My Honest Review for the SummerCart 64 for those Seeking for a N64 Flash Cart.
first off this is my first time doing a full on honest review on a Product so i do apoligize in advance if my verbage sounds off because i dont really write reviews unironically like the businesses and my english is bad so i hope you understand where im getting at and i hope i do encourage alot of people who are reading this is seeking out a flashcart to buy (:
just received mine on the 27th. realized you needed an expansion pak when it comes to Mario 64 rom hacks or anything else (Highly Recommend to Grab which i got mine for $50 at my local Retro Shop) which i never owned in my life. My past 3 days of using the SummerCart64 has been really good to me and something i've always been looking for in a flashcart for years vs the everdrive.
Now however i am not dissing the everdrive64 flashcart product because im sure its super great and offers more features than the summercart does. the reason i chose this over the everdrive64 x5/x7 is just because of the price. a bit too much but does offer more key features as i said earlier than the summercart64. but i just mostly snatched in aliexpress for about $50 because i wanted to relive the nostalgia and remember what it felt like playing the mario party for the first time as a child.
For $50 Total you cant simply go wrong with this and also bought it from EpicJoy in AliExpress. he delivered everything as advertised and the version i bought was the 16gb one black edition which only loads about 4gb of roms, seems way enough but giving you the opportunity to go all out and load any roms of your needs and pleasure to make sure you are getting the maximum benefit of putting games on the flash cart without buying an additional MicroSD Card.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- Great Reading Speed
- Open Source
- Ready to Play
- includes 2 Sticker Labels, USB Dongle & 8gb or 16gb msd card
- SC64 Updates really frequent and easy (can use the Type C to PC to update without removing MSD Card)
- Full Nintendo 64DD reverse-engineering code built in the back cart (small red button located in the back)
Cons:
- No RTC Battery
- No Cheats YET
- Certain Games that need the Ram Exp. (Obv.) or Rom hacks will require you to buy an Expansion Pak or you will Black Screen
Final Thoughts:
Is the SC64 worth the $50 you plan on spending? Yes. will it almost deliver the same as the ED64? Yes. If you own the ED64 x5/x7 and thinking "should i change over to the SC64?" No. id prefer you stick with your Everdrive64. its just better. The SC64 is the perfect Flashcart N64 and the most cost efficient Product you will ever get your hands on. it may not be the official product that bought from the Original dev who is selling this for $100 but if you wish to actually support the original dev you can most likely do so but because of it being open source you will be seeing this product almost everywhere now for less the price only diffrence being is the Original dev will offer you a choice of plastic transparent colored shells of your choosing with a really nice holo looking sticker label for the SC64.
id say check it out if youre one of those looking for aesthetic. there is no diffrence inbetween both og dev and the ali express one except the pricing on it. now in conclusion to my long ass yap harry potter paragraph which i do apologize for those who aren't gonna read the whole thing. Last thing i want to mention before i conclude my honest review is Do I enjoy or love the SC64? i absolutely do so much. a much needed Flashcart for me as a budget guy. you will get your moneys worth guys trust me its amazing and no regrets has been made to my wallet.
RATING:
8.6/10
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.
