N64 Controller Ports Mistakes & Oddities 

A ton of time and effort had to have gone into researching this, very interesting information Snooplax!

"When I turned on Mario 64, I was shocked to learn you can play Mario 64." -Snooplax

Apparently prototype N64 hardware had 6 ports; for Super Mario 64 the code might've required you to be plugged into port 5.

*Luigi:* _No, you need a controller!_ *Waluigi:* _Wah! Waluigi can't be controlled!_

i love how Fifa Soccer 64 is just like ? 🎮

copy protection screens are out, "no controller" screens are in

for many years now i thought myself to know literally everything there was about mario 64 from beta elements to secrets and up until this day i have never heard about player 2 controlling the ending camera

I love Fifa Soccer's no controller message at 7:46, the single "?" seems so passive aggressive to me. It's like "Hmm? You forgot the controller?? The thing you play the videogame with?? How?"

I never knew you could control the camera with a player 2 controller in Super Mario 64.

2:57 It's as if Camelot predicted that Waluigi would become a meme

One of my favorite "no controller" errors came from AeroGage, where when you start up the game, it goes into the attract mode, as a voice resembling the little green aliens from Toy Story is heard saying "NO CONTROL"

One of my punishments growing up was having the controllers taken away. I would sit there just looking at the game play with me being helpless to control it.

I think the reason why "Controller port" was discouraged was because the controller has a port too, so when you read "Controller port" you could either think about the port to connect the controller or the port in the controller

Funny how devs neeeded to be so careful with the data due to cartridge limitations and yet they wasted cartridge space with a silly unnecessary N64 controller model just for that msg 99.99% of people would never see.

Such a neat topic. And who woulda thot that companies had to use “socket” over “port”. :0 Reminds me of how Rare messed up and called the C Buttons by the incorrect names. So they‘d say “C-Down Button” instead of the official “Down C Button”. I don’t think Nintendo actually ever wrote out the name in-game, instead just showing the icon, so I ended up picking up what Rare called them.

Even from the very beginning, Camelot memed Waluigi

Would love an analysis like that for all N64 games which do something if you press/hold a button during bootup. For example in Mario Party games it allows you to change the language.

2:58: So, you wanted to plug your controller here to play some Mario Tennis?... *TOO BAD, WALUIGI TIME.*

Nice investigation. I am still waiting for someone to do an analysis of all the "memory pak managers" across every game in system.

Pro tip: the broken control port 99% of the time is caused by a blown voltage regulator. This is a little black chip with 3 legs near the actual port. It can be desoldered and replaced with less than $20... Including the tools to do it. Any regulator that outputs less than 5v will work. It comes from ppl not turning off the machine before insert/remove of control. Back then we couldn't use IC to "sense" a controller, so the 64 supplies ~5v to all 4 ports all the time. Removing while live causes a very small short circuit upon pin contact. It will eventually kill your 64. Do not attach or remove anything (except transfer pak when prompted) while power is on. (I repair consoles for a living, and I'm tired of running across 64 with this issue... So much so I secretly charge way more than it's worth to fix it)

Nice job dude!

To be fair, the title of this video may actually justify using socket instead of port. When I saw the word port, I had a very different idea of what the video would be about lol

5:56 HAHA. RONALDINHO SOC- wait what

Ah, how annoying that you can't hotplug controllers and get them to detect. Kind of a weird restriction especially given that the PS1 could (and in fact, it was a gimmick required for Metal Gear Solid's Psycho Mantis boss fight). I wonder why this is?

I was that nerd who had to see every game's "no controller" screen. Never knew there were games other than Mario 64 that let you use other ports though.

As an 8 year old those "No Controller" screens would scare me for some reason. What is it with children in the 90s being scared of things like that?

Some of these "no controller" screens are honestly creepier than most of the anti-piracy messages in games.

1:54 To answer your question, about the terms "port" and "socket" as a 39 year old. There was few precedence in the early days of videos games so people would sort of "apply their own labels" half the time. For example, people my age and old call Cartridges "tapes". "Sega tapes" instead of "genesis cartridges" for example yet also, some people would say cartridges. Most adults called controllers "Remote controls" even though they're wired. And naturally, nobody said "wired" or "wireless" just yet. Back then the best we had were "cordless phones" we would apply words we already knew to technology that was new to us. I called it a controller socket back then, so yeah, we 90s kids probably would have understood what you trying to convey, we could barely even agree with each other on the subject.

Clicked into this expecting ports of games from other systems for some reason half expecting to be bored by it. For some reason the video ACTUALLY being about controller ports is alot more intriguing lol

I can't imagine how much work it must have taken to get all that. Awesome work.

You put a bandaid on your N64?!

Another game that lacks a no controller message is Puyo Puyo~n Party.

This... is super cool. Good video. I've played most of these games and never saw these screens. Its neat how the individual engines for each game have different ways of modeling the controller.

Ok, first video of yours I have watched. Was recommended by the algorithm. This was information I never knew I needed to know. Thanks for all your hard work!

This is quite possibly the dumbest quality control requirement I’ve ever heard

Socket is more of a British word I think. We say socket for the thing on the wall that you put electrical plugs into.

I liked the "No controller" message of Zelda Majoras Mask somehow. Especially the European version in which you receive that message in English, German, French and I suppose Spanish in an alternating way.

2:58 Goddammit, I hate when Waluigi steals my N64 and all I'm trying to do is plug in my freaking controller.

7:12 Lmao, that's awesome Also just a friendly heads up , it should be spelled "Oddities."

was the concept of needing a controller in your console really THAT foreign starting in 1996? It seems so weird to, like, FORBID a game from functioning if a controller is missing on startup-- it's not even like you need to KEEP the controller in for 99% of these games, and like you mentioned, having one unlucky broken port is a totally real issue. idk Great vid btw! I love how much effort you put into showing off this cool little thing

I actually dealt with this issue with my GCN a few years ago. Controller port 1 broke somehow, as I found out trying to play Melee with a friend. Melee mostly worked fine from what I recall, just needed to use other ports and thus limited to 3 players. But there were a few games where it didn't work, the most notable being Soul Calibur for GCN (the one with the Link cameo), where it won't let you past the start screen unless you use the controller in port 1 (doesn't tell you this either). But its even more annoying because I recall playing the game before the port stopped working and once past the start screen, player 2 can control the menu for everything else. I may be mistaken about that part though.

2:43 oh my god that scared the crap outta me! At least it doesn't look creepy, but the fact it's so sudden, even after the logo, makes it a jumpscare! By the way that's cool.

I believe I had this same issue with Pokémon stadium as a kid.

I think that bit about the first controller socket is boilerplate. Because I'm pretty sure there _are_ games where that's the case. I think Ocarina of Time is one of them.

2:44 2:58 I never would have guessed these were in the game! So, are they impossible to see in the Virtual Console versions?

We said “controller port” in the 90s, and saying “socket” would have felt weird 🥴😄

This is really cool and informative, it deserves more views.

Nice, i really like this! Thanks.

Appreciate the research

I have owned and rented many of those games, and have always assumed that they just put that in the manual by default, just so it would be there for a game where it mattered.

port was kind of a tech personal computer word in the 90's... socket was way broader for anything to do with electricity to machines and biology.

Very interesting ! I know a few games that let you have a Memory Pak in slot 2 and a Rumble in Slot 1 World Driver Championship does that

Maybe they needed that screen because they used it as a way to check if the ports was working or certain n64's didn't recognize controllers after the boot process

Nice video! Just so you know, your merch link isn't working for me.

I love how Space Station Silicon Valley have the "Controller not connected" text in Comic Sans

When I saw the thumbnail and title I actually wasn't sure what you were going to be referring to. These screens are mentioning and failsafe settings or whatever the heck they should be called are actually things I had no idea about. It seems like a pointless subject but for some reason I found this interesting. This reminds me of back in the day of the Game Boy color. The cartridges that were black would play in color on the Game Boy color but they were compatible on regular Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket and Super Game Boy so I can play them on the big screen. But the Game Boy color cartridges that were clear and you could see the green inside would not work on original Game Boy or Game Boy Pocket or Super Game Boy. I had this weird dream where something really strange happened when I tried to play one of those Game Boy color games on the Super Game Boy and it basically turned the game into pokémon and I had no control over the player character. I think that dream just was telling me to find out what the hell happens. So I did find out what happens if I put a Game Boy color exclusive cartridge into the Super Game Boy and try to play it. A screen shows up that just tells you that You have to have Game Boy color to play it. But depending on the game you play the screen that appears can actually be different. Just some random curiosity that ultimately doesn't matter but it was sort of interesting.

with the time and effort put into this video, it earned a subscribe from me. good job dude!

awesome vid

Those "no controller" messages (especially Tetrisphere) have the same vibe as the Playstation 2 "Disc Error" message where everything turns spooky red and haunted

What's the song that starts at 5:35. I know it, and probably have played the game, but can't put my finger on it at the moment.

That Mario Golf/Tennis thing isn't an Easter Egg it's a damn jumpscare!

I have no purpose for this information, nor was I ever curious about it. But I still had to sub due to how organized the video and spreadsheet are, and for the archive value. PS: The channel sounded familiar and after a quick check, this is the same guy who tested the mario kart tracks after changing the vertical scaling - came full circle.

An interesting thing to check: can you actually plug in the controller after the game starts and have it work--maybe after doing the controller reset action (L+R+Start at the same time).

The wagging controller plug is hilarious.

4:22 OMG THAT BOMBERMAN 64 MUSIC

I remember being like 6 years old playing Star Fox 64 at a friend's house. In multiplayer, each controller port got a different character. I had one friend who kept shutting off the console to switch controllers because he insisted he had to be player 3 so he could be Falco every time.

4:21 Sweet Bomberman 64 OST

I wonder why they want the first controller plugged in before starting the console

5:35 HAHAHAHA!

I absolutely want a shirt of Waluigi flying away with Luigi's Nintendo 64

That mario golf one would have scared the shit out of me if I saw that as a kid

Wow so awesome

6:18 made me think of Silicone Graphics!

Cool idea

Bro I remember as a kid, and sometimes the n64 just didn't register my controller being connected to the first part for some reason, so one day when I tried to boot up Mario Tennis, I got shocked by that title screen and was terrified. And I mean I think it's kinda hard to blame me for that reaction as it's not every day you see Waluigi flying away with an N64 with that ominous Match Point theme playing

That bomberman 64 soundtrack really hittin

Is there a song list for the background music used in this video?

What game does the music used for the 3rd party section of the video come from? Sounds good, and there are a lot of N64 games I am very unfamiliar.

Well I just learned from this video about moving the camera at the end of Mario64

This is such a a niche video to make but I was one of those strange kids that tested this for Smash Bros. I thought it was awesome to change colors lol.

What’s the music that’s playing around 5:40?

Courtside is definitely 1st/2nd party. It even has one of the alternate boot types that no 3rd party games used. Every single third party game used NUS-CIC-6102/7101 “Mario Boot” while Nintendo and their partners used 6101/7102 Star Fox/Lylat Boot, 6103/7103 Diddy Boot, 6105/7105 Zelda Boot, and 6106/7106 Yoshi Boot.

Goemon's Great Adventure is also the one that doesn't have (a no) controller detection.

7:12 what you see when you die

1:45 Oddly enough, the reason why I found this video was because I was googling "is it N64 controller socket or port?" Seen I personally find the word ports when people say it in videos to be incorrect but just wanted to be sure, guess times have changed.

this video was super fun i live for n64 stuff

Legend of Zelda 64 has a monochrome version of the opening cut scene.

The scariest part to me is that i seemingly watched this 2 years ago yet don't remember it

I used to deal with this shit every time when I was a kid my n64 p1 and p2 ports were broken due to some falls of the console. So I used to play smash bros in player 4 or player 3 but I couldn't play pokemon stadium properly and i had to jiggle the shit out of the p1 port in order to start it. Fast forward to now. I reflow the soldering of the port and now is all good and working properly

7:46 Fifas just like bro how you gonna play the game??

Mischief Makers mentioned 😊

What is the song from 3:04 ?

What's the music from, around the 7:30 mark?

F-Zero X has an oddity. If you disconnect the controller during play and reconnect it, does not reestablish the connection like other games, effectively forcing an unofficial game over.

Could you do the same for GameCube? Or if Players 1, 3, and 4, but not 2 (or something like that)?

Does anyone know what music track is playing in the background at 4:30? I know I’ve heard that song before and I can’t remember what it is and I’m going crazy.

For the 3D controllers i wonder if they modelled those themselves or it came with the dev kits

I find the no controller messages to be intresting a well.

Several of these don't explicitly state that they have to be in the right ports to play.

Good u back