Neo Myth Card for Nintendo 64
In the last decades new backup drives appeared on the Nintendo 64 scene. In all this time the old ones have become increasingly rare and expensive. One of them, created by the Neo Team is a whole series of flash cards dedicated to retrogaming, including the Nintendo 64. The product in question is called Neo Myth for N64.
The flash card has had a very troubled development. In May 2006 the team announced the Neo Myth for N64 for the first time, but then no other news followed. In early 2009 the first photos of the hardware are published, thus rekindling the hopes of those waiting for this novelty solution. But development is delayed until the completion of the project and the beta testing campaign are announced in the last week of 2009.
I've been following this project for a long time and I volunteered to test and write a review, keep in mind that the product is not yet fully completed, various updates regarding firmware and compatibility are currently underway on the forum.
Features
The declared characteristics are very respectable, just what one would expect from a new flash card.
- It supports loading ROM up to 512Mbit.
- Full support for all save types, no external cartridge is required for saving data.
- 100% compatible with all Nintendo 64 games.
- Data transfer via USB.
- Management of saves via USB.
- You can use any cartridge to boot regardless of the CIC.
- You can load up to two ROMs and use the ROM switch to select one or the other.
- Ability to load ROMs through a menu from the Nintendo 64 and a Neo2 cartridge (in development).
- The internal bios of the flash card can be updated using the Nero Dual Programmer (sold separately).
- Region Free, compatible with PAL and NTSC consoles.
As you can see there is no mention of any backup capability for your originals - a shame as it would have undoubtedly benefited the console scene. However, apart from this the characteristics are excellent and we are going to comment on them.
The product packaging (you can see it from the photo) has an easy-to-open blister and does not require scissors. Inside we find the USB cable, a CD and two flash cards, one for the Nintendo 64 and another for GBA with a capacity of 512Mbit.
Unfortunately no manual (printed or digital) has been included, which might confuse the user.
The flash card for the GBA is used as memory card for the Neo Myth, a very bizarre choice. Why instead not integrate everything inside the circuit board? In the future it will also be possible to use a Neo2, i.e. a GBA flash card with SD slot which will be controlled by a menu (currently under development) for loading ROMs, all controlled directly from the console.
The plastic doesn't seem of bad quality, it doesn't even have smudges and it seems very solid. Inside the flash card we find a nice PCB but the welds are not exactly excellent. Immediately noticeable is an unpopulated area on the circuit board called U4 for housing a chip.
To eliminate the need for a bootcart we can take the CIC out of any Nintendo 64 game and solder it right there. The heart of the system consists of an ALTERA CPLD that can be upgraded thanks to the connector on the circuit.
In terms of dimensions the Neo Myth for N64 is not much larger than a normal cartridge, above we have (apart from the GBA slot) also a Mini USB port and a ROM selection switch in case we load two games on it. On the front side there is a LED that will light up green or red depending on the position assumed by the switch, or during data transfer if we connect the flash card to the PC.
Finally on the back side we have a connector for a cartridge to be used as a bootcart.
The software
To fully use our flash card we need to install the software on the PC: the "Neo Ultra Menu" available on the official website.
When connecting the PC to the Neo Myth for N64flash card, Windows tries to install a driver but without success. It will the download a file from internet. Once everything has been correctly installed we just have to start the program and if it is the first time we use the flash card it is necessary to format the memory card to accept the Nintendo's 64 ROMs.
The software is quite basic and simple; keys with abbreviations, incorrect labels and a whole series of extra options that confuse the user.
Due to memory limitations we can load up to two ROMs in Z64 format, then use the switch on the flash card to select which one to load. Writing times are extremely slow: to write 512Mbit we have to wait about 10 minutes. For me, that had to try a dozen games, it wasn't a very pleasant feature.
We have to manually select the type of save that the game requires, as for the CIC it is automatically detected. Again, from this screen we can load and copy our saves.
Once the flash card is fully charged we can take any cartridge in our possession and insert it into the appropriate connector on the back and then insert it into the console. After shutdown of the Nintendo 64 console there is no need to reload the ROMs, all data remains inside the flashcard!
At this point the claimed 100% compatibility starts to falter: Jet Force Jemini and Banjo Kazooie don't work properly without a bootcart with CIC 6105/7105. Nothing new, even with other backup units occur the same problem, but from the declared characteristics one could think the opposite.
Another problem that plagued the product soon after launch was a bug that didn't allow saving correctly using the 16Kb EEPROM type save. Everything was resolved through an update to be performed on the bios with the NDP, for those who had taken the flash card on day 1 had to face another expense for the purchase of the Nero Dual Programmer.
The flash card is compatible with both PAL and NTSC consoles, but we can only use ROMs from the same region as the console.
Conclusions
Despite the impossibility of making your own dumps and the decidedly high price, this flash card offers what many other flash card do not offer; complete internal support for any type of save and the possibility of loading 512Mbit ROMs that will remain in memory until the next write.
Summarizing with a table of pros and cons we have:
Pros:
- 512Mbit of memory
- It supports all save types
- Excellent compatibility with commercial ROMs
- Boot with any cartridge
- Region Free
Versus:
- Very high price
- Approximate PC side software
- Slow loading of ROMs
You'll have to pay at least $199 for this product not counting custom duties and the Nero Dual Programmer if you get the chance to upgrade. If you buy the flash card just for warez you'd better spend all that money on cartridges, not because of moral duty but because with that amount of money you can afford all the games worth buying.
