The Official Nintendo 64 Thread!

[SlidellMan]

Stunt Racer 64/Stunt Racer 3000:

 

[shane857]

7 minutes ago, SlidellMan said:

Stunt Racer 64/Stunt Racer 3000:

 

Looks like a decent racer. I've never heard of it, or played the game..

[Master Phruby]

Analogue 3D - full FPGA Nintendo 64.  Oct 21st preorder. $249.99.

 

https://www.analogue.co/3d

 

[Tanooki]

Did you read all the numbered citatation bits and what they mean?

 

No OpegFPGA, so no cores.

No ROMs (which no jailbreak)

 

The yes values are just

Online multiplayer

4K display which does 5-10x the display (320 vs 640) games the 64 does itself

 

Beyond that, fluff like bluetooth built in.

 

It's I guess a minimalist targeted system for real game owners, how much so, not sure, just have to see if the flash kits like the 64 rainbow thing or the ed's over time work or not.  When they did the DUO that thing didn't do shit but legit games, and it was pretty hateful against 3rd party accessories and everdrive which didn't fit without taking the face off or chopping it up, and some flash kits wouldn't even work at all.

 

The up side I guess, it's new, and it's also like N64 was in 1996 -- $250.

 

I for one have no interest.  My launch system works perfect and has UltraHDMI installed, don't a shit in the slightest about multiplayer online (or off largely either), don't care about bluetooth built in either or 4K as 1080p is enough for my needs and will be for years to come.  But I do see a need for some, mostly those with huge TVs that do 4k and want to dude bro it up online doing their multiplayer stuff.

[Atariboy]

No where does it say that it's not going to have an unofficial jailbreak firmware (which wouldn't be unofficial if they officially recognized it such as admitting that they're not planning to do a stealth release of it for this upcoming system)?

 

Open FPGA and jailbreak firmware (or "core store" back in the earliest days of Analogue FPGA systems) aren't one and the same. That this won't officially support the loading of rom images is standard Analogue PR. But what's also standard for them is the ability if the user wishes to unofficially play rom images off the system's SD slot and that tradition hopefully will be continuing going forward without any acknowledgement from Analogue. That they confirmed last October and reconfirmed this October about Open FPGA being absent here in no way infers anything about the system's future ability to play rom images directly off a SD card. Open FPGA is the Pocket's feature that condones the creation, sharing, and use of 3rd party cores made by others (such as the many arcade cores from Jotego). 

 

What's wrong with Bluetooth? The purpose of this system is to update the N64 gaming experience to be more in line with modern standards. Wireless controllers in this day and age of huge HD displays is just part of the territory. That they're built-in here is only a positive. While there's nothing wrong with original N64 consoles or enjoying them on old CRT's and the like (or being uninterested in the Analogue 3D), there's also nothing wrong that I can see with what the stated intentions of this system are to update the N64 gaming experience to fit in better with today's televisions and the like.

 

Also, no where are they saying anything about online multiplayer. So far the wifi is only confirmed to be for firmware updates and the like.

Edited October 17 by Atariboy

[Tanooki]

"

1. Analogue^3D does not play copyrighted rom files, it plays legacy game cartridges via the cartridge slot.

That's at the bottom of their page, while not implicit, it's pretty direct on what they want this thing to run.  It may come later, but immediately it doesn't so I wouldn't call it guaranteed.  And if other jailbrakes (16bit) are a pattern, then it would just be for its library alone, not buckshot like openfpga or their oldest NT system that ran all sorts of stuff on the sly.

 

Nothing is wrong with bluetooth, the point I was making was personal interest, in that I have none when I already have a stash of controllers.  I'm not sure where I picked up the wifi for gaming I think it was the style of wifi added made it possible but could have been a misinterpretation.  In that case, that's one less thing to be wow'd over if it's more just in parity with N64 where it's just multiplayer on the couch only.

 

I see little value in it personally as I've got UltraHDMI installed.  For someone who doesn't, then it has some value, but it seems at best perhaps it'll do n64 on itself or n64 using a later potential jailbreak, but flash kits maybe an issue if the Duo is any metric to go by.

[Atariboy]

Like I already said, that's standard PR from Analogue. The jailbreak firmwares are unofficial and aren't acknowledged by Analogue. The Mega Sg, Super Nt, Pocket, and Duo have all had the exact same statement on their pages, yet all four unofficially play copyrighted rom files. And while not guaranteed, I see little reason to doubt the situation has suddenly changed.

 

An unofficial firmware with the ability, released such as on GitHub under a pseudonym or by way of 3rd party not associated with Analogue, has been standard practice. The community knows something like this doesn't magically happen and where it's actually coming from, but the company and their employees like Kevtris never make a statement about it and Analogue is protected from overzealous corporate lawyers while the community is able to enjoy their purchase as they see fit.

 

 

[roots.genoa]

7 hours ago, Tanooki said:

No ROMs (which no jailbreak)

As Atariboy said they always say that, even for the Pocket for which it didn't make sense because of openFPGA (as if third party developers were supposed to create cores for the already compatible carts only 🙄).

 

7 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Online multiplayer

LOL, not gonna happen.

 

But we get it, it's not for you, even though you look like you're struggling convincing yourself. 🙂 To be fair I'm not interested either, because I don't have a lot of N64 carts and don't give a shit about 4K.

[M-S]

The 8BitDo controller this time is straight up just a Brawler64 with a fancier look and a modern stick, weird option for the company that got popular for accurately recreating original controllers.

 

But is it my impression or they didn't even show a single screenshot? I think they want people to have the impression the games will look "clean" like when you boost internal resolution in a software emulator rather than a real console externally upscaled which is what it's most likely going to look like.

 

One interesting thing I have looked on for N64 is overclocking, it's possible to swap the CPU for a new one called VR4310 which goes up to 167MHz. But so far I have only seen two people doing this modification, one at the old ModRetro forums and another one in Youtube, both seem to be inactive right now and didn't leave a lot of instructions so I wouldn't risk my main console and rather find a scrapped N64 out there.

 

[Tanooki]

Struggling ?  Not at all. My n64 is ultra hdmi modded. The system offers zero benefits to me since I don’t do 4K tv. 

[SlidellMan]

What James Lambert has been up to:

 

[SlidellMan]

Sega Lord X's Top Ten Nintendo 64 Games:

 

[Tanooki]

Always appreciate that guy, strange being a sega guy who covers fairly so much more stuff as it keeps it fresh.  Shame his subs are as low as they are given the consistent content it's a bit confusing.  I could say even more so sadly for GTV as it's criminally low.

[SlidellMan]

Kaze doing what he does best:

 

[Punisher5.0]

Recently a mod has been released that lets you play DOOM and DOOM 2 in DOOM64 style on PC. This looks and sounds amazing and its free if you already have DOOM 1+2 wads (you can get from GOG or Steam if you don't).

 

 

[SlidellMan]

When Nintendo 64 ROM hackers do a better job of Mega Man X in 3D than Capcom:

 

 

[Reaperman]

Are there any n64-based tools for managing controller pak saves?
Copying/clearing etc? 

It'd be great if the flashcarts did it, but neither of mine seem to.
Am I just being dumb and there's a way to do it right through the system?

Edited November 23 by Reaperman

[Cobra Kai]

56 minutes ago, Reaperman said:

Are there any n64-based tools for managing controller pak saves?
Copying/clearing etc? 

It'd be great if the flashcarts did it, but neither of mine seem to.
Am I just being dumb and there's a way to do it right through the system?

Hold Start when you power up.

[Atariboy2600]

One of the first item I gotten from my trip in Japan last month is the first released N64 complete in box and some box and loose games. Hope to get more Japanese imports of games in the future.

 

[SlidellMan]

The latest from Kaze Emanuar:

 

[Reaperman]

On 11/23/2024 at 6:17 PM, Cobra Kai said:

Hold Start when you power up.

Well I tried the card manager in mario kart, rush 2, and rush 2049--none of them allow a copy or move. 

They seem to let me pick a card, see what's on it and delete it. Does some other game have an actually-helpful pak manager?

I'm trying to get my most important saves onto my 'forever pak.' It seems like some goldeneye hack was hogging space on it--so at least I killed that.

[Atariboy]

Have you tried having two controllers connected and two memory packs connected? I suspect that you probably did since you're trying to copy and move around save files, but on the slim chance you haven't and were just checking out the menu option now that you know about it, those options may not be available if it just sees one controller and one memory pack connected.

[Reaperman]

2 hours ago, Atariboy said:

Have you tried having two controllers connected and two memory packs connected? I suspect that you probably did since you're trying to copy and move around save files, but on the slim chance you haven't and were just checking out the menu option now that you know about it, those options may not be available if it just sees one controller and one memory pack connected.

Yeah, it lets me browse both cards and delete files off of either, but there's no copy or move functions. 
I also just tried Hydro Thunder and California Speed's onboard start+boot managers with similarly useless results. All the memory pak games seem to have one, and they all look different, but so far all only seem to offer browse and delete functionality.

hydro thunder was the oddball so far. it's the most annoying cart ever, because that game only allows saving and managing of the p1 memory pak.
Memory pak users often try to keep the saves on the player-2 slot so the player-1 slot can be for rumble to eliminate pak-swapping.
I hope there's a hydro thunder romhack that fixes that. 

Edit: no, there is not a romhack for that. 

Edited November 25 by Reaperman

[Atariboy]

It's a far less seamless solution, but I suppose that you could load up the save that you want to transfer and then swap out memory cards and save it to the new card? Beats hunting down a DexDrive and getting it working, although some games will complain that a different card was inserted and will refuse to allow you to save (a glance around Google shows that Beatle Adventure Racing is one such offender).

 

A likely more economical choice than the DexDrive and an easy option is a Game Shark (the manual confirms the functionality you're looking for is present). And there's also the Everdrive option. The Everdrive X7 manual shows that you can you copy memory card saves to the Everdrive and copy them back to a memory card. If you have an Everdrive, you're quite possibly all set (even if it's an older revision, it very well may offer that functionality).

 

It's been quite an undertaking for the better part of the last 30 years given how little space there is on a 1st party N64 memory card, but I've only ever had the one card. So I'm shooting blind here with ideas. I'd of also lost a bet if someone had told me that this wasn't a common feature in N64 game memory management menus. Seems like a glaring omission to not let people manage their memory cards by moving save files around.

[Tanooki]

There was a thing called an adaptoid during the WinXP era, very basic, just some software and a USB to n64 style jack.  If you popped that thing into the PC with the controller plugged in it allowed you to use it with emulation or general games too, but if you used the slot, it had full function, rumble, and memory pack.  It would see the mempak in a way much like a very tiny thumb drive, and you could copy/paste/delete the save data (or as many would do, upload hacked saves gamefaqs stored at the time for it and dreamcast too.)