N64 Mods...

[retroborg]

So, I got my self a a regular grey / black PAL N64.
What would be some good mods every self respecting assembler should perform on his N64 console?

From what I read, it's not possible to RGB mod the PAL N64 without buying and installing an RGB Modchip.

By the way...
Has anyone performed this overclock mod with the 2 switches?
http://kyorune.com/modding/article.php?id=70

Is it actually worth doing (Are there any stability issues?) and would I need to add an extra fan cooler over the CPU to keep it cool and stable.
Thanks in advance.

[Ziggy]

If you're in an NTSC region, I wouldn't bother doing anything with it. A PAL N64 has no advantages over an NTSC one. It has the same name, and looks identical. You'd get more out of an NTSC N64. RGB mod, being able to play both NTSC-U and J games, etc.

[retroborg]

Hi and thanks for the reply.
No I'm not in the States, I'm in Europe.
I'm not going to get an NTSC US N64 any time soon, so I would rather add anything worth adding to this one at the moment and beef it up as much as possible.
Perhaps some LEDS?

But I would really like some feed-back on that overclock mod if anyone has done it, before I waste my time doing it only to find that it will fry the CPU in time.

[Ziggy]

I've never done any overclock mods. Personally, I would never. I want my retro game consoles to last as long as possible. Overclocking them doesn't seem to help. Also, what are you gaining from overclocking?

[retroborg]

I've never done any overclock mods. Personally, I would never. I want my retro game consoles to last as long as possible. Overclocking them doesn't seem to help. Also, what are you gaining from overclocking?

Actually that's not quite true.
The Overclock mod done on the Model 1 Sega Mega Drives, does not wear down the CPU, as you add a 2nd oscillator crystal @10MHZ and you switch between 7.6MHZ / 10MHZ with a switch, so it's not permanent and it does not involve increasing the voltage or the multipliers the way it's done on PCs, which inevitably wears down the CPU and components from the increased temperature and friction because of thermodynamics.

I've done this many times.

The gain from this is that a lot of slow-downs that plague the more demanding games, are eliminated, instantly. Especially shooters on the Mega Drive like Thunder Force IV, Border Down, Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic 2, 3, etc... gain a lot from this.

[Ziggy]

Is there ever the possibility of a game glitching out due to the faster clock?

[retroborg]

Is there ever the possibility of a game glitching out due to the faster clock?

On the early model I MEGA DRIVE with the High Definition Graphics, all games I tried played fine.
On the smaller Mega Drive II, I could never stabilize the CPU to higher frequencies, it would always glitch or freeze the console after some time, even with a 9MHZ & 8MHZ oscillator.
They use a smaller and weaker version (Square) of the Motorola 68000 CPU and the overall board does not take lightly changes of the length of the traces / components etc...

In essence, I have never been able to overclock a Mega Drive II and from what I saw on the youtube and around the NET, not many people out there have either.

If anyone out there has, please share your work and methods used.

[fastbilly1]

I overclocked an n64 once, and the only reason it lasted is because we installed a CPU cooling unit from an old pc. It made a negligible difference in gameplay on most games. But we did it when we were playing 40+ hours of Mario Kart 64 a week.

For video mods, I would wait until the HDMI N64 gpu drops before I do anything: http://retroactive.be/tech_n64_hdmi.php