i heard about sm64 stuff—pretty cool.
i dont think ive really followed tutorials for gamestuff. i once tried watching a blender tutorial to learn how to make models but i got bored and just learned the bare minimum... never watched a tutorial on programming. otherwise, most of my life i have had a mentor to help me with making games :-)
for me it is not about constantly knowing everything about the media i am in (games, music, video, etc), but rather gaining knowledge as needed to solve problems that block me from making what i want to make. and problems i run into are usually pretty specific so google often saves the day...