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Everything and More about the Everdrive 64

Everdrive. For years this very word has meant an endless world of possibilities for owners of earlier home consoles. Now, that same quality and near limitless potential is available for your Nintendo 64. Everdrive 64 is one of the best things you can buy for your Nintendo 64 system and this page will cover everything you need to know about the device.

The Everdrive 64 is a flash cart developed by the Ukrainian programmer Krikzz. It's similar in some ways to an emulator, only you play your Nintendo 64 games on your actual Nintendo 64 system instead of on your computer. The device is very user-friendly and requires no software to use. You simply download the games you want, drag and drop them onto an SD card, put this SD card into your Everdrive 64, and then play them. It's a much more authentic experience as the games run 100% like they should without any of the problems that emulation brings. With Everdrive 64 you can play games released in your region, import games from other regions, homebrew games, unreleased games, hacks of games and even NES games. The only real limit with the Everdrive 64 is the size of the SD card you use. If you're a big fan of the Nintendo 64, then the Everdrive 64 is the perfect product for you and I couldn't recommend it anymore.

The official Everdrive website has a full list of all the online stores that carry Everdrive products. In addition to that they can also be purchased off the official website. Although there's a lot of choice as to where you can buy an Everdrive 64, I think it's pretty clear that the official store trumps the rest. The official store is of course run by Krikzz himself. Being official, it's less likely the store will run out of stock, and the odd chance that they do run out, they will restock faster. They ship worldwide from the Ukraine and they have the lowest prices. For the price you pay and the quality you receive, they are the absolute best value out of all the Everdrive dealers.

During the summer of 2013 I ordered my Version 2.0 Everdrive 64 from the Krikzz store which was called Retrogate at the time. Here's what my order looked like:

Everdrive 64 - $99
CIC-6102 installed - $15
US Shell - $15
Shipping to Canada - $5

That's a total of $134 and it was 11 days from the time I made the order to the time I was holding the device in my hands. Here's what I received:

Nothing but the best from Krikzz. The Everdrives from Krikzz comes with custom labels on both sides of the cartridge. The top also has a slot cut for where the SD card is to be inserted. The device looks great! My Everdrive 64 came in a standard grey cartridge but they have recently switched to red cartridges.

Although there are many other Everdrive dealers, I feel a lot of them are overcharging. As you can see with the above, a ready to play Everdrive Version 2.0 was $134 for me. Unfortunately the other Everdrive stores feel it necessary to attach a premium for no reason. Some of them include extras like the SD card, stickers, a case, a sheet of instructions, a paint job, or sometimes nothing extra at all. None of this stuff, besides the SD card, is necessary so don't bother with them. I'm sure these stores are reputable; it's just too bad they also happen to be greedy.

There's just one thing you need outside of the Everdrive 64 device to start playing, and that's an SD card. Without one, you can't do a thing with your Everdrive! The SD card you need isn't anything special; just get the best priced SD or SDHC you can find from your local Wal-Mart or The Source. You'll ideally want one that's 8 GB or 16 GB. Anything smaller than 8 GB means you won't have enough space to fit the entire library on it, and anything larger than 16 GB means you're going to have lots of empty space as larger than that is overkill. Nintendo 64 ROMs surprisingly aren't that big. For example, the entire North American N64 set of 296 games takes up only 4.46 GB. There are 388 worldwide N64 releases, then of course there's Prototypes, Hacks, Homebrew, NES, etc. The decision is of course yours but 8 GB should be just right for the average gamer.

When buying an Everdrive 64 you have two choices to pick from. There's the Everdrive 64 Version 2.5 and the Everdrive 64 Version 3.0. Both devices are very similar and run the same OS, but the 2.5 is more like the standard model while the 3.0 is the luxury model which has a few additional and more costly features that the 2.5 does not have. As expected the 3.0 is more expensive than the 2.5. Here are the main differences between the two devices:

3.0 has improved compatibility and can play two games that the 2.5 cannot. These titles are Pokemon Stadium 2 and Doubutsu No Mori.
3.0 has an added save battery which means saving your game progress is a little faster. When you've finished playing a Nintendo 64 game on the 3.0, you can just save, quit and power off the console exactly like you'd expect. With the 2.5 you'd save, quit, reset the console, and then once you've gotten to the Everdrive menu you can power off.
3.0 includes a USB port on it while 2.5 does not. The USB port is used for game development and serves no purpose otherwise.

I provide in depth information on all of these points further on in this guide. If you want to play and enjoy either of those two games mentioned, or you like the more convenient saving then go for the 3.0. If you can live without those few extra features then the 2.5 is for you.

UPDATE: Everdrive 64 Version 2.0 has recently been discontinued. It's still the most popular Everdrive 64 out there and is still supported. The Everdrive 64 Version 2.5 has taken its place. The difference between the 2.0 and the 2.5 was that with the 2.0 the USB port could be added optionally but with the newer 2.5 it's no longer possible. Both devices also have slightly different board designs. Otherwise these devices work, run, and play the exact same way. Whenever I write Everdrive 2.0 in this article I'm refering to both the 2.0 and the 2.5.

UPDATE: In 2019, Krikzz released the Everdrive 64 X7, which replaced the older version 3.0. For the most part, the X7 seems to be the same, though it does sport a new UltraCIC III which replaces the older UltraCIC II. The Everdrive X7 also gets its own OS updates, separate from the older 2.5 and 3.0 cartridges. All the information above about the 3.0 still applies to the newer X7.

N64 Copy Protection and the UltraCIC

Like the NES and SNES before it, the N64 uses a security lockout chip (CIC) to protect against piracy. The N64 will not boot a cartridge game if a real Nintendo CIC chip is not present. This posed a problem for the earliest versions of the Everdrive 64 which needed a donor CIC chip in order to function. The recommended chip for Everdrives was the CIC-NUS-6102. Nearly the entire N64 library works on the Everdrive 64 using just this CIC chip, but a few games like Jet Force Gemini had anti-piracy checks which would cripple the game or prevent it from booting if the incorrect CIC chip was used. There are patches for those games to remove the anti-piracy checks further down this article, but thankfully an alternative was developed.

MarshallH lead an effort to decap and reverse engineer the CIC chips found in N64 cartridges and the console itself, resulting in the open source project called UltraCIC. This amazing technology allows for the Everdrive 64 to be region free and run every retail N64 game without issue, including Rareware's games with anti-piracy. The UltraCIC II found in some older Everdrive 64 cartridges uses a physical toggle switch to change between NTSC and PAL, with the newer UltraCIC III doing everything automatically, no switch required.

The earliest versions of the Everdrive 64 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 made before 2015 came with a donor CIC.
The Everdrive 64 2.5, 3.0 and X7 made after 2015 should come with an UltraCIC.
The UltraCIC II utilized a physical NTSC-

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