The Doctor V64: a simple "copy device" or "multimedia device" ?
Anyone who knows the features and functions of the device knows that the Doctor V64 is much more than a copier station. It is a device that adds lots of great features to the Nintendo 64 and brought the pirate-scene to life. The Doctor V64 has a built-in CD-drive and a parallel port interface and is connected to the 64DD port of the Nintendo 64 via the connection adapter. The emulation adapter and an original module must be inserted into the Nintendo 64 module slot in order to be able to play ROMs.
The device was manufactured by Bung Enterprises Ltd, which was well known in the scene in the past due to devices like the Multi-Game Doctor 2 (MGD2) and the Professor SF7. A Hong Kong company with a lot of experience when it comes to copy stations or so-called ROM emulators. Unfortunately, the company shut down in early 2000 after Nintendo was able to bring legal claims for damages. The claims that Bung caused millions of dollars in damage to Nintendo with their devices are probably false because they were simply unknown to many players and also very expensive.
The first Doctor V64 devices were sold in 1996 at a price of around 500 euros. However, these initial devices could not easily play copies of commercial games. The reason ? Bung didn't want any trouble with Nintendo and so the Doctor V64 was sold as a VCD player and surround system for Nintendo 64 consoles. With a few small hacks, of course, the backups worked! Generally you had to upgrade the device's BIOS with a new BIOS that supported the backup. With some devices, a couple of jumpers had to be moved on the main board or a solder bridge had to be inserted in the connection module. Of course, Nintendo did not sit and watch the whole thing: the diameter of the 64DD slot was increased by a millimeter, so that contact with the Doctor V64 was no longer possible. As a result, some websites published instructions on how to modify the connection adapter so that a Doctor V64 could also be used on the new Nintendo 64 consoles. A new connection adapter was later released by Bung, which is compatible with both the old Nintendo 64 consoles and the new models.
In 1997 over 20,000 Doctor V64 units had already been sold. In 1998 the Doctor V64 was slightly revised: the device got a new motherboard, a 32x CD-ROM drive and a new power supply. The new series can be recognized by the black housing buttons. At the end of the year, a stripped-down version of the Doctor V64 was also released. With the Doctor V64 Junior, Bung wanted to create an inexpensive alternative so that everyone can really afford a copy station. Compared to the Doctor V64, the device had no CD drive, no BIOS and can only be used via remote software from the PC.
For Christmas 1999 came a hard stroke of fate for Bung: Nintendo's lawsuits against the Doctor's Company were finally successful. A whopping seven million dollars in damages and sales bans in the USA, Canada, Mexico and Central and South America. But actually the verdict came much too late, because the interest in the Nintendo 64 had fallen sharply. The successful years were over and everyone who wanted a Doctor V64 had long since bought one. After the verdict, Bung withdrew from the business. But the Bung products weren't completely gone either - for example the Doctor V64jr was exported to the USA under the name E64 for some time. In the middle of 2000, the prices for Bung peripherals fell on the used market. If you were lucky, you could bid for a Doctor V64 for 100 EURO or less. However, since 2001 the value has risen again. If you are looking for Bung peripherals, you have to dig deep into your pockets, as the devices have become very rare in the meantime. Older copying stations in particular, such as the Multi Game Doctor, have become almost unaffordable due to their rarity.
In addition to the pirates, the Doctor V64 was particularly interesting for the demo scene. The first demos for the Nintendo 64 appeared shortly after the device was released. Thanks to the parallel port interface, data could be exchanged between the PC and the Nintendo 64 without any problems. So the Doctor V64 is an ideal development kit, which allegedly even some game companies preferred the official development kit. While the first demos were rather unspectacular graphically, more and more graphically complex scenes were programmed over the years, which even put some Nintendo 64 games in the shade. The then completely new chrome effect was particularly popular. In the heyday of the Nintendo 64, there were even competitions to determine the best coders. In addition to demos, some games and even emulators were developed by the scene. Over the years, Bung integrated very interesting features into the BIOS: for example the emulator function, which makes it possible to pause a running Nintendo 64 program in order to load further data into the memory. As the name suggests, this function was used very often in emulators. So you first load the emu (e.g. VNES) into the memory and then a ROM that you want to play with the emu. The remote control function also made the Doctor V64 very popular, because it enables the doctor's memory to be read in and out while the Nintendo 64 is accessing it. Hackers can thus directly influence the course of a game without having to reload the game each time.
The normal pirate copier will have its problems with the Doctor V64: all ROMs up to a size of 256 Mbit can be started on the Doctor V64, but compared to the CD64 or Z64, the Doctor has no auto-patching features. Most of the games have to be patched. Backing up and restoring internal module games is not as easy with the Doctor V64 as it is with the Z64, for example. Furthermore, some users are completely overwhelmed with many tools for the Doctor V64, as these usually have to be started via the DOS prompt.
The Doctor V64 is equipped with a CD-ROM drive, a parallel port connection and 16 MB RAM (equivalent to 128 Mbit) as standard. The memory can be upgraded to 32 MB. The device is completely independent from the Nintendo 64 - the Nintendo 64 console is only required to play ROMs. There are several series of the Doctor, but only the CD drives, the connection adapter and the BIOS versions differ. You can read the BIOS version at the top right after switching on the device (e.g. V2.03). The hardware version is written on a small silver sticker on the underside of the Doctor V64. Newer devices can also be recognized by the black buttons on the housing - older models are equipped with white buttons. Very old devices also come with a white emulation adapter and a white connection adapter. Warning: these are not compatible with all Nintendo 64 consoles. But if you have a black emulation / connection adapter, you shouldn't have any problems with your Nintendo 64. Thanks to the parallel port connection, the Doctor V64 can also be connected to a PC. With the help of the PC, ROMs and dumps can be copied back and forth between PC and Doctor V64. BIOS upgrades can also be made via this interface. If this is too cumbersome for you, you can also use the CD ROM drive. Depending on the hardware variant, a 4x, 8x or 32x Matsushita IDE drive is available. The 4x can be recognized by the missing headphone socket - the 8x and 32x have this socket. Warning: some Doctor V64 devices were also sold without a CD ROM drive. The Doctor V64 is compatible with IDE drives from Panasonic (Matsushita), Sony, Toshiba, Mitsumi, Hitachi and Liteon. The Doctor V64 can read CD-Rs (not CD-RWs !!) that have been burned in Mode I format (ISO 9660). Alternatively, the Doctor can read Video CDs and CD-DAs. So that the sound comes across better, a 3D spatializer chip for 3D surround sound has also been integrated into the Doctor V64. Incidentally, the device is a multi-standard device, i.e. it doesn't matter whether you have a Japanese or a German Nintendo 64. The biggest disadvantage is the slow 6502 processor (this type of processor was also used in the NES).
Technical data table:
- Processor 6502
- BIOS Flashable
- RAM 16 MB (extended to 32 MB)
- Data carriers CD-R, CD-DA, VCD
- Matsushita CD-ROM drive
- Dimensions 30 cm x 40 cm x 50 cm
Bung Enterprises has supplied the Doctor V64 with tons of peripherals. Some of the accessories mentioned here are already included with the Doctor V64 - but these parts can also be purchased individually. I will soon go into more detail about the other devices in detailed test reports.
Connection adapter
The Connection Adapter connects the Doctor V64 to the 64DD port of the Nintendo 64. There are two versions of this adapter - the new black adapter is suitable for all Nintendo 64 models, while the white version is only compatible with older Nintendo 64 consoles. The adapter is already included with the Doctor V64.
Emulation Adapter
The emulation adapter, which is also included with the Doctor V64, is plugged into the Nintendo 64 module slot. The adapter ensures that the Nintendo 64 gets the data via the 64DD port. An original cartridge must be plugged in because the Doctor V64 can only emulate the ROM of a cartridge.
128 Mbit memory card
The Doctor V64 is delivered with this 128 Mbit memory card as standard. With a second card, the device can be upgraded to 256 Mbit RAM. Newer Doctor V64 models are already equipped with 256 Mbit. 128 Mbit correspond to 16 megabytes, 256 Mbit are equal to 32 megabytes.
DS1
The DS1 is an SRAM emulation adapter that replaces the SRAM in the boot module. The adapter is equipped with 256 KB SRAM and can only be used with games that require an SRAM chip for storage. The DS1 also replaces the emulation adapter.
DX256
The DX256 replaces the EEPROM in the boot module. With the help of the DX256, up to 256 different games can be saved. A memory page is selected using the two controllers. A new memory page must be selected for each game, otherwise the game status would be overwritten. The DX256 can only be used with games that save on a 4 Kbit EEPROM chip (such as Super Mario 64 or F1 World Grand Prix).
At the beginning, the Doctor V64 was just a simple copy station that could also play audio and video CDs. But Bung regularly supplied its loyal customers with new BIOS upgrades and over time the Doctor V64 became a multimedia machine that is much more than just a copier. There are huge improvements between BIOS 1.0 and the latest version. The range of functions, interactivity and compatibility have not only doubled, they have been increased orders of magnitude. The instruction manual contains only a small part of the many functions of the Doctor V64.
BIOS
Here you can see the underside of the motherboard of the Doctor V64. On the left are the two power connections for the CD drive (1) and the power switch (2). Since the Doctor V64's CD drive is an IDE device, the Doctor also has an IDE interface (4). An audio cable (3) must be connected to the CD drive so that you can listen to video and music CDs. The two black slots (5), which look more like IDE interfaces, are intended for the RAMs of the Doctor V64.
Unfortunately, Bung does not use any PC-compatible Simms, but has developed its own type. It is therefore impossible to upgrade the Doctor V64 with commercially available RAMs. A good move for exercise, because that way you can earn a lot more money. For the users, however, a big disadvantage, because the memory cards are expensive and very difficult to find today.
The Doctor V64's CD drive is on the bottom of the case. Thanks to the IDE interface, it can be replaced by any IDE CDROM. The RAMs are located in the opening on the lower left-hand side (as soon as the upper part of the housing with the motherboard is placed back on the bottom of the housing). The power switch can also be seen at the top left.
Officially, the Doctor V64 was sold as a video CD player and surround device for Nintendo 64 consoles. Of course, most of them knew that the Doc was a copy station, but this was the only way for Bung to sell the device for several years without getting into trouble with Nintendo (which did happen in the end). Here we want to introduce you to these features in more detail.
After inserting a video CD, it can be started by pressing the play button. During the initialization, the CD drive accelerates to a maximum of 32x speed, which is accompanied by a loud hum - the Doctor V64 begins to vibrate properly. But as soon as the film is running, the drive has calmed down again and runs at constant speed. The films all run very smoothly and there are hardly any stutters. The quality of the videos is unfortunately always very dependent on the MPEG compression level. There are some movies that have a high level of compression and look a bit unsightly. Most VCDs are of decent quality - the same goes for the sound. If you want to bring out the surround functions a little more, you should definitely connect the Doctor V64 to a stereo system. But you shouldn't expect too much from the integrated Spatalizer chip. But I was positively surprised by Wes Craven's "Shocker" - the film has an excellent picture quality and the sound is simply bombastic in connection with a stereo system. The VCD features contain the usual standard functions (play, stop, forwards, backwards, next track, previous track). One can only criticize that only short still images are shown when fast forward or rewind. By the way, the longer you hold down the corresponding buttons, the faster the forward or reverse will be. The Doctor V64 still has some nice features: You can make up to one hundred print screens, which you can look at afterwards in a slideshow. This can also be uploaded to the PC. In addition, MPEGs can be played, whereby the Doctor V64 automatically searches the CD and plays all files found in sequence.
If you want to play audio CDs, you will be a little disappointed, because the Doctor is limited to the standard functions play, stop, rewind, loop, previous / next track. The audio player is just a minor feature on the side. But there is an extra, because audio CDs can be played while playing the Nintendo 64.
Some games also support surround sound and this can also be used in conjunction with the Doctor V64. But you should already own a stereo system, because the weak speakers of a TV set are hardly any fun to play.
