The Official Nintendo 64 Thread!

[Andromeda Stardust]

https://retrofighters.com/#homey

These modern style controllers are in stock for the N64 if anyone is interested. I snapped one up just for fun and to see how the form function feels playing the 64

Hell to the Yeah. I just ordered one. That thing is sexxy (getting raging nerd boner just looking at the pretty renders)...

 

Hopefully this can replace my (worn) Superpads.

[Rick Dangerous]

Yeah I was too lazy to "pre fund" this but when I saw them available for sale I pounced on the opportunity.

 

They are coming out with one with a translucent shell in about two months, and if this one works well i'll certainly snag another.

 

In other news--There is a ton of good N64 stuff on Etsy. Repro games and manuals, Homebrews and Hacks etc. I highly recommend anyone take a look over there if you haven't yet. Recently purchased:

 

-Goldfinger 64 (Gold Cart)

 

-Zelda OOT Master Quest (Gold cart, box and manual)

 

-Animal Crossing (English Translation)

 

-Sin and Punishment (clear cart, full English Translation)

 

And....repros of Worms Armageddon and Bomberman 2nd Attack that look great and save and function flawlessly.

 

Not a bad option for the stuff that has gotten ridiculously expensive.

[Tanooki]

You're right about those bootlegs. It was probably 3-5 years ago now they started popping up with 5 games on aliexpress and back then they were like $70 each which was surprising. But when you had stuff like Bomberman 2nd Attack, Worms, Sculptors Cut, Harvest Moon and one other on there, with HM being the only dumb one as the real game cost less it was the opening of the door to all the rest. Now they can be picked up really cheap compared and even better you get those translation hacks in Animal Crossing and conversions like Master Quest.

 

I'm kind of surprised that S&P got a release as the jP game is in english other than the menus and it's fairly cheap, yet a game like Bangaioh which is in the 3 figure club doesn't have one as I think it would be a cool standout perhaps in a translucent red/blue cart.

[Gentlegamer]

Hell to the Yeah. I just ordered one. That thing is sexxy (getting raging nerd boner just looking at the pretty renders)...

 

Hopefully this can replace my (worn) Superpads.

 

I have a Hori controller, but I just ordered a Retro Fighters

[Andromeda Stardust]

My Retrofighters pad arrived. I haven't played it yet but it seems very responsive in my hand. The dual Z triggers are kind of weird. They have an analog feel to them with a good bit of travel, just over a quarter inch. I hope the button actuates early rather than later. Since very few games ever used the L trigger outside of menus, I'd of rather had symmetric R and Z triggers but I'm nitpicking here. Feel is very solid and well built.

 

I have not playtested it yet, just feel tested, and so far I like how i feels in the hand, and the retro color scheme makes it feel like a late 90s product. I'll pull out my system later and test it.

 

 

 

I'm kind of surprised that S&P got a release as the jP game is in english other than the menus and it's fairly cheap, yet a game like Bangaioh which is in the 3 figure club doesn't have one as I think it would be a cool standout perhaps in a translucent red/blue cart.

S&P got released on the Wii Virtual Console. Maybe someone fixed it for real hardware? (the VC ROM did not work on real hardware or so I heard).

 

Basically menus were updated for NA release and some minor differences but that's about it. Maybe it was slated for western release but got canned for whatever reason.

[Gentlegamer]

I played a little Shadows of the Empire with the Retro Fighters pad. It's perfect.

 

I'll try GoldenEye and Perfect Dark next.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Gentlegamer

[Tanooki]

S&P got released on the Wii Virtual Console. Maybe someone fixed it for real hardware? (the VC ROM did not work on real hardware or so I heard).

 

Basically menus were updated for NA release and some minor differences but that's about it. Maybe it was slated for western release but got canned for whatever reason.

It did, I had it. But you know I'm talking physical media. I own 2 imports for the N64 which are Bangaioh and S&P with an adapter, so I know the two of them pretty well. That one has no english by menu, but it's entirely spoken as such. Perhaps as you said it was planned and I question if it really was not more than it was as it seems obvious going to that level of effort to subtitle a game in Japanese for their own market. Either way a copy of that one in total english on a cart would be cool if it had happened (same with Bangaioh, along with Animal Crossing, the couple of Custom Robos, and a few others.) N64 had an interesting JP library we got smoked out of, not much mind you as we got a lot of it, but there were a few including even Evangelion.

[Andromeda Stardust]

It did, I had it. But you know I'm talking physical media. I own 2 imports for the N64 which are Bangaioh and S&P with an adapter, so I know the two of them pretty well. That one has no english by menu, but it's entirely spoken as such. Perhaps as you said it was planned and I question if it really was not more than it was as it seems obvious going to that level of effort to subtitle a game in Japanese for their own market. Either way a copy of that one in total english on a cart would be cool if it had happened (same with Bangaioh, along with Animal Crossing, the couple of Custom Robos, and a few others.) N64 had an interesting JP library we got smoked out of, not much mind you as we got a lot of it, but there were a few including even Evangelion.

From what I heard, the vc rom with english menus had some hirez graphics or some such that wouldn't work outside of an emulator. So extracting the n64 rom from the wad and ie burning it to a physical cart or everdrive will not play on real hardware. But I think the english menu graphics data could potentially be extracted from the vc rom and embedded into the jp rom. However most n64 games relied on compression algorithms to stream compressed data from the rom to the cpu, then decompress the graphical, sound, and object data when loaded into memory.

 

There is no file system within the n64 roms like with modern disc systems, but instead the rom acts as one big executable file written entirely in mips asm code. The roms need to be deflated before altering graphics, then need to be recompressed. But because all asm calls must point to a specific address within the rom where the data is present, decompressing and recompressing this data changes every address location that could be looked up by a call, so all asm instructions calling a specific address needs to be updated with the new location. Add to the fact emulators get away with tons of stuff that will not work on real hardware (indexing data to odd addresses killed the deflated Super Mario 64 ROM produced by Toad's Tool, and subsequently every single hack ever built off of this deflated rom), and previous hacks were only tested on emulators so are completely broken on real machines.

 

Homebrew is still mostly non-existent except for tech demos, and nobody thus far has been able to write software drivers from scratch to engage the hardware without stealing snippets of code from commercial games. Stolen code from official devkits might be the only known way currently to develop games for the system, but said games developed using proprietary code would infringe upon the rights of Nintendo even if the actual game content was non-infringing.

 

N64 homebrew development has been stalled for the past twenty years or so (excepting unreleased tech demos developed on official dev kits), but shouldn't be. Krikzz wrote a menu for the n64 everrive, which does not engage the 3d graphics subsystem, but still makes an impressive "hellow world" program even if it's just a text menu. A few homebrews have been released showcasing predominantly 2d graphics. I downloaded a quite fun homebrew puzzle game to my everdrive (similar vein to Tetris Attack / Panel De Pon iirc) but currently the name escapes me.

[SlidellMan]

Well, Marshall at Retroactive has developed an actual game called Funnel Cube. For something so simple, the amount of effort is quite impressive.

[Punisher5.0]

From what I heard, the vc rom with english menus had some hirez graphics or some such that wouldn't work outside of an emulator. So extracting the n64 rom from the wad and ie burning it to a physical cart or everdrive will not play on real hardware. But I think the english menu graphics data could potentially be extracted from the vc rom and embedded into the jp rom. However most n64 games relied on compression algorithms to stream compressed data from the rom to the cpu, then decompress the graphical, sound, and object data when loaded into memory.

 

There is no file system within the n64 roms like with modern disc systems, but instead the rom acts as one big executable file written entirely in mips asm code. The roms need to be deflated before altering graphics, then need to be recompressed. But because all asm calls must point to a specific address within the rom where the data is present, decompressing and recompressing this data changes every address location that could be looked up by a call, so all asm instructions calling a specific address needs to be updated with the new location. Add to the fact emulators get away with tons of stuff that will not work on real hardware (indexing data to odd addresses killed the deflated Super Mario 64 ROM produced by Toad's Tool, and subsequently every single hack ever built off of this deflated rom), and previous hacks were only tested on emulators so are completely broken on real machines.

 

Homebrew is still mostly non-existent except for tech demos, and nobody thus far has been able to write software drivers from scratch to engage the hardware without stealing snippets of code from commercial games. Stolen code from official devkits might be the only known way currently to develop games for the system, but said games developed using proprietary code would infringe upon the rights of Nintendo even if the actual game content was non-infringing.

 

N64 homebrew development has been stalled for the past twenty years or so (excepting unreleased tech demos developed on official dev kits), but shouldn't be. Krikzz wrote a menu for the n64 everrive, which does not engage the 3d graphics subsystem, but still makes an impressive "hellow world" program even if it's just a text menu. A few homebrews have been released showcasing predominantly 2d graphics. I downloaded a quite fun homebrew puzzle game to my everdrive (similar vein to Tetris Attack / Panel De Pon iirc) but currently the name escapes me.

I cant wait till November to finally get a 64Everdrive. Ive been waiting patiently for them to go on sale all year.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I cant wait till November to finally get a 64Everdrive. Ive been waiting patiently for them to go on sale all year.

Does everyone literally wait all year for the black friday sales at Stoneage Gamer? Most of my purchases have been spontaneous. The v3 is worth it imo for the lightning fast load times (3 seconds to load Conker's BFD) and most importantly, if you cut power during a game, you don't lose you save. It is retained and flsshed back to the sd card next time you boot the everdrive. Could care less about the rtc though and the one game that supports it.

 

I did get some hands on time with thd Retrofighters pad. I kinda wish they'd placed the analog stick below the dpad like with the Superpads, and Ztrigger actuates at roughtly half the analog travel range (and lacks that tactile click) but again I am grasping at straws. The closest analog is that it feels like a Game Cube controller, with a more robust and responsive dpad. Zero complaints; it delivers as advertised while removing all of the shortcomings of the three handled vintage design or modern reproductions.

[Punisher5.0]

Does everyone literally wait all year for the black friday sales at Stoneage Gamer? Most of my purchases have been spontaneous. The v3 is worth it imo for the lightning fast load times (3 seconds to load Conker's BFD) and most importantly, if you cut power during a game, you don't lose you save. It is retained and flsshed back to the sd card next time you boot the everdrive. Could care less about the rtc though and the one game that supports it.

 

I did get some hands on time with thd Retrofighters pad. I kinda wish they'd placed the analog stick below the dpad like with the Superpads, and Ztrigger actuates at roughtly half the analog travel range (and lacks that tactile click) but again I am grasping at straws. The closest analog is that it feels like a Game Cube controller, with a more robust and responsive dpad. Zero complaints; it delivers as advertised while removing all of the shortcomings of the three handled vintage design or modern reproductions.

Im going to buy directly from Krikzz. It actually ends up being cheaper because Stoneage is in Illinois and I have to pay tax. I prefer the look of the Krikzz sticker too.

 

One day ill get a brawler. It looks bad ass

[Andromeda Stardust]

Im going to buy directly from Krikzz. It actually ends up being cheaper because Stoneage is in Illinois and I have to pay tax. I prefer the look of the Krikzz sticker too.

One day ill get a brawler. It looks bad ass

I've never paid tax at Stoneage Gamer in the past, but do to new tax laws passed, you gotta pay tax now on almost all online transactions (even digital goods, ie eshop), irregardless of whether both shipping and receiving parties reside in the same state. Shipping addressee pays tax for whatever area the package is addressed to. International transactions are currently exempt, but pretty soon we'll be paying duty on those too.

[Punisher5.0]

I've never paid tax at Stoneage Gamer in the past, but do to new tax laws passed, you gotta pay tax now on almost all online transactions (even digital goods, ie eshop), irregardless of whether both shipping and receiving parties reside in the same state. Shipping addressee pays tax for whatever area the package is addressed to. International transactions are currently exempt, but pretty soon we'll be paying duty on those too.

Havent heard of this. I bought something from Amazon last month and didnt have to pay taxes. Do you live in Illinois?

[Andromeda Stardust]

Havent heard of this. I bought something from Amazon last month and didnt have to pay taxes. Do you live in Illinois?

Louisiana. It's been since around December 2016/January 2017 that Amazon started charging sales tax to Louisiana residents. And I've been paying sales tax on Nintendo eShop since Wii/3ds days.

[NE146]

Does everyone literally wait all year for the black friday sales at Stoneage Gamer?

 

I've bought all mine from Krikzz and did it during Black Fridays.. mind you this was 3 or more years ago and I don't remember waiting for it (I don't think I even knew they did a Black Friday thing), but rather hearing about the sale and just figuring "Hell, now's the time to buy these things!"

 

BUT.. this time around yeah I'm waiting for Black Friday to pick up the last Everdrive I (kinda) wanted but don't have.. the N64 Everdrive. I never really play the thing but heck, seems like I should have it.

[phoenixdownita]

...

The dual Z triggers are kind of weird. They have an analog feel to them with a good bit of travel, just over a quarter inch. I hope the button actuates early rather than later. Since very few games ever used the L trigger outside of menus, I'd of rather had symmetric R and Z triggers but I'm nitpicking here. Feel is very solid and well built.

...

I guess it should not be tremendously hard to swap L & R for ZL and ZR (or even just one side) assuming it's just a wiring thing.

If the ZL and ZR really started life as analogue there may be much more involved and at that point it would be "easier" to just find a way to make them behave as if the max/min (whatever the analogue wants) is achieved very very early, to limit the travel.

[Tanooki]

I've intended to buy everdrives from krikzz on black friday, but somehow I always seem to find a deal before that time comes and have got all my stuff for less than that cut. I am waiting for now, hopefully I can get the turbo everdrive at that time. I keep missing the 2.5 on ebay when it pops up or sometimes some dumb dumb paid full price on an used one which seems really wrong.

 

I should get the N64 one some day, but the price on the good one just sucks for my limited interest. I have the games I want for it mostly anyway, and those I don't they're not in that $50 and up club other than maybe one so it's not a big deal. I would like to mess with a Japanese game or two, but having already Bangaioh and Sin & Punishment that checks off the big ones. I think translated though Wonder Project J and Evangelion could be interesting.

[PlaysWithWolves]

Thanks for the reviews on that control pad. I've thought they were smexy ever since the Kickstarter, and it really tempts me to bust out the ol' N64 again.

Louisiana. It's been since around December 2016/January 2017 that Amazon started charging sales tax to Louisiana residents. And I've been paying sales tax on Nintendo eShop since Wii/3ds days.

Looks like that's a state law, which explains why others (myself included) haven't run into the problem: https://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2016/12/amazon_louisiana_sales_tax.html

Granted, since we have an Amazon distribution center here in MD, we get charged sales tax on Amazon-fulfilled items anyway. Newegg, Adorama, and other out-of-state retailers don't currently collect taxes.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Thanks for the reviews on that control pad. I've thought they were smexy ever since the Kickstarter, and it really tempts me to bust out the ol' N64 again.

 

 

 

Looks like that's a state law, which explains why others (myself included) haven't run into the problem: https://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2016/12/amazon_louisiana_sales_tax.html

 

Granted, since we have an Amazon distribution center here in MD, we get charged sales tax on Amazon-fulfilled items anyway. Newegg, Adorama, and other out-of-state retailers don't currently collect taxes.

Prior to this, Louisiana was advertising state "use tax" laws which required state residents to self report their online spendings when they filed their yearly state income taxes. Not surprisingly, almost noone self reported, even after a public awareness campaign. The use tax law was totally unenforceable.

 

Bottom line, online retailers have been using tax loopholes for years to gain an unfair advantage over retail outlets, who are dropping like flies. As long as I'm not being charged more to order at say Best Buy dotcom as I am at Best Buy, it's all a cost of doing business. Best buy and walmart dotcom all charge taxes and have done so for years, department store mail order catalogs did so for years, so tax loopholes gave online mega retailers like amazon an unfair advantage. If businesses and consumers are to be taxed, then that taxation should be fair and uniform. As a retailer, if you ship to a state, you are technically doing business there too.

 

Yes, I'm aware if I buy a $400 telivision online or at retail, I'll be paying $38.40 in taxes.

[+atari2600land]

A solution: move to Oregon. No sales tax here, even in brick & mortar stores.

[Andromeda Stardust]

A solution: move to Oregon. No sales tax here, even in brick & mortar stores.

I set my 3ds to Barrow, Alaska, northernmost zip code. No sales tax there either.

[Metal Ghost]

Random question: if by some crazy chance I find an N64DD when I'm in Tokyo later this week, will it work with a North American N64? I'm assuming not unless it's modded, but wasn't sure if there was a software solution like an action replay?

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Andromeda Stardust]

Random question: if by some crazy chance I find an N64DD when I'm in Tokyo later this week, will it work with a North American N64? I'm assuming not unless it's modded, but wasn't sure if there was a software solution like an action replay?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Yes. NA and JP n64 hardware are identical except for placement of the lockout tabs. Pal is another story.

[Flojomojo]

I still think Q4 1998 is my favorite time in video gaming. Within a few days of each other, these fun, innovative-yet-retro games came out, 3 things I still enjoy, both the originals as well as derivative games

 

F-Zero X

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time