Curlypaul wrote:It might well be a duff battery making it reset. I'd have a look at that if you open it and don't see anything obviously wrong with the board. A gamebit is a decent investment, you can fix all sorts of things once you have one
iirc, N64 carts don't use batteries for save backup, they use some kind of flash memory.
Some of the earlier titles did, but the vast majority used flash memory. Super Mario 64 is the biggest one I can remember that uses a battery.
prfsnl_gmr wrote:There is nothing feigned about it. What I wrote is a display of actual moral superiority.
Thanks for all the help guys. I bought the gamebit, and I have a set of small phillips screw drivers. So hopefully once I get this gamebit I can open in it up, take some pictures, and let you guys take a look. I'd be quite estatic if I could save this game.
I echo the sentiments of most people posting here. You should definitely buy a gamebit (3.8 mm, because it'll open up almost all Nintendo cartridges, except for GBA carts and the early NES carts that use the flathead screwdrivers), open up the cartridge and see what's going on in there. Get the silver one because I heard the black gamebit has a tendency to strip screws and isn't as durable. Also, if you don't have a gamebit, I used one of my dad's wire cutters to carefully grip the screw and turn it to unscrew it.
To clarify, not all N64 games use batteries to save, but some do. Super Mario 64 doesn't use a battery because when I opened it up the first time I was shocked to see NO battery in it and I seriously wondered "How the hell does this game even save with no battery?".
This post on Majora's Mask actually reminds me of what happened a few months ago for me. I was at a friend's place, drinking, playing video games, and what not. I go to take a look at my friend Mike's copy of Majora's Mask, and I don't know what happened but I lost my balance on my kneecaps, slipped, and accidentally flung the Majora's Mask cart onto the hardwood floor and when it landed, one of the screws broke off of the cart. I was so pissed and cursed myself and Mike's like "ah, don't worry man, that's shit's hardcore, put it in to see if it works." Sure enough, he popped the game in and it turned on, LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED! A few weeks later I hung out with him and he showed me what he did to keep the cartridge in one piece. He put a zip tie through the hole where the screw broke off, and wrapped it around the cartridge. It looks ugly as hell but it works. I bet you 5 bucks if I did the same thing with a PSOne disc, it would be ruined forever.
Lesson of the day: never handle game cartridges drunk, unless you're on carpet.
I want Nintendo to make a Gamecube that plays carts. That would be the absolute most durable console/game combination ever.
Its probably just dirty. A single bit of stuff in between contacts can really screw you. If not, there's always the possibility that it got wet, or too hot. I've seen a couple of carts that get too hot, especially sitting in windows in places like where I live. In the cases I've seen, the actual solder and such will melt off.
Curlypaul wrote:It might well be a duff battery making it reset. I'd have a look at that if you open it and don't see anything obviously wrong with the board. A gamebit is a decent investment, you can fix all sorts of things once you have one
iirc, N64 carts don't use batteries for save backup, they use some kind of flash memory.
Some of the earlier titles did, but the vast majority used flash memory. Super Mario 64 is the biggest one I can remember that uses a battery.
Most N64 games that save to cart, do save via flash, and therefore will retain your data indefinitely. Unfortunately, there are a few Nintendo developed games that use a battery. 1080, F-Zero, and Ocarina of Time being the main ones. Mario 64 does NOT use a battery.
MyNameIsVince wrote:I echo the sentiments of most people posting here. You should definitely buy a gamebit (3.8 mm, because it'll open up almost all Nintendo cartridges, except for GBA carts and the early NES carts that use the flathead screwdrivers), open up the cartridge and see what's going on in there. Get the silver one because I heard the black gamebit has a tendency to strip screws and isn't as durable. Also, if you don't have a gamebit, I used one of my dad's wire cutters to carefully grip the screw and turn it to unscrew it.
GBA carts, as well as the GBA SP (and the GBA?) use tri-wing screws. Sometimes places with cell phone parts have tri-wings, but they're easy enough to find.
There are all sort of good and bad gamebits out there. I have some dark ones which are excellent and I've been using for years and I have some silver ones which are absolute garbage and came that way.
Either get gamebits or use the melted pen trick. Using pliers or wire cutters is just going to mess up the screw.
Protronrob wrote:the only issue ive had with a N64 game is with Space Station Silicon Valley the copy i have will freeze about 4 mins into the opening cinematic every single time as if it was a CD with a scratch on it, since i would have no idea what to even look for (other then cleaning contacts) I havent bothered to pull it apart.
My copy did the same thing. I eventually got it to work by cleaning the contacts and my N64, even though they looked fine. I would not be surprised if it froze up if I tried playing it again.
It makes me wonder if there is a defect in that game because that's the only game I've had problems with.
I was playing Ocarina of Time and it kept resetting for me also, ended up switching out the expansion pak and it seemed to have fixed the problem, but didnt have the same issue on any other games, cant say for sure what the problem really is, but it's worth trying a different expansion pak.
