JoeyN64 Lets You Legally Back Up Your N64 Games And Save Data

Ooooo! I need one of these if only to protect my GoldenEye 007 save file!

@FatPlumber Don't panic, Goldeneye doesn't use a battery for saving so it's unlikely to expire from that.

Is there any reason to buy this if I already have a Retrode 2 with an N64 adapter?

I like it, shame I don't have that between moves and a small house fire I don't actually have many n64 games anymore.

This kind of thing is really cool and the price is decent. I like the idea that the general public can back-up their aging carts and memory cards.

@Handy_Man
If you have that, nope.

The only thing you have to do with your save files is to swap the header or something to use with some emulators.

This is awesome, and I want one. But I have no idea about this suff. If I copy the ROMs from the carts to my computer, what then? How do I play them? I need an emulator right? Where do you get that from? Is there one that will "just work"? My limited experience with this in the past has not been great - games crashing etc, which is kinda why I don't bother. But this little device certainly is compelling ...

@gwyntendo You’ll also need an adapter to connect an N64 controller to your PC as most controllers don’t have six face buttons. The compromise people often make is to map the right analogue stick to the c-buttons but it’s frankly horrid playing that way. The frog song mini-game in Ocarina of Time is basically unplayable when doing that. You can buy repro N64 controllers with a USB plug but I’d avoid those as the analogue stick is often rubbish on those.

I’d love to get something this simple for NES and SNES games. Don’t really care about N64. But yeah, I love the concept.

@gwyntendo I'm a little behind the curve on the status of N64 emulation, but until someone comes in with a better answer:
Any of the most popular emulators (like PJ64, Mupen, and whatever core Retroarch uses) should do a good, reliable job with most games, right out of the box. Mupen, at least, comes with the GlideN64 plugin installed, and that one is quite accurate, while also allowing for plenty of enhancements such as HD resolutions.
There are also low-level (LLE) plugins that allow for maximum accuracy, but you'll be limited to the N64's native 240p resolution.

Personally, I mostly use Project64, since it's what I'm used to, and it's really good at overclocking, allowing for a consistent 60fps in games such as Goldeneye. It supports GlideN64 as well. Unfortunately, it has a nag screen that asks for money every time you start it- this can be worked around, but it makes PJ64 harder to recommend.

As for controllers, you should be okay to just start with whatever Xbox controllers you have lying around, as they work well with probably 75% of games, and the analogue sticks are so much smoother than the N64's. But like BulkSlash mentioned, some games (which map actual actions to the C buttons) do play poorly unless you have that genuine 6-button layout.

I hope this is more helpful than overwhelming!
N64 emulation is admittedly a little more fiddly than something like GameCube (which has set a very high bar in its accuracy and ease of use), but I think you'll find that it's not as difficult, glitchy, or intimidating as it was in the past.

@BulkSlash Yeah, that frog mini-game was brutal, even through Nintendo's own mapping on GameCube. I wish 6-button layouts were available on modern dual-stick controllers, as all of the 6-button controllers seem to be made for 2D fighting games only. Well, I guess there's the Xbox's Duke controller... but it's the Duke.

Agreed, regarding repros! Someone once brought their repro N64 controller to me, and asked why it didn't seem to control as accurately as the real thing. It turned out that the stick only supported 8 directions, with no analogue!

All that said, I've played plenty of N64 games through emulation, and most of them (at least 75%) are perfectly fine with an Xbox controller and that right stick mapping that you described. It's not always ideal, but it's a good place to start.

@smoreon @BulkSlash thanks for taking the time to respond guys. I will check this out. Thanks!