Who's getting a summercart 64?

[CoolMe]

I can see the RTC battery right through the shell.

View attachment 483579

The pictures are one thing, however the item you'll be receiving could be different

 

[Jayro]

The pictures are one thing, however the item you'll be receiving could be different

True, but I've seen people review this thing on YouTube, and it does indeed have a battery in it for RTC. So that reviewer either got as shitty clone, or didn't get the right product.

 

[SylverReZ]

Buying off AliExpress is a guaranteed way to get ripped off

Well, not always. Sometimes you might get something really good, much like with the SummerCart64. Then again, most flashcarts you see from them are pretty crap and are clones from previous gen carts. And for the love of god, never buy one off Amazon as they're asking for a really high price point.

 

[esmith13]

I'm going to make a bold assumption that the reviewer's cart DOES have a battery holder on board since it was always part of the Summercart64 design and is also used to store device and console settings like what region CIC is needed at boot. Without a working battery, you would get a slow blinking light on the cart and the boot time to the menu would be much slower as it cycles thru CIC regions to find a working one.

I'm guessing the RTC wasn't setup initially which is done via command line on PC while connected to the cart vis USB cable. It's possible that skipping this step leaves RTC unavailable as everything is blanked out when updating the firmware. The RTC configuration step clearly wasn't performed or there would be no mistaking that RTC is supported.

 

[Jayro]

I'm going to make a bold assumption that the reviewer's cart DOES have a battery holder on board since it was always part of the Summercart64 design and is also used to store device and console settings like what region CIC is needed at boot. Without a working battery, you would get a slow blinking light on the cart and the boot time to the menu would be much slower as it cycles thru CIC regions to find a working one.

I'm guessing the RTC wasn't setup initially which is done via command line on PC while connected to the cart vis USB cable. It's possible that skipping this step leaves RTC unavailable as everything is blanked out when updating the firmware. The RTC configuration step clearly wasn't performed or there would be no mistaking that RTC is supported.

Sounds like the likely case. Probably just plopped it into the N64 without any of the setup steps.

 

[retrofan_k]

Buying off AliExpress is a guaranteed way to get ripped off

AliExpress has Buyer Protection fail safes in place along with other things. It’s no different to EBay now and tbh, I have had better service with AliExpress over EBay recently.

 

[kbf]

Have you guys ever had issues with the SD cards from aliexpress? I don't trust it to not break on me within a month or two so I just used my own SD card.

 

[esmith13]

Have you guys ever had issues with the SD cards from aliexpress? I don't trust it to not break on me within a month or two so I just used my own SD card.

I NEVER use fake SD cards that come with flashcarts or ROM Players. I keep them safe in case I need to get files from them later but use new name brand cards from day 1. If you can't afford to do that - backup the included card to a computer FIRST, they cross your fingers and use it. Just my humble opinion. Look at all the posts here in the oldies section lately with people who crashed the card included with their "game stick" type devices.

 

[SylverReZ]

I NEVER use fake SD cards that come with flashcarts or ROM Players. I keep them safe in case I need to get files from them later but use new name brand cards from day 1. If you can't afford to do that - backup the included card to a computer FIRST, they cross your fingers and use it. Just my humble opinion. Look at all the posts here in the oldies section lately with people who crashed the card included with their "game stick" type devices.

I just simply keep fake cards for testing purposes, not for using them to play games. But most of the time they will corrupt and fail instantly so you might as well pick another one up.

 

[emmanu888]

I do want to get one to replace my ED64 v2.5 considering the latest update is incompatible with ED64's that came out before the new variants.

 

[juanitoes]

I can see the RTC battery right through the shell.

View attachment 483579

ohhhhh i see my apoligies. i was looking at a diffrent shop images and just completely missed it or didnt pay attention to just the RTC add on exisiting. thanks for pointing that out!

Post automatically merged: Feb 3, 2025

Nicely written review. I have a few comments for you on it.

1) Not sure if you missed it or if the AliExpress versions are incomplete, but my Summercart64 from Phenom Mods has a Battery and supports "Battery backed real time clock (RTC)".

2) It's worth noting that 64DD & Aleck64 games do NOT need to be patched/converted to be played on the Summercart64 like they do on the Everdrive. While in general this seems like a small thing, the issue mainly is with 64DD games where the Everdrive cannot play multi-disk games or cart+disk games since the ROMs have to be converted to trick the system to think they are carts themselves, not disks, which breaks that support for swapping or mixing media types on Everdrive. Only a handful of games take advantage of this, but still this makes Sumercart64's 64DD support more feature complete than Everdrive's is.

3) It's a niche thing, but only Summercart64 supports iQue games. It's only 14 games slightly tweaked or modified and re-released in Chinese, but still worth a mention.

4) I don't think the "con" about the Expansion Pak is fair to list as a con, but should instead simply be a note that applies to ALL flashcarts. Nothing in the N64 cart slot could ever replace the need for an Expansion Pak. If an Expansion Pak is needed for a game or ROM hack or whatever, then any flashcart ever made now or in the future would need the Expansion Pak to play it.

Again, overall a great written review to help people out with what can be a tough decision for those new to the N64, flashcarts, or both.

thank you so much for your input! yeah maybe the whole expansion pak being a con shouldnt be listed as it just something i wanted to say but maybe i just wasn't re reading my rough draft before posting this but i dont mind any feedbacks! (:

 

[TheViper4Life]

Have you guys ever had issues with the SD cards from aliexpress? I don't trust it to not break on me within a month or two so I just used my own SD card.

No, but then I didn't use the generic 16GB card that came with mine for very long. I used it when I first got it just to make sure the cart worked...but I bought a 64GB Samsung Evo card off of Amazon for $10, and made my own card.

And yeah the one I got from Epicjoy on Aliexpress came with a battery and has RTC, the time and date are always showing on the menu.

I love it, it's a fantastic cart and I've had no issues with it. The only cons for me are there being no Gameshark support yet (but apparently it's being worked on), and the menu has this shaky jitter to it, which in turn leaves image retention on my TV, it fades after a couple of minutes, but it always worries me that it could lead to full image burn in at some point.

Other than that I have no complaints about it. Every game I try works great, I've even managed to take a save file from my Wii Virtual Console for Paper Mario and get it successfully converted to one that works with the SummerCart. I have a few emulators on it (NES, SNES, GB/GBC) with their entire libraries. And quite a few Romhacks that run beautifully.

Might be the best $47 I've ever spent.

 

[Armadillo]

So at some point I will take my chances with an aliexpress one as that's my only reasonable option. Phenon mods are £73+ whatever shipping is to the UK, there are some UK sellers, but those just look like the aliexpress ones with a huge markup. Aliexpress they are £35 or so.

So other than does it work, anything else to look out for? or just make sure it takes the firmware and make sure I can set rtc and it's good?

 

[esmith13]

So at some point I will take my chances with an aliexpress one as that's my only reasonable option. Phenon mods are £73+ whatever shipping is to the UK, there are some UK sellers, but those just look like the aliexpress ones with a huge markup. Aliexpress they are £35 or so.

So other than does it work, anything else to look out for? or just make sure it takes the firmware and make sure I can set rtc and it's good?

From what I've heard, aside from possibly needing to open it and install a battery yourself, it's identical to a more reputable supplier. If there is anything different I assume it would just be the brand/quality of some of the SMD components on the board. Unless the parts used are literally out of spec, at worst this should only mean a possible shorter lifespan of the cart itself by what is probably a negligible amount. And that's if there is any difference at all.

Personally I just like to buy where at least some money goes back to the people involved in the product's creation - but I get that isn't always realistic based on shipping, tariffs, availability, etc.

 

[Armadillo]

From what I've heard, aside from possibly needing to open it and install a battery yourself, it's identical to a more reputable supplier. If there is anything different I assume it would just be the brand/quality of some of the SMD components on the board. Unless the parts used are literally out of spec, at worst this should only mean a possible shorter lifespan of the cart itself by what is probably a negligible amount. And that's if there is any difference at all.

Personally I just like to buy where at least some money goes back to the people involved in the product's creation - but I get that isn't always realistic based on shipping, tariffs, availability, etc.

Thanks.

Is there actually an "official" option then? Looking on the page for it, only the Phenom Mod store carries fully assembled carts and the page said it's not afflilated with them. Everything else is basically build it yourself.

 

[esmith13]

Thanks.

Is there actually an "official" option then? Looking on the page for it, only the Phenom Mod store carries fully assembled carts and the page said it's not afflilated with them. Everything else is basically build it yourself.

Phenom is not affiliated with them but the creator specifically links to them and explains why on their page in the "where to buy" section:
https://summercart64.dev/

Phenom does give you the option to donate $5 [additional] to the author at least.

 

[Armadillo]

Thanks.

Aliexpress it is then. Kickback is nice for the dev on phenom mods, but £35 all in vs £73+vat+shipping to the UK is too much .

 

[Retrojunkies]

I got mine the other week and its really good, works like a charm on my Analogue3D.

I have been looking for tools to inject cheat codes into Roms, the one ive seen uses python 3 which supports D codes for activators.

But I cant find anywhere on how to use it, ive read the readme but when I run terminal and put injector.py, it gives an error, maybe because its not for Windows11?

I was wondering for other ways of cheats because while SC64 supports them, its in beta stage and im finding codes wont work when they do on my ED64.

Also I was wondering if they'd be chances of porting pc code tools like gameshark or action replay for finding cheats.

Before we used to connect to the cheat cartridge to find codes, but these serial connectors and software are long phased out.

So maybe the USB C port on the SC64 cartridge could maybe be used for this?

 

[esmith13]

Summercart64 allows chain-loading a N64 cart and a 64DD disk together, not sure if it's supported with "cart+cart" but have you tried chain-loading the N64 Gameshark ROM and the game you want to play?

 

[Jayro]

I love mine.