BUNG's word on upgrading the Doctor V64...

[SJoS]

I sent BUNG the following email and received the following two replies:

Dear B.U.N.G. Representative:

Please upgrade the Doctor V64 to support 512 Mb. I WILL buy an upgrade RAM module, and I know of many who will also purchase this accessory when you make it available. Thank you for supporting your products and those who purchase them.

Most sincerely,

M. Jack Sjostrom
BUNG Owner for 2 years.

PS. If you are not planning an upgrade, please contact me, as I want to know if you are no longer supporting buyers of the Doctor V64.
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REPLY #1:

Dear Jack,
Thanks for your concern on our products and supporting. We are developing a Doctor V64 512M. If we will release it, the news will be released on our website. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Please feel free to contact us if you have any question.
Best Regards
Natalie
Bung Enterprises Ltd.
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REPLY #2:

Dear Jack,
Thanks for your mail and your concern on our products. Actually, we have no plan to release the V64 512M version recently but the V64jr 512M has been released last week and its price including shipping cost is HK$1540. Anyway, if you want to get the latest information of our products, you can visit our web site (http://www.bung.com.hk). Please feel free to contact us if you have any question.
Gary
Bung Enterprises Ltd.
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Looks like the DV64 owners are gonna be buying V64Jrs if they wanna play RE2 and the other few 512Mb games. But for $200?? It's just cheaper to buy the 2-3 games. RE2, Zelda Gaiden, and what??? Not $200 worth. Now I'd spend $100 for a ram upgrade, so email BUNG and request that they continue to develop and release a 512Mb upgrade.

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I hope you know what you're talking about...

[Vertigo]

These two replies don't surprise me in the slightest. As I've said before BUNG's customer service record is hardly the best. In fact, it's totally SHIT. Personally I'm happy with the V64, waiting and hoping for a 512MB upgrade, which MUST be at a reasonable price otherwise as you say, why not just buy the games that are worth it.
I, like many others, WILL NOT BUY ANOTHER UNIT just to play a few more games. Some of us actually have bills to pay.
BUNG has so many loyal customers since the Super Famicom days, it seems funny that it appears they still don't really give a fuck so long as product sells through.

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And he asked him, "What is thy name?"
And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion: For we are many..."

[COM]

Can Bung make an affordable upgrade though? You would probably have to replace both ram cards. Bung currently sells the 16MB card for $50. They sell a 64Mb game boy card for $80. I doubt that Bung will make 2 32MB cards cost less than $150.

[zldsc]

From those 2 Bung replies, it looks like they're still developing the 512Mb upgrade, but they're just not releasing it anytime soon. My guess is they'll release the upgrade sometime in December. It'll better be less than $100 and there'll better be enough 512Mb games coming out next year to justify this upgrade.

[handy]

That earthquake in Taiwan is going to make memory so expensive you won't believe it. If they have to make Doc memory just for the Doc, wow.

For example, last time there was such an earthquake there the price of 1 meg went to $90US.
Yes, $90 US, one meg. I know I tried to order one. usually about $25 for one meg then.

At $128 for 64 meg EDO right now, it could cost more than the Doc Jr. 512 complete.

[KANEDA]

it would reallyt suck if they didnt.

[Johanna Dark]

when i spoke to gary earlier this year he said that they had begun developing a chip but that it where in the beginning stage so dont expect it to soon....also that it actually wouldnt cost more then the normal upgrade memory so i think that the price is not the problem its more certainly going to be the time of completing the chip but we`ll have to see about that

[_kid]

COM> Can Bung make an affordable upgrade though?
Probably not.

COM> You would probably have to replace both ram cards.
Nope, you'd have to replace the whole V64 -- exactly like the V64jr

[_kid]

zldsc> From those 2 Bung replies, it looks like they're still
zldsc> developing the 512Mb upgrade
It sounds more like they're developing a 512M doctor... The fact is
that developing a 512M V64jr costed more or less zero in terms of
technology, as it is based around a programmable logic chip which is
code in a "high-level" language, creating a 512M V64jr adds zero cost
to the esisting system -- I.e. they could (and probably they DO) ship
only the 512M version, with a smaller memory module for the 256M
version...

The original V64 was designed with hardwired logic
asics, so they need to rerun them, so it would affect more the
manufacturing; probably they're waiting to see if the V64 actually
needs this change (and how the market will accept that)...

[handy]

There would have to be a backup bios too & a program to backup, too. Obviously Bung won't be doing those, right? So it'll be up to some one to buy the new doc & program those & that is a lot more time. Unless Rtool can see/send games that size.

Also, is there a backup/play bios for the new Jr yet?

[Vertigo]

Maybe the original V64 hardware was only limited to 256Mb of RAM in the first place. The N64 architecture only actually allows for 8MB of RAM maximum anyway, so it did amuse me to see all the pricks saying there should be an 'upgraed too 16megs cuz that'd maek the grafix to look hot man' on IGN when the 4MB memory came out. We all know they should've given the N64 8MB RAM to start with but that's not the point of this, my point is, maybe the original hardware just can't handle over 256Mb of RAM, I've certainly not seen evidence to the contrary.

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And he asked him, "What is thy name?"
And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion: For we are many..."

[handy]

Vertigo, I wonder why the new Nintendo 64's don't have the expansion pack added to the board now? Seems a very simple mod they could have done.

[Neouni]

Knowing Nintendo® from the pocket game thingy's on i think Nintendo® will make a pack with a N64® a expanion pack® and some game with it (something like the DK64 pack)



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/Neo

[Vertigo]

Handy: Coz they've still got to sell the ones that have been hanging around in other NTSC territories for ages yet hehe
But truly, I think it's just down to:
a) Why bother doing a case mould redesign and reprogram the manufacturing computers, that will cost extra money?
and b) Why bother adding the ex-pak as standard when they can charge us £20 to buy it seperately? I'm sure they couldn't release an 8MB N64 for £20 extra, for some reason it's all about marketing, they absolutely must have the sub-£100 price tag and why give it away for free when they can sting us for more of our hard-earned?
Then there's also the very few games that glitch with the ex-pak plugged in, for example Silicon Valley crashes often, and of course those games that people will see as must have, like DK, then the sheep shall go in their droves to give Mr Yamauchi more of their UK£ US$ and JP¥.

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And he asked him, "What is thy name?"
And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion: For we are many..."

[Neouni]

i like to say one thing
Silicon Valley has never crashed for me

(i use a z64 2.15c(c=hw3)with a 250 zip drive)

[handy]

Pray tell Neouni, where would you get a 250M zip drive Z64 bios?

[jb0395]

Neouni, please give the full instructions how to make your Z work with a Zip 250 drive.

[Vertigo]

It crashed on me a few times. Also there's the glitch where one of the trophies has no collision detection and you actually have to enable the cheat to get to the secret stages.
Well Nintendo and DMA actually did a press release about it so...
Silicon Valley can sometimes crash with an expansion pak plugged in, proper cartridges and everything, it's a left over bug from when they started making the game around 15 years ago (roughly).

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I'm not opinionated, I just talk a lot.

[jb0395]

Strangely enough, I found that using the Z64's copy file function to make a new copy of the game gets rid of SV's exp pak bugs.

[handy]

Of more than 460 N64 games people are hung up on Silicon Valley? Yikes. That game did not make me want to play it.

Also, as the price of 64meg EDO memory may skyrocket soon way past what a Doc Jr 512 costs, might be time to buy one. But then theere would have to be more than $200 worth of 512k games coming out to make this one worth it.

[SJoS]

So a friend tells me that they find this thread searching for my name on google, and that the google search reads: "Jack Sjostrom BUNG Owner for 2 years" as the first thing they see.... Why oh why.......:D

[Schweino]

Still better than "Jack Sjostrom DUNG Owner for 2 years"

[SJoS]

:d