brilliant marketing move. No one really had any idea that it was coming.
its funny to think this game was probably the inspiration of the later titles like "Empire at war"
That and the N1 was by far the best fighter of the game. So good in fact they had to nerf it in the other two Rouge Squadron games. Fast as a close s-foil X-wing with similar durability, rapid fire laser canons more powerful than the A-Wings, and homing TORPEDOES that could blow up just about anything, plus R2 that could repair it on the fly and made for smaller target to hit, you could get Gold much easier in it.
I didn’t even own the game and I thought that was awesome. I thought my friend was lying when he told me that (there were a lot of rumors of cheats like that in games that almost always turned out to be untrue)
It's still crazy when you think about it. This game came out BEFORE Episode 1 and all this time there was an Episode 1 ship hidden inside it. Imagine if someone had somehow figured out the cheat code for the thing before Episode 1 released. Remember: The time of data mining games for stuff like this was still way in the future, you can mark Halo 3 as roughly the time where this became a common practice.
@@blackm4niac I actually remember that about data mining. They did it for the IWHBYD skull right?
I had all 4 of these as a kid. Dang these bring back memories. There’s a few fun facts you didn’t mention though:
Rogue Squadron - There’s a hidden Buick as a flyable craft. No seriously, a literal 1969 Buick Electra can be unlocked with cheats. It even has a unique description complete with voiceover.
Battle for Naboo - The door at the end of the penultimate level can actually be destroyed by the player, but it takes a _massive_ amount of time. Also, during the Darth Maul bonus mission, Gavin Sykes appears as one of your enemies. If you shoot him down, he’ll scream out one of the same lines as when you die in campaign. Oh, and the Buick appears again.
Episode 1 Racer - The fastest possible speed in the game is 1200 mph, or almost twice the speed of sound. Ironically, this is only possible with Ben Quadrinaros, the guy whose podracer blew up at the starting line in Episode 1.
Shadows of the Empire - The star destroyer at the end of the game is meant to be the Executor; as in Darth Vader’s super star destroyer. Unfortunately, the N64 couldn’t handle it, so they had to change it to an Imperial-class. Also, it’s actually possible to escape the skyhook on your own. But even if you do, the game still ends as normal.
Watching this takes me back as a kid where I wanted the N64 so badly as a kid, because I wanted those Star Wars games. Interestingly enough my first exposure with Star Wars was Shadows Of The Empire and Rogue Squadron, then I watched the Original Trilogy soon afterward, been a fan of Star Wars ever since. Though a slight confession, Disney (and even the fanbase of Star Wars in general) have made it really hard to remain a SW fan in the last decade, I'm not gonna lie.
Preaching to the choir on that one, it's been hard with what Disney has done. But at least we have the EU.
@@evprince The EU is the biggest reason why I remain a Star Wars fan. As well has a huge pile of classic SW video games.
Disney’s made some bad choices but there’s some good stuff in there too. The toxic fan base is harder for me to deal with. I just want to share my love of Star Wars with people, not bitch about what I don’t like.
@playstation3.508 Thats a very foolish way of thinking, but if you want to believe that on your end fine. But don’t dictate to me of what happens after EP6, you’re proving the guy above me point on the fandom being toxic.. For me none of Disney stuff exists in my Star Wars, only legends and the 6 films.
I think its great that some people enjoy somethings in DSW, good for them. Glad there are some things in DSW that are decent. Me on the other hand I haven’t forgotten nor forgiven what Disney has done to this series, the constant spitting in the face of the fandom, disinformation spreading about the series, the sequel trilogy, their messy canon, giving the game rights to EA, not as many great SW games as before, the closing of LucasArts and canceling of a bunch of potentially great games in development, the disregarding of the EU only to rip it off, and their canon is inconsistent mess. Those are my reasons for detesting Disney SW. And I agree the fanbase is really toxic, even I can be very entitled. Think the biggest reason is because of the constant bullying in this fandom from a certain loud group of fans. Those kinds of people ruined my enjoyment of the films, and haven’t watched any of them in a long time. So yeah.
I wish they would remaster Shadows of the empire. This game was a masterpiece imo
Criminally underrated storyline. I always thought cosner resembled dash
Shadows of the empire will always be my favorite star wars game. So much variety.
Ah SW Racer. My Father brought me a Nintendo 64 with this game as a package. Best day of my life. And man some of the maps where so fucking hard. Especially that Cloud map of the 4th level. The amount of times little old me struggled and restarted the track.... Man. Good old times.
I got the same package from my dad
I'm also guessing why Naboo and Racer were mixed because of the lukewarm reception of the Phantom Menace movie.
All 4 SW N64 games are great tbh.
Shadows of the empire was an amazing game.
I remember getting Shadows of the Empire and an N64 in early 1997. This was also when the Star Wars Special Edition was released in theaters. Having both of these Star Wars related things happen at the same time was exciting for me as a 12 year old; new Star Wars stuff was few and far between back then. The game blew me away.
Shadows of the Empire is easily my most favorite game from the N64 era and one of my all time favorites ever. I lost many hours of my life to the game. and after discovering the most insane and difficult cheat code ever to add in invincibility and unlimited weapons ammo (plus a couple of other changes like no fog and extended draw distance) it just made the game a lot more fun. And all of this in one of the N64's LAUNCH titles made it all the more amazing.
A lot of people think Star Wars Racer is called Podracer because a lot of gaming magazines at the time called it Star Wars Podracer.
I loved all 4 of these games. I'd wish they'd not just repost them on modern systems( like racer) but do a clean-up and graphics update to them. It'd be so cool to see the race environments fleshed out our even shadows of the Empire a well.
Also, cleaning up the gameplay and smoothing them out would be awesome too.
Racer is such a fast paced racer I really enjoyed it 😊
It would be an entirely different game then. I'd rather a rerelease (like they did), and a remake, not just a remake
i like that all the background music for the shadow of the empire bit comes from kotor 2
I got my N64 with Mario, Pilot Wings and Shadows of the Empire.... Still one of my favorite SW games. Of course by today standards it might be considered a bad game but for me the amount of variety and adventure and exploration and music blew my mind.
Shadows of the Empire was my father back then. That music in the asteroid belt and the sky hook battle will blow your balls off.
Hey man.
I get the feeling I‘m slightly older than you. I was in Kindergarten when PM dropped. But I have specific memories playing Rogue Squadron, bringing my n64 the summer of it‘s release to church summer camp and playing it with the other kids. Specifically remember searching for the Nonnah, etc…I logged so many hours on that cart, I still have it probably, amongst childhood possessions.
There was an older kid, a teenager working as a councilor who told me the Chicken Walker code, I never forgot that. The wonderment being 7 or 8, on an era when the Internet was geocities, CompuServe, instant messaging and dial up, new vehicles, the N1…it all just added wonderment. New Star Wars doesn’t really hit, adulthood doesn’t have that wonderment and games aren’t as fun, but thanks for letting me share the memory.
I have memories of literally all these Star Wars games growing up, and these n64 titles particular defined my childhood in such a good way.
Just happy to talk about these wonderful old Star Wars games like this and give people a place to remember how good they were.
I remember standing in line in the toy store to play the shadows of the empire snow speeder level on the display console.
It was so awesome.
I never had the pleasure of owning an N64, so this is as close as I'll probably get to experiencing these for myself.
Loved this. Brought me back to being a teen again. Shadows of the Empire was the 1st N64 game I ever played. And Racer I fell head over heals for.
i was just thinking how "racer" could be an alternate history where Anikin does not become a Jedi but instead becomes a professional Pod racer.
Nice job, really enjoyable watch. Always love a retrospective on the better days of Star Wars games.
Getting the gold medal in rogue Squadron was very difficult (for two reasons: one, saving all three at-st in one mission was hard; second: getting high accuracy rate).
Star Wars Racer was quite successful. Was the best rated from all Star Wars Episode 1 tie-ins that came out.
I had all Gold medals then i borrowed the Game to a friend and this idiot erased my savegame LOL. I was so upset i never borrowed him a Game hehe
Fun Fact: In Shadows of the Empire, while hitting the AT-ST in the head causes way more damage way faster, it's actually even faster to hit it in the 'hips', the part between the legs that stores the power cells.
Also, while there's a lot of difficulty in the Xizor's Palace level, I think it also gives you certain weapons to help deal with it. Like, in the bit where you're flying up and down to plant the pulse bombs, somewhere before that you can pick up a "stunner" weapon, which basically freezes all non-droid enemies in an area (maybe droids too? dunno) It super helps with the not getting shot bit. And other things like the disruptor, pulse cannon, and so on can help too. It's not like you're gonna need them later, after all. And yes, you can get significantly more than three if you find all the hidden spots where there's ammo for it. I think you can get at least nine shots for it, which I usually spam on the Gladiator Droid's head stage. Tip: Aim for a wall just below it, instead of a direct hit.
I’ve binged your Star Wars series through today, are you thinking about doing the rest of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series? I started my love of Star Wars games with the original Xbox, Jedi Knight II and Jedi Academy were my go to’s as a kid. Keep up the great work
Yes! I plan to cover every Jedi Knight game. DF2 will release soon.
@@evprince I highly recommend the Opendf2jk source port for DF2. Runs like a dream 👍
Star Wars really had a great run on the N64. i had a lot of fun at the arcade on the podracer machine.
I remember seeing shadows of the empire back in 1997 n64 kiosk it was one of the big reasons I wanted the n64 so badly (already had a ps1) but the graphic for that hoth mission was one of the most incredible things I ever seen in a game. it looked photo realistic to me back then. that, mario 64 and goldeneye was the "must have". And yeah, I got it (n64) for christmas 1997 luckily ;) however with Starfox/lylat wars, not star wars empire, but hey didnt matter much just went to a friend and borrowed his copy after x-mas.
Anyway, my point remaind- shadows of empire was a great way to show off your n64. It was it days Crysis.
Found your channel through this video. Grew up playing Episode I: Racer on PC as a kid. Never got an N64 until 2004. I had so much fun going back and playing Shadows and Rogue Squadron in the mid-2000s. As an adult I bought a Racer copy for N64 and found the control scheme different but fun. Someday I’ll play Battle for Naboo. It’s been the one game I’ve always passed on. This video made me want to take a chance on it.
In case you didn't know, Racer on the N64 also supports a funky dual controller scheme via a cheat code. Basically it makes each engine independently controllable, it's genuinely pretty cool.
@@ozzyp97 I didn’t. Wild!
The "Podracer" name is interesting because I distinctly remember it being called Podracer as well. It wasn't until it was being rereleased on last gen that I realized it was just "Racer". I flipping loved this game.
2nd RUclipsr I've ever kept notifications on for and clicked right away
One thing not mentioned about the v-wing in rogue squadron was the rapid-fire mode for the main blasters.
When activated, the guns fire in unison at a much faster rate but will overheat when fired for too long. Then the guns won’t fire again until after they cool down.
Most games have overheat mechanics that aren’t a huge issue, but in rogue squadron, rapid fire lasts about 1.5 seconds before the guns overheat and takes 5 times as long to cooldown and on top of that, there’s zero indicator of how hot the guns are.
That's wild, I had no idea there was a PC version of SOTE with cutscenes! Love the video and your narration, you got yourself a sub!
I believe it has extra cutscenes? The gameplay is exactly the same IIRC
2:45 I know I’m nitpicking, but the Roll button [R] for the Snowspeeder was used for braking right and the usual Brake button [Z] was for the left since it was “not a true flight craft, but a repulsor craft” - it couldn’t roll.
12:07 HARDR as a cheat code is INSANE 😂
I remember watching the Super Bowl and seeing Ep.'s 1 brand new movie trailer. And saying I should be recording this... on my VCR!
man I still have the very first XWing book. I still remember the unique green X-Wings.
I got 3 of these all at launch 😁 rogue squadron is the only one I got with the guide and I spent HOURS looking at the pictorials and memorizing where all of the enemies were. I always struggled with getting gold until I was older but to find out it was made because of shadows was insane and shadows will always be my favorite non canon game
Rogue Squadron came out halfway through the console’s lifetime, not towards the end. It is my all time favorite game btw
You could actually pilot a commandeered AT-ST in the NES version of Empire Strikes Back. Nothing like RS's implementation, of course.
It’s really hard to explain how awesome Shadows of the Empire was when it came out in 1996. There was nothing else like it before and for a while after. Even Goldeneye, which came out the following year, had much better controls, and aged better, still didn’t have the massive scale of SotE. Of course Super Mario 64 was and still is one of the greatest games ever made, but it was very different and it came out around the same time so the developers probably never got to play it during SotE’s development. It may have aged poorly, but it deserves more credit for what it achieved at the time it was made. I don’t blame people who weren’t around at the time thinking this is a clunky mess, but I encourage them to look at the 3D games that came before it and hopefully they can appreciate what the developers made not only considering the technology but also that they had no other similar game to use as reference.
I thought it was a clunky mess back then too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@isodoubIet in 1996?
@@DevineInnovations Yeah. I remember playing the snowspeeder level in a store once and I even had a hard time figuring out what I was supposed to do. I played it again a little later and eventually I managed to make it through but then I got hit with the 3rd person shooter levels and gave up.
At around the same time I also played Star Fox 64, which is a game so drastically better the difference has to be measured in a log scale. SF64 is also better by a huge margin than any SF game that followed, which is why I personally find the argument "it was 1996" somewhat unconvincing.
I don't think I even tried to play Shadows again after that, until many years later, where my impressions were more or less the same. Not being 8 years old anymore I had a much easier time with the snowspeeder level but the next one just hurt me physically.
@@isodoubIetyeah SotE garnered mediocre reviews on release and deservedly so. While it was an early 3D third person shooter, 1) there were plenty of good FPSs with better fundamental gameplay and 2) it released shortly after Tomb Raider, a far better and more influential 3D third person game. Without the Battle of Hoth level to blow minds it probably would have done a lot worse. Lots of childhood nostalgia going on here and I get it; kid me liked it (and even got the toys, which was probably the point) but kid me was an idiot star wars brand loyalist. SotE is not worth a remaster and all the resources that would have to go into it. It’s just not a very good or notable game.
The actor that played Gavyn Sykes has one of the best retro media / computer youtube channels out there. I know at one point he talked about the Battle for Naboo game. The channel is called Retro Recepies.
Another SW game I loved to death was X-Wing: Alliance (on PC). And storywise it's a banger when you played Shadows before: they designed the story in a way that it connects on some specific spots with Shadows and the movies. There was even a whole mission - the one where you steal the Death Star plans - that was basically the same as in Shadows, but you get to play as one of the ships guarding outside of the imperial freighter (while Dash is inside stealing the plans)! Sensational, and it's all thanks to a development studio full of love and dedication!
"Entering cheat codes we unlock 3 bonus levels"
Well yes, that's one way to do it. The intended way is for you to get all the medals for the missions. Bronze on all unlocks the first bonus level, silver on all unlocks the second and gold on all unlocks the third.
In Rogue Squadron, you fly the Speeder in 3 levels, and the A-Wing and Y-Wing in 2 levels each.
I remember loving the Tie Interceptor in Rogue Squadron. It was quick and nimble and I just loved the sound of the guns on the thing. Probably my favorite ship for every level.
man, I'm this close to buying a used N64 and getting all these games again. I grew up playing these as they were released, and they are still some of my all-time favorite games.
😂😂 I laughed pretty hard when you sped up - render are shooting the crates with the wampas on Echo Base 🤣 hilarious
Shadows of the Empire was great, but I have to admit it's kinda weird to see its cutscences, but I never saw them before
I remember of a rumor that said if you caught all challenge points you'd unlock a new level, I spent so much time trying to find them because of that
I was young enough for finding the N1 cheat codes published one day blew my freaking mind.
Rogue Squadron on PC is what got me into Star Wars. In fact, I love the ships more than I love the lightsabers.
I wish they would release shadows of the empire and rogue squadron on the switch
Rogue squadron is on steam, but yeah switch would be good
Man
Seeing that train scene from SOTE gave me so much nostalgia
8:58 Seardon using a Sentinel Lander which was made for the Special Editions, Shadows of the Empire and this game (And also shows up in some of the later X-Wing titles like XWA and I think maybe XvT, plus being a main RTS game landing ship) was cool. he Lambda Shuttle's big brother with missiles and an ion canon on top of the eight forward guns. In Legends it has no rear gun, but the Disney version is smaller(Barely bigger than a Lambda honestly) and DOES have a rear gun, albiet mounted further forward than the Lambda.
The Speeder taking down walkers like in Rogue Squadron, always kinda bugged me. In the movie, the Rebels are using what ever vehicles they can get their hands on, but the games treat the thing like an actual combat vehicle. It's a search and rescue craft that had some blasters on it, the tow cable... was meant for towing. Luke using it in the movie to trip up the walker was him being resourceful, it's not what the craft was designed for though.
If I'm not mistaken, in expanded universe novels and the like, you can take down an AT-AT with an X-wings or a more powerful craft. You wouldn't opt for a speeder on purpose if you had access to something else.
@@PartTimeBox Exactly.
Yea thats a canon issue. In the movie he literally says "it MIGHT be the only way of stopping them....". Even then, they had no idea. The reality is, everyone was so pumped to "finally do it like the movie" and bring down a walker that now anytime they had a walker in a game, ofc it HAD to be a snowspeeder because its soooo cool right?? The game itself mentions "use ur tow cables for walkers" yet all these missions take place BEFORE battle of hoth.
Its so strange, that you can even tow cable a completely still walker and it still.....falls over. At least in the Battlefront games, the walkers had HP so you could just missile it to death or w/e.
32:34 "Another company had the copyright to POD" -- Planet of Death, 1997. Looks remarkably similar to some maps from Episode 1 Racer, but predates it by two years. POD is REALLY fun and VERY weird.
The V-Wing has a Rapid Fire Mode that you can switch to, so it firing slowly means you were using it wrong. Plus it has Locking Cluster Missiles if you got the Upgrades. So yeah, you were using the V-Wing wrong buddy.
“Burnout on Cannon 1. Burnout on Cannon 2. Hold on, my blasters are still cooling!”
It’s crazy how much better Shadows of the Empire looks on PC after only playing the N64 version for years. The cutscenes would have blown my mind back then. I never even knew the game existed on anything but N64 until a few years ago. I love the 64 version but damn is the PC version a whole lot cooler
The Moff in Rogue Squadron flying an imperial lander, always baffled me until I remembered the PC X wing and Tie Fighter games.
The Moff was supposed to be flying an Alpha Class Starwing, made by Signus, which made the shuttles and landers, complete with folding wings. It also explains why the lander was firing missiles - not part of the lander load out, but standard on a Starwing.
I guess Factor 5 couldn't import a Starwing for the N64.
From one Prince to another, well done, sir! 🫡
I think the game that prevented LucasArts from calling Episode 1: Racer "Star Wars: Podracer" was a PC racing game called "POD: Planet of Death" by Ubisoft released in 1997. POD is not a bad racing game, but it isn't Wipeout (which was released two years earlier from POD)
On PC the N1 wasn’t included in the initial rogue squadron release to prevent data mining it. It was added in a patch released after the film
I’m pretty sure there was an Empire strikes Back game too. Had to rope up those long legged robot things in the snow land.
I must have had a later version of the Rogue Squadron. The N1 wasn't hidden in the hanger and became available for a mission after beating it the first time. I also got access to the bonus levels, Falcon and Tie Interceptor by getting gold metals on all the levels. No cheats required. Maybe it was a game of the year addition? I don't know.
I finished this game 3 times way back in the day with a crappy N64 controller. I returned to it like 10 years later and was amazed how crappy the controls were. I couldn't believe I beat this game easily the first time around, but struggled the second time with a better N64 controller.
I loved the Y-wing levels in Rouge Squadron when I was a kid.
These are still some of my favourite Star Wars games. They had such a unique and interesting feel to each of them and I miss playing them quite often ❤
The team at Lucas Arts didn’t get a development kit for the 64 until late in the development of Shadows of the Empire, so the graphics aren’t what they could be
IG-88 was a terrifying fight in Shadows of the Empire, when I was a kid. The noises he made were just so damn creepy.
the thrawn trilogy, original trilogy special editions, episode 1, the n64 games. what a time to be alive
Wrapping AT ATs up with a tow cable was the best depth perception development ever.
What do you mean, the v-wing fires slow? It has the fastest fire rate in the game, also seeker cluster missiles if you get the upgrade. It's what I used to get most of the gold medals back when I first played it.
Rogue squadron and shadows of the empire was my entire childhood
Getting run over by the train bridge… me… every time… every day on shadows of the empire
Pretty funny that they focused so much on making the stories fit the movies and then several decades later, Didney ruined that
which company had the copyright for all games with POD in the name?
I would love to see you go through the stories of X-Wing and TIE fighter games
Chris Huelsbeck. Legendary composer for the Commodor Amiga. :)
Another game he made my childhood with. :D
1:13:08 this was also a mission in X-Wing: Alliance, where the player character was part of the escort group for Luke and Dash.
Rogue Squadron was one of those games that I wanted the most. I remember my dad renting it for me every time we went to Blockbuster. The one we rented had all of the star-fighters unlocked including the Naboo fighter. I loved that game. I also thought Racers was called Pod Racers so you aren’t the only one. I never had this either but I would play it at the mall while my mom was shopping. I remember liking it at the time.
I love how game creators back in the day took so much into consideration even when making a game like Rogue Squadron to make sure the events in the game aligned with cannon, and now, the movies that are supposedly cannon don't even bother. Disney should take note.
A really well-produced, interesting video! It’s particularly impressive that you got through Shadows of the Empire with it running at the wrong speed! The PC version of the game has speed issues on modern systems, which is why Dash’s running animation looks a bit silly and why the blaster shots are super fast, amongst other things. I bought the GOG version and found it borderline unplayable. The speeder level in particular is ridiculously difficult at that speed. It was a slower, more consistent experience back in the day on period correct hardware.
Shadows of the empire was amazing. It had everything EXCEPT a movie. Books. Comics. Videos games. Toys. But a movie was never even considered. And worked
The PS1 was always out during the N64’s lifespan….
Really cool to see those SOTE cutscenes, instead of the weird matte pictures the N64 original had. I loved that game as a kid and still think it was amazingly inventive, but I agree it definitely had its flaws. Fingers crossed for these classics to come to the switch virtual N64 soon
I remember it took months for my brother and I to beat the Fett level. I think it was a combination of us being young and this awful controls
This was well done thanks for making this.
Ironically I bought a N64a few weeks ago for Shadows of the Empire, pod racer and Conker's Bad Fur Day (my girlfriend's favorite all time game)
I was Blessed enough to play these Games Religiously when I was a Child.
Growing up definitely was a Middle Class Childhood. my parents didn’t have the Money to Get the Newest and Craziest Gaming systems at that Time. I was Grateful and Very entertained lol.
I’m not much of a Gamer anymore, even though I have my PS4 Still and the Occasional Battlefield Game once each week. But I want to get myself a N64 and All the Starwars Games again, and enjoy my childhood once again.
Shadows of the Empires was such a pain in the ass to beat.
In Rogue Squadron you can unlock all three special missions and ships, minus the ATST walker and the car, by getting all the medals.
Thanks RUclips for making me come across this great channel! Subscribed!
2:05 the ps1 released 1 year before n64 in the usa. Every n64 game was basically done to out do the visuals of a ps1 while sacrificing audio fidelity while adding anti aliasing.
@19:20 The plant pot exploded lol
I had all of these but pod racer. Loved rogue squadron & shadows.
Shadow of war was a good one, but I can not ever forget Jedi Outcast
If only the n64 got those 3D cutscenes from the PC version of Shadows.... sigh . Good way to make the N64 look good by including content it didn't have
14:44 Chris Hülsbeck. Zoomers, know the giants on whose shoulders you stand.
Take your heart medicine grandpa
DK64 will live in our hearts FOREVER...... the SW games where amazing too - of course ;)
Fun fact. In racer on the n64, if you input RRDUAL at the cheat menu, you can use a controller in port 1 and port 4 to controller your racer like in the arcade machine. Using your analog sticks as the levers
Great Video! Good times Playing a chunk of these games! And I have some stories to tell. I am a HUGE Fan of Rogue Squadron! I played it the Most I think. I had some of those missions Planned out and memorized to the second in order to get Gold medals. I was so Proud of myself, when I got 13 Gold medals. and 2 silvers. Fest and Sullust man... and then I took my N64 to college and a roomate deleted my save file and started a new game as the name CUK. a
He was a grade-A Dick.
I played Shadows of the Empire as well, I beat it on Medium, That game was Frustratingly difficult! I thought I beat it on Jedi, but after looking at my saves again, it was only medium.
I struggled so much in that gam i can't imagine 2 more levels of difficulty.
Episode 1 racer was classic. Lots of fun but My friend always beat me, and I could never figure out why, he kept selecting the same pod, and I was just trying to figure out which pod best suited my needs. and then i figured out that you could buy upgrades for your pod, and he had Maxed out his Pod, leaving me with default.
Ive never concidered Playing Battle of Naboo. but after your video, it looks pretty fun! i may pick it up if I ever see it.
If anyone is wondering why the aiming seems very "snappy" and not smooth, it's because the controller isn't handling analogue input from the thumb the same way the original N64 controller did. Aiming was much smoother and granular on the original N64 and controller.
I played the hell out of the pod racer game 100% it many times. But man when I played the star wars games on ps1 it was like real life lol good times.