Mr. Backup Z64 Review

The Z64 was manufactured in Taiwan and was distributed in the US by Harrison Electronics. The system is based around an i386 compatible computer; the Z64 BIOS is actually an image of a FAT filesystem, and it boots an MS-DOS clone internally.  This model cost $299.00.

The Z64 is extremely easy to use. It has an LCD display that you can use to load a game before the N64 is powered on, or to load a boot emulator or back up the cart in the slot. In addition, if you turn the N64 on before loading a game, the Z64 has a nice BIOS menu that runs as a N64 program, like the CD64 BIOS. In this case, you have a small advantage over the CD64, since you are not forced to operate with a 6102 boot cart only; you can choose whether to use the BIOS or operate the LCD menu depending on what you want to do.

In the Z64 menu, you can set up options for each individual game, such as what boot chip it uses, slowdown function, tell it to redirect controller pack saves to the zip disk (for transfer to PC or copy to friends), or to PAL-fix it.

Features:

• Independently operating without connecting to computers or any peripherals


• Simple installation, plug and play with only a few buttons


• Capable of automatically detecting a defective game cartridge


• Capable of backing up game cartridge data into Zip Disk


• Capable of playing games from the cartridge


• Capable of playing game files stored on the Zip Disk


• Capable of storing the game record (Eeprom + Sram)


• Capable of clearing data files stored in the diskette


• With built-in 256Mbit memory ( 32MB DRAM)


• With built-in  ZIP-100 disk drive


• Store average 6-12 files in one ZIP-100 diskette 


• Average 16-64 seconds to backup each cartridge depending on game size


• Function could upgrade for future version


• Flash BIOS for convenient upgrade from Zip Disk