n64 upgrades wishful thinking
I really wish I had a better way to play N64 carts than from the stock hardware. Will it ever be possible to play them at 60FPS? Is there a way to mod the console to save games that require a controller pak? What about save states? Just curious.
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As for avoiding controller paks, there aren't really any options, maybe there will be one for the Everdrive in the future.
Save states? Why not just sell off your N64 stuff, get yourself a killer desktop or laptop PC and emulate the N64? you'll get all the crisp polygons, save states, framerates and texture packs you could ever want. Though honestly it sounds more like you want to play pretty modern games. Maybe you should buy a Wii U?
What I want to see is something that would give us the ability to enhance textures in one form or another. That would be neat IMO.
Emulation is probably the next best thing after all that. Since it's software emulating hardware, there's more you can do to it such as better resolution, frame rate, textures, the ability to save anywhere, etc.
I suppose you can somehow mod a memory card inside a N64 (maybe via the controller port?) to free up a controller slot for a rumble pack, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. They do make rumble paks with built in memory, so I guess that can be a solution.
Originally posted by: terzdesign
As far as graphics go, I just want to see sharp lines on polygons and the games to run smooth. The save state idea was only a thought for the games that require passwords and memory paks to save.
You could just get a quality S-video cable and a quality CRT (20" - 27" is good), that's the best balance of visuals and cost. Or if you have money to blow, you could get a decent HDTV that was designed for games and get yourself an HDMI modded N64 system, the board available from retroactive.be.
Save states might be a feature in the Everdrive 64 one day, but really, what is the problem with controller paks? Nobody complains about PS1 or PS2 or Gamecube or Dreamcast memory cards.
Originally posted by: BouncekDeLemos
I suppose you can somehow mod a memory card inside a N64 (maybe via the controller port?) to free up a controller slot for a rumble pack, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. They do make rumble paks with built in memory, so I guess that can be a solution.
You can't do that, the slot in the N64 controller runs through a big encoder chip which connects to the N64 through a small serial signal. Your idea would work better with a JAMMA N64 system, where normally you have to install padhacks to get the arcade controls working.
The when transferring ROM files, the V64/V64jr could optionally leave the memory writable for their own savegame managers (DS1 utility), emulators that wait for ROMs, and other things like Obsidian's "Evek III." Evek would basically take your parameters and send a custom ROM to the V64 to do what you wanted (copy SRAM, EEPROM, FlashRAM to/from memory/inserted game pak/controller pak). I don't know if this is compatible with the Ultra Everdrive 64 because it would typically write-protect its memory so games will not probe for copy protection purposes, but one written specifically to save to simulated SRAM or FlashRAM should easily be able to do it.
The Bung DS1 has 256k SRAM storage, which is more than any game ever used. I know it's accessible for games/ROMs because that's how the the V64 utility worked for changing banks. They also hacked Majora's Mask to use SRAM instead (normally FlashRAM). This means a ROM that appears to be an SRAM or FlasRAM game should be able to save Controller Pak data to the simulated SRAM/FlashRAM regardless of whether or not the Everdrive write-protects the ROM address space.
Edit:
EvekIII - V64jr Save Manager
-----------------------------
EvekIII is the 3rd public release build of Evek. Once again Obsidian provide V64jr users with new innovations for save management! EvekIII contains options never seen before in any tool released before it!
EvekIII supports every N64 save type to date! 4Kbit EEPROM, 16Kbit EEPROM, 32KBytes SRAM, 32KBytes Controller Pak, and "Emulated" 1Mbit FLASH! EvekIII also supports save management with any bootcart. Now users can send and receive saves from any cartridge they choose.
The controller pak manager built into some N64 games isn't that capable. There isn't really a solution for replacing controller paks. Just get one of the multi-page 3rd party versions, that way you don't have to swap it out.
Yeah, but with an ED someone could write one that capable. I already know of MORE capable N64 homebrew apps that have been written that wouldn't work on an ED for a technical reason: they write to ROM address space, but there's no reason why they can't write to their own emulated SRAM/FlashRAM instead.
IIRC, some version of the Gameshark had an option to back up game pak saves to the Controller Pak, though it would only work for SRAM and EEPROM (not FlashRAM). They also sold a "DexDrive" for saving them to a PC. I just used my Adaptoid though.
FYI: Before David Stam of Wishtech created the Adaptoid, he contacted me to see what kinds of features I wanted it to have and that was one of my suggestions (along with DirectX Force Feedback support, an API for emulation to have direct access to the I/O slot and the control stick without translation). He was actually responding to a newsgroup posting where I was soliciting anyone to build a different N64 USB adapter for $$$, so I always wondered if he made the whole thing in response to my post. The unimplemented ideas were:
Transfer Pak support for Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble as an accelerometer control
Transfer Pak support for dumping GB/C games and managing saves
As far as graphics go, I just want to see sharp lines on polygons and the games to run smooth. The save state idea was only a thought for the games that require passwords and memory paks to save.
You could just get a quality S-video cable and a quality CRT (20" - 27" is good), that's the best balance of visuals and cost. Or if you have money to blow, you could get a decent HDTV that was designed for games and get yourself an HDMI modded N64 system, the board available from retroactive.be.
Save states might be a feature in the Everdrive 64 one day, but really, what is the problem with controller paks? Nobody complains about PS1 or PS2 or Gamecube or Dreamcast memory cards.
I suppose you can somehow mod a memory card inside a N64 (maybe via the controller port?) to free up a controller slot for a rumble pack, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. They do make rumble paks with built in memory, so I guess that can be a solution.
You can't do that, the slot in the N64 controller runs through a big encoder chip which connects to the N64 through a small serial signal. Your idea would work better with a JAMMA N64 system, where normally you have to install padhacks to get the arcade controls working.
Interesting. Didn't know about the chip encoder. I'm not very tech-savy. lol Don't know much about it all, actually. haha
So it won't work even when splitting? Like having 2 controllers for one port, one acting as the memory pak pass-though inside the system, and splitting the other as a standard controller? Or would that be too weak to work? Will any of it conflict? A secondary memory pak wouldn't work due to confliction, I'm not sure how a rumble+memory would work in that case either.
I think I've seen something like this done for handhelds, basically you're cloning a input device, but using one connector to allow it's function.
What is the problem with using controller paks as intended? I thought people loved it back in the day because memory card swapping didn't involve getting up and walking over to the console every time.
Dat OG frame rate.
Ever think one of the main reasons why a lot of N64 games look blurry and sometimes muddy is because someone at Nintendo thought cramming their games onto 8MB carts was a brilliant idea? Sure there were some games put onto 16MB carts and then there was the expansion pak. But even then it seems you can only push something so far to make it look as nice as possible. But that's not to say there aren't any games that look good on the N64, because there's some good ones there. But in all honesty the best you might end up getting out of it is an AV resolution. However if I were to say anything about improving the N64 it would be to have Hori or another 3rd party company build controllers similar or exactly like the Hori controller. I have one for my system which I was lucky enough to find at a yard sale a few months back. HUGE improvement over the controller we got from Nintendo.
You found a Hori Mini Pad in a yard sale? How the fuck does that happen also yes, that controller is the tits