Basement N64: Quake 64 & Quake II
So as you know, I put an N64 in my basement. Older games really don't have all the addictive behavioral hooks that modern games have, and this makes them fun in a pretty different way than modern games.
Most people these days would call these old games "clunky" or "janky." And I don't think that's strictly incorrect, but it speaks from one particular perspective. Usually, this "jankiness" refers either the the controls or the game mechanics. A fair comparison would be comparing Mario Odyssey to Mario 64; the older game is more complex to control, and less forgiving. You have tighter requirements for precision. Stick acceleration and jumping isn't nearly as forgiving compared to a modern game. The game feels easier to control, but this is at the cost of a lower skill floor.
I think that raises an interesting question; what makes a game fun? If your character is harder to control, and so simpler platforming challenges are put in front of the player, is this strictly worse than a character that is easier to control, but has a more complex platforming challenge? At least in our theoretical example, we can imagine that the actual skill required by the player is identical, and all that has changed is the complexity of the situation. In many cases, the "less janky" game is simply easier as the play is given more forgiving control.
I think a lot of players prefer this modern control regardless of challenge. The game is much easier to pick up and play, and an individual player does not really need to learn the game the same way that a modern game would.
I bring all this up since I'm a bit addicted to Quake 64.
Quake 64
Quake 64 is pretty interesting because for the most part it is a straight port of the PC game. It's running the actual quake engine, a few levels have less detail, and a few levels are missing, but otherwise it's the exact same game as was released on PC, except for that you play it with the N64 controller. (as an additional concession, the game also features vertical auto-aim to account for the way that there is no great way to mimic twin-stick control on an N64 controller.)
As a consequence, so long you can get used to the "Goldeneye"-style controls (or else configure the controls to work for you) Quake 64 feels identical to PC Quake except with more framerate hitches and worse precision than mouse + keyboard. When played on "normal" difficulty, the challenge is actual low enough that you can do most of what you can do on PC. You can circle-strafe around enemies; bob and weave around ogre grenades, and deftly run around monsters to encourage friendly-fire and monster in-fighting. If you can allow yourself to get used to it, it honestly feels great.
Quake was one of the first games that truly popularized mouse + keyboard controls, (although certainly they existed before that) and as a consequence much of the original 4 episodes do not actually require as much skill from the player as something more modern and challenging. (this is even true for contemporary games: I'd argue that Duke Nukem 3D is overall much more difficult than Quake, regardless of where you'd place Duke Nukem 3D's difficulty) This is not a perfect 1:1 comparison, but beating Quake 64 on Normal feels about as difficult as beating PC Quake on Hard. Beating Quake 64 on hard is a pretty fun challenge, but Quake 64 Nightmare is something of a slog.
Quake II
Quake II on N64 is an altogether different beast. It runs on the Quake engine, (ie, not the Quake II engine!) it's got a full custom campaign, and the weapon behavior is very similar, but not identical to PC Quake II. The worst part are the controls. For reasons I don't understand, Quake II for N64 has very, very sensitive controls. Even at the lowest sensitivity, small, precise movements are very difficult. When a grunt runs in front of you, you'll often find yourself shooting to the left or right of him. Circle-strafing is not impossible, but is much more difficult to pull off than in Quake 64. The overall framerate and performance feels worse than Quake 64, and then Quake II itself has far more hit-scan enemies. (in other words, even if the control and framerate between Quake 64 and Quake II, Quake II would be more difficult on a control due to the increased hitscan enemies alone) As a result, Quake II for N64 feels almost more like a cover shooter. The most successful way to play the game is to constantly attempt to snipe enemies, or lure them behind corners. Charging into the fight is seldom successful in this version of the game.
I did recently beat the the game on Normal difficulty, and although it was fun, it really doesn't play much of anything like Quake II PC plays. Quake II on normal is much more about cover and enemy location memorization; it has none of the weaving in between enemies, or jumping into chaos that Quake 64 has. Interestingly, the entire Quake II N64 campaign was provided with the recent Nightdive remaster of Quake II. IT uses the original PC weapons, the enemy behavior, and control scheme. So there's a very clear comparison for how the custom N64 campaign would feel with good controls and framerate. As you'd expect, it feels much different, and honestly much better.
Thoughts
So, I personally think Quake II N64 is "janky" in the strict sense, but that Quake 64 actually plays quite nicely. (you still need to be the sort of person who would opt to not just play it a high, consistent framerate on a big monitor with mid-level saves an everything else that comes with a modern PC port.) I suspect that a modern player would put these two games in the same bucket, but I think Quake 64 is so close to the original in how it plays that it cannot be called "janky" in the same way.
Quake 64 also feels the most reminiscent to me. I never played Quake 64 when I was a kid, but when I played Quake for PC I was not actually aware of mouse and keyboard controls. My PC also did not run the game very well. (as was the case for many people in 1996) So I played by moving with the arrow keys. I could hold alt to strafe (but then I could not turn, so there was NO circle-strafing) and I could look up and down by either holding A or Z. I actually played online like this, and at least on some of the smaller servers I did quite well. By comparison to this method, Quake 64 controls like a dream.
Most people don't care for old, retro ports on systems when an objectively better version of the game is more available, but I find something really special about them. If the game has been ported well, it will retain its core gameplay no matter what corners you need to cut.