Review 64drive review

[shanefromoz]

Thanks C-Kronos i will think i will leave it.
I found a version of Jet Force Gemini that works.

 

[C-Kronos]

Thanks C-Kronos i will think i will leave it.
I found a version of Jet Force Gemini that works.

Alrighty, it's just one game anyways, all the cart solutions have this issue. If you want to use a 6105 CIC, the 64drive is currently the best option for that type of CIC, since the ED64 has issues with 6103 games when using the 6105, or at least the last time i checked.

 

[CyberAxe]

Is anyone else still waiting on theirs arriving? I ordered mine back on the 5th of October, sent him an email in November and was told it would ship early December, Sent him another email around Xmas asking for a status update though am still waiting on a reply.

For all I know it's on its way but taking a while due to shipping times between US and UK, though I didn't receive an email saying it had been sent.

 

[Schlupi]

Oh crap, something just occurred to me. Can somebody please test out Dobutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing)? I'd like to know if it and it's RTC features work on the 64Drive, and if anybody has the Everdrive, would they mind testing it out on there too?

 

[Schlupi]

You know I have tried to contact Marshall several times regarding an order and he has ignored me every time... the site is not updated for order information and he hasn't been shipping orders lately apparently, what gives?

 

[Schlupi]

Is anyone else still waiting on theirs arriving? I ordered mine back on the 5th of October, sent him an email in November and was told it would ship early December, Sent him another email around Xmas asking for a status update though am still waiting on a reply.

For all I know it's on its way but taking a while due to shipping times between US and UK, though I didn't receive an email saying it had been sent.

You ever receive your drive?

I really wanna invest the money in this and support him but I sorta want an estimate on how long it'd take. I don't really want to wait 4+ months unfortunately...

I know that the man is legit, Pleased don't take any of this I say as slander.

 

[synt4x_3rr0r]

I ordered one back on Oct 26th and I still haven't recieved it yet either. I emailed him in November asking if my order had been recieved and he answered very quickly confirming my order, and also saying he would probably get to my order in December. Now I emailed him again a week ago or so for an update, but I still haven't gotten a response yet

I'm getting a little worried to say the least, but I still trust the guy is legit and all. I hope he's just busy with life right now.

 

[Schlupi]

Man, he must be swamped with orders and can't keep up.

To all of those who ordered since October, it's probably best you keep us up to date on when you get your stuff so people can know whats up and when to expect theirs. It's probably an important fact for people investing money that they won't receive their cart for so long.

 

[lovewiibrew]

With no hearing back from Marshall, I'm getting an everdrive.

 

[synt4x_3rr0r]

I haven't checked my email for a few days and I just noticed that on Feb 6 I recieved a shipping comfirmation from paypal, with a "Note to buyer: Your 64drive has shipped"! It also included a tracking number. It was on its way to a sorting facility in Manhattan also on Feb 6.

So, sorry to Marshall for ever worrying even just a little bit about my order. I'm very happy now, even though I haven't recieved it yet because I know how awesome this thing will be once I do.

And actually just in time for my birthday as well.

 

[qwertymodo]

I decided to order one of these with my birthday money. Can anyone comment on 6105 CIC installation? Does it adversely affect any other games or is a 64Drive with a 6105 installed 100% compatible? I happen to have a copy of JFG I picked up in terrible condition for about $3, so I'm considering sacrificing it for its 6105. Otherwise, I'll just rip the 6102 out of the Rally Challenge 2k board that I'm already sacrificing for its black cartridge. Also, any suggestions for printing a label (best materials/process to use, etc.), since I'm getting the bare board? I've started designing my own label that should look pretty slick with the black cartridge

 

[synt4x_3rr0r]

Alright, update. I finally received my 64drive today. I just came back from picking it up so I haven't tried it yet.
It was well packaged in a small hard box and had bubble wrap around the cart. In the box was the cart, an A4 sized User Guide and a 6ft USB A to USB Mini5 cable for firmware upgrades. I ordered the full priced one with a PAL cartridge. It did have a hole dremmeled on the side to plug in the USB, as well as on the top for the memory cards of course.

I'm also happy to say that the written value on the customs declaration was $30, and it was classified as a "Used video game". So I didn't have to pay any customs tax or anything like that. I just got a regular note in the mail saying there was a package for me to pick up. So international buyers don't need to worry about that.

 

[Schlupi]

That is awesome to hear. I'm super jelly, man. I don't wanna settle on an Everdrive maybe I'll just have to deal with that wait. ;O;

Thanks for the extra info, too, it's good to know. Enjoy your 64Drive and happy birthday, Bro!

 

[qwertymodo]

For anyone that's considering installing a 6105 CIC, I've done a bit of research and come up with this list of games containing 6105's (I'm assuming the PAL copies have the PAL equivalent, but I didn't actually look that up):


Banjo-Tooie
Donkey Kong 64
Jet Force Gemini
Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
Mickey's Speedway USA
Perfect Dark

So, looks like the best game to take it from without sacrificing a good game would be Mickey's Speedway USA. Amazon has it for

 

[synt4x_3rr0r]

Just wanted to update you guys with this info. If you have a PAL console you need an S-Video cable to get color in NTSC roms. In other words, it's just like the PS1 problem with black and white colors on NTSC games on a PAL console unless you had an RGB cable. I would recommend an RGB cable for the N64 as well, but it doesn't have RGB output. So an S-video cable will have to do. Composite cable works fine for just playing PAL roms.

Luckily I had an S-Video cable for SNES/N64/GC laying around, but it's a crappy one. If there's a white background with black text on it, the text will be barely readable and more grayish in color. And the colors overall seems to be very bright to the point of loosing detail on objects because they're so bright. Like the lamps in Perfect Dark. You can't see them at all because they're so bright there's no details left in the light. It's the same on PAL with that cable though, so it's just the cable.

Anyway, other than having to buy a better S-Video cable I haven't had a single issue with the 64drive itself. Everything I've tried to boot so far has worked, including homebrew demos and games, except for some obscure demos and of course Banjo-Tooie. Even the friggin debug roms of OoT and MM boots up and works fine. Finally I can play them on a real N64

EDIT: Uhm, scratch that actually. I just tried with NTSC over a composite cable on another TV and there are colors on that TV. So it appears that it was the TVs fault that there weren't colors on NTSC. The TV that had issues was a Sony W4000 HDTV and the one that does have colors is a Sony Trinitron SD CRT. Now, I don't know if colors would work on the HDTV with S-video because I never tried the S-video cable on the HDTV. I just assumed that colors wouldn't work on the CRT with composite so I just plugged in the S-video cable into it immediately.

But you should get an S-video cable anyway for the improved sharpness and crispness.

 

[C-Kronos]

For anyone that's considering installing a 6105 CIC, I've done a bit of research and come up with this list of games containing 6105's (I'm assuming the PAL copies have the PAL equivalent, but I didn't actually look that up):


Banjo-Tooie
Donkey Kong 64
Jet Force Gemini
Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
Mickey's Speedway USA
Perfect Dark

So, looks like the best game to take it from without sacrificing a good game would be Mickey's Speedway USA. Amazon has it for

 

[qwertymodo]

For anyone that's considering installing a 6105 CIC, I've done a bit of research and come up with this list of games containing 6105's (I'm assuming the PAL copies have the PAL equivalent, but I didn't actually look that up):


Banjo-Tooie
Donkey Kong 64
Jet Force Gemini
Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
Mickey's Speedway USA
Perfect Dark

So, looks like the best game to take it from without sacrificing a good game would be Mickey's Speedway USA. Amazon has it for

 

[C-Kronos]

For anyone that's considering installing a 6105 CIC, I've done a bit of research and come up with this list of games containing 6105's (I'm assuming the PAL copies have the PAL equivalent, but I didn't actually look that up):


Banjo-Tooie
Donkey Kong 64
Jet Force Gemini
Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
Mickey's Speedway USA
Perfect Dark

So, looks like the best game to take it from without sacrificing a good game would be Mickey's Speedway USA. Amazon has it for

 

[qwertymodo]

[snip]

No problem, just make sure you dremel out holes for the USB port which is needed for updating the firmware and bootloader, and the menu is "updated" from a CF cartridge, or microsd. If you're intent on using microsd though, I recommend you come up with some creative way to access the port so you can easily remove the microsd chip. Microsd was more of an afterthought for the 64drive, since CF is the superior media and marshall was intent on using it (Note: I didn't say SD couldn't be "effective," CF is just better all the way around in my opinion)

The only true plus to SD is it's cheaper than CF, usually.. Depending on where you buy your media though, it can get expensive, it's crazy. They'll have 4 GB CF carts for nearly 40 dollars at Walmart, it made me chuckle that the local Walmart likes to jack the prices up on every electronic (Thank Talos for Newegg)

Nah, no need for USB holes, I have a gamebit. It takes like 10 seconds to take apart (and how often will I *really* need to update the bootloader?). Same for the MicroSD, I can't see adding games after the initial download dumping spree... which really just leaves menu updates, which still isn't that often to need to take the 10 seconds to open the cart. A small price to pay for having a nice, clean cart without any holes. As for MicroSD vs CF, what difference does it really make other than speed? I really don't care if it takes an extra couple seconds to do something, my prerogative right now is that having a CF card sticking out the top of the cart is not better (for me) than having a fully-enclosed cart with internal MicroSD, unless there are other downsides besides speed?

Also, another question. To anybody that has gotten their 64Drive, how long did it take after you placed your order? I get that it takes awhile, I'd just like a ballpark idea so I have some idea what to expect...

 

[Harsky]

[snip]

No problem, just make sure you dremel out holes for the USB port which is needed for updating the firmware and bootloader, and the menu is "updated" from a CF cartridge, or microsd. If you're intent on using microsd though, I recommend you come up with some creative way to access the port so you can easily remove the microsd chip. Microsd was more of an afterthought for the 64drive, since CF is the superior media and marshall was intent on using it (Note: I didn't say SD couldn't be "effective," CF is just better all the way around in my opinion)

The only true plus to SD is it's cheaper than CF, usually.. Depending on where you buy your media though, it can get expensive, it's crazy. They'll have 4 GB CF carts for nearly 40 dollars at Walmart, it made me chuckle that the local Walmart likes to jack the prices up on every electronic (Thank Talos for Newegg)

Nah, no need for USB holes, I have a gamebit. It takes like 10 seconds to take apart (and how often will I *really* need to update the bootloader?). Same for the MicroSD, I can't see adding games after the initial download dumping spree... which really just leaves menu updates, which still isn't that often to need to take the 10 seconds to open the cart. A small price to pay for having a nice, clean cart without any holes. As for MicroSD vs CF, what difference does it really make other than speed? I really don't care if it takes an extra couple seconds to do something, my prerogative right now is that having a CF card sticking out the top of the cart is not better (for me) than having a fully-enclosed cart with internal MicroSD, unless there are other downsides besides speed?

Also, another question. To anybody that has gotten their 64Drive, how long did it take after you placed your order? I get that it takes awhile, I'd just like a ballpark idea so I have some idea what to expect...

I paid for the 64drive on August the 8th and it finally got shipped around 17 October. That was from the US to the UK and it was also because I placed the order a day after the 64drive was announced for pre-order.

As for the CF card vs Micro SD question? At the moment, my 64drive has a 16gb Sandisk Class 2 micro sd purely because I don't like a CF card sticking out. The downside if that if you do need to remove the micro sd card from the 64drive, you need a tweezer ot something smiliar to pull it out because it really is fiddly but I realised that you can have the ENTIRE N64 library (US/JP/EU) fit on a 16gb MicroSD card with plenty space leftover. I personally don't have any problem with the speed mainly because I let I'm happy to wait up to a few seconds compared to the CD based solution such as a Doctor V64 I had.