what would you guys think of a n64 emu for the ngc

[mainframe19]

i think it be awsome, to play some great n64 games on the ngc!

 

[nephalim]

That's impossible, sorry. I'm pretty open minded, I always thought N64 emulation was possible when everyone said it would need 10ghz processors. However, since AFAIK it's impossible to burn a CD that would work on the GCN, it makes it impossible for homebrew. And for Nintendo to do it...that's about as likely as Bush raising taxes.

 

[Quvack]

Um homebrew has been happening for a while on the GC with the use of a BBA connected to the pc for uploading stuff into ram.

As for N64 on GC I dunno, it'd be interesting to see how it'd turn out but theres many things that'd need to be overcome before it could be attempted. I think?

 

[CpU MasteR]

This has lightknight written all over it... :angry:

 

[mightyrocket]

Cpu, read the post again: It's about a N64 emulator for the GC, and not a GC-emu for the PC .

Of course it is possible because the GC still contains the original N64-hardware!

 

[sytaylor]

utterly pointless.. if you want n64 games buy an n64, especially considering how hard it would be to author something to work in a gamecube with its mini discs

 

[AlphaWolf]

Well, gamecube is going to have a physical limitation that would prevent n64 emulation. N64 roms as most of you know, can be quite a bit larger than the ammount of physical ram that is actualy on the GC, and you'd need to store that rom space somewhere that has a high ammount of bandwidth. You would probably be limited to emulating somewhere in the range of 16 meg roms.

The only reason that n64 emulation with 512mbit roms is possible on the xbox is because you can page it to the local hard disk (which is actualy easier said than done).

 

[SculleatR]

Nah...

someone has already started an attempt....
mightyrocket, there is a BIG difference between the GC
and N64... its possible, kinda handy for mario64, you would
need to write a N64 CPU core which translates the MIPS
code into the PPC code...

 

[Quvack]

Of course it is possible because the GC still contains the original N64-hardware!

No, it doesnt. Your probably thinking along the lines of the ps2.

 

[AlphaWolf]

someone has already started an attempt....

Interesting...URL? I am curious how they plan to manage the memory. They certainly can't execute the rom directly from the disc, nor even a BBA (both are way too slow).

 

[SculleatR]

Interesting...URL? I am curious how they plan to manage the memory. They certainly can't execute the rom directly from the disc, nor even a BBA (both are way too slow).

I dunno if it already works, but you can Read the cartridge
bytewise on your computer and save it in an array (.h file for example). You would just access the array like you open the ROM image on
your computer. But I guess that would be illegal, but works.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I dunno if it already works, but you can Read the cartridge
bytewise on your computer and save it in an array (.h file for example). You would just access the array like you open the ROM image on
your computer. But I guess that would be illegal, but works.

Hmm...well, that would work if you could get a fast enough interface to bridge the cartridge and the PC (which I could think of a few possible ways), but the 64 dollar question is how are you supposed to interface the gamecube to the cartridge? AFAIK your only options are ethernet or disc, neither of which are fast enough.

(BTW, that would NOT be illegal by any means, at least in the USA anyways.)

 

[SculleatR]

Hmm...well, that would work if you could get a fast enough interface to bridge the cartridge and the PC (which I could think of a few possible ways), but how are you supposed to interface the gamecube to the cartridge? AFAIK your only options are ethernet or disc, neither of which are fast enough.

(BTW, that would NOT be illegal by any means, at least in the USA anyways.)

No no...

the .c/.h files are C source files, with that you build the .DOL file.
(using gcc for powerpc target)

 

[AlphaWolf]

No no...

the .c/.h files are C source files, with that you build the .DOL file.
(using gcc for powerpc target)

Ok you've lost me...are you suggesting translating the binary from its native environment to the gamecube? IIRC, whenever that was tried, it resulted in very bloated binaries that didn't run very well.

 

[SculleatR]

Ok you've lost me...are you suggesting translating the binary from its native environment to the gamecube? IIRC, whenever that was tried, it resulted in very bloated binaries that didn't run very well.

Google -> Download BIN2H.

you create a .h file with it, which writes every byte of the file
you wanted into an array.

unsigned char data[bytes] = { byte, byte, bla bla };

you use that array then. =)
Also you might check out DesktopMans chip8 emu.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Google -> Download BIN2H.

you create a .h file with it, which writes every byte of the file
you wanted into an array.

unsigned char data[bytes] = { byte, byte, bla bla };

you use that array then. =)
Also you might check out DesktopMans chip8 emu.

That isn't going to help the problem though. All that will do is embed the rom into the emulator executable itself, you are still going to run into the RAM issue, which because of the gamecubes design, is completely unavoidable.

Remember that n64 roms are up to 512mbit, approximately 64 megs. The GC only has about 25 IIRC, which isn't enough to hold that. In fact, you also need to emulate the 4 meg of ram that the n64 has, as well as the overhead for the emulator itself, which leaves you barely enough room to be limited only to 128mbit cartridges.

 

[Remote]

Read from disc seems to be an option in future emus, since gerrit has it in sixtyforce and from what I've heard the performance hit is neglible...

 

[SculleatR]

That isn't going to help the problem though. All that will do is embed the rom into the emulator executable itself, you are still going to run into the RAM issue, which because of the gamecubes design, is completely unavoidable.

Remember that n64 roms are up to 512mbit, approximately 64 megs. The GC only has about 25 IIRC, which isn't enough to hold that. In fact, you also need to emulate the 4 meg of ram that the n64 has, as well as the overhead for the emulator itself, which leaves you barely enough room to be limited only to 128mbit cartridges.

GC RAM is 24 megs.
btw I was refering more to mario64.
But still, that sux.

 

[nullroute]

AFAIK your only options are ethernet or disc, neither of which are fast enough.

Ethernet should be plenty fast enough. The only reason that the disc is too slow is not the thruput, but because the seek latency is too high. The memory would have to be page-mapped, and there would have to be a remote service running on a pc to serve pages of n64 rom to the gc, which is no small amount of work for something of a challenging novelty.

EDIT : There should be a poll selection for "Yes it can be done, but it sounds a bit too psychotic for me."

 

[cooliscool]

This has lightknight written all over it... :angry:

Yep. Lightknight, Cold1, and now his new alias, mainframe19.

WTF is this guy's problem? irate: