Because the Nintendo 64 used cartridges as opposed to compact discs like its rivals, games were, by and large, designed to save your progress without the need for a memory card – but that didn't stop Nintendo from making one anyway.
The N64 Controller Pak (part number: NUS-004) plugged into the back of your N64 pad and allowed you to transfer data between consoles – handy for when you were visiting a friend's house and wanted to use your own data on a particular game (like taking your team with you to play in a competitive sports title, for example).
Some titles – such as Mario Kart 64 and the Japan-only Animal Crossing title Animal Forest – required the Pak to get the most out of them, but surprisingly few first-party games actually use it; even so, it soon became an almost essential accessory for N64 owners thanks largely to third-party publishers supporting it in lieu of equipping their games with the ability to save data on the cartridge (which would cost them more money when it came to production).
The issue with using the original Controller Pak today is the fact that the 256kb of SRAM is kept alive by a CR2032 battery – and once this dies, your data is lost forever. You can, of course, change the battery and give yourself another couple of decades of use, but a far more convenient solution is now available thanks to the talented people at 4Layer Technologies.
The Forever Pak 64 is a dead ringer for the official Controller Pak, with one vital difference: instead of relying on a battery, it uses modern nonvolatile memory which doesn't require power to retain data, meaning that it can, in the words of 4Layer, last "indefinitely" (although we'd personally be cautious about saying "forever" as nothing really lasts that long).
Available in six different colours (original grey, translucent green, translucent red, translucent blue, translucent black and translucent purple), the Forever Pak 64 offers the same amount of storage – 256kb – as the real thing, which might come as a disappointment to those of you who owned a third-party Controller Pak which offered more space than Nintendo's offering.
Still, at $34.99, it's hard to grumble – especially as the Pak itself is manufactured from high-quality plastic and comes with two (count 'em) stickers so you can keep track of what data is on it.
We've put the Forever 64 Pak through its paces and can confirm that yes, it functions exactly like the real thing. Sadly, we'd have to wait a few decades to see if this can truly outlast an original Controller Pak when it comes to memory retention, but we feel much more secure owning it – and if you're a seasoned N64 player who uses a Controller Pak often, then we think you will, too.
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Comments 16
A bit of a shame it doesn't have more save space but a nice product. I suppose the bigger concern given this is the battery life in the cartridges as they tend to be the better games as well. I better get practicing with a soldering iron
This has prompted me to check my old Shock Wave in my N64, which is a combo of 1MB memory and rumble pak.
I just opened it up and it's got a CR2032 soldered in it, so I'm going to order some replacement batteries and holders. I've got two, so I'm going to transfer data to the other one so it doesn't lose anything when the battery is disconnected!
I used my memory pack rubble pack combo (has a switch on the side to select the mode - cant remember who made it something similar to a "Jolt Pack") to save my WWF No Mercy Custom Character (Hooligan) as I have one of those cartridges that resets itself every so often
@BulkSlash I still have a couple of those too. They are great for having multiple larger save files on, you're still limited to 16 slots but for the most part they a fantastic. I believe even some of Datel's regular memory cards done this and had 4 or 8 meg in one versions but have never owned any to know for sure. I'm surprised no one since has bothered to copy it as it was way ahead of the time even then.
@Zenszulu I think it's the only third party memory card I've used that hasn't trashed my data! 😂 I was quite pleased when I discovered all my data still on it when I plugged it in a few years back.
I once entrusted my Dreamcast saves to an Action Replay memory card (or was it Game Shark around then? I can't remember anymore 😅). Anyway it lost my best Crazy Taxi score of 88K or thereabouts. That took me ages to get too!
@BulkSlash Same here I still have game saves from 25 years ago on there and as of last year they were still there so they really stood the test of time so worth the investment at the time. I just don't think anyone back then really trusted third party stuff so even the really good products didn't last long on sale.
Do they not make one that will just save to a microsd, aren't we at that point?
@Diogmites Seriously, I can taste Jolly Ranchers just looking at that thing
Ridiculous price. What's the likely cost of production for 256kb?
I was prepared to drop fiddy to pick up 4 of these, but at that price I doubt I'll be buying any.
@carlos82 Fortunately, very few N64 games used battery-backed SRAM (apparently only a dozen or so), with the others all using non-volatile storage that will last a long time with light/reasonable usage. Unfortunately, the list of games with batteries includes some of the most popular ones, like Super Smash Bros. and Ocarina of Time.
Gosh those memory cards were such junk. I had three official cards from Nintendo, one of the routinely wiped, one would randomly lose save files, one worked well for a year and died completely. I had a Performance card that worked decently but by then I also bought a dex drive and regularly backed my files up to a PC. I wish someone would make an updated version of that, since it uses a serial port, but this card looks like a nice alternative.
Ahahahahhaa $35 for a ***** 256kb of storage. Man these companies really try ripping the skin off of the nintendo sheep
256 Kb should be enough for anyone.
/- Bill Gates
I can see game cartridge refurbishment becoming a real thing.
Retro gaming accessories - do as little as possible for as much money as possible.
“Retro gamers are a bunch of mugs”
That’s what it feels like often.
@Poodlestargenerica Seriously. You'd think we'd get to the point that micro SD card support is default.
Well not like this affects me personally, I don't have any N64 games that use the Controller Pak.
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