Mess with N64 and PlayStation Memory Cards on PCs

An anonymous reader writes "Here's a neat little review over at gamecenter about the InterAct DexDrive. From the article: This small PC peripheral lets you manage N64 and PlayStation memory cards on your PC. Naturally, this opens up a world of opportunities: Downloading game saves from IterAct's Web site, or other sites on the Internet, and uploading them to your memory card is a snap. " That's kinda spiffy. Wonder what a hex editor could do to those games (oh look, I have 8 million rupies)

kewl technology, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if Nintendo will pursue legal action against the creators of this neato device too?

-- You've always been owned, Corporations SUCK --
keyh

Stupid

[ShadowBlade]

You can only do card->card, not card->disk. Much more storage capacity on a hard disk.

N64 Cart -> PC...hmm?

[hank]

I haven't heard anything about any of these. Do any exist? I know they have to because people seem to get their "3133t r0m 1m4g35" from people who own such devices...how much do they cost? Do schematics exist, or is it a commerical product.

Eeh..

[gavinhall]

Posted by Scott Francis[Mechaman]:

The DexDrive has been out for awhile. Although I didn't know they had a N64 version. Note that the ones produced by the PSX one are compatible with PSEmuPro. And vice-versa, "cards" created with PSEmuPro work just fine transferred back to a real card.
For DIY-type people, the PlaySaver [aol.com] appears to work just as well, was out long before the DexDrive, and only costs as much as a floppy cable, some minor parts, and some sweat. I need to get working on mine..

Rupies

[gavinhall]

Posted by Jeremy Witt:

No Way! I think I read a Rupee is worth about
2 American Dollars.. that makes sense until
you try to buy that fish which would come out
to around 400 Bucks I guess it could be really
fresh eh?

JWitt

Golly..

[Tok]

I read about this drive in PSM a few months back, and tried to email the company, with all the flair of the Advocacy-HOWTO, asking about possible linux support and/or protocol release, but their mailer returned my mail, stating that there was no more room in the spool directory.. go figure, maybe its already been asked (by about 40,000 other linux users, which is why I hope the spool was full :>)

Stupid

[mholve]

You can "manage your memory cards" just by booting up the PSX without a CD. Copy from one card to another, etc.

Good points

[mholve]

Yeah, good points - managing the games you have already stored (read: archiving to disk) and doing cheats, etc., however...

Most cheats are in the form of passwords though, so that's not such a hot use. As for copying to disk, bah - why not get one of those "Mega Memory Cards" for $20-40? Surely it's cheaper than getting a PC adapter...

god damn URL critters got me again

[tzanger]

That should be http://ubercool.ml.org/n64.htm [ml.org] not .html :-) I tend to flip-flop between the two.

saved games good.

[HBK-4G]

this is cool.

anybody else seen the n64 games like Blitz99 that have arcade counterparts with n64 memory card slots? I think this may be the beginning of some serious takedowns in ye old arcade. Mix and match the greatest team players... hmm.

DexDrive under Linux?

[acb]

Wonder how long until someone writes Linux software for using the DexDrive...

Not that I'd be able to use it then... I'm out of serial ports (my modem and Pilot take one each), and also out of interrupts for new ones. Bring on the day of USB peripherals...

When I read the headline...

[J. FoxGlov]

...I thought it was talking about M.E.S.S., Brad Oliver and Richard Bannister's multi-platform emulator project.

http://www.internetter.com/titan/mess/ [internetter.com]

Thought maybe it was going to support PSX and N64 emulation along with Colecovision and Apple II. :o>

J.

Not always true Pt. II

[Sick Boy]

I'm pretty sure it was 999 in Link's Awakening (for the Game Boy).

Rupies

[pica]

Sure, that'd be wonderful. Too bad Zelda64 stores games on the cartridge, not the memory packs. Or did I miss something? D=

saved games from cartridges

[pica]

Okay, just as long as I wasn't off the mark by complaining that the "DexDrive" won't help ya out in this case. Hrm... GameShark... must find one.

kewl technology, but..

[Mooset]

You've always been owned, Corporations SUCK

If it wasn't for those giant, "evil" corporations, technology on the level of the Nintendo 64 wouldn't exist in the first place. That kind of R&D is only possible with the promise of major profit return. Like it or not, it is only natural that the creators of these technologies would defend their right to keep them proprietary. This isn't anything new, it goes back to Nintendo attacking the unlicensed NES carts and the Game Genie and has only recently come to include attacks on emulators and unlicensed acessories. If you created a technology and others tried to profit off it, you'd be just as quick to attack it as Sony was to attack Connectix.

On a side note, the DexDrive has been out for a few months now and there hasn't been even a murmur of threat from Sony or Nintendo, so I really don't see it being likely that legal action will be taken.

Rupees

[Laxitive]

lakhs/millins/crores have nothing to do with the currency. It is simply an outdated form of power-representation (lakh = 10^5) (crore = 10^7).

My conversion of (8000RS -> $300) was wrong because:
a) I was doing it in my head
b) I was using the currency exchange rate which was valid when I moved to the US (1RS == $25) It's now around $45 I think
what's more, we cant get onions either.. thanks a lot for that embargo!

-Laxative
down w/ the BJP

Zelda Max. Rupies= 255 == FFh :)

[Rahga]

no text here :)

The dirty lining.

[Skarsol]

Yeah, the Dexdrive is nifty and all, but be afraid if you have to try and get support for it. I've been trying to get a replacement unit for my psx dexdrive for 3 weeks now, and have still yet to speak to a live person or to get an email response from them.

saved games good.

[B-Man]

I recall that the old NEC Turbografix-16 did this. The Turbografix-16 used the same engine as its arcade counterparts, so the user had a true arcade experience at home. The arcade versions had a card slot that allowed the user to insert memory cards from home. I don't know much about the memory cards, except that they were thin plastic with a magnetic stripe. The Turbografix-16 was expensive in its day, which may have prevented the idea from taking off.

saved games good.

[B-Man]

Yes, I stand corrected, it was the Neo Geo. That was the system with the arcade machine innards and hefty price tag.

not new to the psx

[dangerboy]

there have been a few variations of PC backup devices for PSX memory cards onto floppy or HD. however, i've never heard of one for the N64 though. keen.

Rupies = Money in Zelda

[bitwize]

The original currency was "rubies". (Yes, I know, they're green and blue and stuff, and not all red.) However, the item screen for Zelda 1 misspelled it as "RUPY" and "5 RUPIES". Someone must have gotten confused or something in subsequent Zeldas and changed it to Rupees. I dunno.