It's been a while since I played one, so I just have a question. I am planning on buying one this weekend, used, and I was wondering if I needed to buy anything to save game data, such as a memory card or something of that manner.

Thanks!

Most games save directly to the cartridge, but there are some that require a memory card. So you may want to get a card for good measure.

You should be able to get a memory card for a few dollars, but there were very few non-sports games that used it.

Thinking back the only two decent non-sports games I recall using it were Blast Corps and Turok.

As far as Blast Corps goes, it may or may not use the card, but it definitely isn't required to save the game.

That's not true. I remember vividly that the game saves went to memory card because I was about 75% through getting all gold medals when my crappy 3rd party memory card crapped out and erased my file forcing me to start over.

Blast Corps can save to the cart or to a memory card. Take your memory card out and it will always save to the cart.

Basically it boils down to his: If you're playing a game made by Rare or Nintendo, it will almost assuredly save to the cart. If it is a third-party game, it likely saves to a memory card. There are a few exceptions, but in general, it holds true.

Weird, I don't recall any ability to save to the game cart. Guess I just never took the mem card out so it never saved there.

did that memory cart plug into the back of the controller? I can't recall if I ever bought one of those things when I had a 64 back in the day, and I never had a problem saving.

Yeah, plugged into the back of the controller. Not that many games worth play required one.

Here's a list of all the N64 games that had on-cart save (games that save to a memory chip on the cart instead of to the Controller Pak (memory card)). All other games either required the Controller Pak (memory card) to save, used a password system or had no save capability at all:

1080ş Snowboarding
AeroFighters Assault
All Star Tennis '99
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
Big Mountain 2000
Blast Corps
Body Harvest
Bomberman 64
Bomberman 64: The Second Attack
Bomberman Hero
Chameleon Twist
Chopper Attack
Command & Conquer
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Cruis'n Exotica
Cruis'n USA
Cruis'n World
Diddy Kong Racing
Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers
Donkey Kong 64
Dr. Mario 64
Earthworm Jim 3D
Excitebike 64
F-1 World Grand Prix
Fighters Destiny
F-Zero X
Glover
GoldenEye 007
GT64 Championship Edition
Harvest Moon 64
Hey You, Pikachu!
In Fisherman Bass Hunter 64
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
Indy Racing 2000
Jet Force Gemini
Ken Griffey Jr's Slugfest
Killer Instinct Gold
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The
Lode Runner 3D
Looney Tunes: Duck Dodgers
Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.
Mario Golf
Mario Kart 64
Mario Party
Mario Party 2
Mario Party 3
Mario Tennis
Megaman 64
Mickey's Speedway USA
Mischief Makers
Mission: Impossible
Monopoly
MRC: Multi-Racing Championship
NBA Courtside 2 Featuring Kobe Bryant
New Tetris, The
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
Paper Mario
Penny Racers
Perfect Dark
PGA European Tour
Pilotwings 64
Pokémon Puzzle League
Pokémon Snap
Pokémon Stadium
Pokémon Stadium 2
Resident Evil 2
Ridge Racer 64
Rocket: Robot on Wheels
Snowboard Kids 2
Space Station Silicon Valley
Star Fox 64
Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth
Star Wars Episode I: Battle for Naboo
Star Wars Episode I: Racer
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Starcraft 64
Starshot Space Circus
Super Mario 64
Super Smash Bros.
Tetrisphere
Tigger's Honey Hunt
Tom & Jerry in Fists of Furry
Top Gear Overdrive
V-Rally Edition '99
Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics
Wave Race 64
WCW/NWO Revenge
Worms Armageddon
WWF Wrestlemania 2000
WWF: No Mercy
Yoshi's Story

Also, as previously mentioned there are a handful of games that had both on-cart save and controller pak save. Some of are them can save to either the on-cart save or to the Controller Pak like Blast Corps and Perfect Dark, while others use the Controller Pak for saving things like replays/ghosts like Mario Kart 64.

Big Mountain 2000
Blast Corps
Bomberman 64
Bomberman 64: The Second Attack
Cruis'n USA
Diddy Kong Racing
Excitebike 64
Fighters Destiny
GT64 Championship Edition
Killer Instinct Gold
Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside
Mario Kart 64
MRC: Multi-Racing Championship
New Tetris, The
Penny Racers
Perfect Dark
Wave Race 64
WWF Wrestlemania 2000
WWF: No Mercy


Yeah, I know... I was kind of a N64 super-geek.

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fab

I'd back Josh up and say I have no memory of Blastcorps having on board save. In fact out the the launch games purchased, a memory card was purchased only because of blast corps. Very strange...

Shame on you then for not remembering that Ogre Battle 64 also supported saving on the cart or the memory card.

Unless there were 2 different versions of Blast Corps this is incorrect. The way Blast Corps works is that if there is a Controller Pak (Memory card) in the Controller, it will use that and give you 4 save slots and prompt you which to use/load when it boots and will not use the on-board save. If you do not have a Controller Pak in the Controller it will not prompt you at all since it only has 1 slot but it does indeed save your progress to the on-board save.

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fab

I'd don't have mine to check for sure. I'm guessing your right and I was just misinformed and bought a mem card (3rd party as all 1st party ones were sold out) when I bought the game and never played without it in the controller so I was never aware of the cart saving option.

Pretty lame to do it that way anyway.

Yeah thinking back it was something to do with the fact that the save onboard the cart was no where near enough (so only room for one 1p game right?) and that's why we had to have a memory card...
Strange that you'd only be allowed 1 save, most nintendo games seem to allow at least 3.

Thanks for all the info everyone!

Bought a pre-owned Nintendo 64 at EB games today, didn't realize until I got home that one of the pins (?) on the AC Adapter was broken and the thing won't power up. Now I have to go find a replacement adapter. :/