Interact N64 Memory Card Plus

[Streetball 21]

Anyone familiar with these types of memory cards? I've had mine for a while, and now anything I try to save just gets corrupted and it ends up erasing. It does have 4 slots with a switch as well. Suggestions or should I just buy another one?

[alxbly]

Most of the switched (4X) N64 memory cards are really bad. You could try cleaning the connectors on the card to see if that helps... but I wouldn't bother. Buy a couple of official N64 memory cards, as they're more reliable and you can find them dirt cheap now.

[BetaWolf47]

Hi alxbly

Streetball 121: I've been using the Interact/Performance ones for years. I'd open it up to see that the switch is making contact with the board. My original one has worked fine though.

[otaku]

I had one when they first came out brand new when the 64 was still alive and at retail. It was fine then but I doubt they hold up well as the previous poster said official ones are cheap so go that route

[A Black Falcon]

I've had good luck with 1x third-party cards (I have two Performance-brand 1x cards and both are still good, one of which was the first memory card I got for my N64 in 1999 and still work fine), but yeah, any compressed, multi-block N64 memory card is EXTREMELY suspect. I have one, and it died on me too... and propbably not just "the battery died, it won't save anymore until you replace it" (in which case Interact/Performance cards are the best ever, because THEY USE COIN-CELL HOLDERS AND NO SOLDER! ), but "It's dead, period". I do have one dead Interact card, but I got that one last year, used, and it was dead from day one. I tried switching the battery with no luck, so that's not the problem. Oh well...

... I do need more cards, though. N64 memory cards don't hold many saves, so for a good-sized collection you need a LOT of cards... I have five now, and would need three or four more to just save all the games I have... hence the usefulness of an 4x card, if any actually were reliable. It's kind of annoying, really.

Oh, and the fact that all of the cards have batteries in them, and first-party cards do have them soldered in, isn't exactly comforting either, considering how old those batteries are now... most N64 carts with on-cart saving use EEPROM or Flash RAM and only a dozen or so use batteries, but all N64 memory cards use batteries, annoyingly. I've had a couple of cards erase themselves, perhaps because of fading batteries... but I can't solder, so what can I do? Not much it seems. And of course because of the system's horrible memory card system design, you can't even copy files from one card to another without a Gameshark or device like a DexDrive... so yeah, I'd definitely recommend some kind of backup device like a DexDrive or some other N64-to-PC device that allows you to copy memory cards to the computer (there are several more). There's no other good way to have a good, reliable backup of your N64 save files.

[megasdkirby]

I'm pretty sure the batteries are dead.

[Streetball 21]

So I'm gonna bump this thread. Can the memory card connectors on a N64 controller be bad? I bought a Performance memory card and did not work on my 1st controller, which is used more often than my other controller. The memory card now works on my 2nd controller, which isn't used very often. Anyone ever experience this?

[Rogue]

So I'm gonna bump this thread. Can the memory card connectors on a N64 controller be bad? I bought a Performance memory card and did not work on my 1st controller, which is used more often than my other controller. The memory card now works on my 2nd controller, which isn't used very often. Anyone ever experience this?

Don't you have a Rumble Pak to try?