A couple of months ago I was able to get my first Nintendo 64, fulfilling a promise to myself from years ago—thanks, Diego, for such a gift. With the console in my hands, there was still a big problem to solve: How to get the games I wanted?
The first option was to buy each cartridge I wanted to have in my collection, which is impossible for me from an economic standpoint, especially considering the extremely high prices some copies can reach. The second option was to buy one of Kriss’s famous flashcarts, but the more than €100 for its most basic version and more than €150 for the complete one, not including shipping costs or taxes, was out of my budget.
Fortunately, China came to my rescue. After browsing AliExpress and looking up various reviews on forums, websites, and YouTube, I decided to try a flashcart that is becoming increasingly popular. SummerCart 64 is an open-source flashcart that can be found in several stores for a price ranging between €30 and €60, which allows us to have all the system’s games for the price of one or two of the cheapest cartridges.
After two months of extensive use with several sessions of multiple consecutive hours, I think I’m in a position to say that this flashcart is 100% worth it—it’s a real bargain in terms of price-quality and a must-buy for all Nintendo 64 owners. On AliExpress (and other stores) there are multiple suppliers offering their versions of this product; they all basically offer the same thing. You can buy just the flashcart or also add a Micro SD already configured with all the games so you can just plug in the cartridge and enjoy.
In my case, I bought it along with the Micro SD, which came with all the existing ROMs from each region, in addition to having installed emulators for Super Nintendo, NES, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color. As advice, if you buy it with the cards already configured, it’s advisable to make a backup of the content because the Micro SDs they use are usually of poor quality and can cause failures or stop working after a short time. In my experience, the Micro SD stopped working after two months of use; fortunately, it’s quite easy to set one up from scratch.
Features of SummerCart 64
Store all your ROMs:
This flashcart includes 64 MiB of SDRAM and has another 14 MiB from flash memory, totaling up to 78 MiB, which more than covers ROMs of any size. Additionally, as it supports cards up to 2 TB, we can have plenty of space to include all the ROMs and emulators we want. In my case, I have a 32 GB card installed with all the Nintendo 64 ROMs, emulators with all the ROMs for Sega Master System, NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color, and I still have space left over.Complete Nintendo 64DD emulation:
SummerCart 64 allows you to play Nintendo 64DD games, including multi-disk games.Multi-region:
It is compatible with all N64 consoles, regardless of their region. NTSC/PAL switching is performed automatically, and the last detected region is stored within the NVRAM.Save games without a reset button:
All known save formats found in different games are supported. Saves are automatically dumped to the MicroSD card during gameplay; there is no need to press the reset button as with other flashcarts.Open source:
The SummerCart64 project is completely open source, allowing you to modify it and build on it freely, as it complies with the terms of the GNU GPLv3 license. You can even build it yourself by following the guide available on the project’s official page.Emulation of other consoles:
It is also possible to install emulators for other consoles to be emulated through the flashcart. Currently, there are functional emulators for: Super Nintendo, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and SEGA Master System.
Hardware Specification
Input / Output
- N64 cartridge edge connector
- MicroSD card slot (~23.8 MiB/s peak, cards up to 2 TB supported)
- USB Type-C receptacle (~23.8 MiB/s peak)
- Programmable push button on the back
- Status LED
Memory
- 64 MiB SDRAM
- 16 MiB QSPI flash (the last 2 MiB are reserved for internal use)
- 8 kiB buffer in the FPGA
- 64-byte battery-backed NVRAM in the RTC
CIC emulation
- Based on UltraCIC_C with improvements
- Automatic region switching
- Fully programmable seed/checksum values
- Supports booting directly from the 64DD IPL
Save formats
- EEPROM 4 kbit
- EEPROM 16 kbit
- SRAM 256 kbit
- SRAM 3×256 kbit
- FlashRAM 1 Mbit
- SRAM 1 Mbit
- Automatic rewrite after ~1 second to the microSD card or USB interface
Additional hardware emulation
- 64DD (N64 disk drive): disk access to/from the microSD card or USB interface
- IS-Viewer 64
Others
- Real-time clock
- CR2032 RTC backup battery
- Integrated N64 boot manager capable of loading the menu binary from the microSD card and displaying error messages
- Option to disable the integrated N64 boot manager
- Firmware updatable through the USB interface
- Seamless power switching between USB and N64
Conclusion
In summary, this flashcart is a true marvel. For a very reasonable price, we can have the entire Nintendo 64 game library available, as well as hacks, homebrews, translated games, and even emulators for other consoles. Each one with its covers, the possibility of saving games from the memory card itself, customizing our folders, and more.
