Recently the EON Super 64 became available for purchase on some retailers like Castlemania Games. I pre-ordered mine and well it finally came in. Listen I know other people have been reviewing this device non-stop and I’m a little late. But I do have a normal 9-5 so you’re just gonna have to sit right down and read this and deal with it. The Super 64 is a lovely little device that plugs into the video port on the back of your Nintendo 64. This enables you to plug in an HDMI cable into the back of your more modern TVs. It outputs the resolution to 480p which is S-Video. It does this by doubling and bob-deinterlacing to upscale native 240p and 480i content to 480p. There are two other ways to achieve better colors and sharper pixels and higher resolutions for your N64. You can go the RetroTink method but then you still need a N64 S-Video cable which aren’t incredibly easy to find or aren’t cheap I’d imagine. You can also go the Ultra HDMI route which is the best option but you definitely need some super soldering skills. You do have some other methods like an OSSC or the almighty and expensive Framemeister. The OSSC and Framemeister are both excellent options and can be used with other Retro consoles as well so maybe worth the money if you have it.
My experience so far is pretty great. I also don’t agree with the price of the Super 64, $150 is a little much for what it does in my opinion and most other people’s opinions as well, to be honest. I hooked it up to two TVs. One is my Sony x800 4k and the other is an old LCD Toshiba 1080p I have in my Game Room as well. To my surprise, it actually looked better on my Toshiba LCD 1080p TV. Just seemed sharper and truer colors. The image is set to 16:9 aspect ratio pretty much no matter what so just a heads up on that. There is a small button on the side of the device that will enable “slick” mode. This will smooth out the edges so it’s not as pixelated. Some people prefer this method and others not so much. For myself, I didn’t hate it. Some games it was cool to have it on and some other ehhh not so much. I didn’t experience any input lag or anything like that and it felt good to play on legit Nintendo 64 hardware. It just brought back the nostalgia feeling ya know? Soon as I started up Super Mario 64 I immediately smiled and just felt like a kid/teenager again and it was fantastic. This is definitely way better the regular old yellow cables/composite. I tested around 20 games and all of them booted right up with no issues. Everything from Super Mario 64 to Smash Bros., Tony Hawk, Wave Race 64 and Goldeneye. Rumble Paks and Memory Cards all worked as normal.
Now, this is not the best end-all solution to play your Nintendo 64 in the modern era. But what I can tell you that it’s pretty damn good and just a tad bit too expensive. Hopefully, this goes down in price soon so everyone can get a chance to enjoy this little device. This device isn’t meant to give you the best possible picture but more or less a way for you to just enjoy your N64 with slightly better quality on your more modern TVs.
