Star Fox 64 was just the first taste of more split-screen games to come in 1997. We sunk hours on the weekend chasing each other in the vacuum of virtual space, seemingly enthralled by what is, looking back, some incredibly easy gameplay. The game of choice was Star Fox 64, featuring all manner of aircraft and pilots to use in thrilling dogfights. Now, the arcade was in my best friend’s living room - and we played endlessly, rotating in Oliver’s little brother, other friends from the neighborhood and the occasional curious parent. The only time I had even witnessed side-by-side competitive gameplay was at the arcade. Not even Sony’s 1995 PlayStation, the direct competitor of the N64, had four ports. It was an enigma to our seven-year-old minds, especially because it came with a feature that no other console had: Four controller ports, making it dead simple to play games with four people on a single TV. The machine was a marvel to both of us: The slim charcoal-gray machine didn’t look much more sophisticated than 1991’s Super Nintendo, but the cutting-edge (at the time) 3D game designs and character models it pumped out on-screen felt entirely foreign. Instead, I turned to my friend Oliver, who lived a few blocks away and had scored an N64 for his birthday. ![]() The Nintendo 64 console had arrived the summer prior, but my parents didn’t have the budget to drop $200 on a Christmas gift, and I didn’t put up much of a fight. The year 1997 didn’t mark the first time in my young life that I played a video game console - but it was surely the most formative, forever coloring my impression of gaming and teaching me the magnetic potential of a single screen. Come for the Chumbawamba, and stay for the return of the Mack. Twice a week over the next 12 months, we will take you back to the winter of sheep cloning and the summer of Con Air. It was an ear-biting, Pierce Brosnan-loving, comet-obsessed world, and we’re here to relive every minute of it. ![]() 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the year that everything happened - 1997.
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