Beating EVERY N64 Game - Body Harvest (84/394) 

Don't know if you planned on this, but maybe around game 100 I'd love to see a little recap of the games. Maybe your favorite so far as well as the ones that took you the longest and shortest.

The fact that they could fit as big of a map on a 64 cart is pretty amazing. Seems like they made a lot of design choices around that with limitations but this looks really ambitious, it’s a game that definitely springboarded other games.

This game blew me away when I was a kid. Definitely pushed the n64 to the limit.

The tanks in this game are modeled correctly for the provided names, which I also find really impressive for a game of this era.

This game went straight over my head as a kid. Even though we owned it I couldn't figure it out, neat to see it beaten. Really enjoying this series.

I like how Beast completely doesn't acknowledge running someone over in the fire truck.

Body Harvest is a hidden gem on N64. You can really tell what parts of body harvest inspired/were used in Grandtheft auto

I remember randomly renting this when I was a kid and I couldn’t believe the open world aspect of it. Never saw a game like this before.

Stumbled across this randomly. Man, great commentary and play through! I remember being stuck on this game so much growing up and I couldn't ever figure out the part right past the 1966 ramp jump as I'd either be out of ammo or my body count too high and out of vehicles. Cool to see that there was much more to go after that point.

I got super excited last week when I saw this was up next. I got EXTREMELY excited when I saw this was 50 minutes long! THAT'S BEAST!

Man the number of times I accidentally got killed in the water was soooo frustrating but the fact that all the vehicles are driveable was the coolest thing ever back then

I was 13 when this came out, and I bought it with my allowance money. I absolutely loved it for a day or two, but then my mom saw how violent it was, and made me return it. RIP

If you are wondering why the black soldier is calling you brother. He is a clone of Adam Drake (the protagonist), if you watch the intro cinematic, your character gets shot in the arm and one of the aliens harvests some of the blood you left on the floor.

This is one of my favorite N64 games of all time. I'm pretty sure I still have the game cartridge somewhere.

I enjoyed watching you experience this game for the first time 😃

When I was a kid one of my cousins had this game but I was not allowed to play it because after I played it I would have these crazy nightmares about the aliens where I would wake up crying I would still play it though but I'm pretty sure this game is the reason I don't like bugs I also have a weird fear of really big things. Regardless this game was really cool and nostalgic.

The ice cream truck jingle is the same one from the Grand Theft Auto series Mr. Whoopee, guess they had that tune for a real long time

This is the one I've been waiting for, as I played this game a lot as a kid but never beat it, so the fact that you posted this while I'm stuck at home with a broken foot AND it's 50 minutes long really brightens my day. Looking forward to seeing you play Turok, as I played the hell out of those too. Keep it up, Thab!

Dude this game went right over my head when I was a kid. Me and my friend used to sit in his parents expedition and play pretend body harvest, pretending to drive around and shoot aliens. We liked the game but it was kind if too hard lol

I've watched maybe a dozen of these at this point and I can confidently say I'm with you for the long haul. Your humble style and delivery, genuine enthusiasm for the console, and clear dedication to the project are so refreshing in the current RU-vid landscape of bigger-faster-louder-more-sponsors. Thanks for giving such a fun channel to explore and re-explore all these games--classics, stinkers, and hidden gems alike--from my childhood!

I'm writing this in response to your observation that it is pretty incredible this open-world game was created for the N64 and runs so well. The interesting thing about video games is it can be pretty tough mental work to program them efficiently. A lot of small shops of super interested, nerdy types made a lot of well-coded video games back in the day, likely using tons of advanced mathematics and programming tricks to get them to work on the hardware of the day. At that time, basically anyone coding was pretty serious about it and pretty talented. There weren't tens of thousands getting into the field without passion, getting hired wherever they can. These were serious, high quality programmers mostly. They made every N64 game in assembly for Pete's sake (some C or C++ may have been used at times). It's why games back in the day often did so much with so little. They had the talent and that talent were self-motivated and interested in the problem space. The problem these days (bad PC ports, ahem) is say you are a rockstar programmer. Well, a lot of people who work hard are motivated by making money. They're going to do great, hard work either way, so they may as well make the most money doing it. This rockstar can go work for a place like Google where his career has the sky as the limit - bigger and bigger projects servicing tens or hundreds of millions of requests need to be designed by such a rockstar, and they can get paid stuff like US$1 million a year or more to do it. Say, you work for Google for 10 years and eventually end up designing huge portions of a sophisticated cloud service that will need to have all the bells and whistles like nearly constant uptime, quick / efficient APIs, smart techniques to reduce computer costs to run the code, etc. You end up making something like US$500,000-US$1,500,000 a year depending on just how difficult the role was and how much of a rockstar you've been so far. So here is the problem: A lot of the best programmers head to shops like these to make the most money they can, which is understandable. They might do that even if they have an interest in coding video games / their engines / working with cutting edge graphical techniques, because money is important to people. The end result is some sliver of programmers, perhaps not the best and not the worst, end up getting hired by big studios to work on video games. Some are super bright and hardworking with the power to see their vision of the project come true - you then get a game that looks incredible and runs better than worse-looking games. Other times, someone less of a rockstar does the work or part of it, and you get more bugs, more FPS dips, less FPS total, fewer modern/sweet graphical settings, etc. It's sad that the best programmers are not given equal pay whether they choose to make game engines or cloud services for Google. That's their going rate, and they've proven they deserve it often with decades of intense experience and success. Some might choose the cloud route even if the pay were the same, feeling they are impacting society more developing something that powers hundreds of software companies instead of making an engine that powers a few video games. If I were in charge of the development of a AAA title, I'd hunt out these self-motivated, talented, immensely experienced, hardworking programmers that are simply the best. I'd attract them with big salaries. I'd then have them work closely with the best video game programmers out there who have more relevant experience. You'd get a AAA title with cooler features, more FPS on less hardware, better realizations of the game design, better everything. You give smart people power to do things, and they end up doing cool things. If you want a look at what something like that looks like, take a gander at Valve, which is a super top programming company that happens to make video games from time to time. Their games always pushed the limits of what could be done while running on the PCs of the era (stuff like high fidelity graphics in big open scenes, beautiful water for the time, physics simulations, tons of different modes of play despite being a simple HL2 first-person shooter, etc. Portal also pushed things along I imagine. It probably took some serious big brained programmers to code up just how portals would work. It doesn't seem like a simple task, and it does seem like a task that maybe even a decent programmer not at a top 5% company getting paid the most could complete well or potentially at all.). When you get fed what feels like a bland game without much interesting mechanics that runs poorly that 250 programmers worked on at EA games or whatever, you're getting more middle-of-the-road programmers. Especially when they miss their launch date, cut content to make it, and have a tremendous number of bugs even after the late launch. It's a matter of payment. I wish the best of the best more often had a passion for affecting society through the creation of great video games. I wish even the bigger companies with more formulaic games had geniuses given some power to improve the created games in all ways - how it plays and how well it runs. Some rockstars still work in the field. I just wish corporate suits realized how much of a difference someone who gets paid US$200,000 more money than average can bring to a team of programmers. Performance-minded developers are busy writing C++/Rust that powers stuff like Facebook or Google services or high frequency trading software instead. It kinda sucks. Check out the talk by Mike Acton about data-driven design in C++. He leads a team that makes video games for consoles that need to be highly optimized to perform on limited hardware while still looking great. Some rockstars are still in the industry. I just wish there were more. You can make great money programming in pretty much any industry, especially if the work you're doing is mentally challenging (some programming is easier than others. E.g. I'm not qualified to design a big service yet, and I'm not sure I ever will be. It's all good to be a worker ant, still getting paid decently). The problem is coding up Unreal Engine pays maybe 200k/yr max whereas working at a Google or Amazon or Facebook, you can quite quickly start making 300k/yr as a starting point for advanced work (~5-10 years experience doing a good job). And if you do solid work at that role, you can end up making 400k/yr then 500k/yr. Some get paid a million a year! It's a shame the most qualified programmers will tend not to work on video games. Pump up those numbers, start hiring 500k/yr professionals to help with improving Unreal Engine. It can be done.

Can't wait for Elmo's letter adventure and Elmo's number journey. They're really going to test the N64's technical limitations! Two masterpieces that were truly before their time 😆

This series is like the most insane speed run ever attempted

Just wanna say I love this series!! Body Harvest was pretty ambitious for it's time and being on the N64 and enjoyed the almost hr long reaction. Can't wait for Turok, a classic

This was one of my favourite games on the N64, and watching this video reminds me why. The whole feel of it was so vast, unlike anything I'd played before. But like you, I spent a lot of time re-treading old ground, due to sparse save points. If that hadn't have been the case, I wonder if this would be commonly heralded as one of the greats of its time. I dont think it sold a lot either, though. I found it for just £15, new, seemingly not long after it's release.

The pronounciation on "Panzerkampfwagen" was pretty spot on. The "z" is just pronounced with an audible "t" right before the "s".

I'm from Germany and want you to know that you pronounced the word "Panzerkampfen" perfectly. You gave Body Harvest all credit it's deserve. No game needs a ramake more than this game. We don't need a GTA 6. Personally I got tired of this franchise. But all we need is a new and modern Body Harvest.

What the heck this game is HUGE for an N64 game

Ive watched every episode so far on this series! Keep it up thab!

This is one of those N64 games I've heard great things and sounds intriguing but I would never have the patient as an adult to wander around this game. Thanks for this series THAB for helping me experience these games without having to play them myself

I loved this game as a kid, and the fact that you could get in and out of vehicles absolutely blew my mind

One of the best N64 games. So underrated.

Back then memory cards had just hit the market , saving was a luxury in videos games back in those days

I cannot believe a game of this magnitude exist on n64, props to game devs

I own this game and I still remember the constant anxiety of messing up and starting over. You would easily loose 45 minutes of tense gameplay.

I love seeing these old games that were way ahead of their time.

Cant believe he said: Panzerkampfwagen, correctly!!! But pops out Ve'hic'les later xD Unglaublich!

I did indeed stay around for the sneak peak at the next one. One of my favorites! I still play it to this day. The variety of weapons, and the sounds / animations of them are just so good.

I always thought this was one of those hidden gems no one ever heard about. I was lucky enough to own this back in the days on my 64. Needless to say, I played the shit out of this game. Got stuck for so long in so many missions, but managed to beat the game. I'm surprised you're not annoyed by the janky movement. Especially when you're walking around, sometimes it feels like the game is actively moving you back while you're running around. Still a really solid game. Would love to see a remake of this game for PC someday

I was thinking "man, it's been awhile since there has been a game in the series'...and then I see that this is 50 minutes and it's an N64 game I've never gotten around to. It just didn't look fun at the time. Maybe this will change my mind

Thab and craw SPOILING us with another hour long n64 vid!

I love this game back in the late nineties, I played it a lot I owned a copy but it was really hard to beat

Thanks for beating this one. Its a rough diamond and definitely one of the more interesting N64 games. Also, I hope you have a good time with Turok (which also got a Switch port a while ago).

Awesome, I just finished watching through all the other videos today

This game was my first 3D open world experience back in the days when it was released (after Vortex for Snes but I don't think that's so accurate) and I just couldn't stop playing it. Everytime I finished it, I just waited the next weekend to play again and again countless times.

This was definitely one of the titles I was excited for. Glad to see you play it.

Loved the video man! This game gives me tons of nostalgia and doesn’t get enough recognition!

Beating this game with 0% harvested, 0% killed and all secret crystals and artifacts was harder than getting 100/100 stars in Manhunt and 100% in GTA III-IV combined

Woots! I have been waiting for this one! It inspires the most mixed emotions of any N64 game. Such amazing potential and such an awkward execution.

Absolutely awesome series and vid. Worth the wait, good job man!

I remember so many of these games from Nintendo Power! Loving all your vids bud, and I mean all of them!

Finally this game! I was waiting for this review man. I love this series! Keep up the good work dude ❤️

Cool Idea! Just stumbled over the Body harvest Video. Liked this game a lot in my youth. Going to watch some past Videos now :) Keep going!

this was a big one. Took me some time, lot of retries, lot of frustrating parts, planning, getting nervous making it this time, not wanting to play 30min over again, really being careful maneuvering the vehicles. I loved it. Unique experience, I loved this game. It gave me a tough but beatable challenge that felt so saitisfying

This game brought back so many memories to my childhood. This game seemed so advanced when I first played it lmao

Loving this series. Keep up the great work!

'The year was 2016- the earth lies in ruin' I think they were on to something here

8/10 on "easy" difficulty? Wow!

One of my favorites from the 64! Been waiting for this vid.

27:11 oh! that's the Mr Whoopee jingle!, the ice cream truck of GTA 3! 😃

I've been waiting for this one for so long. I have such fond memories of this way back in middle school

It's funny that while I was watching the video I was thinking about when you would play Turok. What a surprise when that's the game you pulled at the end. Looking forward to it!

Loving the series my boy! Keep up the great work!

Never really got into the n64 Turok games but did enjoy some of the later ones so I've been looking forward to seeing what I missed. Can't wait for the next one.

With the amount of time in the bar I thought I done goofed and clicked Thabplays by mistake... but no this is how long the video actually is. Buckle up!

Wow ... This looks like the longest 64 game ever made.. good job brother (Hogan style)

i loved this game growing up. i got it randomly from, man, i don't even remember where, possibly chinatown in nyc or maybe funcoland. but i really enjoyed your play through and your commentary. this is my first time seeing any of your videos and i have subscribed and will hunt down the video of you beating golden eye.

I can not WAIT for you to play Turok dino hunter, easily my favorite. love the series man!

Oh, and btw, you can find a machine gun in Greece, it's in one of the villages where there's a truck coming to and from in the first area (near the hangar). The game doesn't give you objectives there, it's just a reward for exploration. Much like the Alien Artifacts and the Weapon Crystals. The artifacts make the bosses from each level replayable from the menu, and the crystals give you special super powerful weapons (a different one for every level).

I really appreciate this series, always look forward to it

Wow this game was intense. I didn’t know the N64 had anything this questy and RPG-ish

been waiting for this one 🙏🙏

28:29 "Why does the hospital need that?" They take "battling illness" very seriously.

WE'RE DEVELOPING BODY HARVEST REMASTERED : >

His name is Adam and he has a Samus-like suit? Secret Metroid prequel!

New subscriber here, all from this series. Been loving it!

hell yeah! I never got to finish this one as a kid, glad this popped up in my feed.

This was one of my favorite games as a kid!! It was def confusing for a 10 year old but man was it a lot of fun exploring the different areas. I don't think I ever made it past Java back then, lol

This followed by Turok? Truly blessed! MAN the 1st time u get a plane in this game just felt do good

This was one of my favorite games as a kid. My mom must've spent more money renting it than it would have cost to buy it lol. I never made it past Greece despite putting dozens of hours into it. I had no idea the game continued after Greece. Thank you for playing this and beating it. It was a real nostalgia rush.

This was the best N64 game. So glad to see this one finally.

Body Harvest was one of my favourite N64 games. I always loved seeing little references to it in GTA games. The dev team for Body Harvest was DMA Design. That team got renamed to Rockstar North. The same Dune buggy is in GTA 3. The ice-cream truck in Vice city has the same music as the ice-cream truck from BH. The Mission called Body Harvest in San Andreas has you running over people in combine harvester like you do to the zombies in the Russian level.

Was waiting for this one for a good while .

I've been waiting for this one! So many memories.

Lol his face when he ran over that person

This must have been a crazy long script. Thanks!

hell yeah dude i always look forward to these videos

This was one of VERY FEW games I never beat. So thank you for this.

Took a while off. I came back to a good video in the catalog. Nice work

This is one of the best N64 games ever! You can really tell these are the guys that made GTA a little further down the line

Was waiting for this one. By far my favorite n64 game.

ive been waiting for this one!!

The Sunshield from the first stage is one of my top 5 favorite weapons in gaming, non-ironically, it had infinite ammo, tons of damage and even the name is awesome. THE POWER OF THE SUN

I never played this game but it always intrigued me as a kid. I was really curious as to why there was this huge mantis in its cover. It actually looks pretty fun, I might finally give it a try sometime!

great recap- always wanted to play this but never got around to it. Glad I don’t have to suffer through the lag and boss fights!

My favorite Episode so far

Just wanted to say I love your videos, they give me so much nostalgia and your voice is very relaxing, it can help you get some good sleep and I mean that in a good way. 😴

Excellent series, keep going sir!

This game brings me back. I used to rent this all the time from blockbuster. I begged my mom to buy for when they were selling their N64 games. Great game!

the jingle the ice cream van is playing was actually resused in the later GTA games