The future of Nintendo 64 emulation

[Remote]

I still remember the first time I saw the Nintendo 64 incarnation of Super Mario running on my computer, only a couple of days after UltraHLE was released and disconntinued. It all begun when a friend of mine showed me screenshots of Super Mario 64 running on a PII 300 equipped with a extremely fast, it was back then, VooDoo II.



It caught my atention and even today I am still amazed over how far and how fast teqnology has developed over the last years. After UltraHLE there was a void but since Epsilon and RealityMan showed that it was possible others walked in their fotsteps. A whole slew of Nintendo 64 emus was announced, some quitely passed away while others became more and more advanced.

For a long time Nemu was my emu of choice, it offered high compatibility, good graphics and even better sound. I discovered what other emus had to offer, Corn, TR64. And sometime the past summer rumors started to float around the net about a new emu, which later on was released and became known as Project 64. It had a great impact and during the months, end users, had a chance to influate it´s progress a lot of features was added and compatibility increased by nearly fifty percent, which now lays in the eighty to ninety percent range.

Considering how far Nintendo 64 emulation has progressed the latest years, how much more can it evolve. And have the GC had any impact on how fast it has grown, in terms of graphic quality, stability and compatibility. Project 64, which in my book has made the biggest impact, was released mere months before the japanese GC launch, why? Was it a coincidency, the emu had reached a level the authors felt deserved to be shared amongst users, or was is it a deliberate action to avoid lawsuits from Nintendo, since the Nintendo 64 is getting closer and closer to the end of it´s lifespan.

What more can we expect from Nintendo 64 emulation, where do you see it six months or a year from now. Of course we can only speculate but what games and what features will be supported, which emus will narrow down the list of not supported games to a list you could write in you palm, and still have place for a couple of phone numbers, what games do you think will remain unsupported?

[Gacler]

This is how I see the n64 emulation in 6 months
It will be prety much the same, but emulators will have more compatibility maybe 95-99%, since everyday people is getting best computers, the n64 emulation will be a little bit more commun and maybe more popular, but when more time pass the amount of people in the n64 emulation will decrease, why? well because most of the ppl will get a new gen game console, I already have a GCN and I love smash bross melee, but I was tring out some 'old' n64 games that I like (since I dont have some of them(used them for only 24 hours and then deleted them) )
well, thats how I see it..

[Remote]

I would like to see a Nintendo 64 emu running on Xbox hardware, of course GC would be nice but I do not think that it is possible yet. Both consoles should be able to run most games without slowdowns. Neither 1964 nor Project 64 could be portable to Xbox since they both lack open source graphic plugins. User specific problems, since the authors are working with a fixed set of components, would be iliminated.

[Azimer]

There is no such things as the 24 hour rule. You can not even download a rom off the internet that you own. That isn't a backup off your original... it's someone elses. That backup clause violates the licensing agreement in Nintendo's manual. Which makes your licenses void if you backup your game. Just a lil reminder on the gray area of legality.

[Smiff]

Originally posted by Remote


Considering how far Nintendo 64 emulation has progressed the latest years, how much more can it evolve. And have the GC had any impact on how fast it has grown, in terms of graphic quality, stability and compatibility. Project 64, which in my book has made the biggest impact, was released mere months before the japanese GC launch, why? Was it a coincidency, the emu had reached a level the authors felt deserved to be shared amongst users, or was is it a deliberate action to avoid lawsuits from Nintendo, since the Nintendo 64 is getting closer and closer to the end of it´s lifespan.

Your right, it was not a coincidence, it was planned, but not to avoid legal action, but because Zilmar felt it was immoral to be competing with the real product. Althugh, IMHO the time was needed to get the quality up, it was pretty rough from a user POV even just a few months before 1.0. When I started testing for them it didnt work in Win2k or support the GeForce

[Zoomer]

Bring on Super Eagle Mode!!

[Zero]

Super Eagle Mode hmmmmmm

[zero0w]

Yeah I understand the immoral issue of competing with a real product. Yet PSX emulators faced the same issue, except maybe the fact that they offer (3D) enhancements and did require real copy of the PSX games.

As for Rom backup or 24 hour "rule", I suppose Nintendo will not allow any lattitude for emulation, which I think it's probably expected. It will be interesting to see if their position will change to become more liberal, considering GC is out, and that they are not rushing to stop GBA emulation (which is pretty successful for the moment), yet.

[Engeljaeger]

Hmmm...what is this Super Eagle Mode anyway?
I only know it from ZSNES (Super Nintendo Emu)...
So isn´t that just for 2D-Graphics? ???

[crhylove]

isn't that just like anti aliasing? lot's of people can do that automatically with their kick ass geforce cards.