RE2 on N64 was only 512 megabits, not megabytes (only 64MB), it was a damn miracle they were able to cram two 600MB cd's onto a cart of the capacity it had.

Nintendo started to lose a lot of support because the stranglehold it had on third party developers prior to the release of N64 and a lot of them wanted to stop developing for Nintendo regardless. I think Nintendo would have did better if they had a disc format, but it wouldn't have helped keep the developers/publishers that went to Sony and supported them almost exclusively.

If you take notice, a lot of developers that developed previously for Nintendo exclusively or almost exclusively but didn't support Sega didn't support Nintendo yet developed games on both the Sega Saturn and the PSX. These developers had no reason to not support Sega during the 8 and 16bit gens other than their contracts that forced them to remain Nintendo exclusive. In order to actually get a lot of arcade exclusives and multiconsole titles on the SMS and Genesis, they had to license the games from the owners and then port the games themselves.

There were also a lot of games released on the PSX and Saturn that really didn't need the amount of storage space the system offered(potentially.) You could argue why weren't those games multiconsole on the N64?

Squaresoft has been mentioned a few times about staying with Nintendo. Nintendo really angered Squaresoft and it wasn't until Iwata was replaced as Nintendo's CEO that Squaresoft started developing for Nintendo again. You'll find an eight year stretch where Squaresoft didn't develop one game for Nintendo. Not even for portables. Squaresoft instead developed multiple games for Bandai's Wonderswan. After Squaresoft and Nintendo put their grievances behind them, you'll find that the support from Wonderswan dropped and since then Nintendo and later Sony have been the only "console" portables that Squaresoft has supported.

I think between the early console release and how well Sony was doing in the first year, how Sony gained complete exclusivity from some developers, and how the late Nintendo ruled with an iron fist, a disc based N64 would have got them only marginally better support.

i remeber back in the day i had N64 first, had a few good games but the moment i played on a ps1 the difference was huge

i know theres were games like mario 64, zelda etc but on a whole the ps1 games looked a lot clearer to me, n64 games were extremly blurred over and fuzzy looking.

going to a friends house to play gran turismo when i had top gear rally on N64 as an equivalant, the difference was night and day imo. try the 60htz demo of ridge racer or gt hi-fi mode on gran turismo and you will have to agree had the n64 been disk based having 650meg etc for each game it would have been 10 times better

i would have to disagree, N64 due to nintendo's popularity at the time would have sold more than ps1 easily had the console been disk based and had all the software support

I think things could be VERY different today, yes. Nintendo lost way too much ground for Sony and let Sony get all third-party support in a single gen.

Going cartridges for N64 was possibly one of the biggest mistakes ever in the videogame market. EVER.

I was so pissed off at the time... At the end I got a PlayStation and Saturn, skipped Nintendo since then...

I agree, I remember being so hyped for the N64 but the games mostly looked a blur and fog fest... I'd take PS1's pre-rendered bgs + 3D models over N64's full 3D games 99% of the time... given few exceptions such as Mario 64 OFC.

Not to mention PS1' FMVs that for the time were awesome and I was mind blown by stuff like Final Fantasy VII and Tekken... also the CD music... support for custom soundtracks, take out game disc and put my own disc to play music... yeah it was super awesome.

They would have won the gen easily

They would have beaten Sony so badly I think Sony might just have washed their hands of the business.

A cart-CD combo system was the way to go, the Saturn did it, there's no reason the N64 couldn't have.

Mario 64, Final Fantasy VII, GoldenEye, Zelda: OoT, Resident Evil series, etc. on one platform? Game freaking over for Sony, even if they could get some multiplats. 

I don't think so.

To those who say "Nintendo would've won easily"; keep in mind that there were many third parties ready to jump ship once a competent competitor came. Nintendo had so many rules and regulations set in place during the NES and SNES eras that the only reason third parties actually published on Nintendo systems was that they were the market leader. They had no choice.

Yes, N64 would've had a little more support from third parties, but many would've gone to PS1 regardless.