I'm new, so bare with me if this topic is elsewhere.

I see tons of reproductions for NES and Super NES, but not much going on for Nintendo 64. There are definitely some Japanese games that could at least be translated, right? Animal Crossing, for instance. I bet there's a market for it. Is it too difficult? Should I give it a few more years?

You can translate them and stuff just like normal games, but the ROMS work different and you'll pretty much never be able to replicate them cheaply. And AC is translated, it just doesn't work.

It doesn't work because of cost?

I'm pretty sure we will se loads surface i 5-6 years.. but right now is not the time for N64.. far to early in my opinion.

Come to think of it I'm pretty sure there have already been a few Mario 64 hacks going about..

The most I've seen myself for Mario 64 hacks is just palette swapping. As for translating Animal Crossing, it has already been done, it's on the Gamecube I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, I have Animal Crossing for GC, so at least it was released in europe.

Oh, I was referring to the Animal Crossing release on the Gamecube since it's pretty much a port of the N64 game.

This makes sense. The N64 games are gradually increasing in value, especially Conker, which probably has the biggest increase witin the past year. With technology and interest growing, we're sure to get some stuff, eventually. I hope. I know there are a ton of Japanese games I'd like to see ported/translated. 

Apparently you missed the part where it's not cost effective to make them. Much cheaper to buy the games than to make a repro. They don't even make ROMS of the size of N64 games really, let alone getting the series-parallel interface working. Nope.

I meant the increase of price as a means to an increase in interest. Since the majority of N64 games don't have a high price value, it seems as though they're lacking significant attention. I was thinking as the price goes up, interest would go up also, then maybe more focus and attention would go towards the project.

I agree with l3lanka that it may be another 5-6 years before N64 repros really start to take off. Technically, it's not impossible....but a challenge nonetheless.

On a side note, there are some really interesting fan made N64 games coming out. One in particular that I've been looking at extensively is the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - The Ura Expansion. Once that project is finished, I'd love to put that ROM on a real N64 cart and experience it on a real N64. For more info about that project, check out the following two links:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZethN...

http://uraproject.the-gcn.com/faq...

One suggestion I have is if you want to play ported/translated N64 games on real hardware, you could try the Everdrive64 found in the link below:

http://stoneagegamer.com/everdriv...

Make sure you do some research though before you try it with ported/translated ROMs as I'm not sure if said ROMs will work in a North American NTSC N64...although I suspect they would work as Japanese N64 carts seem to function fine in a North American NTSC N64 after removing the grey dust gaurd from the N64 as shown below:

http://guidesarchive.ign.com/guid...

That said, it's just my speculation (educated guess) that ported/translated ROMs will would work with the Everdrive64 in a North American NTSC N64...your milage may vary. So be sure to do your research.

You can focus all you want, it still WILL. NEVER. HAPPEN. Don't spread garbage like that on a technical subforum which is supposed to have accurate information. WHy would you pull the number 5 out of anywhere? It doesn't matter what you think, the FACT is N64 repros will never happen unless you are willing to chunk up a few hundred grand to get ROMS made. That's not even counting the CIC probably is a far, far, far ways away from being understood, too.

And yeah, there's flash carts, but have you 1. Seen the price? and 2. Realized 64MB RAM's are much cheaper than ANY ROM you could find in any type? Flash carts show the bare minimum it costs to make a N64 reproduction. You won't get cheaper as flash carts are cheaper than any dedicated ROM repro would be.

Technically, it's pretty simple. marshallh could probably have it done in a day for nowhere near the cost of a flash cart.

64MB parallel flash you say doesn't exist: http://www.digikey.com/product-de...
CIC/shell from donor cart, just like the current flash carts.
Bus interface is a pretty basic multiplexer + address counter. A few 74 series chips or small CPLD.
Maybe a couple other simple chips if save RAM is needed.

On average, prices for N64 games are very cheap compared to NES/SNES, and geez, even the Gamecube seems to be rising beyond the value of N64 games.

Bunny, how much would a PCB cost to get made for all the connections on that chip? and where would you expect to fit the 74xxx chips in the cart? I mean, with a CPLD, that ROM somehow you found (Not going to lie, I don't look at 3.3v parts, so I didn't think they were ever made) and then making a CIC...wouldn't the boards cost a ton of money because of how many pins you'd need to have on the mask? Still, I doubt the board would be under $80 or so, still. Plus, you'd have to make them in quantity and then be able to support multiple configs with on PCB. If you could get it under $80 total I'd be impressed myself.

80? That's not too bad.

I'm just guessing that's ballpark. Somebody still has to work to produce a PCB and such...

QFT. The reason you don't see N64 Repros is because no one that actually knows how has bothered with it and the people that want them don't know enough about electronics to do it. It really wouldn't cost that much to do. The CICs and cart shells would just be stolen from crappy games which is a common practice, nevermind if it is a good practice. I don't know why anyone would think it is so impossible when there are 3 modern flash carts for N64 and there were several backup units in the past, Doctor V64 and Mr Backup Z64 to name two. Clearly if you can make a Flash Cart you can make a reproduction/bootleg.

I'd be more interested in hearing what games exactly you want to "translate". I can see someone wanting Zelda Master Quest, and maybe that Goldeneye/Perfect Dark hack.

Shoot I'd go for games like Sin & Punishment, the original Bangai-o, and Daezemon 3D.

everything is speculation. N64 reproductions really aren't worth it. You'd be better off with a V64, CD64 etc.

The majority of new hacks, don't use rom hacking, but actually use the tile software inside emulators to modify the text and graphics.

It's possible through the use of flash carts, yes, that's true...

Actually, in theory, it shouldn't be terribly hard for someone to design a custom n64 housing to attach inside "donor shells" for flash carts for repros... nor would it be hard to design + apply labels as the n64 labels are notoriously bad as it is.

I'm kinda curious why some enterprising repro-makers haven't looked into it. It's not the solder-to-pcb method, but in theory with a good setup it'd be even easier then the stereotypical repros that do use that methodology.

Edit: Re-read Bunnyboy's posting... so while the technology IS there for flash-cart n64 repros, it's still not financially feasible it sounds like.

I would love to see WOnder Project J 2 for example, we already have a translation.

At some point I may give that particular game a whirl **if** I can find a feasible way to make the cart and it not being a huge hassle.

As it stands Vlad and myself are set to release the first Wonder Project for the SNES sometime in January in a CIB format.

When you get Wonder Project J 2 off the ground let me know. It is a fantastic game. Probably the best N64 game ever.

Even if someone put in the money and development to make N64 repro boards, there's not much to actually put on them yet, other than counterfeits.

I expect to see a huge demand in N64 repros once either Conker 64, Dinosaur Planet or Eternal Darkness see a public ROM dump.