Official Nintendo 64 Black Controller (N64)

Product Information

At least a Raspberry Pi 2 is required for viable Nintendo 64 performance, but performance is variable across all Pi hardware. Manufactured and released by Nintendo on June 23, 1996, in Japan, in September 29, 1996 in North America, and March 1, 1997 in Europe, it is the successor to the Super Nintendo controller and is designed in an "M" shape and features 10 buttons, one analog "Control Stick" [cn 1] and a directional pad.

However, since the pad only contains three other face buttons, the C-buttons often became assigned to ulterior functions.When weighing this aspect up, in our opinion, it all comes down to if you want a more authentic experience or not. It can be also held by the center and right-hand grip, allowing the use of the single control stick, the right hand-buttons, the "R" shoulder button, and the Z trigger on the rear (but not the "L" shoulder button or D-pad). This gives it a bit of an overall premium feel and one that can’t be replicated by cheaper alternatives.

The original Rumble Pak, designed for the Nintendo 64 controller, was released in April 1997 to coincide with the release of Star Fox 64 and requires two AAA batteries. It obviously has complete compatibility with the console itself but there’s also the inclusion of the Rumble Pak and Memory Card slot on the back of the controller which means you can still use those official peripherals with this variant. This certainly aids those that are used to gaming on the latest consoles and who are unfamiliar with the more retro controllers. This controller can last up to 6 hours, so not as long as the Retro Fighters controller and is charge via Micro-USB, not USB-C. Your super-accurate ParaLLel 64 core should now work, and you won't need to switch between Vulkan and GL drivers when using different cores.But honestly, these specific buttons and layout are really only helpful when it comes to more intensive games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (OoT) that take advantage of everything the controller offers.