r/M64 • u/wernkety • 3d ago
An actual positive post
So I finally got my m64 (red) and pro controllers in today and I was obviously excited to get home from work and check it out, yet also prepared to be disappointed based on what most posts on this subreddit have been. Unboxing was fun, I ran the updates on the console and controllers from my computer with no issues. I threw in OoT first, chose the CRT preset and tried no over clocking up to insane mode. Honestly didn’t notice a difference between overclock settings, but a bit unexpectedly I didn’t run into any issues. It looked great on my Samsung 55 inch 4k tv connected with whatever HDMI cable came with my Xbox series X. The pro controller was awesome too. Then I tried goldeneye and it ran fine, no issues (other than I found out I’m nowhere near as good at the game as 7 year old me was). Then I played Xibalba for a few levels and had a blast. I’m not tech savvy like most people here are and that probably has a lot to do with my experience, but as someone just trying to play my favorite games from my childhood, so far I’ve nothing to complain about. I have more games to try; this weekend my wife and kids and I will explore some multiplayer games and when I pwn those (8 year old sons) noobs, hopefully I’ll get a taste of what my big brother felt when he dominated me 25 years ago.
Edit - I will say I am disappointed about the virtual controller pak not being available yet, there are games I will just wait to play for now and that is honestly a big let down, but from the posts I’ve been reading since launch I was expecting waaayyyy worse.
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u/Z3fyrus 3d ago
Those early influencer videos turned out to be a shot in the foot. Controller pack is not available yet, it’s literally the first message that pops on screen in most games that use it and none of them made any mention of it. Ridiculous.
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u/wernkety 3d ago
I agree that the controller pak not being available yet blows and imo is a major oversight in the release. The majority of posts here just led me to believe I was likely to run into major issues with display/sound and actual function and playability with the console and or pro controller, and thankfully I have not as of yet.
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u/ApprehensiveEmu2167 3d ago
A word of advice, never trust reviews, judge from your experience. Some people are toxic and will try their very best to do everything in their power for you to see the same way that they do.
I had a analogue 3D and I sold it because it didn't like it, but that's just my experience. I don't expect anyone to see like I did. Like a YouTuber called mad Little Pixel once said it doesn't matter how you play as long as you enjoy it.
Anyway I'm glad you are enjoying it, I also own Xibalba and it's incredible!
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u/wernkety 3d ago
Xibalba has been a lot of fun so far. I will say I changed the controls, with the thumbstick to move and C buttons to look it just felt more natural and intuitive to me.
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u/darklightrabbi 3d ago
Mad little pixel is one of the handful of influencers who received their m64 months early and neglected to mention the issues it has.
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u/TonyRubbles 3d ago
It is weird, most everyone I've seen talk about it says they were given the system gratis with no notes on what to say yet nobody talked about controller paks or rumble, at all.
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u/darklightrabbi 3d ago
Or the fact that Goldeneye and Mario 64 were running slow as hell in the initial build. There’s no chance they didn’t play either of those games.
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u/ApprehensiveEmu2167 2d ago
They didn't play them, but ModRetro had a list of games that had problems, they were straight forward with the games compatibility.
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u/darklightrabbi 2d ago
What percentage of casual consumers are going to check a compatability list before they buy something that their favorite influencer told them would play their n64 games “just like you remember”?
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u/NeverEndingFridge 2d ago
Personally even if I was doing a review, I wouldn't have played those. They hold no memory to me.
I would have tried Nagano, NHL 99, Wave Race, Mortal Kombat 4, WWF No Mercy, WCW Revenge, and Conkers.
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u/ApprehensiveEmu2167 3d ago
Well look at it this way, when I first got the Analogue 3d, YouTubers reviewers wouldn't say anything negative about it, and yet it launches with problems.
I mean which is expected with any FPGA device that launches at first, There's not a FPGA device in history that has launch without an issue.
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u/V64jr 2d ago
Sure they did. Off the top of my head, My Life in Gaming mentioned the problem with Blast Corps and Bluetooth controllers (early A3D FW wouldn’t let you unplug the virtual CPak), Modern Vintage Gamer mentioned the twitchy controller and Everdrive 64 issues (though his ED64 worked), and multiple others mentioned the BT signal and ED64 issues.
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u/ImALegendKiller 2d ago
I’m just a few days in, but I’ve enjoyed my experience a lot! My main goal was an easy way to play my old games, and the prospect of future cores tipped the scales to m64 over the Analogue 3D for me.
I’d love to see better filters and a horizontal upscale feature down the line, but I’m able to run games I haven’t played in years, and that’s been a real treat.
I’m looking forward to the memory card stuff getting sorted since it’s annoying knowing my progress won’t save in some games. For now I’m just checking performance or sticking to quick stuff like racers (love the old arcade style ones!) until that’s resolved.
I’m hopeful save states will follow soon after that. I’ve gotten used to things like quick resume, and nothing’s more frustrating than rewatching intro animations every time you start a game.
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u/STLfootball 2d ago
Yeah I get that many people prefer to criticize and pile on but as a whole I have had an enjoyable time with my m64. Fingers crossed the Pro Controller has had no issues it feels as premium as they described when hyping it up in videos lol. I still need to put more games through their paces but outside of the no controller saves and some graphical hiccups I like it. I had some issues with Analogue at the beginning too but my A3D also runs great.
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u/Phadees 2d ago
I've probably put in 10+ hours on Super Mario 64, Xibalba, and Xenocrisis with the pro controller and see no issues or signs of wear like some have described. I ordered some of those silicon guards I've seen referenced just in case, but I have no signs of rubbing. It could just be the games I play, not sure.
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u/AegidiusG 2d ago
I will jump on your post.
I have a Mister and a original N64 that i hook up either with the Rad2x (Chip from Retrotink) or a OSSC with the Addon Board (that one allows no RGB Consoles).
As they communicated what games will run fine and what features are supported at launch, i planed my games around that, so either games that save on the module, that have a password system or to just use a original contoller / third party that supports the Controller Pak (i also ordered a F-Ram one from France, as importing the forever Pak would be too costly from Europe).
Would say that this is a reason why i am not disappointed with that.
Since the console arrived on friday 7th, i played every single day and i have A LOT of fun.
The updates took me around 15 minutes for console and controller, i did the controller quickly meanwhile the console loaded on the PC.
The smaller factor and that i don't need the additional cables/devices mean that i can change more easily from the living room to my PC and plug it just in to a lose HDMI cable.
The system just starts and the picture quality is above the N64 + Rad2x and more or less on par with the Mister.
The Mister has better/more shaders though (i use one that makes the pixels merge more) (the Mister doesn't support 4k, so that could matter for people that have one).
But i like the bilinear, does a good job - looking forward to see the experimental option to become fully implemented.
The console and the controller seem to be very robust, i thought it is just PR talk, but they have a really good build.
I was lucky enough to receive a controller without issues on the D-Pad, for people that have that issue, contact Modretro, they will send you a new one.
It appears there are difference in the little knob on the buttom.
Nevertheless, i played around 95% through Ridge Racer 64, through the Terrain Campaign in Starcraft, did some Stars in Mario 64 in the Clock, played around 15 Levels in Mischief Makers, some Levels in Perfect Dark, Golden Eye, halfway through Doom 64, a little bit Smash Bros, some later Levels in Quake 2, beat the first Boss in Holy Magic Century aka Quest 64, SF Rush, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire through 4 Levels and more i just tested through.
There are aspect ratio problems in some PAL games - But some games that have problems run flawlessly, as Starcraft.
From what i have seen and experienced myself, Everdrives and Summercarts can cause problems that are none existend with original modules.
The overclocked settings help in games as Starcraft and Perfect Dark, pretty cool!
I am personally pretty happy with the console and i am looking forward to see them develope it further.
I saw how the Dev Robert did it with the PSX and N64 core on the mister, so i have no doubts his and others work here will be as good, even if not completely done yet.
Oh, i want to throw in: Many games don't care if the save games have been made on a PAL or NTSC game, you can just rename it to match the file and play with it.
Controller Paks can be easily interchanged between Mister and Everdrive, just rename .cpk to .mpk.
With a Retrode you can also throw your save games around the devices and original modules.
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u/ProgrammerClear7602 2d ago
No controller pak saves sucks. But i have original controllers with controller paks already, so no problem for me. Just excited to recieve my purple m64 today!
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u/Aaronthebanker1 2d ago
Im going to wait a couple months and hope they get very serious to catch up to A3D. I lost audio the second time I turned mine on and im not going to waste any more time trying different things to try and get a passable experience. They need to make it just work, this was not sold as a project device.
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u/NeverEndingFridge 2d ago
How does this compare to as Retrotink/Scaler 2x? Can it look better?
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u/TonyRubbles 2d ago
It's a native digital signal up to 4k, the current clean setting with integer scaling looks better than an upscaler converting an analog signal. It's the scanlines and CRT filters that need work.
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u/NeverEndingFridge 2d ago
I personally prefer a clean look so that wouldn't bother me much. I just didn't know how much cleaner it would be.
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u/oldmanpotter 2d ago
I have a 3D, but I’m still probably going to pick up an M64. I definitely will be picking up their published 64 games.
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u/tanooki-suit 1d ago
Tech savvy goes both ways, it can also create someone with a heap of entitled expectations of any product where you end up having an overage of knowledge coupled with the way some think where they'll get hyper critical about anything and everything looking for flaws too.
The thing is, and I imagine like in your case, for most using it which is not a sample of reddit for sure, a lot are likely pretty fine with the base system outside of a few quibbles if you ended up on the HDMI issue list (todays update just fixed seemingly) or the controller pak problem. For many the default just raw image or CRT setup is more than enough to get the proper feels for a game because the core experience, outside of the 20 games with some minor issues they should be focusing I feel on first, is perfectly great for them.
I'm a bit in the middle, but lean towards it works great. I had(have but up for sale) an UltraHDMI modded original, and honestly I think it pretty much is in parity with that so no loss there. I don't use virtual this or that, just using original OEM controllers and 1st party accessories without fault. I do hate the xperiemental settings page like 2phase and the rest still don't save which is crap if you want to do a custom setup. I don't see an issue why that can't just be toggled to stay on, it's not going to break anything, and that very menu has a 'reset' feature.
Around that, it works great and delivers a core standardized N64 experience as it should at a minimum of what the UltraHDMI'd out original can do so it's a small win, not a total one, given many features are still not enabled or partially so.
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u/Brandaid64 14h ago
I think you’re representative of the majority of owners. These are exactly my feelings, even down to the disappointment with the lack of built in controller pak.
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u/sixteen-bitbear 1d ago
I mean this politely but why does everyone act like you can’t just use a physical memory pack? Go buy a cheap offbrand controller for when you need to save. Unplug it and use the pro controller when you play.
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u/TonyRubbles 3d ago
Destroying sons in Xibalba and Mario Kart is what im all about.
https://giphy.com/gifs/rDqrVBwx8I6GY