Flash Cart Review Central: 64Drive Nintendo 64 Flash Cart Review

Manufactured by:RETROactive
Review sample supplied by:
By The Technologist - 17th December 2013
Review Contents & Index:

Introduction
Marshallgs, an American electronics engineer, has developed the latest Nintendo 64 flash cart, the 64drive. This device has had its first production run and Flashcart Review Central has received one of the preliminary samples for review. We will put this cart through the regular paces of a home entertainment set top box flash cart review.
Previously, Nintendo 64 cartridge emulator solutions relied on a cartridge being attached to the device in order to bypass CIC microchip protection to play games. The 64drive finally offers a compact all-in-one solution that has no expansion interface and no extra clutter besides the expandable flash memory cards that can be reinserted depending on the end user's needs. These cards are where the ROMs are stored and a large enough one can host the entire library and be kept installed if desired.
The menu system on the 64drive is completely controlled by the N64's gamepad. It is a very straight forward interface. This time, the cartridge shipped with instructions on how to navigate the menu system.
Unlike previous N64 products, the 64drive supports both CompactFlash and MicroSD memory cards right out of the box. We reviewed the RetroUSB SNES Cart several months ago at Flashcart Review Central which also supports CompactFlash and this works very much the same. Also, this is the first flash cartridge of any kind for any set top box console to support MicroSD (TransFlash) flash ram cards via the small TF slot rather than a full sized SD slot.
Our review will show how this cartridge works, how to configure the menu system onto the CompactFlash or MicroSD card, and programming and playback of commercial and homebrew ROMs.

This review will show how to install, configure, and operate the cart as well as go into detail about which ROM images work.
64drive Features:

Loads software from CompactFlash / MicroSD flash ram cards
Organize files and folders to your choosing and use the menu to make a selection
Most games load within 2-3 seconds
Supports 99.9% of all known ROMs
No additional dongles or cables required to update features
Built in mini USB 2.0 port
Load homebrew code over USB 2.0 at 7-8MB/second
Programmer's code can load data from the memory card while running on the N64
64MB (512Mbit) onboard SDRAM
CompactFlash memory card slot (up to 128GB)
MicroSD memory card slot (up to 32GB)
Supports all known save types: EEPROM (4k,16k), SRAM, Flash RAM
Easy to navigate around folders
Stores type-specific save files (.eep, .sra, .fla) in a "Saves" folder with the games
You can override the cart's settings when loading an image
No special software required to set up. Just plug the memory card into a reader on your computer and drag the files over
Only supports FAT32 file system currently
Skin able background using 640x480 JPG (max size 150KB) and N64 expansion pak
Comes with printed instruction manual paper

Packaging and Contents
The 64drive package comes inside a pink anti-static bubble pak bag. Also included is an instruction manual printed on a single sheet of 8.5x11" paper and a very long high quality 6' USB 2.0 mini A to A cable.
Inside are the following items:

Cart Design
Let's take a closer look at the 64drive flash cart.

This 64drive sample arrived in the optional grey cartridge housing. Notice that this housing originally contained a commercial game circuit board, so it is an exact match in color to cartridges normally being inserted into the Nintendo 64 deck. It also has a very high quality semi-glossy color printed label that is precisely cut and fits into the area where the original sticker once used to reside.

The top of the cartridge was dremeled in order to accommodate the CompactFlash and MicroSD slots as shown. Note that the CF slot is type 1 and that the SD slot is the MicroSDHC type. Normal and high speed CF-1 cards and MicroSD and MicroSDHC cards will work in their respective slots inside the 64drive. The MicroSD slot is spring loaded and the CF slot is not.
Marshallgs included MicroSD rather than a full SD card slot in order to accommodate those who want to put all their ROMs internal and not dremel any holes in the cartridge case. This makes the cartridge have a clean appearance as well as keep all components inside. When there are no holes in the cartridge housing, the CompactFlash card cannot be used nor the mini A USB port.

The right hand side of the cart was also professionally dremeled in order to facilitate the ability to plug in the mini A side of the USB 2.0 cable. This port is used to transfer a programmer's code (also known as homebrew) to the 64drive and run on the N64 console. It also serves the purpose of upgrading the onboard Altera CPLD logic microchip core if the developer of the product, RETROactive, comes out with a new update.
Setting Up & Using
Installation - Hardware

First, a CompactFlash or MicroSD card is chosen. Then the card is inserted into the appropriate slot. The CF slot faces toward the label of the cart and the MicroSD slot faces toward the rear sticker and screws side of the cart. The label of the CF card will face toward the front 64drive label and the MicroSD printed label will face toward the back of the cart (MicroSD pins will actually face toward the 64drive sticker).
Only one card should be inserted at a time, but fortunately if both are inserted at the same time the 64drive will always default to CompactFlash and ignore the MicroSD card (which also makes it very easy to misplace a MicroSD card since it sits in low and behind the CF slot).smaller SD cards (Mini SD MMC or Micro SD TF).

After installing the menu on the CF or MicroSD card into the 64drive, it is ready to be plugged into the Nintendo64 deck and the deck to be powered on. Menu software is required on the flash ram card and that will be discussed in the next section.
The 64drive cart does not require nor have a provision for a cartridge to be plugged into it as a dongle for CIC microchip protection. There is a CIC 6102 soldered onto the printed circuit board inside the 64drive casing. Most other solutions still required a separate cartridge in order to bypass security lock out and to allow commercial or homebrew software to run.
Installation – 64drive Menu
Plug the CompactFlash or MicroSD card into an available USB reader and make sure that the drive appears in the operating system you are using (this part is not operating system dependent as long as you can copy files onto the flash card).
Fortunately, the menu installation on the 64drive is very straight forward. Simply go to 64drive.retroactive.be, navigate to the downloads page, and download the latest menu. Then open this archive and uncompress it to the CompactFlash or MicroSD card where the ROMs are going to be stored.
As of writing the review, the direct link to the current menu revision 1.01 is here: http://64drive.retroactive.be/64drive_menu_101.zip
Installation – Optional Setting Up Custom 64drive Menu Background GUI
Ever since menu revision 1.01, the user is able to customize the GUI background image. Drag and drop a 640x480 JPG named "background.jpg" onto the memory card. The 64drive automatically sets up and places the background image for you when the N64 is turned on. This feature requires the N64 expansion pak.
Transferring ROMs
As with any other flash cartridge, the ROMs must first be un-compressed to run. The ROM images can be in either .V64 or .Z64 format and can simply be dragged and dropped to the CompactFlash / MicroSD card. This makes programming a breeze because the amount of time you wait depends on the speed class of the CompactFlash or MicroSD card you are using.
A typical class 4 MicroSD card should transfer ROMs at a speed of 4 megabytes per second and a class 2 memory card will transfer at 2 megabytes per second.
The 64drive menu software will allow changing directories on the card, so subfolders can be used to contain ROM images.
Installation – Upgrading the Actel Logic CPLD Core
The core of the 64drive can be updated via the included USB mini A to A cable which plugs into the right side of the cart. Although I was unable to get this to completely recognize the 64drive in Windows 7 Ultimate x64, I still had a hard drive installed with Windows XP 32-bit and that was sufficient.
The USB loader software can be found at http://64drive.retroactive.be/support.php. Once uncompressed, the following is done in order to update the FPGA firmware within the 64drive cartridge:
Before doing anything, do not plug in anything yet. Also note that the current firmware of this review is version 1.01, hence the "101" in the filename "64drive_firm_101.bin". Our sample shipped with a previous version of the firmware and needed to be updated in order to support more MicroSD cards. All units shipping should come with firmware version 1.01 or above in the future after this writing.
1. Open a command window and put the loader EXE from the USB loader package and the firmware upgrade file in the same folder.
2. Do not press enter yet after typing the following: "64drive_usb -f 64drive_firm_101.bin".
3. Plug the USB A to mini A cable into the 64drive, let it become recognized by the PC, and then press Enter to launch the command typed in step #2 and answer "y"/enter to the "are you sure" prompt.
If all has been done correctly as stated above, the 64drive will now be updated with the latest firmware.
If you wait more than 10 seconds after plugging in the 64drive to the USB cable, it will lock itself out of the firmware upgrade mode for as long as it remains plugged in. This is a safety measure so that novices do not accidentally overwrite and "brick" their 64drive.
Usage - General
After powering on the N64 with the 64drive inserted in the cartridge slot, the N64 immediately boots to the 64drive menu. If there is no memory card inserted or if it cannot find the menu.bin software on the memory card, it will show a circle cursor for a moment while trying to locate the menu software and then give an error message accordingly.
The N64's joy pad controls navigation of the entire menu system. A file is selected using the d-pad and the A button initiates launch of the file. Subdirectory navigation and previous directory selections are supported as well.
Each game loads within a few seconds as claimed by RETROactive. This is very impressive because previous cartridge emulation solutions took quite a while longer to load games.
File types supported are .v64/.z64 for N64 ROM images, .nes for Nintendo Entertainment System games, and .mp3 for music files. Each file type and folder has its own unique identifying icon per file type or folder navigation.
Usage - Nintendo 64 Games & Homebrew
Through our extensive testing of the 64drive cartridge, it was found that every game worked according to the RETROactive 64drive web site. This includes every game except for Banjo Tooie. The author of the device explained that the Banjo Tooie game compatibility is still a work in process among several different hobbyist coders and will be compatible with the onboard CIC6102 / CIC7101 microchips at a future date. This gives us 99.99% ROM compatibility, however if one must play Banjo Tooie on this device, it can be modified by replacing the CIC6102 with a CIC6105 chip and a minor modification of the PCB. Although Banjo Tooie will not run on the standard version of this cart, its sister ROM, Jet Force Gemini, was tested and does run perfectly fine.
The 64drive menu system supports customization of CIC chip loading during launch as well as on-the-fly NTSC/PAL selection for every ROM. These features allow the user more flexibility when trying to troubleshoot or change regions of different games.
The majority of homebrew ROMs function fine as well. Later on in this review will be a list of homebrew tested with the 64drive. As one can expect, there will be certain ROMs that refuse to run because of thing such as a bad copy of the ROM or an improperly coded homebrew title. Please note that none of this is to discredit any of the original authors of the homebrew. Most of the time, homebrew ROMs on a proprietary console that is not open source, such as the N64, were developed with a lot of trial and error due to not having first party development kits available.
ROM Compatibility
The ROM only and ROM with SRAM games I tested work flawlessly and are:

1080 Snowboarding (NTSC/J/U) PASS
Asteroids Hyper 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Automobili Lamborghini (NTSC/U) PASS
Banjo-Kazooie (NTSC/U) PASS
Banjo-Tooie (NTSC/U) PASS
Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker (NTSC/U) PASS
Beetle Adventure Racing! (NTSC/U) PASS
Blast Corps (NTSC/U) PASS
Body Harvest (NTSC/U) PASS
Bomberman 64 - The Second Attack! (NTSC/U) PASS
Bomberman 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Bomberman Hero (NTSC/U) PASS
Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling (NTSC/U) PASS
Bust-A-Move 2 - Arcade Edition (NTSC/U) PASS
Bust-A-Move '99 (NTSC/U) PASS
California Speed (NTSC/U) PASS
Carmageddon 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Castlevania - Legacy of Darkness (NTSC/U) PASS
Castlevania (NTSC/U) PASS
Chopper Attack (NTSC/U) PASS
Clay Fighter - Sculptor's Cut (NTSC/U) PASS
Clay Fighter 63 1-3 (NTSC/U) PASS
Command & Conquer (NTSC/U) PASS
Conker's Bad Fur Day (NTSC/U) PASS
Cruis'n Exotica (NTSC/U) PASS
Cruis'n USA (NTSC/U) PASS
Cruis'n World (NTSC/U) PASS
Destruction Derby 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Diddy Kong Racing (NTSC/U) PASS
Disney's Donald Duck - Goin' Quackers (NTSC/U) PASS
Disney's Tarzan (NTSC/U) PASS
Donkey Kong 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Doom 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Dr. Mario 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Dual Heroes (NTSC/U) PASS
Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck (NTSC/U) PASS
Duke Nukem - ZER0 H0UR (NTSC/U) PASS
Duke Nukem 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Earthworm Jim 3D (NTSC/U) PASS
Excitebike 64 Kiosk Demo(NTSC/U) PASS
Excitebike 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Extreme-G (NTSC/U) PASS
Extreme-G XG2 (NTSC/U) PASS
Extreme-G (NTSC/U) PASS
Extreme-G XG2 (NTSC/U) PASS
F-1 Pole Position 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
F-1 World Grand Prix (NTSC/U) PASS
FIFA - Road to World Cup 98 (NTSC/U) PASS
FIFA 99 (NTSC/U) PASS
FIFA Soccer 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Fighter Destiny 2 (NTSC/U) PASS
Fighter's Destiny (NTSC/U) PASS
Fighting Force 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Flying Dragon (NTSC/U) PASS
Forsaken 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Frogger 2 (NTSC/U) PASS
F-ZERO X (NTSC/U) PASS
GT 64 - Championship Edition (NTSC/U) PASS
Gauntlet Legends (NTSC/U) PASS
Gex 3 - Deep Cover Gecko (NTSC/U) PASS
Glover (NTSC/U) PASS
GoldenEye 007 (NTSC/U) PASS
Harvest Moon 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Heiwa Pachinko World 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Hercules - The Legendary Journeys (NTSC/U) PASS
Hexen (NTSC/U) PASS
Hey You, Pikachu! (NTSC/U) PASS
Hot Wheels Turbo Racing (NTSC/U) PASS
HSV Adventure Racing (NTSC/U) PASS
Hybrid Heaven (NTSC/U) PASS
Iggy's Reckin' Balls (NTSC/U) PASS
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (NTSC/U) PASS
Indy Racing 2000 (NTSC/U) PASS
Jeopardy! (NTSC/U) PASS
Jeremy McGrath Supercross (NTSC/U) PASS
Jet Force Gemini (NTSC/U) PASS
John Romero's Daikatana (NTSC/U) PASS
Killer Instinct Gold (NTSC/U) PASS
Knife Edge - Nose Gunner (NTSC/U) PASS
Legend of Zelda, The - Majora's Mask (NTSC/U) PASS
Legend of Zelda, The - Ocarina of Time (NTSC/U) PASS
LEGO Racers (NTSC/U) PASS
Lode Runner 3-D (NTSC/U) PASS
Lt. Duck Dodgers (Prototype) PASS
Lylat Wars (PAL) PASS
Mace - The Dark Age (NTSC/U) PASS
Magical Tetris Challenge (NTSC/U) PASS
Mario Golf (NTSC/U) PASS
Mario Kart 64 (NTSC/J) PASS
Mario Kart 64 +4 trainer (NTSC/U) PASS
Mario no Photopie (NTSC/J) PASS
Mario Party (NTSC/U) PASS
Mario Party 2 (NTSC/U) PASS
Mario Party 3 (NTSC/U) PASS
Mario Tennis (NTSC/U) PASS
Mega Man 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Mickey's Speedway USA (NTSC/U) PASS
Micro Machines 64 Turbo (NTSC/U) PASS
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1 (NTSC/U) PASS
Milo's Astro Lanes (NTSC/U) PASS
Mischief Makers (NTSC/U) PASS
Mission Impossible (NTSC/U) PASS
Monaco Grand Prix (NTSC/U) PASS
Monopoly (NTSC/U) PASS
Monster Truck Madness 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Mortal Kombat 4 (NTSC/U) PASS
Mortal Kombat Mythologies - Sub-Zero (NTSC/U) PASS
Mortal Kombat Trilogy (NTSC/U) PASS
MRC - Multi Racing Championship (U) [!].z64
Ms. Pac-Man - Maze Madness (NTSC/U) PASS
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (U) (NTSC/U) PASS
Namco Museum 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Namco Museum 64 +1 Trainer (NTSC/U) PASS
Neon Genesis Evangelion clean dump (NTSC/J) PASS
Neon Genesis Evangelion fixed (NTSC/J) PASS
New Tetris, The (NTSC/U) PASS
NFL Blitz - Special Edition (NTSC/U) PASS
NFL Blitz (NTSC/U) PASS
NFL Blitz 2000 (NTSC/U) PASS
NFL Blitz 2001 (NTSC/U) PASS
NHL 99 (U) [!].z64
Nightmare Creatures (NTSC/U) PASS
Nuclear Strike 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Ogre Battle 64 - Person of Lordly Caliber (NTSC/U) PASS
Paper Mario (NTSC/U) PASS
Paperboy (NTSC/U) PASS
Penny Racers (NTSC/U) PASS
Pilotwings 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Pokemon Stadium 2 (NTSC/U) PASS
Resident Evil 2 (NTSC/U) PASS
Quake 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Quake II (NTSC/U) PASS
Re-Volt (NTSC/U) PASS
Road Rash 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
RR64 - Ridge Racer 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Rush 2 - Extreme Racing USA (NTSC/U) PASS
S.C.A.R.S. (NTSC/U) PASS
San Francisco Rush - Extreme Racing (NTSC/U) PASS
San Francisco Rush 2049 (NTSC/U) PASS
Snowboarding (NTSC/J/U) PASS
Space Invaders (NTSC/U) PASS
Star Fox 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
StarCraft 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Stunt Racer 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Super Mario 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Super Smash Bros. (NTSC/U) PASS
Superman (NTSC/U) PASS
Vigilante 8 - 2nd Offense (NTSC/U) PASS
Vigilante 8 (NTSC/U) PASS
V-Rally Edition 99 (NTSC/U) PASS
War Gods (NTSC/U) PASS
Wave Race 64 - Shindou Edition (NTSC/J) PASS
Wave Race 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Wetrix (NTSC/U) PASS
Wipeout 64 (NTSC/U) PASS
Worms - Armageddon (NTSC/U) PASS
Yoshi's Story (NTSC/U) PASS

* Do note that all save types for all of the above games save and function completely fine.
ROMs that had some issues:

Banjo Tooie (NTSC/U/J PAL)

The only ROM we tested that absolutely refused to work was Banjo Tooie. But RETROactive explained from the beginning that that game is not currently supported as we mentioned earlier in this review.
Jet Force Gemini (NTSC/U) plays fine although one would assume that since Banjo Tooie and this game both use the same CIC and save type that it would not.

A sleeper hit title, Chopper Attack, runs great on the 64drive and is a really fun game.

Destruction Derby 64 runs fine.

Forsaken made it to the Nintendo 64 during 3DFX days ported from the PC. This game works with no issues.

Killer Instinct Gold was tested to show that it runs flawlessly. Emulators over the years have failed to accomplish this task.

This is Pilotwings 64 running well on the 64drive.

Wave Race 64 was an early first party title and runs excellent.

Zelda: The Ocarina of Time runs fine on the 64drive.
Further testing concludes that ROMs that have been problematic on various previous cartridge emulator solutions for the Nintendo64 work fine on the 64drive. I will outline these exciting results below:

Diddy Kong Racing starts with no issues. This ROM previously required a crack that allowed the controllers to work on a cartridge emulator / backup unit.

Neon Genesis Evangeleon (NTSC/J) plays fine with either clean dump or patched ROM file. This is the clean dump running on the 64drive with no patches and using default settings.

Excite Bike 64 (NTSC/U) did not need any extra settings changed and runs fine with no freezing at any point.

This is the saves folder from all ROMs above 256Mbit.

Ogre Battle 64

Paper Mario
All ROMs above 256Mbit function flawlessly since the 64drive has 512Mbit(64MBytes) of RAM. This includes: Conker's Bad Fur Day, Ogre Battle 64, Paper Mario, Pokemon Stadium 2, and Resident Evil 2/Biohazard 2.
Save Type Support

All save types are fully supported. When a ROM saves to cart, the 64drive automatically creates a save folder on the inserted flash card within the same folder as the ROM that is loaded. Each save game will have an extension corresponding to what type of save it is.

Megaman64 is an example of a game that uses flash ram saving. This means that the original Megaman64 cartridge contained flash ram to store save game data and the ROM itself is designed to save in that manner (not to be confused with other types of flash ram such as flash carts, MicroSD, and CF cards). Upon selecting a game of flash ram save type, the menu system displays the save data type and puts the save data into a "SAVES" subfolder within the path the ROM is in and names it the same as the ROM with the extension of ".fla" for flash ram save type. As shown, the Megaman64 ROM is selected, then loaded. The save is at the first save point in the game and the rest of the save slots are not used yet in this example. This save game has been loaded after previously saving to the 64drive. This works fine.
64drive GUI (Menu)

When you turn on the N64, a loading screen followed by a splash screen is displayed and then the menu system.

When a ROM is selected, the header information is displayed.
Homebrew Support
The majority of homebrew ROMs function properly.
The 64drive loads these from MicroSD card or CompactFlash very quickly. This, in addition to the 64drive's configurable reset to menu feature which was on by default, made testing these ROMs a breeze. Only a few ROMs did not function properly or at all. This is because they may have been coded improperly or have been a bad copy of the ROM. This is noted on marshallgs' 64drive product web page.

1964 Demo by Steb FAIL displays 64drive Load Cancel in large letters off center and freezes
2 Blokes & An Armchair - Nintendo 64 Remix Remix PASS
3DS Model Conversion by Snake PASS
77a by Count0 (POM '98) PASS
Alleycat 64 by Dosin (POM '99) PASS
Berney Must Die! by Nop_ (POM '99) PASS
Bike Race '98 V1.2 by NAN PASS the b1 ROM works
Birthday Demo for Steve by Nep PASS
Christmas Flame Demo FAIL no display
Congratulations Demo for Split by Dynamix PASS
Cube Demo PASS
Dexanoid R1 by Protest Design PASS
Display List Ate My Mind by The Secret Force PASS
Donkey Kong Demo PASS
Explode Demo by Nan FAIL no display
Fire Demo by Lac PASS
Fireworks Demo by CrowTRobo PASS
Fish Demo by Nan PASS
GT Demo PASS
Hard Coded Demo by Silo and Fractal of iceage PASS
Hard Pom '99 Demo by TS_Garp PASS
Light Force First N64 Demo by Fractal PASS
N64 Scene Gallery by CALi PASS
Pamela Demo PASS
Plasma Demo PASS
Pong by Oman PASS the a1 ROM works
Rotating Demo Usa by Rene PASS
Spice Girls Rotator Demo by RedboX PASS
The Corporation XMAS Demo '99 by TS_Garp PASS
TopGun Demo by Horizon64 PASS
TRON Demo PASS
U64 Demo by Horizon PASS
Ultrafox64 by MegaHawks INC PASS
Wet Dreams Madieragames Demo PASS
Wet Dreams Readme by Immortal (POM '99) PASS

These are screen shots of marshallgs' homebrew ROM Midwest Gaming Classic 2011 running on the 64drive.
NES Emulation
A nice feature of the 64drive is the native NES emulation support. This requires the NES emulator ROM for N64 to be placed on the CompactFlash / MicroSD card along with NES ROM files. Below are some screen shots of the N64 playing NES games from the 64drive flash cart.
The emulator, Neon64 was developed from 2001 - 2004 and the latest version, 1.2a, can be downloaded from this web site: http://hcs.freeshell.org/neon64.cgi

Extract the file "neon64bu.rom" into the same folder on the CompactFlash / MicroSD card that contains the NES ROMs. Then select the NES game from the 64drive menu on the N64 and press A to enter the ROM information screen and then A again to Load and launch the game. Notice that the screen will show you the ROM Image Size and Boot CIC 6102. Leave it at the default CIC 6102 and the game will load. A Neon64 splash screen will display and pressing A again will start the game.

MP3 Playback
One very unique feature of the 64drive is its internal MP3 player. This is the only flash cart for N64 to date that has a music player built in. The following are screens showing some MP3 files being played.

MP3 playback is very straight forward. Just select the MP3 file from the 64drive menu and press A to enter the MP3 Playback screen and then A again to start playing the MP3. No additional ROM is required for playback. The MP3 player is built into the 64drive menu system.
Conclusion
Over the past year, we have seen a few different flash cart solutions for the Nintendo 64. Each one has its own set of issues, but the 64drive truly shines. What sets the 64drive off from the competition is that it actually can play 100% of the entire Nintendo 64 commercial ROM set (currently, the only ROM that requires a different CIC chip is Banjo Tooie but the author of the 64drive has made a strong point that in the near future this will no longer be an issue). Also, the 64drive is very much geared toward the N64 programming hobbyist via and easy to access USB 2.0 port built into the device.
With the 64drive, you can be confident that this is over all the best N64 flash cart experience available and the price point is justifiably one of the lowest. The end user will appreciate the fact that not only does he have the capability to choose between two different flash card formats to insert into this device, but also there is a high quality aesthetic to it and no cartridge or other accessories will be dangling off the back of it. Also it is a very compact device unlike the large CD-ROM and ZIP based copiers of the late 1990s.
The main caveats to the 64drive are that it cannot, in its regularly shipped form, play Banjo Tooie and the MicroSD slot can be tough to deal with. The MicroSD card possibly can fall inside the cartridge case if close attention is not paid to lining it up with the MicroSD slot. Also the card can get caught between the slot and spring if it is inserted incorrectly and pulling the cart out can damage the spring loading mechanism. Otherwise, if care is taken from the beginning upon using the MicroSD slot, the device will give no problems during subsequent uses. When ejecting the MicroSD card, it can be difficult to get it out but it has been found that if it is ejected and let go of quickly enough, the MicroSD will eject further due to the spring tension and is a bit easier to remove from the 64drive.
I would like to thank marshallgs from RETROactive for providing the sample for the review. Also I would like to mention and thank RetroZone for pointing out this product as being in development at the time of the Flashcart Review Central review of their SNES PowerPak. Both of these are very excellent and high quality products.
The 64drive truly is the ultimate solution for any Nintendo 64 enthusiast.
Pros
+ 64drive can store a maximum of 262,144Mbit of ROM images using a 32GB MicroSDHC card
+ 64drive can store a maximum of 512,288Mbit of ROM images using a 64GB CompactFlash card
(* RETROactive web site states that it can support 128GB CF-1 card but none currently exist)
+ Matches the original Nintendo 64 cart
+ Multi CIC chip compatible and all ROMs operate from an onboard single genuine CIC 6102
+ 64MBytes of high quality Micron RAM onboard
+ Supports all games of the region corresponding to the console (PAL carts ship with CIC 7101)
+ Supports all save types, even Flash RAM save type
+ Stores cartridge based saves directly on the CF/MicroSD card (Automatically creates Saves folder for you)
+ Supports homebrew ROMs
+ Games load literally within a few seconds
+ Drag and drop support directly to CF/MicroSD card
+ No proprietary extra adapters involved
+ Supports multiple ROMs up to the capacity of the CF/MicroSD card
+ Built in region fix
+ Supports sub folders
+ ROMs are stored indefinitely until files are deleted or the CF/MicroSD card is formatted
+ Continued menu, firmware, GUI, and hardware development support
+ High quality printed circuit board and onboard components
+ Does not require any special hardware or software to flash games
+ Clearly displayed N64 console user interface
+ N64 menu is navigated with the gamepad
+ Uses CompactFlash and MicroSD which are very prevalent and modern storage media
+ Reset button can be used to either reset the game or to go back to the N64 menu
+ CPLD Logic Core is simple to update using the included USB 2.0 mini A to A cable
+ VERY simple to use and recommended for the novice user
+ Every commercial ROM works flawlessly (* Banjo Tooie is going to be supported via CIC 6102 in the future)
+ No ROM requires a software crack
+ Designed, finished, and sold in the USA
Cons
- No built in cheat code program
- MicroSD cards can be difficult to remove
- Banjo Tooie currently only works if the onboard CIC chip is a 6105
- MicroSD slot is spring loaded
- MicroSD slot is somewhat difficult to access
External Links:
-Official RETROactive Website
-Official RETROactive 64drive Web Site
Where to buy?:
-RETROactive 64drive Ordering
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If you see this review on any other site please let me know via reply to this blog.

Flash Cart Review Central

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

64Drive Nintendo 64 Flash Cart Review

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