25 years ago today, the Nintendo 64 video game console was released in North America.

Critically acclaimed as “quite simply, the fastest, most graceful game machine on the market”, the N64 was one of the first gaming consoles to have four controller ports and could handle a 4-player split screen without significant slowdown. Named after its 64-bit microprocessor, which had power comparable to Pentium processors in desktop computers, its advanced 3D graphics allowed textures to render smoothly, rather than pixelated.

The system’s higher resolution and pressure-sensitive controller were ideal for the EA Sports’s second generation Madden and FIFA games, and it was designed in tandem with Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda, which are widely considered by critics and the public to be two of the greatest and most influential games of all time.

The last major home console to use cartridges as its primary storage format, it was built and priced at $199.99 to compete with the Sony PlayStation—and, indeed it did that very well. In its first year, 3.6 million units were sold in the U.S. alone.