Not so interesting Nintendo 64 stuff.

Got a hold of some cheap Nintendo 64 related hardware. First up, a very basic game converter. Believe it or not, this thing has virtually nothing but the PCB and cart slots. Not a single chip, capacitor or resistor. I closed it up before I took some photos, so you'll have to take my word for it.



I didn't spend much time testing it, but the compatibility seems to be pretty low. The only thing I got running was japanese Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And I used the european version of the game as a boot cart. If you think you can run your beloved Sin & Punishment using this device, unless you can somehow produce a NTSC US / PAL version of the game, you're screwed. You're better off with the Passport III Plus. But hey! Zelda worked fine. I tried booting it with Majora's Mask, but it didn't work.



Next device is an Action Replay type cartridge. Except it's called Game Buster [still, it's manufactured by Datel. Or so the package says]. You pop it in, attach a game cart and turn on your Nintendo 64. A menu will appear [In my case in german. Nice. No worries though, I managed.] and there you can choose your cheat codes, manage the memory card and so on. Pretty standard.



I guess the only cool feature would have to be the green glowing digital display which counts down from five to zero before the menu appears. On the back of the cart there's a small slot for so called SmartCards. I guess the firmware can be upgraded this way, new codes added and so on.

The only game I tested was Goldeneye. I tried the preloaded cheats. Didn't work. Surprise surprise.