N64 Stories
RockerGaming N64 refurb journey
RockerGaming on twitter found a genuine N64 controller in good condition at GameStop for twenty bucks. They ran a stick benchmark and found some issues. Upon opening it up, they found a bunch of crud. They got to work cleaning and swapping out parts to get it working better than ever. The before and after stick benchmark went from a 1.41 standard deviation to a 0.60. Finally, they removed the permanent marker from the original owner. I know the dry-erase marker trick, but sometimes that doesn’t get everything. Please someone in the comments let me know how to do this! https://x.com/RockerGameMod/status/2080500033988829645 https://github.com/wermipls/mimi
RockerGaming N64 controller benchmark tool
This standalone controller benchmark tool really caught my eye. Apparently it’s a project collaborated between RockerGaming and drumstix576. From what I gathered, it’s not on the market yet, but I hope someday it will be! https://x.com/RockerGameMod/status/1828088937325453602
Beautiful custom controller
Jerome shared pictures of this BEAUTIFUL ASCII controller build. It’s got a Tao Nylon stick and thumb pad. Brew Bowl V2. OEM gears, and Rockergaming Mecaw V2 buttons. Jerome does a ton of awesome builds and keeps a Google spreadsheet with all the details for people who want to build their own. I’ve never seen this ASCII controller before, but those multi-position switches at the top give the controller a high-tech look that I just love. I found nintendo64ever.com has an article on it’s features. Apparently they control turbo, autofire and hold. They can be found on eBay for around $50. https://x.com/gamrjerome/status/2070671001197649944 https://t.co/CgGtE8xdB7 https://www.nintendo64ever.com/Read-Article-Nintendo64EVER-Member,356,ASCII-Pad-64.html https://www.ebay.com/itm/127550229502
M64 teardown
What’s Ken Making did an in-depth teardown of the M64, where he touched on an interesting point that M64 does HDMI transmission at the FPGA level, instead of relying on dedicated HDMI chips. The system has somewhat open hardware and has lots of PCB level features that make it very hackable, which is great for the next story! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfum9fiQzoI
OM64
OM64 is an open source M64 custom firmware being developed by an independent developer. I’m actually really excited for the M64 firmware modding scene because I think this could open up the console’s potential and allow for an unparalleled level of customization. https://ko-fi.com/post/OM64—Open-M64-custom-firmware-D2R127EMXY https://x.com/Retoro_Gamer/status/2102275385824350487
N64 is 30 years young!
N64 is 30 years young! In the US, Nintendo 64 was released in stores on September 29, 1996. Happy belated Birthday N64! https://www.techspot.com/news/114033-nintendo-64-turns-30-today-feeling-old.html
Save states on EverDrive-64 PRO coming soon
krikzz shared an update on the EverDrive-64 PRO. Save states are coming soon! This feature looks so good for me, a player who sometimes only makes 15 minutes for a gaming session. I could save the game anywhere and pick it up later! No hunting for save points needed! Man, I gotta get myself a flash cart. https://x.com/krikzz/status/2105306743160902071
That’s it for today
That’s it for this episode of N64 stories. If you liked it, let me know! See you later.