This is honestly the year of the Nintendo 64. There are lots of new games coming to fruition thanks to awesome indie developers. ModRetro released the M64, and to round it off, Krikkz has just launched their brand new Everdrive, called the Everdrive-64 Pro, boasting some new features that offer gamers some extra... oomph.
The biggest changes are the fact that it has far more RAM, offering higher compatibility rates for those who like to play with larger ROMs and ROM hacks, which is becoming more and more popular in the space recently, so this will work with ROMs over 64MB. And obviously will benefit those wanting to push the Nintendo 64 to its limits through homebrew projects and experiments etc.
Main features:
- Cyclone 10 FPGA
- 128 MB SDRAM (1024 Mbit)
- High-quality 6-layer PCB with hard-gold surface finish
- Native 64DD support
- RTC support
- Support for all Game Pak save types (SRAM, EEPROM, FlashRAM)/s
- Cheat code support
- Controller Pak manager
- Transfer Pak manager
- IPS/APS auto patching
- Custom menu themes
- ROM metadata support
- Battery voltage monitoring
- Built-in FPGA-based NES core
- External emulators support
- On-board button for 64DD disk swapping and cheats
- High-speed USB port for development
The Everdrive-64 Pro starts at $169.99 on their official website, which is pricey but comes with many quality of life features that N64 enthusiasts will certainly take advantage of. It also comes in an array of transparent colours too. Krikkz has mentioned that shipping begins within three weeks, starting with Grey, Transparent Clear and Ice Blue Color.
Many will ask what the main differences are in comparison to its $100 competitors that SummerCart 64, which we have used in the past. I haven't used the new 64 Pro from Everdrive but from what I can tell is the ability to use more cheats, larger ROM hacks, 64DD support and its reading speeds are the biggest advantages. The SummerCart 64 already had full 64DD support before Everdrive which made it a more affordable choice for those wanting that, but it's now available on the 64 Pro after many requests.
It's a step in the right direction, and if you've used Krikkz products before you darn well know they're very good quality, so no doubt this will follow their previous product's build quality and as I said before, it comes at a good time seeing as the Nintendo 64 is getting more ways to play and enjoy the console itself.
