Nintendo 64 (Myth) Flash Cart WIP Review

[wraggster]

This is a WIP review as i had screens and info etc:

A Little about the reviewer

Ive been an emulation and homebrew fan for as many years as i can remember but nothing i repeat nothing is better than playing on the real hardware.

Back in the Megadrive(genesis) and Snes days i owned a Super Wild Card and a Super Double Pro fighter, both cost about 300 pounds and ill admit that it was a great way to play games that i would never have been able to afford or because of stupid region lockouts.

So the day when Neoflash announced they were working on a Flash Cart for the Nintendo 64 called NEO Myth 64, i wanted one so badly, the chance to relive the best of the N64 and to play games ive never played was too much of a thrill to behold.

Now i must point out that being a webmaster of a homebrew site makes me no expert, im just as clueless as most newcomers, i like websites and i like posting news, i like to know that if i need a certain release i should be able to find it on my sites (hopefully :P).

First off Heres some screens of the N64 Flash Cart in and out its Packaging:

Front Side View in Packaging



Back Side view in Packaging



The NEO N64 Myth cart



Neo 2 Flash Cart - Which Holds SD Cards up to 8GB



The Neo n64 Myth Cart and the neo 2 Cart split apart



The USB Lead



You also get a Mini CD with a load of Drivers on for all Neo Products.

Specs of the N64 Flash Cart

Heres what Neoflash claim it does:

* Support the N64 rom size up to 512M
* Support all save type perfectly included the flash save, not need the same save type N64 game cart to work together
* Support 100% N64 games perfectly
* Download games from PC to NEO2 cart directly via USB port
* Upload/overwrite game save to PC via USB directly
* Multi-CIC support, can use any N64 cart to boot Neo Myth on N64 console
* Support Multi games, can download 2 games at the same time and swap the game via switch
* Can select the N64 menu run from Neo2 game cart or N64 inner menu flash (under developing still)
* Upgradeable! Support upgrade the N64 Myth cart CPLD logic core through the NDP upgrade kit

Getting Started

The N64 Flash Cart did come with a Mini CD of drivers but sadly there was no actual drivers for the N64 Flash Cart, so first off you need to head on over to Neoflash Forum to download the latest version of the software, once youve downloaded it (15MB) then click on to install to the directory it wants to, pretty straightforward for anyone.

Clicking on the Neo 2 Ultra Menu Icon (look on your desktop or in new programs) will lead you onto a screen that looks like this:



Now get your Neo Myth N64 Flash Cart and making sure that the cart that says 512M is inserted (or the Neo 2 Card with an SD Card inserted), connect the USB Lead to the Cart and Plugit into your Laptop or PC.

It Should have no problems and automatically find drivers installed when you installed the software above, i had no problems using Windows Vista but with Windows XP Pro SP3 it wouldnt load the drivers properly, i did post a thread at Neoflash and was given instructions on how to fix this. (Try a different USB Lead it may be that)

Adding Roms etc

Ok carrying on from the screenshot above if everything went ok youll be able to start the juicy part, first off i did a quick format of the card, it took around 30 seconds to do, so no real biggy.

Next on the list was to Add Roms to the Cart (Homebrew Roms and Emulators can be found at links Below)

Adding Roms is as easy as clicking the add rom button and going to whereever your roms are, for some strange reason the cart/software at the moment only holds 2 roms but i would think that will change in later versions of the firmware/software.

Once you have added the roms you require then click on N64 Burn, depending on how big your roms are will depend on how long it takes to copy to the cart, give it a few minutes, it also verifies each burn.

Now one thing to take into consideration is that if you have a USA N64, you will need a USA game plugged into the back of the N64 Myth Cart, If you have a Pal N64 youll need a Pal game plugged in.

I have both a USA and UK(Pal) N64 and thankfully the Power supplys/TV Leads are universal so im able to swap at pleasure.

Heres a pic of the Cart plugged into the N64



Now for Homebrew roms you dont need anything else to boot them but say you want to boot one of the games that requires the Expansion Pack



Games that need the Expansion Pack are the likes of Donkey Kong 64 and Zelda--The Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark, it also ups the resolution on many other games too.

Onto the Gaming

Ok youve Burnt your games onto the Flash cart and you have the Flash Cart installed in the N64 with the correct region game in the back, now its time to turn on:







It loads automatically into the game as you can see, if you did burn 2 games theres a little lever on the top of cart that you push over if you want the other rom to load at the start before you turn the console on.

Games ive Tested So Far

Donkey Kong 64 - Perfect
Star Wars Battle for Naboo - Perfect
Diddy Kong Racing - Perfect
GoldenEye 007 - Perfect
Perfect Dark - Perfect
PilotWings 64 - Perfect
Killer Instinct - Perfect
Star Wars Episode I - Racer - Perfect
Stunt Racer 64 - Perfect
Yoshi's Story - Perfect

Over at Neoflash theres a more complete list of whats working and save issues etc.

Conclusion

Today was one of them times when i was took back to the reasons i truly love the homebrew/Emulation scene. The Flash Cart seems easy to use, The adding of roms to the cart is as easy as they come so a big plus factor there, its a shame at this moment in time it only supports 2 roms, hopefully thats one thing that will be updated soon.

Having no drivers and documentation on the CD will make it a little hard for newbies but i would think that most people that are going to buy this are the hardcore N64 fans of old.

On the whole the roms it plays is great and if you have the expansion pack you can play just about every single N64 Game released and all homebrew and emulators too.

The price for the Flash Cart is $199 so it will put a lot of people off but to retro collectors/major emulation fans it will be very worth it, if you owned one of the back up systems for the N64 this will be much more preferable as theirs no moving parts to break. Yes for that price you can buy a heck of a lot of the games but theres some genuine gems that are very hard to trace these days and the homebrew factor makes it worth it for me.

My advice is to those who are tempted is go for it, the flash cart does what you really want it to and thats play Nintendo 64, a big thumbs up for Neoflash on this retro cart.

I suppose like everything it depends how big a fan you are and what finances you have to spend on gadgets, for me it does what i want it to and its also seen the re-emergence of a Homebrew scene for the N64, we have already seen releases of ScummVM for the N64 and theres also Snes, Nes, MSX, Master System/Game gear and Gameboy Emulators for the N64.

Links of Interest

Ic2005.com - Official Sellers of the NEO Myth 64 N64 flash cart and Neoflash Products.
Neoflash Forum for all discussion regarding the flash cart.
N64 Development forum at Neoflash.
N64 Homebrew News and Emulation Site at DCEmu.
Homebrew N64 Games at N64 Scener.
Homebrew N64 Demos at N64 Scener.
Icequake n64 Site

[DemoniusX]

$200!? are they mad? For 2 generation behind. Talk about a rip off. you could own most N64 carts with that price if not all of them now. What a rip off,until they fix the price I'd rather just buy the carts for my 64 bit baby.

[JLF65]

N64 "backup" devices have always been expensive. The Myth series is a bit expensive, but it's at least fairly flexible. It's not about not buying the actual carts, it's about being able to do what you want. The current menu for the N64 Myth can run Myth-aware homebrew, allowing homebrew access to the SD card. There's already a music player out that plays music off the SD card. Wouldn't you like a version of ScummVM that loaded the game files off the SD card instead of requiring you to embed them in the rom? How about a NES emulator that loads roms off the SD card?