Review 64drive review

[jalaneme]

also for uk buyers beware imagine how much import tax this thing would cost to ship it to the uk, you would prob pay an extra £50+ on top 0_0

 

[Schlupi]

Been reading the manual on the 64drive site. Is it essential to push the reset button everytime you finish playing the game and want to save BEFORE you turn the console off or can you just save the game as normal, turn off and the game will be saved?

It's the same with some other carts, like the SNES and NES Powerpak.

 

[alexh]

I don't think people understood my first post. There is already an N64 Flash cartridge call the Everdrive64 which has similar compatibility and is only $99

UK buyers can get the Everdrive64 for £130 including import duties and postage which is a little on the expensive side but still fun.

The patched version of JFG works fine on the ED64. Compatibility is pretty much the same across the board now. All games can be made to work except Banjo Tooie.

 

[Fishaman P]

Man, I SO wanted this, especially when you said it was a "justifiably low price".

But then I went to the ordering page...

$200 FRIKKIN DOLLARS!?!

 

[Lily]

Can you order the 64drive and specify that you want the CIC for Banjo-Tooie and the extra bridge/solder that allows it to work as well? I'd be in to that if they were offering a "total package".

 

[raulpica]

I don't think people understood my first post. There is already an N64 Flash cartridge call the Everdrive64 which has similar compatibility and is only $99

UK buyers can get the Everdrive64 for £130 including import duties and postage which is a little on the expensive side but still fun.

The patched version of JFG works fine on the ED64. Compatibility is pretty much the same across the board now. All games can be made to work except Banjo Tooie.

Hey, nice seeing an EAB user around here.

So, is there any real benefit in choosing this over the Everdrive64, except maybe for JFG compatibility out of the box?

Faster loading times or something like that? I mean, the drive64 only offers one single game (JFG) over the ED64, while asking for double its price, I can't see myself getting the 64drive, if it is like that.
I'm not really interested in the NES emulator or the MP3 player, I just want me to play some N64 games

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

It's a cool idea but I could buy every single game I give a crap about on the N64 for maybe half of what this costs.

 

[Hiro_x2]

I think I paid somewhere between $300-$400 USD for my MrBackup Z64 (ver.2) back in 1998 or so. It was always nice to have people see the unit and be intrigued. "WOW! What is THAT!" (Ironically enough that thing became a money sink for me, because the zip drives in both the unit AND my PC both took a dump within a week of each other. I always wanted to modifiy the unit to accept CFlash carts, but never got around to it.

Another thing that kind of baffles me, maybe it's just my age showing, is how people on this thread are scoffing at the price. People would pay huge amounts of money for copiers back in the day, The first GB carts were pretty expensive too, and at the time only allowed 1 image to be flashed onto it if i recall. (or a couple at best)..

I think the latest generation of gamers in this "scene" have become spoiled due to the nature of cheap flash carts etc. That being said, I'm not one to say "Things were better because we used to pay 3x as much for them in the past" However cheap, easy to aquire units have definately attracted people who seem to be more about "free games" rather then facination of the devices themselves.

Also, I find far more enjoyment sitting down infront of the tv with my kids with a real consol then watching them punch away on an emulator anyday.

 

[regnad]

The one thing you have to factor in to all of this, though, is that N64 emulators, specifically PJ64, can do things that even the original can't. And I don't just mean save states -- I mean true wide screen.

Since I have a USB adapter that works with Hori mini pad with rumble, I can't see myself wanting to play Majora's Mask without wide screen. It adds so much.

So that plus the price plus Banjo Tooie not working kind of sours me on this.

You're right, though, Hiro, about using a real console to play with the kids. And with that in mind, I could see myself buying this if it got around the $80 range, but I just can't justify more than that considering how old the N64 already is.

 

[Selim873]

This is SO amazing! I hope it'll be in stock between late Christmas and early January.

EDIT: Just saw the price. Might get the Everdrive64 instead.

 

[amptor]

Man, I SO wanted this, especially when you said it was a "justifiably low price".

But then I went to the ordering page...

$200 FRIKKIN DOLLARS!?!

Yeah because everyone was complaining about the Neoflash N64 Myth cart price that is around $300 for the complete kit with SD capability and also you can order this bare without the shell and CIC for a little less even. If you're a hobbyist like me, you already have plenty of carts left over from playing with the Doctor V64 or the V64 Jr. so you might want the lower priced kit and then build it up from what you already have.

QUOTE(lilsypha @ Sep 25 2011, 06:51 PM) Can you order the 64drive and specify that you want the CIC for Banjo-Tooie and the extra bridge/solder that allows it to work as well? I'd be in to that if they were offering a "total package".

I'm sure you could work that out with marshallgs, the creator of the cart through email since it appears to me that he is building them and calling it preorder so that he gets enough time to build them to ship. Imho who plays banjo-tooie? lol just get the kit as it is and him and some others are working on adding support for the Banjo Tooie ROM in the future. I believe it can be done because Jet Force Gemini is working as well as all saves for all the other carts.

 

[amptor]

I don't think people understood my first post. There is already an N64 Flash cartridge call the Everdrive64 which has similar compatibility and is only $99

UK buyers can get the Everdrive64 for £130 including import duties and postage which is a little on the expensive side but still fun.

The patched version of JFG works fine on the ED64. Compatibility is pretty much the same across the board now. All games can be made to work except Banjo Tooie.

Hey, nice seeing an EAB user around here.

So, is there any real benefit in choosing this over the Everdrive64, except maybe for JFG compatibility out of the box?

Faster loading times or something like that? I mean, the drive64 only offers one single game (JFG) over the ED64, while asking for double its price, I can't see myself getting the 64drive, if it is like that.
I'm not really interested in the NES emulator or the MP3 player, I just want me to play some N64 games

As far as I can tell, all 3 flash carts support the NES emulator now. I found the MP3 player interesting, but when I load up a console I use it to play games. Still, it is a pretty cool feature.

I haven't received an ED64 to review so I really can't comment on it too much besides that the GUI looks very simple and I heard its compatability is lower but people in this thread are just talking about 2 games so maybe it only doesn't support JFG and BT and that's it. I'm pretty confident that the ED64 supports the NES emulator.

As for loading times, I was amazed that a class 2 microsd loads games so quickly on this. It works really good.

 

[hcs]

I'm pretty confident that the ED64 supports the NES emulator.

I know there's a video on Youtube showing it working. Though someone decided to hack out my title screen. It was developed on a v64jr so it really isn't tied to any particular device, there's even a way to load it with a N64 Gameshark Pro. (Sorry for getting offtopic)

 

[amptor]

I'm pretty confident that the ED64 supports the NES emulator.

I know there's a video on Youtube showing it working. Though someone decided to hack out my title screen. It was developed on a v64jr so it really isn't tied to any particular device, there's even a way to load it with a N64 Gameshark Pro. (Sorry for getting offtopic)

Yeah imho there's no reason to hack out your title screen. If it is in the code, then it is meant to be there. I was going to trim some of them out of my review but I just kept them. The mods were saying that there's too many photos is the only reason, but I think after I posted my review there may still be too many. I haven't gone back into the staff forum yet to see if anything was said

But idk the review loads fine for me. I'm assuming that a lot of people are on dialup still?

but yeah man when I first saw it in the 64drive videos on youtube, I thought it was something built into the menu. I wonder if there's enough room for it to be built in. I like it when flash carts have all that stuff built in but of course I wouldn't want to try to sacrifice the original title screen.

 

[florian]

sure the N64 Myth flash cart is a big shit compared to drive 64 .....i have a N64 Myth flash cart its a old method hardware i wait my drive 64

 

[alex_0706]

is it combiable with gameshark??? and more games???

 

[amptor]

sure the N64 Myth flash cart is a big shit compared to drive 64 .....i have a N64 Myth flash cart its a old method hardware i wait my drive 64

I like the Neoflash N64 Myth but you need a bunch of cartridges for it to work with all the games so if that was what you meant, I agree. However I like that you can skin each screen on it and what it comes with for GUI is bright and colorful. Its just that most of the time you're going to be in a game so that stuff may not really matter a whole lot

QUOTE(alex_0706 @ Sep 26 2011, 03:59 PM) is it combiable with gameshark??? and more games???

It isn't compatible with the gameshark and it works with every game except for Banjo Tooie which is being worked on still.

 

[Devante]

Man this puts my Z64 to shame, although Z64 is a conversation piece.

Traded 300 Dreamcast backups for that thing, too.
If this thing were $100 cheaper, I'd buy it instantly.

 

[VashTS]

Man this puts my Z64 to shame, although Z64 is a conversation piece.

Traded 300 Dreamcast backups for that thing, too.
If this thing were $100 cheaper, I'd buy it instantly.

Jesus even at my peak back in the DC days, I only had like 130. I didn't know there were 300 DC titles!

Anyway nice review, but as everyone else has stated emulation is the way to go. The display of the N64 on HDTV would be quite ugly. Thats mainly the reason I don't play my DC. I would love to get back into Giant Gram, but the resolution is really low and it looks ugly. I've had an N64 controller on my PC since like 2004, I couldn't imagine not having it. I use it for MAME as well.

 

[amptor]

Man this puts my Z64 to shame, although Z64 is a conversation piece.

Traded 300 Dreamcast backups for that thing, too.
If this thing were $100 cheaper, I'd buy it instantly.

Jesus even at my peak back in the DC days, I only had like 130. I didn't know there were 300 DC titles!

Anyway nice review, but as everyone else has stated emulation is the way to go. The display of the N64 on HDTV would be quite ugly. Thats mainly the reason I don't play my DC. I would love to get back into Giant Gram, but the resolution is really low and it looks ugly. I've had an N64 controller on my PC since like 2004, I couldn't imagine not having it. I use it for MAME as well.

You get used to it. At least, I did. I play N64 on 42" screen and it is fine enough for me. The N64 had blotchy graphics already to begin with. Back in those times. 3DFX on PC dominated N64 hardcore and PSX was no competition at least for graphics anyway.

I still have yet to plug an N64 into my CRT which is somewhat big too at 27" (and 100lbs). I'm going to have to get to that some time. I own two N64 consoles and 3 flash carts so I can have one N64 in each room with the same games sans the saves. There's a few titles that I enjoy playing which I put in the pictures in the review. Chopper Attack is fun. Actually I thought Blast Corps was fun a while back but when I did this review, I enjoyed Chopper Attack more. Although on this cart I didn't play the games for lenghty durations of time. I tried to do all the testing primarily for the review and not use up gobs of time on one game. I played a lot of Pilotwings SNES on my RetroUSB SNES cart review though

Without cheating, it says that I am an expert pilot