I've written a small piece about the 4meg Datel Controller Pak and if anyone has something to add, feel free to do so http://www.nesworld.com/n64-datel4megcontrollerpak.php Thanks!
Hope it's nothing like their Expansion Pak. What a pile of wank that was. I had three and had to take them all back because they overheated my console. In the end, I had the top off my N64 and a desk fan pointed at the heatsink to get it to stay running! Datel's response? There's nothing wrong with our Expansion Paks - in fact, we've tested the official Nintendo one and that was the one which crashed on us!
i would buy one of these but in the review you said batteries of most of them are flat by now. my official controller pak is fine, any special reason dantel's ones are going empty fast? and are the batteries changable? 16x storage sounds great.
I would think more SRAM = more power to keep it = faster way to kill a battery? I have a Nyko 32x memory pak that is dead because of the battery. It uses button to change page and contains 8x128k SRAM chips, each chip divided in 4 pages to get 32x total.
i had one of those bitd, it was the biggest waste of money. never got a save file to load from it always had read errors and needed to be formated. i got it from one of the companies/resellers that advertised in n64 magazine (uk) would have been about issue 30 iirc
I've never even seen one of those before, how did it work with so many memory banks (16?) merged into one? I've always assumed that the 123/16 limits were hard coded into the N64, as every memory card I've ever seen that had more than that had to use multiple banks (selected by physical switch(es). Does the 4MB version allow you to access all saves at once, all 1968 pages and 256 notes? If so, do all games allow you to read this many, and does it take long to scroll down the list? I've read from lots of people that non-official controller paks were prone to failure and losing data, but I've been using an unofficial 1MB four in one memory card for many years now, and it's never lost data. And my expansion pak is unofficial (by Pelikan), and has never crashed on me once, plus it has a large heat sink (as you can see in the photo in the first post of the thread http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...4-3rd-party-Jumper-Expansion-Pack-for-the-N64) which no doubt helps it keep cool. I also have a couple of official controller paks, and a controller pak that has four memory banks and a rumble pak built in. I think I read that the latter pak (4 memory banks + rumble pak) draws all power from the N64, so doesn't need batteries, and I've had the current controller pak I'm using (4 memory banks) for I don't know, probably well over a decade, and have never changed it's battery, if it even has one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_switching N64 is still limited to 123/16 but with this method a chunk of memory can be switched so another section is active without having to remove and change the pak. Mileage varies. I've had only 1 failed 3rd party memory card, a 4MB expansion for N64. Game was always crashing and freezing until I put the jumper pack back in. Exchanged it (Mad Catz brand) for official Nintendo brand, no more crash and freezes. It may seems like 3rd party memory is prone to failing, I think it's because of quality check. First party has tighter control over what goes to the store and less defective part ends out slipping. 3rd party, especially unlicensed, may have lax quality check and more defective chip goes out, which resulted in higher return rate and higher dissatisfication.
I read that Datel first released the memory pack in switched banks thinking there was a limit on size, but later realized there wasn't a limit. The Chinese companies had already copied the switched versions so Datel were one of the only companies using the new design. I believe it was an Edge magazine article but not sure on the issue number.
