1964 0.9.9 beta review

1964 beta 0.99 review:

1964 is a N64 emulator which is worshipped by many emu-lovers. Schibo decided to release a nice present for us with new year's eve and that is definatly a big step in the way of perfect emulation... uhm probably above perfect because he even managed to put the speed and the quality in a level above the real N64! Lets see what the new 1964 gives to us:

Core: 35/40

The core emu is excellent. The speed is nice, the compatibility is high, and the fixes with Donkey Kong which have never been made in ANY emu are finally here!

- speed: 8/10

The speed of the emu is pretty high and at SOME parts it even beats corn! The auto-frameskip is a total new present for us because we all (uhm... at least a few smart people) tought that it was impossible to do auto frameskip for the N64, because it just skips all the frames and there will be no video-output, but Schibo succeeded with this and we'll see how when he releases the source-code!

- compatibility: 19/20

The compatibility is near perfect. The not-working games are mainly caused by the GFX-plugins and the games which won't work are mostly demos. The near-perfect emulation is here at a pretty high level and it's good to hear that it obviously will increase in the future!

- bugs/errors: 8/10

I could find no real bugs in the emulator, but of course there are still minor (ingame) bugs, but most likely they are fixed in the final release.

GFX: 15/20

The new GFX plugin (Rice's daedalus 5.2.0) is pretty good. I'm now talking about a plugin which has the most advanced settings panel I've ever seen in a GFX plugin, and beside that there are also a few other settings you can do. The speed is a tiny bit slower than Jabo's (without frameskip), but it has its own advantages. Rice's plugin scales the textures much better, and has also got nice scale2x options. A not completely new option but probably still usable is T&L. Jabo used hardware T&L is his d3d7 1.40 plugin, but removed it because of the unneccesary slowdown, but Rice is now trying it with software T&L. These functions may cause effects which you could never imagine in a N64 game. Games like Super Smash Bros and Perfect Dark will take many advantage out of these options. Unfortunatly T&L wasn't working for me so I couldn't watch how awesome it is.

Sound: 9/10

Skips are almost history with the frameskip, and the new audio plugin (schibo's audio 1.2 based on ultrahle) is pretty nice and is doing much stuff which earlier should have been done by the RSP.

GUI: 4/5

A nice GUI is never wrong, and this one is pretty easy to use. No real high-tech designed GUI and no buggy crap like the new media player, but just the perfect and easy GUI which is a must-see for everyone!

Gaming experience: 20/25

I was talking about the technical side of the emulator, but another important part is the gaming experience! The games are just fun to play. I tested a few games to see how they feel at this emu:

Mario64: The experience was just nice. The game ran excellent and smooth in the highest resolution, and was just excellent playable.
Mariokart 64: This game was just running pretty good but was a bit unstable with frameskip on.
Perfect Dark: Perfect Dark was running a lot better than on 1964 0.8.5. The speed in the combat-simulator has been increased insanely. Perfect Dark is the game to be emulated!
Goldeneye: The speed has slightly been increased, but you still require a powerful system to run this one. I couldn't get a good experience because I haven't got a powerful system.
Also note that the netplay has been improved dramatically, and you know the result for games like Smash Bros, Perfect Dark and Goldeneye!

Overall score: 82/100

Best bits:

- Excellent speed
- High Compatibility
- Options I've never seen before in N64-emulation
- Per ROM plugin-settings
- Improved Netplay

Worst bits:

- Goldeneye still requires a pretty fast system

Final word:

1964 is probably the best N64-emu around, and will probably now attract PJ64-users because of the new functions and the better speed. There is included a nice manual which will even let the newbies use the advanced functions of this emu. I expected a little bit more from the new 1964, but of course, the work isn't finished yet, and a score of 82% isn't bad for a beta too, and Schibo: just keep up the good work!

An excellent review, and on balance fair.

A few points from my perspective:

Also notice that Jabo's sound-plugin still isn't supported.

You need to enable RSP and Jabos Audio will work so I think the rating might need to be upped, if you can verify that for me.

Goldeneye still slow

The default CF used to be 3 which runs it very fast but very slightly less than smooth. CF2 runs incredibly fast (too fast, but fun), and CF1 runs smooth but takes the fastest system.

So try setting CF3 for Goldeneye, and seeing if that helps you any.

The helpfile for the graphics plugin is in a way included with the actual plugin - just enable tooltips and hover over an option, a balloon will then show you the options (and a brief explanation).

As I said though, excellent review.

Thanks a lot. Jabo's audio is now running fine and I'll edit my review.

Did you check what I said about Goldeneye and about Rices plugin?

Well, about Goldeneye: It requires a fast system, so I changed the worst bit into that, and I forgot to change that from Rice's plugin, and just changed it.

I mean did you try it using CF3? For example on my system it goes from being 10% idle on CF1 to 50% idle on CF3. Big performance increase from default.

I tested it with CF3, and it increased the speed a little bit, but also made it a lot choppier (even with the frameskip off). CF2 made it run at a nice speed (a bit choppy), but the sound became terrible.

Try CF2 and decrease the speed of the emulation by 10% - problem with that approach is it ruins the sound Worked well for me though when I was pissing about.

[bragging rights]

I got a new laptop for Christmas ( Centrino 1.4Ghz, 512Mb, 60gig, 1680x1050 SWXGA screen *drool* ). Anyway, I hook up my Logitech Cordless Wingman Gamepad...and I got emulation on the road Even when it speedsteps down to 600Mhz, it still will pull Goldeneye at 60fps. I think the GeforceToGo 4200 (64mb) is what really helps it. The desktop (P4 1.5Ghz, 256Mb, GF2MX400 (16mb)) has a hard time with it.

Adam

I'll be moving this to Emu64 Reviews, good job and thanks for your submission.