Should I get an Everdrive 64?

[himesgoli59]

It's Christmas time and I can either ask for some N64 game carts or an Everdrive.

I know there's only a few games that don't work on it for various reasons but is the gaming experience the same as using the regular game cart?

I was reading about how with V2 you have to reset before you power down the console for saving to take place which isn't a huge deal but V3 seemed to have solved that by adding a battery.

I dunno, it just seems like $130 for virtually every N64 game ever is too good to be true.

[Immorpher]

I own a V3. As far as I know there is only like 1 or 2 japanese games which don't run on it because they have special chips. All other games run 100% accurate. I even play homebrews and mods on it. Really fun having such stuff running on real hardware. If you end up getting a V3 and it doesn't run when you boot your N64, there is a switch inside the SD card slot which can be flipped which sets it to the right region. Let me know if you have any more questions!

[rlstine]

The current Everdrive 64s are the v2.5 and the x7 (V2 and V3 were phased out some time ago). The v2.5 is the one I have, and it works great. The only two games it has trouble with are Animal Forest and Pokemon Stadium 2. Both games run, but there is no internal clock for Animal Forest so you need to set it manually each time you play, and Stadium 2 has some graphical issues. But it will run every other game as intended.

The only other major difference between the v2.5 and x7 is that on the 2.5 you need to press "reset" on the console to save to the mirco SD card for those games that don't use controller paks to save. The v2.5 is significantly cheaper, so unless you're into developing 64 titles for the hardware (x7 has a USB port for game development), the 2.5 is a better deal.

[nuu]

I haven't been able to save in Animal Forest. It hanged when I tried with my v2. The v2.5 is probably not any different.

Any game with special hardware won't work correctly on any Everdrive 64. Animal Forest is the only exception and should work on v3/X7.
ROMs with special hardware includes Mario no Photopi and Morita Shogi 64 and possibly Capture Cartridge and the Randnet Modem cartridge.

Compatibility list:
https://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=147.0

[Kerr Avon]

Yes, almost every game plays on the Everdrive exactly as it does on the original cartridge. And the Everdrive 64 will play games from any region, it doesn't care if the game is PAL, NTSC, or JAP. The problem is that not every TV can display all game regions, but that's down to the TV, most PAL TVs can display all regions, and any (as far as I know) NTSC TV can display JAP too, but not always PAL games.

Regarding the Everdrive 64 itself, all PAL and NTSC games work fine on the Everdrive 64, with the sole exception  of Pokemon Stadium 2, which has some corrupted graphics on the version 2.0 and 2.5 of the Everdrive 64. On the version 3 and version X7 of the Everdrive 64, Pokemon Stadium 2 works fine, meaning that all NTSC and PAL N64 games will work for you.

The other region of N64 games is JAP, Japanese games. Most JAP games do work on any Everdrive 64; the exceptions are the few games that have extra hardware in their game cartridge - there are four or so of these (that I know of), such as a Tetris game that can read your heart beat (seriously - it has a little connection you attach to your chest), a Pokemon game that uses a microphone so you can speak to the game, a game that has a realtime clock built into the cartridge so it always knows the time and date, and a shooter that used a non-standard gamesave. All four of these games are JAP only, no PAL or NTSC N64 game ever had extra hardware in the game cartridge, so there are no problems with non-JAP games.

An Everdrive 64 allows you to keep all of the N64's library on one cartridge, which is extremely convenient. It also allows you to play many NES and Gameboy games (via emulators contained in the Everdrive's software), to play the 64DD games (the 64DD is an add on disc drive, that was only released in Japan), and the Aleck64 games (the Aleck64 games are arcade games that were released in Japanese arcades).

It also allows you to play game translations (such as the English translations of games that were only officially released in Japanese, such as Sin and Punishment, Wonder Project J2, Densha de Go! 64 (a Train driving game), Custom Robo, Last Legion UX , etc), and also to play most of the many game mods (which add new levels, or new weapons, etc, to many of the best N64 games, such as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64, Super Mario 64, F-Zero X, Super Smash Bros., etc).

Basically, an Everdrive  transforms the N64, allowing you to play lots of games and mod that you wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

[rlstine]

I haven't been able to save in Animal Forest. It hanged when I tried with my v2. The v2.5 is probably not any different.

I have a v2.5 and can confirm Animal Forest saves no problem. Only annoying thing is resetting the clock to the correct date and time each time to load up the game to play.

The other region of N64 games is JAP, Japanese games. Most JAP games do work on any Everdrive 64; the exceptions are the few games that have extra hardware in their game cartridge - there are four or so of these (that I know of), such as ... a Pokemon game that uses a microphone so you can speak to the game ... All four of these games are JAP only, no PAL or NTSC N64 game ever had extra hardware in the game cartridge, so there are no problems with non-JAP games.

Gotta correct you on this point, Kerr. "Hey You Pikachu" is not a JPN only title. It had a US and PAL release as well, and if you want to play it on an Everdrive you will need the microphone and additional hardware.

[IRL Random Hajile]

I haven't been able to save in Animal Forest. It hanged when I tried with my v2. The v2.5 is probably not any different.

I seem to recall Animal Forest hanging on me once before during the saving process, but have since resolved this by forcing the correct save method via save_db.txt. The game is normally supposed to save to FlashRAM.
Adding "AF=5" into the save_db.txt file helped avoid any hanging during saving town progress.

Gotta correct you on this point, Kerr. "Hey You Pikachu" is not a JPN only title. It had a US and PAL release as well, and if you want to play it on an Everdrive you will need the microphone and additional hardware.

Also, I can clarify that "Hey You, Pikachu!" was released over in the west, and it came with the VRU (Voice Recognition Unit) peripheral. Though, I do recall that game being kinda finicky with how it detects voices spoken into the mic for Pikachu, due to it having a preference for higher pitched voices (or a child-like voice spoken). Still, that game has a soft spot for me, due to it being one of the first N64 games I've ever experienced with my older brother many years ago. The concept of being able to talk to your Pokemon and have it respond back to you was really neat.

[nuu]

You are probably right about Animal Forest. I tried it many years ago back when ED64 v2 was still new, and had forgotten that it was just the save type that was wrong.

the exceptions are the few games that have extra hardware in their game cartridge - there are four or so of these (that I know of), such as a Tetris game that can read your heart beat (seriously - it has a little connection you attach to your chest), a Pokemon game that uses a microphone so you can speak to the game, a game that has a realtime clock built into the cartridge so it always knows the time and date, and a shooter that used a non-standard gamesave.

The Pikachu game Tetris 64 and Densha de Go 64 doesn't use a special cartridge. The special hardware is external and plugged into the controller ports (the Tetris 64 Bio Sensor is a clip to your ear to measure your heartbeat and goes into the memory card slot), so they've always worked perfectly well with any version of the ED64. The game with an uncommon save type (Dezaemon 3D) have also been supported since a long time ago. And the game with an internal clock is Animal Forest. It's supported by ED64 v3 and X7 only, as mentioned a hundred times.
The only other special cartridges I know of are Mario no Photopi, Morita Shogi 64, Capture Cartridge and the Randnet Modem that I mentioned earlier, and they are all in the incompatibility list.

As for the Japanese region, Japan uses the NTSC TV standard and there are absolutely no differences of the internals of a Japanese and a North American Nintendo 64. Only the two plastic tabs in the cartridge slot are shaped differently. All NTSC games will work 100% authentically on both systems and on all TVs that support NTSC.
PAL and PAL-M regions both have slightly different hardware from the two NTSC systems though.

[SG333gg]

Hey OP get a everdrive 64 XX7, it turely does play ever single n64 game, even the japanese ones. I now have every game on the system and its the best feeling ever. Thew older verisons of the everdrive dont play certain games, and have save issues, treat yourself get a x7, you'll thank me later...oh and happy early new years

[Grizzmeister]

I absolutely adore my EverDrive 64 v2.5 because it plays all the games I like without having to switch out cartridges. Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Bros. 64 (and it's various hacks), F-Zero X Expansion Kit and Killer Instinct Gold all play perfectly fine and that's enough to satisfy me. All the other games I can play on the EverDrive 64 are simply icing on the cake.

I like my ED64 so much that I almost bought a SNES flash cart this Christmas but they sold out quick around Black Friday. Also, when they do become available prices are generally sky-high. Think I'll keep playing SNES games on PC or the Wii until I can get a good Super Nintendo flash cart for under 100 bucks. 

[nuu]

it turely does play ever single n64 game

Except for the games that surely doesn't play properly as we explained above. It applies to all models of the ED64 and also the 64 Drive.


The ED64 X7 is apparently messing with things it shouldn't, so I'm beginning to think the latest 64 Drive is a better deal than the ED64 X7. They have almost identical price, features and compatibility, except that the X7 seems to do some weird stuff that breaks some hacks. I find that worrying.

[rlstine]

The ED64 X7 is apparently messing with things it shouldn't, so I'm beginning to think the latest 64 Drive is a better deal than the ED64 X7. They have almost identical price, features and compatibility, except that the X7 seems to do some weird stuff that breaks some hacks. I find that worrying.

I've heard of instances like this with the x7 as well, but not, interestingly, the 2.5 — I would definitely recommend a Krikzz product over other brands, however. I'm sure if he were made aware of specific issues with the x7 he would release a patch to address them as soon as possible.