EverDrive 64

[jacob493]

Personally I would prefer to pay more for a better product, but other users may not want to. Would it be possible to sell two difference Everdrive 64's one with the faster protocol and one with the slower one?

For the $2000 a year for the SD royalties does that mean that for as long as you sell the Everdrive 64's you need to pay that money?

Going on to what Sanni mentioned there is a good chance that someone will do some shifty coding to add in the faster SD protocol anyway. Selling with the slower protocol would still probabally deter potential customers who can't be bothered installing some patch to their cart.

[StoneAgeGamer]

Also, will getting the SD card license add to the product cost? If so I think most users would prefer cheaper price and slightly longer loading times. Might be a good question for another poll though?

It would be a lie if I said it wouldn't add to product cost, but it would be minimal.

Please understand the ED64 board only and Deluxe versions will still be considerably less then the competition either way.

I agree that most people once they have the ED64 won't mind regular load times, the problem is people outside of this forum or people who have never bought an ED64.

The biggest knock if you go to the competition and from other people who is the EverDrive load times. We all understand why it takes so longer to load and like I said unless you change games every 2 minutes waiting an extra few seconds I don't see as a problem. However to people trying to decide between different N64 flash carts one loading 3 times faster with one may be a deal breaker for another.

I understand the fear of higher costs, but like I said it wouldn't be anything huge, we are talking maybe a few bucks at the most.

I'm all for a poll and like I said this isn't a done deal, its just something we are considering.

[sheath]

Shoot, *everybody* ought to be used to 11-21 second load times after the Playstation, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3. Really, for something that is going to cost half of the nearest competition (or am I missing something), I don't see the need for the developers to spend $2000 extra dollars up front.

[Mamejay]

Shoot, *everybody* ought to be used to 11-21 second load times after the Playstation, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3. Really, for something that is going to cost half of the nearest competition (or am I missing something), I don't see the need for the developers to spend $2000 extra dollars up front.

I totally agree. I would prefer Krikzz put that money towards RND and get some other carts off the ground instead of paying a license to a company so users can save a few seconds.

[StoneAgeGamer]

Honestly guys I wouldn't concern yourselves to much with the license stuff right now. If anything I would offer feature suggestions and stuff in this thread.

[KRIKzz]

I was just curious if thats Flash memory or an FRAM chip near the FTDI chip? (I cant read the text on the chip) I'm guessing its probably Flash memory to store the menu?:

it is flash bios.

...So even though load times are only around 11-21 seconds for biggest 64MB N64 games (3-6MByte/sec) they might become a bit tedious for some (impatient!) people. I guess buying an SD card license for improved speeds might be worthwhile for EverDrive 64
:

may be. but hi speed cards not expensive, with if speed card loading time just 11sec for most big games. also we know that most part of n64 romset it is just 8-32Mb games, so usuall loading time wil be 3-6 sec.

[goombakid]

Put in retrospect to, say, loading times on a V64 or Z64. If there's no discernible difference in loading times with legacy backup devices to the Everdrive, I wouldn't see how loading a game in .5 seconds is really important...unless getting that licensing is dependent on SDHC use.

[Piratero]

Can't wait for either of the two carts!

[Calpis]

You think the SD association is really going to find out if you're using 4-bit transfer mode without being a member and sue you? Just implement the free spec which is public on their site, it's enough.

[button]

You think the SD association is really going to find out if you're using 4-bit transfer mode or not and sue you? Just implement it (the spec is public on their site...) and say it was reverse engineered if anyone's the wiser.

Yeah...just destroy any evidence of this post before you do, though.

[KRIKzz]

You think the SD association is really going to find out if you're using 4-bit transfer mode without being a member and sue you? .

may be once some stranger will publish "unofficial" firmware which will be supported with 4 bit transfer mode he he (:

[derekb]

You think the SD association is really going to find out if you're using 4-bit transfer mode without being a member and sue you? Just implement the free spec which is public on their site, it's enough.

I could see some reason to not do it when you're producing a product which is in a legal gray area to begin with, cutting the corner would just add potential fuel for the fire if things went sour

[sheath]

I would think Nintendo would be the one to sue first anyway. They are still rehashing their N64 franchises, now they're doing it on the 3DS.

As far as feature requests go, I've seen people ask on digital press about 64 disk drive games and emulators for the N64. That is, will they work with Everdrive 64?

[KRIKzz]

i don't know how 64 disk drive work, so i can't say something. if other copiers can't play distk drive images, then probably it is impossible or very hard to emulate

[StoneAgeGamer]

I would think Nintendo would be the one to sue first anyway. They are still rehashing their N64 franchises, now they're doing it on the 3DS.

I disagree. I highly doubt the EverDrive will cut into OOT on 3DS sales. SD association would be first. The likely hood of someone reporting us to the SD association such as a competitor or some jerk is much higher than Nintendo caring how someone uses hardware that has been unsupported for almost a decade.

This may not be as big of a concern for Igor being in Ukraine, but I am a U.S.-based company and I am better off following the letter of the law. The question is since I didn't produce the boards am I liable for their feature set? I am not sure, would probably be better to be safe than sorry.

There is some vitriol out there surrounding flash carts. Read some youtube comments on some of the reviews and you see there are some people who loath flash carts, even for unsupported systems. Some people have claimed to report me to some government agencies for selling and promoting such an item. I doubt they ever did and I doubt the government cared if they did.

I have heard Igor mention that emulators for other systems like NES would be possible for ED64. That would be pretty cool.

[derekb]

Some people have claimed to report me to some government agencies for selling and promoting such an item. I doubt they ever did and I doubt the government cared if they did.

probably butthurt 'collectors'

[sheath]

StoneAge, I agree that Everdrive 64 will not hurt Nintendo's software sales one bit. I would just figure they'd sue "because it's there."

On the notoriety of flash drives, I agree big time. People just lump it in with piracy, and to be honest I intend to use it to make videos without having to spend $30-80+ just to record it. If for some reason I became enamored with the game I would purchase it if possible. It seems as though folks on Atariage really don't like the idea of flash carts allowing for commercial games. But seriously, some Jaguar games are $200-500!

Anyway, emulators are worse than flash carts because they all alter the way the games look, play and sound, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. An NES or Master System emulator on the N64 sounds promising, if anything I could just use the N64 in the kid's room as I indoctrinate him to classic gaming. I can already do that with the Dreamcast though. Hmm.

[Alchy]

People like that confuse me. For current platforms where devs are still trying to make a profit, fine, but for Megadrive or something? It's like they're saying "you must not have fun like that, because I say so" - like it's any of their fucking business what I do with an ancient Sega console.

[StoneAgeGamer]

People like that confuse me. For current platforms where devs are still trying to make a profit, fine, but for Megadrive or something? It's like they're saying "you must not have fun like that, because I say so" - like it's any of their fucking business what I do with an ancient Sega console.

I agree.

Either way whether you play Sonic the Hedgehog with the real cart or some kind of copy on your Genesis I don't thing Sega is concerned. They don't make any money either way.

Some people complain it hurts mom & pop retro gaming stores. Well I am one of those stores and if anything we sell even more used games now than we ever have. We have not seen any slow down on used game sales since we first started selling EverDrives.

[derekb]

I imagine virtual console sales trickle down to the original publishers in some way?