How Capcom squeezed 1.2 or so GB of data into 512 MBit (64 MB) is beyond me, with double the resolution, FMVs, and some bonus content if I'm not mistaken.
Resident Evil 2 suffered from the conversion though - the FMV's are the worst out of all the versions and considering the fact that there's a PC release... "Ehh". Capcom must've gone through shenanigans of epic proportions to get the game to fit, I'd wager. The same applies to Factor 5 and Rare who both had to use multiple layers of textures to make the games look presentable due to the N64's texture size limit, and even then some things simply looked washed out. Long story short, the N64 was... not a dream to develop for.
It had major design flaws, the high-latency RDRAM, the pitiable 4 KB texture cache, and 4 MB of system RAM (8 with Expansion Pack) to name a few.
Final Fantasy 7 was released on 3 CD's and they were fully packed, I highly doubt that it could be ported onto a single cartridge.I believe Factor 5 wrote the MusyX codec for that game as well, to help with compression and overall quality of the sound, but I remember seeing an interview at the man who was head of the team that ported the game. The FMVs were a hellish nightmare to port within the N64's constraints, but it was a major milestone http://emuconsoleexploitnews.blogspot.com/2011/04/achieving-full-motion-video-on-nintendo.html and http://guidesarchive.ign.com/guides/504/refacts.html - These two links give a good idea of what it took to port it, using the PSX version assets and many other obstacles. Theoretically, Final Fantasy VII could have been ported as well, but lack of motivation and exclusivity contracts with Sony prevented it.
True, compression was pretty damn horrid on it. It was still one helluva an achievement though, as FMV wasn't supposed to be possible on a 512 Mbit cart
Or it could've just been released with a CD-ROM drive, since we all know that the whole "CD's are too slow for our advanced system" line of defense was a load of croak. This was the most major problem the system faced and the 64DD did not help at all.
They couldn't exactly openly regret it when the console was in circulation, could they? Nintendo wanted to implement a CD drive in their systems since the SNES, but since they didn't have any experience with that, they've enlisted Sony and then Panasonic. They fell out with Sony and Panasonic's CD-i turned out to be a piece of trash, so they stuck to what they knew to rush the console out. They were just in a hurry, that's really the only reason - they couldn't afford another year or two of R&D and losing their foothold completely.
What I *really* don't understand is the 64DD - slower loading times and no capacity advantage whatsoever. They could've released a CD add-on, but didn't for whatever reason. Hell, even third-parties released some (see: Bung Doctor v64, for instance), I can't imagine Nintendo not being able to work that out. I suppose their only worry was piracy and it clouded clear judgement.
They live according to one cardinal rule - "people buy our systems to play our games", and that kept them afloat over the years (even if I think this line of thinking is a bit misguided). You can say a lot about their hardware, but their software rarely fails. Shame that it lacks originality these days and new IP's are few and far between, but they're holding up still.
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Sicklyboy:
