Upgrading Z64, Game Doctor, etc...

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if it was possible to upgrade some devices like a Z64, Game Doctor with a USB Floppy Drive emulator.
I've seen those floppy drive emulators on ebay and since most game doctors I've use floppy drives, would this device work with the game doctor? I understand the Z64 uses zip disks 100mb+ but was still wondering if this device would also work with the Z64 (which I have, which is in part why I'm asking). I know there's the option of using a larger zip drive for the Z64 (the easy upgrade), the hd upgrade, and the CF upgrade. If it helps at all, the Z64 I have is vers. 2.

 

LOL no. Floppy drives are 1.44MB, how many N64 games are smaller than 1.44MB?
Game doctor for SNES on the otherhand works well, you'd probably want the selectable one that 100 or so virtual images.

 

I think the floppy emu mod on a GD has successfully been done before.

On a Z64, it makes more sense to install a laptop hdd or, even better, a CF card (I've done both). There's also some "Orb"(?) magneto-optical disk drive you can install, but I've never actually seen one of those. There's a modded BIOS with the necessary drivers.

 

Maybe I didn't make my question clear enough to try so I shall try to clarify things a bit and see if I can get a different answer...


I didn't mean to use an actual floppy drive emulator on the Z64, I know floppy disks are 1.44mb and most 64 games are bigger than that.

Emulating a floppy drive is possible on a usb drive with help of software.

There is an actual floppy drive emulator (IDE hardware) with a usb plug that emulates up to 1000 floppy drives of 1.44mb each (which apparently works great on some Game Doctors for the SNES, there's a video on youtube about it).

I was looking into the possibility of emulating 100mb, 250mb, 750mb zip disks on a usb with software and hardware.
I've asked around and this type of emulation is possible on both ends but that's as far as I got because I asked in the wrong forum and I got ignored. You might ask why try and emulate zip disks on a usb? Well I figured since usb drives are cheap, very common and what not, well, it couldn't hurt to try and ask and see if it was possible. I know there's other options as far as upgrading the unit, I just wanted to see if USB perhaps, could be 1 option.

 

Just install a IDE to SD adapter into your Z64.

 

No there is not a USB ZIP emulator.
No there is not an IDE Floppy emulator.
No it is not 1000 images.
Yes I have one on my GD7, with a floppy interface and 100 images and no, it does not work out of the box with a GD because the GD always polls the floppy drive for it's status so you have to build in a toggle switch.

 

You might have difficult finding one, but they certainly existed - the ones I used were made in Australia by some company called something like "HiTech Pty". Strictly speaking, it was designed to emulate an IDE HDD from USB storage, but it had a jumper on the board that told the firmware to respond as if it was a Zip drive. We were using them to add USB boot capability some some old industrial PCs that didn't have any USB booting capability, but would boot from Zip drives.

 

The Z64 uses standard 40 pin IDE, not the 34 pin floppy drive protocol. Get a standard IDE adapter for SD card, plug in a hard drive, something, and update the BIOS to allow for this. There is a BIOS out there that allows for this upgraded mass storage space.

Check these 2 links for more information:

Scroll down to the Z64 section here: http://n64.icequake.net/

IDE HDD installed in Z64: http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/z64hd/

EDIT: I have a nice small laptop 44 pin IDE to SD adapter if you could use it. Nice and free. Just need a 40 pin IDE to 44 pin adapter cable to make it work. Best part is that it's 5 volt only so no external 12 volt needed to make it run and it even works with SDXC. I had a 64GB card in it for something once.

 

(NB: Update the BIOS before installing any HDDs or adapters, or it won't work).

I use these myself. Cheap enough to balance out the increased costs of a CF card compared to SD, since SD/IDE adapters are relatively expensive.

 

Beg to differ there. You can get them for around $10 shipped. I have one that cost me $15 2 years ago. Takes SD card and the one I have is for laptops so it has the 44 pin IDe but they also come with the standard desktop 40 IDE connector.

The reason the CF to IDE adapters are so cheap is because they are a passive design. CF cards have IDE mode built in and the pinouts are the same. All these adapters do is change the connector format from the 40 pin IDE and power cable to the 50 pin CF connector which has the power pins built in. No circuitry for signal conversion at all.

 

(Don't really care either way since I've already got a working setup now, but) last time I checked (months ago), iirc it was around €14 adapter + €4 SD card vs €3 adapter + €8 CF. Anyways, glad to hear they (SD/IDE adapters) have gone down in price though, since SD is everywhere while CF seems to be slowly dying out (at least outside of professional photography).

 

Do you happen to have any of your Z64s or Doctor V64 for sale by anychance? sorry for the off topic question

 

there are a lot of legacy equipment (medical, chemistry, etc etc) that works on floppy and zip disks. They are so expensive that you can't replace it so easly, so it's better to buy one of those emulators.

for the game doctor buy a floppy emulator, for the z64 I suggest to use a compact flash and upgrade the firmware. If I recall correctly there are 2 mod for that, one for the hard disk and one for the CF.

I know that these two formats shares the same IDE technology, but for the compact flash you need some fixes (and the extra firmware)

Technically speaking the z64 runs on some embedded ms-dos version, so the original mod author found the way to made this possible (working on the drivers I guess).

[sorry for my English]

 

I had a HDD setup for a while, then just swapped in the CF adapter and it worked right away. I think the second mod you're thinking of is for the ORB drives (because there's not enough room for all (HDD/ZIP/ORB) drivers in one BIOS iirc)...?

CF cards don't need any special drivers afaict; I use one of those CF adapters into a Toshiba Libretto 50CT subnotebook w/ MS-DOS 6.22 on it and it just works.

 

This mod www.eurasia.nu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1947

I don't remember exactly why was made, there was a topic on dextrose at time.

 

Just a nitpick here, CF cards have a built in ATA controller rather than some "IDE mode" which is why they work with simple pin adapters that require no circuitry. Though you could wire a LED onto them to give you an activity light if you want.

 

I think what he said was close enough to not require a nit pick.

IDE was the original name for ATA, it stuck for hard drives and the interfaces on computers though. But ATA & IDE are for all intents and purposes the same thing.

The term "controller" is ambiguous, as what used to be a hard disk controller is now attached to the hard drive. Most people now use the term to describe the thing on the motherboard that talks to ATA devices. There isn't one of those on the CF card. The original (what were referred to as) "IDE controllers" just did the address decoding to make the drive appear at a certain place in I/O space, the registers were all provided by the Integrated Drive Electronics (i.e. the pcb fixed to the hard drive).

ATA, CF & PCMCIA are all based on ISA, so electrically they are very similar. The adapters mainly just convert the connector from CF to ATA. It also grounds a pin on the CF card which causes it to emulate the registers of an ATA hard drive, instead of using the standard register layout for CF/PCMCIA. This is usually referred to as IDE mode or True IDE mode (it should be ATA mode but that ship has sailed).

 

Ok, I got the Z64 not too long ago for a decent price... I know what route I should go now as far as upgrading the zip drive... the cf option. Still, I have a lot of questions regarding the device such as getting some games to work, while others don't work. I have no manual for it but I've managed to research basic things but not much which is why I'm back again with more questions...

I can dump DK64 but I can't play it, I'm assuming it's because the protection built into the game itself.
I've read around that a certain cracked version of the rom will work but I don't know. I've tried Super Smash as well and still I get no video because it doesn't work. Other games like Mario, Mario Kart, 007, Banjo Kazooie, Turok (all turoks) work. The games that I want to get working on the Z64 don't work. Can anyone help me out?

 

I've only got time for some quick hints before I'm off for the day:

- If a game has problems, first try changing the "boot mode" or whatever it's called in the settings (and maybe enable the region fix).
- IIRC, some games have to be booted via the LCD (i.e. turn on the Z64 but not the N64, load the game, then turn on the N64). Sth to do with the bootemu used I think? Maybe that's been fixed with lates BIOSes, I can't remember the last time I've had to do that...
- Some games need cracks, yes. But your DK64 current problem is just because of the wrong boot CIC (see first bullet point). It should boot uncracked, but will then "lose" (i.e. intentionally erase) saves after a few levels.