The N64 is one of those things you love to hate. As a PC partisan, I hate Consoles in gereral, but my supreme loathing is reserved for the N64.. Yet, at the same time, I respect it highly. Ain't rationality a bitch?
First off, the N64 isn't technically a 64-bit system. It has a 64-bit graphics subsystem, yeah, but that's like saying my workstation box is 128-bit because my dual Celerys have dual 2 32-bit pipelines each. And the whole cartridge fiasco; I mean really.. but this issue has been covered ad nauseum before.
On the interesting side it they way the N64 controllers connect to the console: a 3 wire connector? The transmission protocol that the n64 controllers use is nothing short of the most complex designs I've seen. While the Nintendo Brass say it's for 'extended capabilities', we know the truth -- to prevent 3rd parties from making competing controllers without directly licencing the technology. And it's mostly worked, because the protocol is insanity itself, and trying to figure it out without a manual is near suicide.