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Above is a real N64 cart. It has shielding, quality components, and gold contacts. |
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Wave Race 64 pirate. No shielding, and the board is very small. The roms are sealed in protective epoxy. |
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Back of Wave Race. This is an outright bootleg. No attempt at label or real screws (Literally cast from the back of a real cart! Note the plastic
"screws") |
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Killer Instinct. This game is 32 MB, and is a sizable pirate cart. 32MB is expensive. How much money could they have possibly made? |
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Summary: The last of the dedicated pirate carts. PROS: A novelty, and fun to talk about. |
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Sometimes I run into things that are just unusual. Pirate N64 carts fill that description. N64 carts are expensive to make, and you can't just make them anywhere.
It requires a factory of notable sophistication with good equipment and staff. |
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These games also require an "adapter". N64 has really tough protection against piracy. The only way you can use these games is with an "universal adapter".
With real carts, the "universal converter function" is really just a change in plastic molding. The adapter provides an extension so you don't have to worry about removing the plastic "blocking" inside the N64 that
serves as a "country protect". |
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The piracy part comes in when you use the extra cart slot on the back. You "piggyback" a real cart on the adapter. What happens is when the pirate on top is
used, it "borrows" the code from the real cart so it seems like a legitimate product to the N64. These adapters are still expensive for some reason. It's also useful if you have PAL carts. |
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Check out the packaging on the pirate carts! |
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"Killer Cuts Music CD included inside!" Ah.. Right...Game = 32 Megabit = 3.8 Megabytes
CD = 650 Megabytes = 5,452,595,200 bits To actually have a "CD inside" it would take 5400 Megabits (5.4 Billion bits). At $30 per 128 Megabits, this cart (CD inside) would only cost $1278.00 to make
(each). |
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The white oval seal of quality? |
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