Hey everyone! It has come to my attention that my statements regarding FRAM and its compatibility with save files was incorrect. Both FRAM and MRAM are good and highly compatible, however are different technologies. I would like to apologize for any confusion. Thank you and have a wonderful day!
@@YoureUsingWordsIncorrectly FRAM was used for the savefiles in sonic 3 carts on the genesis and have been known to fail due to the limited lifespan by now as a practical example on why MRAM is very likely the better choice.
It's been 25 years since the N64 came out and they *still* haven't figured out how to increase the memory capacity of these things? Back in 1998 I had a 3rd party Controller Pak that had 4x the capacity. it had a switch to toggle between four different memory banks. Not the best workaround but it was still better than this Forever Pak crap. Thanks for wasting my time with this clickbait. Let me know when someone figures out how to make a 1GB Pak (I'd take even 16MB at this point; *anything's* better than a paltry 256KB).
@@Psythik please do a little bit of research before making claims on something you don't understand. There is a reason that it is the size that it is and that's because the Nintendo 64 wouldn't be able to read anything higher.
Already a thing! They're very expensive but you'll never need to replace the thumbstick ever again! I'd like to see a MachoNacho review of the SteelSticks64 sticks!
@@h8GW the replacement bowls are not all made well. I would start with cleaning and lube first. Test it out. If that doesn't make it play better, then change the gears, and make sure you have everything set right once or twice, if that doesn't make it play better then do the bowl last. You'll find in some cases the replacement bowls making it worse than the original bowl.
@@blackishjustin back in the day I remember some 3rd party companies making these all in one rumble and mempak units, I think it had a switch to toggle the unit to be in rumble or memory pak mode since the N64 only recognise one device at a time. I also had a 3rd party memory pak it has a button to switch between banks, I think it had 4 different banks, meaning it was 4 memory pak in one. Im sure if I google I will find more info :)
It would be great if it had an SD card slot instead and it would automatically create a "different" card for each game like the memcard pro that automatically gets selected depending on the game you're playing.
I don't think that's possible because of how the pak works on the N64, games are basically manually writing and reading to it with their own custom management code so none of them are talking to the memory card in a way that it can intercept which game is talking to it and redirect the read/writes.
@@li2rg It wouldn't be possible with just an Everdrive, because the controller bus is isolated from the cartridge. It could be possible in theory but it sounds like an extreme engineering challenge (or nightmare). It of course needs a hard mod like xstation that can access that stuff (N64Digital might be viable). But the Memcard Pro was probably easier to accomplish due to the dedicated memory card bus. With an Everdrive you can switch between mpk files on the SD card, it's not automatic but you at least have an option other than 'delete stuff' when you run out of space. You just gotta keep track of which file has which save.
@@li2rg actually some everdrive copys have the ability to write a save to the micro sd card, so it does work, but you still need a mem pak to save i belive.
@zxbryc The everdrive could definitely do this, just like the xstation can. All it needs to due is send a series of memory card commands that an ESP chip on the memory card listens for, that then encodes the name of the game being loaded in a series of memory card read/write commands that are interpreted by the ESP chip. It’s not unlike what the xstation and memcard pro already do.
With a much larger capacity too! I'm tired of these crappy 256 KB memory cards that get completely filled up after saving a *single* track's ghost data in Mario Kart 64. Somebody please let me know when they invent a 256 *MB* Pak. Or just throw an SD card slot in there and let the people pick their own memory capacity.
N64 games can’t see beyond 256kb. This is why nobody has done it, they’ve only done bank switching where pressing the button presents a new memory card and you have to cycle it. It’s the same way that PS1 and Dreamcast memory cards worked too. They are inflexible on size and games couldn’t see if a chip was bigger at all. But of course there are options like the memcard pro, which roll have buttons to make and switch cards, unless you have an xstation. But just like there are no “60 block ps1 memory cards” because games can’t see beyond 15 8k blocks.
The VMU saves don't rely on the battery. The battery is just for stand-alone use of the VMU so even with an empty battery the VMU will keep its save data!
Yeah as a few others said the Dreamcast already uses technology similar to this. Actually closer to SD cards, that does not depend on the battery. There have been manual mods like backlit VMUs or AAA vmus for more battery life. But the portable VMU games aren’t that interesting in today’s world, other than maybe the Sonic adventure chaos, so most people don’t bother putting batteries in, especially with how quickly they die keeping the time.
bank switching would be the fix for that but those chips are rather big so it would stick out like most over bank switching memory cards. the best option imo is to get an everdrive x7 which will allow you to create memory card backups, or you can also pickup a gameshark for the n64 for really cheap.
I'd love to see some sort of kit that would allow someone to essentially convert a wired Gamecube controller into a Wavebird. Honestly my biggest issue with getting back into playing Gamecube is the lack of affordable decent wireless controllers (though I've already pre-ordered a couple of those new Retro Fighters ones in hopes that they'll prove to be good replacements).
Same. My issue with the Wavebird is that it doesn't have Rumble. And I would assume that small enough wireless modules exist now to be able to fit inside a standard GameCube controller shell along with a Li-ion battery.
@@Home_Rowed Even if they weren't quite small enough, I'm not against a replacement shell built specifically to accommodate both a rumble module and a batter pack as long as it doesn't look out of place with the original parts.
8bitdo company currently make a drop in replacement boards for retro device gamepads, simply swap the boards, you use your originsl shell, buttons and membrane and you have instant bluetooth, currently there is only SNES, NES and Sega MD/Genesis adaptor to use on the original console, but they are bluetooth so you can use on any device that has BT. I think 8bitdo can do something similar to N64 and GC.
The closest thing to that you can currently get is the receiver of the hyperkin admiral controller, which allows to transfer saves to an SD card (and back).
By the title of the video I was honestly expecting it to have a 64gb+ capacity or built in usb to backup data to your PC. I know there are devices out there that let you do that, but I bet they could fit that hardware into the card shell nowadays.
@@Mari_Izu the old Memory Card Pro got around this issue by using partitions to emulate smaller storage values with a manual switch to swap between 4 internal cards, or "pages". I think this method could be reworked for SD cards, perhaps by having an active partition of a compatible size to read/write save data, and an SD card managing archived data to be swapped in and out of the active partition. For SD cards, it might need a handshake device to plug the pak into something that doesn't care about capacity as much, since you'd need a non-console way to swap the save files in and out of the pak, but at that point you might just skip the SD card and use the handshake device to connect directly to your PC for swapping saves.
$30 isn't a premium price for something that was injection molded and mass produced by 3 community members. I bought two in support of them and reccomended the product to my entire discord of retro gamers.
My problem is that price gets you a single memory card's worth of storage, with no additional features. I had several devices back when the N64 was still current there were 4 memorycards in one and a rumble pack for $30 or less each. I get that they would have to charge more for being an independent small group, but surely they could have given us more than 256kbits of storage in 2021 for $30 with no additional features. Others have created SD adapters that let you create not only as many virtual memorycards as the SD card can hold, but even let you back them up to PC that way.
The reason these can’t be bigger with bank switching, even though I would like that, is because these use MVRAM which are much more expensive and physically larger. A 4x mvram chip would make this much more expensive and would have a hard time fitting. Those cards that did this in the past used the much cheaper SRAM, but the main benefit of this is no battery. More me personally, I use my everdrive to back them up to SD card and still use an old SRAM card with a new battery and have little interest in one of these or a larger memory card.
I love the idea of “same as the original, but…” so maybe something like a backwards engineered wavebird receiver that is compatible with all wavebirds and color options would really help the gamecube wireless controller market. I personally have a wavebird with no receiver but I have no clue which band it works on, or which band the inflated receivers on eBay are, and a 50/50 is just not worth it when there’s 50-60 dollars on the line
I would like to see 2 things one day. 1) A memory with this technology for the dreamcast vmu. 2) A bluetooth dongle preferably not intrusive for the n64. With the release of the new N64 controller for Nintendo Switch online games, it would be the closest to having really wireless n64 controllers on orginal hardware.
The VMU already uses similar technology essentially. The batteries were only needed for the portable games. The actual saves do not depend on the battery and a VMU works perfectly for saving with no batteries.
I'd love to see a multi-system memory card reader/writer that you could slot any common memory card into and use it to pack up you save files to a computer.
So cool! I would love to see a 4 layer Rumble pak with selectable rumble strengths and/or memory built in! Imagine being able to crank up the rumble to really feel it?!
I’d love for them to release proper GameCube joycons, or at least make a kit that makes it possible for an average person to build it. I ain’t talking about the cheap ones that already exist, I’m talking about GameCube joycons with full functionality.
This is something sorely needed within the N64 community and I'm excited to finally see it coming. Having lost games more times than I care to remember in the past. The big thing for me right now remains the HDMI mods for the N64 and whilst others are doing them, theyre NEVER available for sale and always sold out, Id love to see someone bring something to market that was more easilly accesible.
Dude that’s rad! I just recently got back into the N64, my wife and I have a 20+ year love affair with Beetle Adventure Racing. I just put new analog sticks in our controllers but our old 3rd party memory pak is getting a bit dodgy so I think I’ll be looking into this. Thanks man!! Also I’d like to see what they could do with analog stick alternatives
This is pretty awesome. I think the best mods for 4LAYER to make would be either RGB or HDMI (or both) solutions for N64 (and maybe SNES or GC) that aren't hard to find or ridiculously expensive. The existing solutions are both hard to get your hands on due to low supply and high demand, and expensive because of the supply & demand, so the more players in the market making supply, the better it gets for everyone.
I'd love to see their take on the "Ultra Pak" with 8x the storage, and built-in rumble. I have a working one, and it is amazing, but I'd hate for a dead battery to ruin my data
I just tested my old memory pack and it came up with the message "memory pak unrecoverable". I'm so happy there is a solution. I did not know there was a battery inside my pak until recently.
would love to see this made to be more like the memcard pro, with an sd card slot and wireless save managment. pretty sure they can't make the combination rumble/memorycard without a switch because of the pin configuration on the n64 controller pak port
6:33 Snowboard Kids 2 has Game Pak saves, not Controller Pak saves. You might be thinking of the original Snowboard Kids, which took a 121-page note on the Controller Pak. To check if a Nintendo 64 game has Controller Pak support, simply hold the Start button as the game boots for a Controller Pak management menu. Assuming Snowboard Kids 2 doesn't have Controller Pak support (due to Game Pak saves taking its place), the first Snowboard Kids should have a Controller Pak menu.
I personally wanna see more handheld home console conversion kits. It blew my mind seeing the Wii turned into a portable GameCube all those years ago and has only become more streamlined. It’s so interesting and unique and with a few N64 portable consoles made on UA-cam I could see it becoming more of the focus in the retro game community
That isn't a bad idea. It would be great just have a good 3rd party source for Expansion Paks, but one with a switch that could make it run as a Jumper Pak would be cool.
@@scikoolaid Turok 2 is a well known example. The expansion pack causes the game to use higher resolution textures, which ultimately drops the frame rate.
There was also Space Station Silicon Valley, Versions 1.0 of the US version of the game would crash frequently if an Expansion Pak was inserted. Version 1.1 supposedly fixed this bug but it's not like you can tell which version a cart is, especially before buying it. The game was very buggy in general though, it's not possible to 100% complete it in any version also due to bugs that don't let you get some of the collectables.
These are great, $30 is a little steep. Would love to see Rumble Pak improvements, or a hybrid of rumble and save like some of those aftermarket ones back in the day.
Congrats! You won the giveaway! Please reach out to me through email (can be found in my account info), or through Twitter or Instagram. Congrats again!
I know it’s been a while and you did win one, but something to keep in mind, the OEM memory paks were originally released at $20 back in 1996, and were made in much greater numbers and much more mandatory/important back then. I remember getting my first one in like 2001 and 3rd party, I always wanted to spend my limited money on games and not memory cards. So only being $30 isn’t actually too bad today for a niche product that is improved in comparison.
I've been following Gman mods for quite a while, I am absolutely enamored by his N64 portable. Being one of my favorite consoles of all time, seeing the support for the N64 really makes me excited to see how much we can improve the experience in the future, taking the N64 to it's absolute limit with the power of modding! (it would be cool to see the memory pak evolve into an all in one solution for all of your games though)
It would have been nice if this had a switch, for a larger capacity than the OEM pack. Just so you don't have to use something like a utility on an Everdrive to make space.
While I don’t have any suggestions for new tech, I just hope they and other companies keep making crazy new useful products for the retro gaming community. Great job.
All right here is my pitch: a memory card with a built in GameBoy reader (like the Pokemon Stadium hardware) that plugs into the control port itself, instead of the controller. The unit itself would have a controller port on it, so you plug the controller into that. Now you have a huge memory card, the ability to drop in Pokemon in Stadium, and you can still slot in a rumble pack into the controller. The unit might need a switch on it to choose which function to use on a per game basis, but thats my idea! BAM!
I actually have 2 fram controller packs, but shell molding felt like it was 3d printed. These look great and I'm planning on ordering a few since I have a few dead packs on my hands
I would love to see a Nintendo 64 controller with built-in rumble AND memory, for the games that support both. It would be really cool and convenient if, when it comes time to save, you could just flick a little switch in the controller to go from "rumble mode" to "memory pak" mode and back after saving/
@@shinji5217 what's the reason for that, do you think? My guess is that purists only want to play N64 games with original controllers. But I've seen some pretty good third party controllers come out lately. I'm tempted to get one, but the experience won't be the same unless you feel you're going to get carpal tunnel syndrome while playing hahaha
Something I used to see at work all the time is people missing or losing receivers for their Guitar Hero/Rock Band controllers. Would love to see replacements by these guys that are visually distinct from one another to be able to tell the which receiver workers for which instrument on which console!
I know this might be a bit much but: 1. A thumbstick mod for the N64 controller. Basically easier feel with less wear. 2. A GameCube Memory card mod with SD Card support. One that looks like the GameCube Memory card.
I recall a number of "mega memory cards" back in the day that advertised a massive array of storage space, using a button combo of some kind to switch "pages" (since increased capacity wasn't actually supported by any of the games that used cards back then). I'd love to see a version of this device that added that functionality so that it really could be the last one I ever needed. (As an aside, those mega memory devices were often finicky and faulty and I ditched the only one I ever bought when it lost all my saved data.)
The only thing that stopped me from getting a flashcard was the realization that some games still need a memory pack, as soon as I saw this video I immediately bought a forever pack, now I can finally go back to playing games on original hardware!
This is definitely a 3rd party Controller Pak I may need for my shoebox-modded Nintendo 64 arcade sticks, since my current Controller Paks can't hold my RakugaKids saves for very long. Once I get at least one of them I won't have to worry about restoring a Controller Pak image from an Everdrive 64 X7's microSD card. Before I found out about this product I relied on the Everdrive 64 X7 and its backup and restore Controller Pak features. I had to do this to preserve my N64 game saves, especially the Travel Data and Post Office Data for Animal Crossing.
I would like to see 4LayerTech, make nee expansion packs for the Nintendo 64. The originals and third party options are becoming harder to come by depending on your area. And I would love to see them make expansion packs in different colours.
I clicked this to make sure somebody didn't take Gman's idea. I bought one of these super early from him, so I'm glad it's just a more refined version of the product instead of someone else trying to clone his work. The one I have is FRAM and came in a 3d printed case.
If I were to request N64-related products, I'd request the following: * AC/DC adapter with a detachable AC cord * A Nintendo 64-to-Sega Saturn controller adapter, complete with a +/O toggle switch for Standard and Multi-Controller (3D Control Pad) modes * A mod-friendly modern arcade stick for N64 with Sanwa Denshi parts, Controller Pak slot (especially for RakugaKids, which needs a Controller Pak to save time-released options), remappable buttons and a dipswitch for +Control Pad / 3D Stick toggle for the lever * A VRU with AV ports built in and support for iOS headsets; connect the N64 composite video cables to this adapter and connect general AV cables from the adapter to the TV so the VRU can output N64 audio on both the iOS headset and the TV; iOS microphone is usable in gameplay * A re-production bio sensor for the N64 controller accessory slot (designed for Seta's Tetris 64) * A Sega Saturn-style N64 controller with no 3D stick, but with built-in Controller Pak memory bank and Select/Start style Z and Start buttons (a budget-based solution if you only want to play games that relied on the +Control Pad) * An NES controller for N64, with Select mapped to Z (this is only useful for the Neon64 emulator and Animal Crossing's hidden mini-games)
Broooooooo! I was looking for something like this last night. I got like 4 "performance" memory cards and they all are basically dead. Can't repair them or nothing! So many n64 games left unfinished because of the memory cards having these issues even way back in the hay day. I just wanna progress through iggy's wreckin' balls man!! Oh, and we the people need SOME sort digital solution for the PS2. Its like one of the last untapped wells of digital solution gaming we've yet to revel in. So glad you put this video up Tito. Puro pinche big ups bro!!
As a exact replica of n64 controller memory Pak is concerned, this does it 100% but lets be honest it could be improved upon by the use of sd cards for storage, while retaining comparability. This would then become the last n64 controller memory pak to be needed by the retro N64 community. If they wanted to go one better why not create a wireless n64 controller while keeping the original build & aesthetics. This would be a good challenge for the 8bitdo company to respond to such a product.
Back in the day I had a third-party memory card with a switch on it that made it behave like four separate memory cards with increased Memory capacity. Something like that or a wireless memory card solution adapter would be amazing.
I'd like to see a Dreamcast VMU with an updated screen, like OLED or something way out there like active E-Ink. I've also always wanted wireless GameCube controller mod or a Pro style GameCube controller with the GameCube button lay-out.
4 Layer has shown here how well they can handle injection molding. The one thing that I wish I could just buy from someone and I cannot get them anywhere, is a New 3DS and New 3DS XL shell/housing. There is a huge market for this because to my knowledge and after a lot of Internet digging nobody makes these, even though we can already get replacement shells for nintendo DS, and gameboy. I would be more than happy to pay a premium price for a quality shell versus trying to buy a used 3DS to get a decent used shell from it as a replacement
Great video! It truly is amazing that there are members of the community that put in so much effort for retro consoles. This also includes people like you! Thank you again for all the effort you put into this content!
To be honest, seeing how they handled the memory pak for the N64, I would love to see them tackle N64 controllers, one which feel like an original but removing the issues the originals had (especially the wear down of the analog stick).
As for mods that I think would be great for n64, I think having a memory pak that has a USB port to dump saves to a PC would be great. The main issue I see with save paks is you can't back them up easily and I think theres a niche for this.
Agreed, at least an easy way in 2021. There were such devices in the 90s, I had them, the DexDrive for N64 and Ps1. Issue is... they are now ancient devices whose software was designed for Windows 98 and run off a serial port, can't really use them on a modern PC. Wish this thing just wrote to a MicroSD card or something.
It is technically possible to mod the original rumble pak to be batteryless, but the amount of power drawn from the controller port instead increases so much that I believe malfunctions occur with 3-4 controllers plugged in at the same time. A low power/high efficiency rumble pak would be great
I remember that one time when Shank called out Linus Tech Tips 4 years ago or somewhere around there. Now we are at 2024 Gman Modz, Shank, and the other person is working together.
I would like to see 4LayerTech make higher capacity memory cards or bank switching if possible. Also, backlit Dreamcast VMUs. USB-C ports to backup data to PCs would be cool too. Thanks for another cool video, Tito.
The 4LT PCBs for wii portable are absolutely incredible, and their GC+2 is an absolute game changer for modding. I'd like to see something like the GC+2 but for other consoles (Playstation, xbox, switch maybe?)
I’m honestly dying to see a Nintendo 64 cartridge that is easy to disassemble with a collection of CIC chips (or a single CIC chip that acts as one) and a seatable tray for a EPROM which can have whatever game flashed to it. Basically a DIY reproduction cart.
Like someone else commented, a combination between memory pack, rumble pack and transfer pack would be neat and save a lot of space for those who want to buy new ones with modern technology/better quality.
If you can make 3 suggestions to them. 1) a new expansion pack for the N64. 2) Their version of a Wideboy 64, and 3) A Sega cartridge that you can insert a Game Gear cartridge into.
I'd love to see a hybrid Memory+Rumble pack make use of the high intensity vibration module in the Joy Con (both due to availability of the pat and because of it's strong vibration capacity) to create a pack that adds rumble, but isn't really any larger than the standard memory pack. If it is necessary to store power to create the high intensity rumble, a large capacitor could be on board that charges through a resistor, so as to not overwhelm the controller port's max current supplying capacity, and that capacitor could provide power for peaks of rumble activity. Furthermore, it'd also be nice if a larger capacity MRAM chip or flash memory could be used, with a small 7-segment display and some buttons on the bottom, to allow you to select "pages" of memory, so that a single pack could have 10 pages (0-9), 16 pages (0-9,A-F), or with a 14 segment display, even more pages of storage (any letter A-Z or number 0-9, up to 36 pages). If the bottom of the pack had three buttons, one button could toggle rumble or memory mode, and the other two could scroll up and down through pages of memory. This would allow one pack to be both a rumble pack and simulate multiple memory packs!
I would also appreciate a hybrid save/rumble pak since I hate having to choose between the two. But since that's a pretty common suggestion, another one is: A PCB rework of an n64 cartridge board that could be used to flash single roms like they have made for Gameboy Games. It would be nice to dump the cartridges I own, then to make backup games that run more efficiently than a full Krikkz. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Everdrive, but there's something to be said for putting in a cartridge that you know, this is my Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Or for really good romhacks/homebrew.
bluetooth adapter for original n64 controllers. like a little plug you connect to your controller maybe a little box for something to hide the wires, and a little kinda wave bird thing that plugs into the system.
I think what the N64 needs is a new, highly compatible Expansion Pak. I know 4MB RAMBUS chips basically don't exist anymore, so it isn't going to be easy, but it would be so useful.
I'd love to see a forever pack that could also dump saves from the cartridge. Maybe it could have a physical switch to change from regular memory card to backup tool?
I'd say one con is that you can't back up saves from games that stored the data on the cartridge. If they could find a way to effortless do that, I'd be happy. (Would love to backup my Goldeneye and Perfect Dark saves with all the cheats 😁) That said, I love that there is a community out there keeping these retro consoles going strong!
The Foreverpak needs to be sold on Amazon! I got gift credit, but want to get this kind of memory card. The team behind the Foreverpak 64 also need to make one that stores way more data than the default N64 memory cards. Seriously, it would be more than worth the money spent!
I think I'm not entirely sure what I would want them to make. I'm excited to just see what they can come up with in general! I find the surprise to be the fun part! But if I had to choose I think an affordable way to make different consoles easily and affordably have wireless controller support would be a great choice!
Considering 4layertech can do this kind of quality injection moulding, I'd like to see them take on a slimmer version of the 'Thicc Boi SP' with all the added functionality lol. Or even just an SD Card mod for the PSOne console (because practically all Playstation 1 mods are for the PSX model).
I guess they can do this molding because the controller pak shell already exists for cheap chinese clones. So this probably comes the same supplier, with different colors.
Looks awesome! I might grab one instead of replacing the batteries in my old ones. I’d love to see them blend a memory card with a rumble pack for the best of both worlds.
Hmm maybe a N64 pak with wifi or Bluetooth to transfer the saved back and forth. I've been fallowing 4 layer since they started and I purchased a few and have them all out as gifts for my friend. Your right the finish is amazing
Would love to see a really high quality modern style joystick replacement for N64 controllers. Some time ago, another modder made some custom PCB's and code for the current GC-style replacement joysticks which greatly increased their accuracy and feel.
Like others have mentioned, I'd love to see a modern way to manage and backup memory cards on your computer. Like a modern version of the old N64 DexDrive or Gamecube's USB memory card unit. (only without the proprietary software)
I'd love to see 4 Layer Tech make a high capacity Gamecube memory card. I know some third-party ones exist but I'd be much more confident my saves were safes with something made by them.
Hey everyone! It has come to my attention that my statements regarding FRAM and its compatibility with save files was incorrect. Both FRAM and MRAM are good and highly compatible, however are different technologies. I would like to apologize for any confusion. Thank you and have a wonderful day!
@@Okanekaseku The video shows they have 256kb memory from what I can tell. I can remember how big the saves are for N64 games though.
@@Okanekaseku it says 256kb right on the product, on the pictures on the store page. Sorry about that we will make it more clear.
@@YoureUsingWordsIncorrectly FRAM was used for the savefiles in sonic 3 carts on the genesis and have been known to fail due to the limited lifespan by now as a practical example on why MRAM is very likely the better choice.
It's been 25 years since the N64 came out and they *still* haven't figured out how to increase the memory capacity of these things? Back in 1998 I had a 3rd party Controller Pak that had 4x the capacity. it had a switch to toggle between four different memory banks. Not the best workaround but it was still better than this Forever Pak crap. Thanks for wasting my time with this clickbait. Let me know when someone figures out how to make a 1GB Pak (I'd take even 16MB at this point; *anything's* better than a paltry 256KB).
@@Psythik please do a little bit of research before making claims on something you don't understand. There is a reason that it is the size that it is and that's because the Nintendo 64 wouldn't be able to read anything higher.
A new drop in thumbstick that felt like the original but didn’t wear as easily would be my first and most wanted mod.
Already a thing! They're very expensive but you'll never need to replace the thumbstick ever again! I'd like to see a MachoNacho review of the SteelSticks64 sticks!
@@husky3g You cant even get on a waiting list for the past 2 years to get a steel stick.
Just replace the gears and bowl and add some silicone oil. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
@@h8GW the replacement bowls are not all made well. I would start with cleaning and lube first. Test it out. If that doesn't make it play better, then change the gears, and make sure you have everything set right once or twice, if that doesn't make it play better then do the bowl last. You'll find in some cases the replacement bowls making it worse than the original bowl.
Look for ones with Hall effect sensors. It uses magnets to determine the position of the stick so there's nothing to wear.
2nd gen rumble with built in memory pak, best of both worlds in one unit.
That's what I'd like to see.
@@blackishjustin back in the day I remember some 3rd party companies making these all in one rumble and mempak units, I think it had a switch to toggle the unit to be in rumble or memory pak mode since the N64 only recognise one device at a time.
I also had a 3rd party memory pak it has a button to switch between banks, I think it had 4 different banks, meaning it was 4 memory pak in one.
Im sure if I google I will find more info :)
That! That is what we need!
I was going to say the same thing!
@@TN_AU i need this memory card 4 in 1 pack and rumble/memory pack
It would be great if it had an SD card slot instead and it would automatically create a "different" card for each game like the memcard pro that automatically gets selected depending on the game you're playing.
I don't think that's possible because of how the pak works on the N64, games are basically manually writing and reading to it with their own custom management code so none of them are talking to the memory card in a way that it can intercept which game is talking to it and redirect the read/writes.
@@FyreWulff The memcard pro interfaces with the xstation to do this, so maybe it could be done with the everdrive 64?
@@li2rg It wouldn't be possible with just an Everdrive, because the controller bus is isolated from the cartridge. It could be possible in theory but it sounds like an extreme engineering challenge (or nightmare). It of course needs a hard mod like xstation that can access that stuff (N64Digital might be viable). But the Memcard Pro was probably easier to accomplish due to the dedicated memory card bus.
With an Everdrive you can switch between mpk files on the SD card, it's not automatic but you at least have an option other than 'delete stuff' when you run out of space. You just gotta keep track of which file has which save.
@@li2rg actually some everdrive copys have the ability to write a save to the micro sd card, so it does work, but you still need a mem pak to save i belive.
@zxbryc
The everdrive could definitely do this, just like the xstation can.
All it needs to due is send a series of memory card commands that an ESP chip on the memory card listens for, that then encodes the name of the game being loaded in a series of memory card read/write commands that are interpreted by the ESP chip.
It’s not unlike what the xstation and memcard pro already do.
Glad to see N64 getting so much love these days. The everdrive, the new controllers. It's a good time for the system.
Would love to see rumble + MRAM in a single unit
With a much larger capacity too! I'm tired of these crappy 256 KB memory cards that get completely filled up after saving a *single* track's ghost data in Mario Kart 64. Somebody please let me know when they invent a 256 *MB* Pak. Or just throw an SD card slot in there and let the people pick their own memory capacity.
@@Psythik How about instead of complaining, why don't you create one yourself?
@@Psythik dude, the N64 CANNOT read memory cards past 256KB. you are literally crying with ignorance for nothing.
N64 games can’t see beyond 256kb.
This is why nobody has done it, they’ve only done bank switching where pressing the button presents a new memory card and you have to cycle it. It’s the same way that PS1 and Dreamcast memory cards worked too. They are inflexible on size and games couldn’t see if a chip was bigger at all.
But of course there are options like the memcard pro, which roll have buttons to make and switch cards, unless you have an xstation.
But just like there are no “60 block ps1 memory cards” because games can’t see beyond 15 8k blocks.
@@joemamr710 it's a shame that the MemCard Pro doesn't have a N64 counterpart yet.
Honestly if they’re making memory cards without save batteries, I’d love to see them take on the Dreamcast VMU.
There are (or were I guess) regular plain memory cards for the dreamcast, but Idk if they were battery backed.
The VMU saves don't rely on the battery. The battery is just for stand-alone use of the VMU so even with an empty battery the VMU will keep its save data!
the VMU is a device on its own, so it still needs battery to function and use it while it's not connected to the controller.
Yeah as a few others said the Dreamcast already uses technology similar to this. Actually closer to SD cards, that does not depend on the battery.
There have been manual mods like backlit VMUs or AAA vmus for more battery life.
But the portable VMU games aren’t that interesting in today’s world, other than maybe the Sonic adventure chaos, so most people don’t bother putting batteries in, especially with how quickly they die keeping the time.
I'd honestly love to see a Forever Pak with even more storage space if it's possible to achieve in the same form-factor
bank switching would be the fix for that but those chips are rather big so it would stick out like most over bank switching memory cards. the best option imo is to get an everdrive x7 which will allow you to create memory card backups, or you can also pickup a gameshark for the n64 for really cheap.
I'd love to see some sort of kit that would allow someone to essentially convert a wired Gamecube controller into a Wavebird. Honestly my biggest issue with getting back into playing Gamecube is the lack of affordable decent wireless controllers (though I've already pre-ordered a couple of those new Retro Fighters ones in hopes that they'll prove to be good replacements).
Same. My issue with the Wavebird is that it doesn't have Rumble. And I would assume that small enough wireless modules exist now to be able to fit inside a standard GameCube controller shell along with a Li-ion battery.
@@Home_Rowed Even if they weren't quite small enough, I'm not against a replacement shell built specifically to accommodate both a rumble module and a batter pack as long as it doesn't look out of place with the original parts.
Oof, RIP you, chief. Those RetroFighters controllers are kinda crap.
8bitdo company currently make a drop in replacement boards for retro device gamepads, simply swap the boards, you use your originsl shell, buttons and membrane and you have instant bluetooth, currently there is only SNES, NES and Sega MD/Genesis adaptor to use on the original console, but they are bluetooth so you can use on any device that has BT.
I think 8bitdo can do something similar to N64 and GC.
@@TN_AU the problem with BT is the lag tho
A memory pack with a sd card would be nice to transfer saves
Would be cool if something similar to Memcard pro for PS1 was made, through I would want something like that more for the dreamcast than N64
Nice would like this as well
Thats what I thought this was going to be. I guess I will hold out until one is released.
I really like the concept. However I think the issue would be how smaller capacity the consoles can read.
The closest thing to that you can currently get is the receiver of the hyperkin admiral controller, which allows to transfer saves to an SD card (and back).
By the title of the video I was honestly expecting it to have a 64gb+ capacity or built in usb to backup data to your PC. I know there are devices out there that let you do that, but I bet they could fit that hardware into the card shell nowadays.
N64 won't recognize it if it has more memory than it should.
@@Mari_Izu the old Memory Card Pro got around this issue by using partitions to emulate smaller storage values with a manual switch to swap between 4 internal cards, or "pages". I think this method could be reworked for SD cards, perhaps by having an active partition of a compatible size to read/write save data, and an SD card managing archived data to be swapped in and out of the active partition. For SD cards, it might need a handshake device to plug the pak into something that doesn't care about capacity as much, since you'd need a non-console way to swap the save files in and out of the pak, but at that point you might just skip the SD card and use the handshake device to connect directly to your PC for swapping saves.
$30 isn't a premium price for something that was injection molded and mass produced by 3 community members. I bought two in support of them and reccomended the product to my entire discord of retro gamers.
My problem is that price gets you a single memory card's worth of storage, with no additional features. I had several devices back when the N64 was still current there were 4 memorycards in one and a rumble pack for $30 or less each. I get that they would have to charge more for being an independent small group, but surely they could have given us more than 256kbits of storage in 2021 for $30 with no additional features. Others have created SD adapters that let you create not only as many virtual memorycards as the SD card can hold, but even let you back them up to PC that way.
I agree - I grabbed one of every color
I was thinking the same. $30 isnt a bad price for this.
The reason these can’t be bigger with bank switching, even though I would like that, is because these use MVRAM which are much more expensive and physically larger. A 4x mvram chip would make this much more expensive and would have a hard time fitting.
Those cards that did this in the past used the much cheaper SRAM, but the main benefit of this is no battery.
More me personally, I use my everdrive to back them up to SD card and still use an old SRAM card with a new battery and have little interest in one of these or a larger memory card.
I love the idea of “same as the original, but…” so maybe something like a backwards engineered wavebird receiver that is compatible with all wavebirds and color options would really help the gamecube wireless controller market. I personally have a wavebird with no receiver but I have no clue which band it works on, or which band the inflated receivers on eBay are, and a 50/50 is just not worth it when there’s 50-60 dollars on the line
Bro YES!!!
@@kr4t0sg.28 if any company can pull it off, it’s these guys. And I’m sure it would be just as good/better than the legendary original.
Hell yea a receiver for original wavebird best idea u know how many wavebird I found no receiver
@@drcarrot415 yup. And i refuse to buy a $50 dollar receiver on ebay
This isn't what you're asking, but retro fighters are making a new wireless GameCube controller.
I would like to see 2 things one day.
1) A memory with this technology for the dreamcast vmu.
2) A bluetooth dongle preferably not intrusive for the n64. With the release of the new N64 controller for Nintendo Switch online games, it would be the closest to having really wireless n64 controllers on orginal hardware.
The VMU already uses similar technology essentially. The batteries were only needed for the portable games.
The actual saves do not depend on the battery and a VMU works perfectly for saving with no batteries.
I'd love to see a multi-system memory card reader/writer that you could slot any common memory card into and use it to pack up you save files to a computer.
So cool! I would love to see a 4 layer Rumble pak with selectable rumble strengths and/or memory built in! Imagine being able to crank up the rumble to really feel it?!
thats what she said
I’d love for them to release proper GameCube joycons, or at least make a kit that makes it possible for an average person to build it. I ain’t talking about the cheap ones that already exist, I’m talking about GameCube joycons with full functionality.
I would buy that instantly. I want them to look like the Shank mod gamecube joycons.
Would love to see another memory card that has switchable "banks" so that one memory card can be used for all your saves. Good luck everyone!!
Agreed, this or just saves to a microsd card so it's also easy to backup your saves to PC.
Ayy, let's see some ps1/2 cards since we're doing memory cards!
This is something sorely needed within the N64 community and I'm excited to finally see it coming. Having lost games more times than I care to remember in the past.
The big thing for me right now remains the HDMI mods for the N64 and whilst others are doing them, theyre NEVER available for sale and always sold out, Id love to see someone bring something to market that was more easilly accesible.
Dude that’s rad! I just recently got back into the N64, my wife and I have a 20+ year love affair with Beetle Adventure Racing. I just put new analog sticks in our controllers but our old 3rd party memory pak is getting a bit dodgy so I think I’ll be looking into this. Thanks man!!
Also I’d like to see what they could do with analog stick alternatives
This is pretty awesome. I think the best mods for 4LAYER to make would be either RGB or HDMI (or both) solutions for N64 (and maybe SNES or GC) that aren't hard to find or ridiculously expensive. The existing solutions are both hard to get your hands on due to low supply and high demand, and expensive because of the supply & demand, so the more players in the market making supply, the better it gets for everyone.
I'd love to see their take on the "Ultra Pak" with 8x the storage, and built-in rumble. I have a working one, and it is amazing, but I'd hate for a dead battery to ruin my data
I just tested my old memory pack and it came up with the message "memory pak unrecoverable". I'm so happy there is a solution. I did not know there was a battery inside my pak until recently.
would love to see this made to be more like the memcard pro, with an sd card slot and wireless save managment. pretty sure they can't make the combination rumble/memorycard without a switch because of the pin configuration on the n64 controller pak port
It's stuff like this that keeps the N64 alive! Love the N64, my favorite console of all time so far haha. Honestly for the price it's very reasonable!
i feel like calling it forever is like calling a boat unsinkable hahaha
6:33 Snowboard Kids 2 has Game Pak saves, not Controller Pak saves. You might be thinking of the original Snowboard Kids, which took a 121-page note on the Controller Pak.
To check if a Nintendo 64 game has Controller Pak support, simply hold the Start button as the game boots for a Controller Pak management menu. Assuming Snowboard Kids 2 doesn't have Controller Pak support (due to Game Pak saves taking its place), the first Snowboard Kids should have a Controller Pak menu.
I'd like to see a larger memory pak with a usb port for backing up saves
I personally wanna see more handheld home console conversion kits. It blew my mind seeing the Wii turned into a portable GameCube all those years ago and has only become more streamlined. It’s so interesting and unique and with a few N64 portable consoles made on UA-cam I could see it becoming more of the focus in the retro game community
Would love to see a memory expansion card with a toggle to disable it since some games run worse with it
That isn't a bad idea. It would be great just have a good 3rd party source for Expansion Paks, but one with a switch that could make it run as a Jumper Pak would be cool.
Care to mention what games "slow down" because a controller pak is installed? Never heard of this
@@scikoolaid Turok 2 is a well known example. The expansion pack causes the game to use higher resolution textures, which ultimately drops the frame rate.
There was also Space Station Silicon Valley, Versions 1.0 of the US version of the game would crash frequently if an Expansion Pak was inserted. Version 1.1 supposedly fixed this bug but it's not like you can tell which version a cart is, especially before buying it. The game was very buggy in general though, it's not possible to 100% complete it in any version also due to bugs that don't let you get some of the collectables.
An N64 rumble pak that featured the more modern haptic rumble instead of the heavy bulky motor would be a nice mod.
I'd love a device that lets you transfer all game files to a Pc or new cartridge when changing batteries.
I would love to see a Rumble Pak / Memory Pak hybrid, but I'm not sure if it's technically possible!
got confused and thought this was rumble with memory pak, so now I’d kind of like to see that 😁
Why? It was never mentioned?
@@erik3371 …hence the confusion? just updated UA-cam app, and the first comment that appears looks like a short vid description?
Would be great to see adapters that plugs your favourite controllers in ps2, GameCube, dreamcast ect to the n64. Just some sort of plug and play style
These are great, $30 is a little steep. Would love to see Rumble Pak improvements, or a hybrid of rumble and save like some of those aftermarket ones back in the day.
Lol $30 steep? You're joking right?
Congrats! You won the giveaway! Please reach out to me through email (can be found in my account info), or through Twitter or Instagram. Congrats again!
@@MachoNachoProductions Oh wow! Yay! I never win anything. I'll send an email today
I know it’s been a while and you did win one, but something to keep in mind, the OEM memory paks were originally released at $20 back in 1996, and were made in much greater numbers and much more mandatory/important back then. I remember getting my first one in like 2001 and 3rd party, I always wanted to spend my limited money on games and not memory cards.
So only being $30 isn’t actually too bad today for a niche product that is improved in comparison.
I've been following Gman mods for quite a while, I am absolutely enamored by his N64 portable. Being one of my favorite consoles of all time, seeing the support for the N64 really makes me excited to see how much we can improve the experience in the future, taking the N64 to it's absolute limit with the power of modding! (it would be cool to see the memory pak evolve into an all in one solution for all of your games though)
It would have been nice if this had a switch, for a larger capacity than the OEM pack. Just so you don't have to use something like a utility on an Everdrive to make space.
While I don’t have any suggestions for new tech, I just hope they and other companies keep making crazy new useful products for the retro gaming community. Great job.
Let’s step it up a notch: how about a memory-rumble-transfer pack combo!? Would be perfect for Pokémon Stadium!
All right here is my pitch: a memory card with a built in GameBoy reader (like the Pokemon Stadium hardware) that plugs into the control port itself, instead of the controller. The unit itself would have a controller port on it, so you plug the controller into that. Now you have a huge memory card, the ability to drop in Pokemon in Stadium, and you can still slot in a rumble pack into the controller. The unit might need a switch on it to choose which function to use on a per game basis, but thats my idea! BAM!
I actually have 2 fram controller packs, but shell molding felt like it was 3d printed. These look great and I'm planning on ordering a few since I have a few dead packs on my hands
I would love to see a Nintendo 64 controller with built-in rumble AND memory, for the games that support both. It would be really cool and convenient if, when it comes time to save, you could just flick a little switch in the controller to go from "rumble mode" to "memory pak" mode and back after saving/
Not really hard to modify, just very hard to sell, that's why you don't see those going around too much at all
@@shinji5217 what's the reason for that, do you think? My guess is that purists only want to play N64 games with original controllers. But I've seen some pretty good third party controllers come out lately. I'm tempted to get one, but the experience won't be the same unless you feel you're going to get carpal tunnel syndrome while playing hahaha
It’s already been said but wow, a combo mem pak/rumble (perhaps with more modern rumble motor) would be FANTASTIC
Something I used to see at work all the time is people missing or losing receivers for their Guitar Hero/Rock Band controllers. Would love to see replacements by these guys that are visually distinct from one another to be able to tell the which receiver workers for which instrument on which console!
I know this might be a bit much but:
1. A thumbstick mod for the N64 controller. Basically easier feel with less wear.
2. A GameCube Memory card mod with SD Card support. One that looks like the GameCube Memory card.
I recall a number of "mega memory cards" back in the day that advertised a massive array of storage space, using a button combo of some kind to switch "pages" (since increased capacity wasn't actually supported by any of the games that used cards back then). I'd love to see a version of this device that added that functionality so that it really could be the last one I ever needed. (As an aside, those mega memory devices were often finicky and faulty and I ditched the only one I ever bought when it lost all my saved data.)
for mods, i think taking a look at current mods and making them more streamline / cheaper / better. Complicated mods like N64 HDMI mods
Since the PCB fits in an OEM shell it'd be cool if we could buy just the PCB to cut costs a bit!
g-man was making drop in PCB's but went silent on his page a while ago (i suspect to develop this)
The only thing that stopped me from getting a flashcard was the realization that some games still need a memory pack, as soon as I saw this video I immediately bought a forever pack, now I can finally go back to playing games on original hardware!
This is definitely a 3rd party Controller Pak I may need for my shoebox-modded Nintendo 64 arcade sticks, since my current Controller Paks can't hold my RakugaKids saves for very long. Once I get at least one of them I won't have to worry about restoring a Controller Pak image from an Everdrive 64 X7's microSD card.
Before I found out about this product I relied on the Everdrive 64 X7 and its backup and restore Controller Pak features. I had to do this to preserve my N64 game saves, especially the Travel Data and Post Office Data for Animal Crossing.
Shank mods handheld virtualboy blew my mind. What he accomplished was truly impressive.
I would like to see 4LayerTech, make nee expansion packs for the Nintendo 64. The originals and third party options are becoming harder to come by depending on your area. And I would love to see them make expansion packs in different colours.
Maybe a switchable hybrid between a jumper Pak and a expansion Pak. It'll probably look like a muscle car's supercharger.
I clicked this to make sure somebody didn't take Gman's idea. I bought one of these super early from him, so I'm glad it's just a more refined version of the product instead of someone else trying to clone his work.
The one I have is FRAM and came in a 3d printed case.
If I were to request N64-related products, I'd request the following:
* AC/DC adapter with a detachable AC cord
* A Nintendo 64-to-Sega Saturn controller adapter, complete with a +/O toggle switch for Standard and Multi-Controller (3D Control Pad) modes
* A mod-friendly modern arcade stick for N64 with Sanwa Denshi parts, Controller Pak slot (especially for RakugaKids, which needs a Controller Pak to save time-released options), remappable buttons and a dipswitch for +Control Pad / 3D Stick toggle for the lever
* A VRU with AV ports built in and support for iOS headsets; connect the N64 composite video cables to this adapter and connect general AV cables from the adapter to the TV so the VRU can output N64 audio on both the iOS headset and the TV; iOS microphone is usable in gameplay
* A re-production bio sensor for the N64 controller accessory slot (designed for Seta's Tetris 64)
* A Sega Saturn-style N64 controller with no 3D stick, but with built-in Controller Pak memory bank and Select/Start style Z and Start buttons (a budget-based solution if you only want to play games that relied on the +Control Pad)
* An NES controller for N64, with Select mapped to Z (this is only useful for the Neon64 emulator and Animal Crossing's hidden mini-games)
Broooooooo! I was looking for something like this last night. I got like 4 "performance" memory cards and they all are basically dead. Can't repair them or nothing! So many n64 games left unfinished because of the memory cards having these issues even way back in the hay day. I just wanna progress through iggy's wreckin' balls man!! Oh, and we the people need SOME sort digital solution for the PS2. Its like one of the last untapped wells of digital solution gaming we've yet to revel in. So glad you put this video up Tito. Puro pinche big ups bro!!
I love learning about niche Retro products like this. As for moding ideas. Do an Evercade handheld screen and battery mod.
As a exact replica of n64 controller memory Pak is concerned, this does it 100% but lets be honest it could be improved upon by the use of sd cards for storage, while retaining comparability.
This would then become the last n64 controller memory pak to be needed by the retro N64 community.
If they wanted to go one better why not create a wireless n64 controller while keeping the original build & aesthetics.
This would be a good challenge for the 8bitdo company to respond to such a product.
Back in the day I had a third-party memory card with a switch on it that made it behave like four separate memory cards with increased Memory capacity. Something like that or a wireless memory card solution adapter would be amazing.
I'd like to see a Dreamcast VMU with an updated screen, like OLED or something way out there like active E-Ink. I've also always wanted wireless GameCube controller mod or a Pro style GameCube controller with the GameCube button lay-out.
4 Layer has shown here how well they can handle injection molding. The one thing that I wish I could just buy from someone and I cannot get them anywhere, is a New 3DS and New 3DS XL shell/housing. There is a huge market for this because to my knowledge and after a lot of Internet digging nobody makes these, even though we can already get replacement shells for nintendo DS, and gameboy. I would be more than happy to pay a premium price for a quality shell versus trying to buy a used 3DS to get a decent used shell from it as a replacement
Great video!
It truly is amazing that there are members of the community that put in so much effort for retro consoles. This also includes people like you! Thank you again for all the effort you put into this content!
Thank you David! Really appreciate it 🙏😁
Would love a version of this with Micro SD card support just like the memcard pro for PS1. Still love this, big upgrade over the originals
I’d love to see them release a translucent orange colored memory card!
Id love to see a n64 controller bluetooth receiver compatible with the nintendo switch online n64 controller.
A modern vmu with lighted lcd screen would be a gamechanger. Obviously way more memory for files too.
To be honest, seeing how they handled the memory pak for the N64, I would love to see them tackle N64 controllers, one which feel like an original but removing the issues the originals had (especially the wear down of the analog stick).
As for mods that I think would be great for n64, I think having a memory pak that has a USB port to dump saves to a PC would be great. The main issue I see with save paks is you can't back them up easily and I think theres a niche for this.
Would be amazing to have an easy and inexpensive way to backup N64 cartridge saves to pc.
Agreed, at least an easy way in 2021. There were such devices in the 90s, I had them, the DexDrive for N64 and Ps1. Issue is... they are now ancient devices whose software was designed for Windows 98 and run off a serial port, can't really use them on a modern PC. Wish this thing just wrote to a MicroSD card or something.
I must say, a new rumble pack would be sick. Maybe they could do one that doesn’t require batteries.
Or at least USB rechargeable. 😁👍
It is technically possible to mod the original rumble pak to be batteryless, but the amount of power drawn from the controller port instead increases so much that I believe malfunctions occur with 3-4 controllers plugged in at the same time. A low power/high efficiency rumble pak would be great
@@Karyonic if that’s not possible then they would need to make a new power supply I’m thinking?
I remember that one time when Shank called out Linus Tech Tips 4 years ago or somewhere around there. Now we are at 2024 Gman Modz, Shank, and the other person is working together.
I would like to see 4LayerTech make higher capacity memory cards or bank switching if possible. Also, backlit Dreamcast VMUs. USB-C ports to backup data to PCs would be cool too. Thanks for another cool video, Tito.
1st cartridge based system since the N64
Gameboy Series (3ds): Are we a joke to you? We ARE the Switch!
I think he said console. Which would separate handhelds from consoles under the "game systems" umbrella.
The 4LT PCBs for wii portable are absolutely incredible, and their GC+2 is an absolute game changer for modding. I'd like to see something like the GC+2 but for other consoles (Playstation, xbox, switch maybe?)
I’m honestly dying to see a Nintendo 64 cartridge that is easy to disassemble with a collection of CIC chips (or a single CIC chip that acts as one) and a seatable tray for a EPROM which can have whatever game flashed to it. Basically a DIY reproduction cart.
Like someone else commented, a combination between memory pack, rumble pack and transfer pack would be neat and save a lot of space for those who want to buy new ones with modern technology/better quality.
If you can make 3 suggestions to them. 1) a new expansion pack for the N64. 2) Their version of a Wideboy 64, and 3) A Sega cartridge that you can insert a Game Gear cartridge into.
I'd love to see a hybrid Memory+Rumble pack make use of the high intensity vibration module in the Joy Con (both due to availability of the pat and because of it's strong vibration capacity) to create a pack that adds rumble, but isn't really any larger than the standard memory pack. If it is necessary to store power to create the high intensity rumble, a large capacitor could be on board that charges through a resistor, so as to not overwhelm the controller port's max current supplying capacity, and that capacitor could provide power for peaks of rumble activity. Furthermore, it'd also be nice if a larger capacity MRAM chip or flash memory could be used, with a small 7-segment display and some buttons on the bottom, to allow you to select "pages" of memory, so that a single pack could have 10 pages (0-9), 16 pages (0-9,A-F), or with a 14 segment display, even more pages of storage (any letter A-Z or number 0-9, up to 36 pages). If the bottom of the pack had three buttons, one button could toggle rumble or memory mode, and the other two could scroll up and down through pages of memory. This would allow one pack to be both a rumble pack and simulate multiple memory packs!
I would also appreciate a hybrid save/rumble pak since I hate having to choose between the two. But since that's a pretty common suggestion, another one is:
A PCB rework of an n64 cartridge board that could be used to flash single roms like they have made for Gameboy Games. It would be nice to dump the cartridges I own, then to make backup games that run more efficiently than a full Krikkz. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Everdrive, but there's something to be said for putting in a cartridge that you know, this is my Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Or for really good romhacks/homebrew.
Id love to see a rumble pak + forever pak kinda mod!
Loving that modders keep coming together to solve problems for the rest of us.
bluetooth adapter for original n64 controllers. like a little plug you connect to your controller maybe a little box for something to hide the wires, and a little kinda wave bird thing that plugs into the system.
I think what the N64 needs is a new, highly compatible Expansion Pak. I know 4MB RAMBUS chips basically don't exist anymore, so it isn't going to be easy, but it would be so useful.
I'd love to see a forever pack that could also dump saves from the cartridge. Maybe it could have a physical switch to change from regular memory card to backup tool?
I'd say one con is that you can't back up saves from games that stored the data on the cartridge. If they could find a way to effortless do that, I'd be happy. (Would love to backup my Goldeneye and Perfect Dark saves with all the cheats 😁)
That said, I love that there is a community out there keeping these retro consoles going strong!
A Memory Card with MicroSD support would be the ultimate Card, unlimited space and easy backup :D
I'm not sure how practical it is, but I'd love some new, modern Transfer Paks. I still play Stadium 1 and 2 regularly!
I'd love to see one that uses a sd card so that space will never be an issue and you can back up saves. I'd also love it if it had rumble as well.
I want to see them make some sort of backup device for n64 carts and their saves
The Foreverpak needs to be sold on Amazon! I got gift credit, but want to get this kind of memory card.
The team behind the Foreverpak 64 also need to make one that stores way more data than the default N64 memory cards. Seriously, it would be more than worth the money spent!
I think I'm not entirely sure what I would want them to make. I'm excited to just see what they can come up with in general! I find the surprise to be the fun part! But if I had to choose I think an affordable way to make different consoles easily and affordably have wireless controller support would be a great choice!
Considering 4layertech can do this kind of quality injection moulding, I'd like to see them take on a slimmer version of the 'Thicc Boi SP' with all the added functionality lol. Or even just an SD Card mod for the PSOne console (because practically all Playstation 1 mods are for the PSX model).
That would be great!
I guess they can do this molding because the controller pak shell already exists for cheap chinese clones. So this probably comes the same supplier, with different colors.
Looks awesome! I might grab one instead of replacing the batteries in my old ones. I’d love to see them blend a memory card with a rumble pack for the best of both worlds.
Hmm maybe a N64 pak with wifi or Bluetooth to transfer the saved back and forth. I've been fallowing 4 layer since they started and I purchased a few and have them all out as gifts for my friend. Your right the finish is amazing
Would love to see a really high quality modern style joystick replacement for N64 controllers. Some time ago, another modder made some custom PCB's and code for the current GC-style replacement joysticks which greatly increased their accuracy and feel.
Like others have mentioned, I'd love to see a modern way to manage and backup memory cards on your computer. Like a modern version of the old N64 DexDrive or Gamecube's USB memory card unit. (only without the proprietary software)
SD card compatibility would be awesome!
I'd love to see 4 Layer Tech make a high capacity Gamecube memory card. I know some third-party ones exist but I'd be much more confident my saves were safes with something made by them.
A battery-powered wireless receiver and transmitter that plugs into the end of the n64 controller or goes inside of the controller
Honestly a modern rumble pack would be nice to see