Emulation with the NES
Emulation with the Nintendo 64
Remember the old Nintendo/Famicon? This will teach you how to play all of the old classics again. This guide is for emulation newbies, and not meant for advanced emulation users. Section 1: Get some ROMs Nintendo ROMs are NES Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an NES game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows, with the file extension NES. So, the Super Mario Bros. ROM may look something like Mario.nes depending on where you actually find it. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find. - Go get some ROMs before reading on! Section 2: Get Some Emulators A brief description of emulators: emulators are programs that will play the game data (ROM) that you just spent so much time finding. Emulators are a program developed by someone very dedicated, that "emulates" the system on your computer using software to run it on the hardware. They will open up a window just like you would open the game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. I'm assuming at this point you have some NES ROMs. Now, we need something to play them with. You will want to download every emulator you see here, because you will need all of them to play certain games. The emulators you want are: NNNesterJ: This emulator is one of the best. I think it is the best. FCEUltra: If you want Zapper support, then get this emulator. Nesten: Lacks full screen, but this emulator is the most compatible NES emulator. RockNES: A very good NES Emulator. You must have Windows XP for it to work. No one emulator is better than the other, except some emulators will play some games others won't play. My suggestion is to download them all and try them all. The emulator I will use in this tutorial is NNNesterJ, which is a great emulator to start on. Section 3: Setting up NNNesterJ Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. NNNesterJ was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Download and Open the emulator. Visit EmuXhaven or visit Zophar's Domain to download the emulator. After you download it, unzip the contents, and open up the emulator by double clicking "nnesterj.exe". You will see the following window pop up. This is the emulator, it will play the games for us.
Section 1: Get some ROMs Nintendo ROMs are NES Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an NES game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows, with the file extension NES. So, the Super Mario Bros. ROM may look something like Mario.nes depending on where you actually find it. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find. - Go get some ROMs before reading on! Section 2: Get Some Emulators A brief description of emulators: emulators are programs that will play the game data (ROM) that you just spent so much time finding. Emulators are a program developed by someone very dedicated, that "emulates" the system on your computer using software to run it on the hardware. They will open up a window just like you would open the game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. I'm assuming at this point you have some NES ROMs. Now, we need something to play them with. You will want to download every emulator you see here, because you will need all of them to play certain games. The emulators you want are: NNNesterJ: This emulator is one of the best. I think it is the best. FCEUltra: If you want Zapper support, then get this emulator. Nesten: Lacks full screen, but this emulator is the most compatible NES emulator. RockNES: A very good NES Emulator. You must have Windows XP for it to work. No one emulator is better than the other, except some emulators will play some games others won't play. My suggestion is to download them all and try them all. The emulator I will use in this tutorial is NNNesterJ, which is a great emulator to start on. Section 3: Setting up NNNesterJ Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. NNNesterJ was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Download and Open the emulator. Visit EmuXhaven or visit Zophar's Domain to download the emulator. After you download it, unzip the contents, and open up the emulator by double clicking "nnesterj.exe". You will see the following window pop up. This is the emulator, it will play the games for us.
Nintendo ROMs are NES Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an NES game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows, with the file extension NES. So, the Super Mario Bros. ROM may look something like Mario.nes depending on where you actually find it. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find. - Go get some ROMs before reading on!
Section 2: Get Some Emulators A brief description of emulators: emulators are programs that will play the game data (ROM) that you just spent so much time finding. Emulators are a program developed by someone very dedicated, that "emulates" the system on your computer using software to run it on the hardware. They will open up a window just like you would open the game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. I'm assuming at this point you have some NES ROMs. Now, we need something to play them with. You will want to download every emulator you see here, because you will need all of them to play certain games. The emulators you want are: NNNesterJ: This emulator is one of the best. I think it is the best. FCEUltra: If you want Zapper support, then get this emulator. Nesten: Lacks full screen, but this emulator is the most compatible NES emulator. RockNES: A very good NES Emulator. You must have Windows XP for it to work. No one emulator is better than the other, except some emulators will play some games others won't play. My suggestion is to download them all and try them all. The emulator I will use in this tutorial is NNNesterJ, which is a great emulator to start on. Section 3: Setting up NNNesterJ Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. NNNesterJ was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Download and Open the emulator. Visit EmuXhaven or visit Zophar's Domain to download the emulator. After you download it, unzip the contents, and open up the emulator by double clicking "nnesterj.exe". You will see the following window pop up. This is the emulator, it will play the games for us.
A brief description of emulators: emulators are programs that will play the game data (ROM) that you just spent so much time finding. Emulators are a program developed by someone very dedicated, that "emulates" the system on your computer using software to run it on the hardware. They will open up a window just like you would open the game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. I'm assuming at this point you have some NES ROMs. Now, we need something to play them with. You will want to download every emulator you see here, because you will need all of them to play certain games. The emulators you want are: NNNesterJ: This emulator is one of the best. I think it is the best. FCEUltra: If you want Zapper support, then get this emulator. Nesten: Lacks full screen, but this emulator is the most compatible NES emulator. RockNES: A very good NES Emulator. You must have Windows XP for it to work. No one emulator is better than the other, except some emulators will play some games others won't play. My suggestion is to download them all and try them all. The emulator I will use in this tutorial is NNNesterJ, which is a great emulator to start on. Section 3: Setting up NNNesterJ Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. NNNesterJ was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Download and Open the emulator. Visit EmuXhaven or visit Zophar's Domain to download the emulator. After you download it, unzip the contents, and open up the emulator by double clicking "nnesterj.exe". You will see the following window pop up. This is the emulator, it will play the games for us.
Section 3: Setting up NNNesterJ Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. NNNesterJ was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Download and Open the emulator. Visit EmuXhaven or visit Zophar's Domain to download the emulator. After you download it, unzip the contents, and open up the emulator by double clicking "nnesterj.exe". You will see the following window pop up. This is the emulator, it will play the games for us.
Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. NNNesterJ was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Download and Open the emulator. Visit EmuXhaven or visit Zophar's Domain to download the emulator. After you download it, unzip the contents, and open up the emulator by double clicking "nnesterj.exe". You will see the following window pop up. This is the emulator, it will play the games for us.
Step 2: Set the Folders and Paths The emulator saves many types of files, and you want to know where these files are going. SRAM files are the "battery backed memory" that games had, to hold your save data. State saves are for your save states. Save states are a moment in time you can capture your game, and load it from there. To assign folders, you can either type in where you want your saves to go, or click on the (...) button and manually locate the directory.
Step 3: Opening a ROM Now to actually load a ROM. Click File, Open ROM... Browse to where you keep your ROMs, and a window will show with your ROM collection (if you put them into one folder). Just simply double click a ROM file to load it up. Here we're choosing Super Mario Bros.
Step 4: Enter Nostalgia... At this point you have successfully loaded a ROM. Just like the original Nintendo, it will play a game for you. If you wish, you can enter/exit full screen by pressing Alt+Enter. The ROM is loaded but we can't play it until we set up some controls. You have the choice to use either your keyboard or a controller. I suggest buying any controller for emulation use.
Step 5: Set up your Controls When you want to set up your controls with a Keyboard or Joystick, click on Option, Controllers. To set a key or direction with your Keyboard or Joystick, click the blue space you want to set and press the button that corresponds to the button you are setting. Such as if you want to make the "A" button "Z" on Keyboard, click on "A" and hit "Z". Do this for all of your buttons. Thats it, you are all ready to play.
Note: This guide is strictly for N64 emulation newcomers, and wasn't intended for intermediate-advanced emulation users. The information in this tutorial is broken down to a simple level, so advanced users will not benefit from this. If you find this guide adequate enough for a newcomer, then by all means, send him here. A Short Introduction This tutorial will help you learn how to play Nintendo 64 on your computer if you don't know how. I don't go into a whole lot of detail right off the bat, so bear with me. The goal of this tutorial was to make it simple enough for a child to understand, or at least a smart one. The only thing I can't do, is tell you where to find ROMs. That you have to figure out on your own. Back to the tutorial, I start out telling you to download things, and work you into everything. If you think you can handle it, then read on.... Section 1: Get some ROMs Nintendo 64 ROMs are N64 Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an N64 game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows. The difference with N64 ROMS is that they can come in many different file extensions: .n64, .z64, .u64, .rom, .v64, .usa, .pal, .j64, etc.. there may be more. So, Super Mario 64 could look like: Mario.n64, Mario.u64, Mario.v64, or basically anything above and possibly more. Each ROM also has a country associated with it, such as (U) - USA, (J) - Japan, (E) - European, and (G) - German. Use the tool "GoodN64" to see if your ROMs are good. Good ROMs will have a (!) at the end of their file name. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find. When you download N64 ROMs, make sure you put them all into one folder. The emulator can't look all over your computer for ROM's, it has to know where all of them are at the same time. So create a folder for your collection of ROMs, and put them all in it. Later on, it will be explained how to load them in the emulator. The icons for the ROMs in the below picture will probably not be the same as yours, but the appearance of a normal file. All of the ROMs in the picture are zipped. Emulators can read zipped ROMs, so if you understand how to compress files, then zip them all individually.
A Short Introduction This tutorial will help you learn how to play Nintendo 64 on your computer if you don't know how. I don't go into a whole lot of detail right off the bat, so bear with me. The goal of this tutorial was to make it simple enough for a child to understand, or at least a smart one. The only thing I can't do, is tell you where to find ROMs. That you have to figure out on your own. Back to the tutorial, I start out telling you to download things, and work you into everything. If you think you can handle it, then read on.... Section 1: Get some ROMs Nintendo 64 ROMs are N64 Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an N64 game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows. The difference with N64 ROMS is that they can come in many different file extensions: .n64, .z64, .u64, .rom, .v64, .usa, .pal, .j64, etc.. there may be more. So, Super Mario 64 could look like: Mario.n64, Mario.u64, Mario.v64, or basically anything above and possibly more. Each ROM also has a country associated with it, such as (U) - USA, (J) - Japan, (E) - European, and (G) - German. Use the tool "GoodN64" to see if your ROMs are good. Good ROMs will have a (!) at the end of their file name. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find. When you download N64 ROMs, make sure you put them all into one folder. The emulator can't look all over your computer for ROM's, it has to know where all of them are at the same time. So create a folder for your collection of ROMs, and put them all in it. Later on, it will be explained how to load them in the emulator. The icons for the ROMs in the below picture will probably not be the same as yours, but the appearance of a normal file. All of the ROMs in the picture are zipped. Emulators can read zipped ROMs, so if you understand how to compress files, then zip them all individually.
This tutorial will help you learn how to play Nintendo 64 on your computer if you don't know how. I don't go into a whole lot of detail right off the bat, so bear with me. The goal of this tutorial was to make it simple enough for a child to understand, or at least a smart one. The only thing I can't do, is tell you where to find ROMs. That you have to figure out on your own. Back to the tutorial, I start out telling you to download things, and work you into everything. If you think you can handle it, then read on.... Section 1: Get some ROMs Nintendo 64 ROMs are N64 Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an N64 game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows. The difference with N64 ROMS is that they can come in many different file extensions: .n64, .z64, .u64, .rom, .v64, .usa, .pal, .j64, etc.. there may be more. So, Super Mario 64 could look like: Mario.n64, Mario.u64, Mario.v64, or basically anything above and possibly more. Each ROM also has a country associated with it, such as (U) - USA, (J) - Japan, (E) - European, and (G) - German. Use the tool "GoodN64" to see if your ROMs are good. Good ROMs will have a (!) at the end of their file name. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find. When you download N64 ROMs, make sure you put them all into one folder. The emulator can't look all over your computer for ROM's, it has to know where all of them are at the same time. So create a folder for your collection of ROMs, and put them all in it. Later on, it will be explained how to load them in the emulator. The icons for the ROMs in the below picture will probably not be the same as yours, but the appearance of a normal file. All of the ROMs in the picture are zipped. Emulators can read zipped ROMs, so if you understand how to compress files, then zip them all individually.
Section 1: Get some ROMs Nintendo 64 ROMs are N64 Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an N64 game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows. The difference with N64 ROMS is that they can come in many different file extensions: .n64, .z64, .u64, .rom, .v64, .usa, .pal, .j64, etc.. there may be more. So, Super Mario 64 could look like: Mario.n64, Mario.u64, Mario.v64, or basically anything above and possibly more. Each ROM also has a country associated with it, such as (U) - USA, (J) - Japan, (E) - European, and (G) - German. Use the tool "GoodN64" to see if your ROMs are good. Good ROMs will have a (!) at the end of their file name. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find. When you download N64 ROMs, make sure you put them all into one folder. The emulator can't look all over your computer for ROM's, it has to know where all of them are at the same time. So create a folder for your collection of ROMs, and put them all in it. Later on, it will be explained how to load them in the emulator. The icons for the ROMs in the below picture will probably not be the same as yours, but the appearance of a normal file. All of the ROMs in the picture are zipped. Emulators can read zipped ROMs, so if you understand how to compress files, then zip them all individually.
Nintendo 64 ROMs are N64 Cartridge data that has been dumped via a special device that hooks up an N64 game to your computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly what it was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. When you browse the web for ROMs, they will be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file by windows. The difference with N64 ROMS is that they can come in many different file extensions: .n64, .z64, .u64, .rom, .v64, .usa, .pal, .j64, etc.. there may be more. So, Super Mario 64 could look like: Mario.n64, Mario.u64, Mario.v64, or basically anything above and possibly more. Each ROM also has a country associated with it, such as (U) - USA, (J) - Japan, (E) - European, and (G) - German. Use the tool "GoodN64" to see if your ROMs are good. Good ROMs will have a (!) at the end of their file name. Unfortunately, I cannot link you to ROMs, but there are many ways to find them all over the web, torrents, or download managers. Before you continue with this tutorial, find yourself some ROMs. After you find some, you will see just how easy they are to find.
When you download N64 ROMs, make sure you put them all into one folder. The emulator can't look all over your computer for ROM's, it has to know where all of them are at the same time. So create a folder for your collection of ROMs, and put them all in it. Later on, it will be explained how to load them in the emulator. The icons for the ROMs in the below picture will probably not be the same as yours, but the appearance of a normal file. All of the ROMs in the picture are zipped. Emulators can read zipped ROMs, so if you understand how to compress files, then zip them all individually.
- Go get some ROMs before reading on! Section 2: Get Some Emulators A brief description of emulators: emulators are programs that will play the game data (ROM) that you just spent so much time finding. Emulators are a program developed by someone very dedicated, that "emulates" the system on your computer using software to run it on the hardware. They will open up a window just like you would open the game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. N64 emulation is a little different because the emulators require "plugins" to function. I will describe plugins in the next section. I'm assuming at this point you have some N64 ROMs. Now, we need something to play them with. You will want to download every emulator you see here, because you will need all of them to play certain games. The emulators you want are: Project64: The most compatible N64 emulator to date. 1964: One of the fastest N64 emulators to date. Mupen64: The one emulator that can do things that others can't. Nemu64: Kind of an old timer, yet still useful for some games. There is a lot more to the emulators than what I just described, but lets keep it simple for now. Links to all of the N64 emulators can be found to the right of this page under "Site Links", on EmuXhaven, or on my Multiple Game Configuration List. Section 3: Get Some Plugins Plugins come in three different categories: Graphics, Sound, and Input. Project64 author "zilmar" created the plugin spec so multiple authors could work on the graphics, sound, and input section of emulators, and be able to swap it with multiple emulators. This way, an emulator isn't stuck with just one graphics "plugin" for example, but can be swapped with another made by someone not even associated with the emulator. Plugins have the extension .dll, and sometimes an .ini file comes with them for configuration data. All plugins must go in the Plugin folder of any N64 emulator you wish to set up. A huge "Plugins Pack" can be found on my Download page, which has most all plugins you will need for now. Take the time to do these steps before continuing: - Visit the Downloads page and get the Plugins Pack. - Take the time to download and install Project64 before continuing. Section 4: Get it Together Now that you have ROMs, emulators, and plugins, lets put them all together. By combining all of these elements, magical things happen. When you install an emulator, you will notice inside of the directory is a "Plugins" folder. All plugins you download, whether they be graphics, sound, or input plugins, will always go into this folder. If you have multiple emulators installed, you will have to place the same plugins into all of their "Plugins" folder to work. Take the plugins from the "Plugins Pack", and place them into the "Plugin" folder of the emulator.
Section 2: Get Some Emulators A brief description of emulators: emulators are programs that will play the game data (ROM) that you just spent so much time finding. Emulators are a program developed by someone very dedicated, that "emulates" the system on your computer using software to run it on the hardware. They will open up a window just like you would open the game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. N64 emulation is a little different because the emulators require "plugins" to function. I will describe plugins in the next section. I'm assuming at this point you have some N64 ROMs. Now, we need something to play them with. You will want to download every emulator you see here, because you will need all of them to play certain games. The emulators you want are: Project64: The most compatible N64 emulator to date. 1964: One of the fastest N64 emulators to date. Mupen64: The one emulator that can do things that others can't. Nemu64: Kind of an old timer, yet still useful for some games. There is a lot more to the emulators than what I just described, but lets keep it simple for now. Links to all of the N64 emulators can be found to the right of this page under "Site Links", on EmuXhaven, or on my Multiple Game Configuration List. Section 3: Get Some Plugins Plugins come in three different categories: Graphics, Sound, and Input. Project64 author "zilmar" created the plugin spec so multiple authors could work on the graphics, sound, and input section of emulators, and be able to swap it with multiple emulators. This way, an emulator isn't stuck with just one graphics "plugin" for example, but can be swapped with another made by someone not even associated with the emulator. Plugins have the extension .dll, and sometimes an .ini file comes with them for configuration data. All plugins must go in the Plugin folder of any N64 emulator you wish to set up. A huge "Plugins Pack" can be found on my Download page, which has most all plugins you will need for now. Take the time to do these steps before continuing: - Visit the Downloads page and get the Plugins Pack. - Take the time to download and install Project64 before continuing. Section 4: Get it Together Now that you have ROMs, emulators, and plugins, lets put them all together. By combining all of these elements, magical things happen. When you install an emulator, you will notice inside of the directory is a "Plugins" folder. All plugins you download, whether they be graphics, sound, or input plugins, will always go into this folder. If you have multiple emulators installed, you will have to place the same plugins into all of their "Plugins" folder to work. Take the plugins from the "Plugins Pack", and place them into the "Plugin" folder of the emulator.
A brief description of emulators: emulators are programs that will play the game data (ROM) that you just spent so much time finding. Emulators are a program developed by someone very dedicated, that "emulates" the system on your computer using software to run it on the hardware. They will open up a window just like you would open the game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. N64 emulation is a little different because the emulators require "plugins" to function. I will describe plugins in the next section. I'm assuming at this point you have some N64 ROMs. Now, we need something to play them with. You will want to download every emulator you see here, because you will need all of them to play certain games. The emulators you want are: Project64: The most compatible N64 emulator to date. 1964: One of the fastest N64 emulators to date. Mupen64: The one emulator that can do things that others can't. Nemu64: Kind of an old timer, yet still useful for some games. There is a lot more to the emulators than what I just described, but lets keep it simple for now. Links to all of the N64 emulators can be found to the right of this page under "Site Links", on EmuXhaven, or on my Multiple Game Configuration List. Section 3: Get Some Plugins Plugins come in three different categories: Graphics, Sound, and Input. Project64 author "zilmar" created the plugin spec so multiple authors could work on the graphics, sound, and input section of emulators, and be able to swap it with multiple emulators. This way, an emulator isn't stuck with just one graphics "plugin" for example, but can be swapped with another made by someone not even associated with the emulator. Plugins have the extension .dll, and sometimes an .ini file comes with them for configuration data. All plugins must go in the Plugin folder of any N64 emulator you wish to set up. A huge "Plugins Pack" can be found on my Download page, which has most all plugins you will need for now. Take the time to do these steps before continuing: - Visit the Downloads page and get the Plugins Pack. - Take the time to download and install Project64 before continuing. Section 4: Get it Together Now that you have ROMs, emulators, and plugins, lets put them all together. By combining all of these elements, magical things happen. When you install an emulator, you will notice inside of the directory is a "Plugins" folder. All plugins you download, whether they be graphics, sound, or input plugins, will always go into this folder. If you have multiple emulators installed, you will have to place the same plugins into all of their "Plugins" folder to work. Take the plugins from the "Plugins Pack", and place them into the "Plugin" folder of the emulator.
Section 3: Get Some Plugins Plugins come in three different categories: Graphics, Sound, and Input. Project64 author "zilmar" created the plugin spec so multiple authors could work on the graphics, sound, and input section of emulators, and be able to swap it with multiple emulators. This way, an emulator isn't stuck with just one graphics "plugin" for example, but can be swapped with another made by someone not even associated with the emulator. Plugins have the extension .dll, and sometimes an .ini file comes with them for configuration data. All plugins must go in the Plugin folder of any N64 emulator you wish to set up. A huge "Plugins Pack" can be found on my Download page, which has most all plugins you will need for now. Take the time to do these steps before continuing: - Visit the Downloads page and get the Plugins Pack. - Take the time to download and install Project64 before continuing. Section 4: Get it Together Now that you have ROMs, emulators, and plugins, lets put them all together. By combining all of these elements, magical things happen. When you install an emulator, you will notice inside of the directory is a "Plugins" folder. All plugins you download, whether they be graphics, sound, or input plugins, will always go into this folder. If you have multiple emulators installed, you will have to place the same plugins into all of their "Plugins" folder to work. Take the plugins from the "Plugins Pack", and place them into the "Plugin" folder of the emulator.
Plugins come in three different categories: Graphics, Sound, and Input. Project64 author "zilmar" created the plugin spec so multiple authors could work on the graphics, sound, and input section of emulators, and be able to swap it with multiple emulators. This way, an emulator isn't stuck with just one graphics "plugin" for example, but can be swapped with another made by someone not even associated with the emulator. Plugins have the extension .dll, and sometimes an .ini file comes with them for configuration data. All plugins must go in the Plugin folder of any N64 emulator you wish to set up. A huge "Plugins Pack" can be found on my Download page, which has most all plugins you will need for now. Take the time to do these steps before continuing: - Visit the Downloads page and get the Plugins Pack. - Take the time to download and install Project64 before continuing.
Section 4: Get it Together Now that you have ROMs, emulators, and plugins, lets put them all together. By combining all of these elements, magical things happen. When you install an emulator, you will notice inside of the directory is a "Plugins" folder. All plugins you download, whether they be graphics, sound, or input plugins, will always go into this folder. If you have multiple emulators installed, you will have to place the same plugins into all of their "Plugins" folder to work. Take the plugins from the "Plugins Pack", and place them into the "Plugin" folder of the emulator.
Now that you have ROMs, emulators, and plugins, lets put them all together. By combining all of these elements, magical things happen. When you install an emulator, you will notice inside of the directory is a "Plugins" folder. All plugins you download, whether they be graphics, sound, or input plugins, will always go into this folder. If you have multiple emulators installed, you will have to place the same plugins into all of their "Plugins" folder to work. Take the plugins from the "Plugins Pack", and place them into the "Plugin" folder of the emulator.
Remember the "Required Files" folder? The plugins will not work unless they have these required files in the right places. First, open up the Required Files folder. Next, double click "My Computer", "C:", double click "Windows" folder, and double click "system32" folder. Put the files d3dx9_24.dll and d3dx9_25.dll into the system32 folder. Don't touch anything else, and close the window. The files BMGlib.dll and BMGlibPNG.dll will go into the main folder of your emulator, as well as the files glide3x.dll and msvcr70.dll.
Section 5: Let's Take a Look, Shall We? Project64 is the perfect emulator for a beginner to start on. By this point, you should have ROMs, Project64 installed, and the plugins correctly installed. Now it is time to actually open up the emulator. Double click Project64.exe or open it up from wherever. You should see this program appear:
Project64 is the perfect emulator for a beginner to start on. By this point, you should have ROMs, Project64 installed, and the plugins correctly installed. Now it is time to actually open up the emulator. Double click Project64.exe or open it up from wherever. You should see this program appear:
It's pretty, isn't it? Obviously it isn't going to do anything until we tell it what to do. Setting up an emulator can be tricky at first. After doing it a few times, it pretty much becomes second nature.
Section 6: Setting up Project64 Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. Project64 was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Let's go to "Advanced Mode" Before doing anything, you will want to unhide the advanced options of the emulator. To do this, click "Options", "Settings". In the settings menu, click the "Options" tab, and uncheck "Hide Advanced Settings". Now just hit Ok and the emulator will open up a whole slew of new options.
Now it is time to set up the emulator so that it will play games. Project64 was chosen because it an easy to understand/explain emulator, and is really compatible. Step 1: Let's go to "Advanced Mode" Before doing anything, you will want to unhide the advanced options of the emulator. To do this, click "Options", "Settings". In the settings menu, click the "Options" tab, and uncheck "Hide Advanced Settings". Now just hit Ok and the emulator will open up a whole slew of new options.
Step 2: Set the ROM Directory There are two ways to do this, and I will show the hard way. The emulator has to know where you put your games, so let's tell it where. Return to the options menu, and realize there are now many more tabs to click on. Click on the "Directories" tab, and go down to where it says "Rom Directory". Click on the blank space, and over to the right you see a button with "...". Click on that and locate your ROM folder. Note that the below picture is an example, and your folders will differ. Select your ROM directory and hit the OK button.
Step 3: Bring up the ROM List After you set the ROM directory, click "File". You will see you also could have chosen your ROM directory here. But we're gonna go ahead and click "Refresh Rom List". This will bring up all the games into the empty white window. Alternatively, you can also just simply hit the "F5" key.
Section 7: Emulators, Plugins, and Games - Make sure you took the time to follow my steps to place the plugins into the correct folder. Up until now, I have briefly touched on emulators, plugins, and ROMs... what is all this? I held off explaining what these are in detail, because I believe the best way to learn is by doing and not being overwhelmed with a pile of information all at once. Now that you know how stuff works, lets find out what it is. I will take the time to explain everything, in a very simple, easy to understand fashion. An N64 emulator is a program that carries the intructions that an N64 would, only designed to play a game utilizing your PC hardware. The emulator is designed to work as the core of the N64, and plugins take the place of the missing code that make up the instructions for the graphics, audio, and game controllers. Emulator authors have all adapted to the "plugin system", so that others can create and use their own plugins, adding more flexibility to the emulators. This also doesn't limit the emulator to a single "plugin". An N64 ROM is a file that has been copied off of a Nintendo 64 game cartridge, and onto a computer's hard drive. All digital data comes down to just 1's and 0's, so an exact image of an N64 game can be stored on any storage device (cartridge, CD, hard drive, etc). To sum it all up, N64 emulation is basically turning your computer into a Nintendo 64. Now that you have a brief vision of what emulation is, let's get back to work. Now you are going to learn how to change plugins. You must know that emulation is not perfect. Not every emulator or plugin, will run every game. Some games are barely playable, and some games are not playable at all. To change plugins, click on "Options", then "Settings". Click on the "Plugins" tab if you are not already there. If you correctly installed all of your plugins, then you can select them here.
- Make sure you took the time to follow my steps to place the plugins into the correct folder. Up until now, I have briefly touched on emulators, plugins, and ROMs... what is all this? I held off explaining what these are in detail, because I believe the best way to learn is by doing and not being overwhelmed with a pile of information all at once. Now that you know how stuff works, lets find out what it is. I will take the time to explain everything, in a very simple, easy to understand fashion. An N64 emulator is a program that carries the intructions that an N64 would, only designed to play a game utilizing your PC hardware. The emulator is designed to work as the core of the N64, and plugins take the place of the missing code that make up the instructions for the graphics, audio, and game controllers. Emulator authors have all adapted to the "plugin system", so that others can create and use their own plugins, adding more flexibility to the emulators. This also doesn't limit the emulator to a single "plugin". An N64 ROM is a file that has been copied off of a Nintendo 64 game cartridge, and onto a computer's hard drive. All digital data comes down to just 1's and 0's, so an exact image of an N64 game can be stored on any storage device (cartridge, CD, hard drive, etc). To sum it all up, N64 emulation is basically turning your computer into a Nintendo 64. Now that you have a brief vision of what emulation is, let's get back to work. Now you are going to learn how to change plugins. You must know that emulation is not perfect. Not every emulator or plugin, will run every game. Some games are barely playable, and some games are not playable at all. To change plugins, click on "Options", then "Settings". Click on the "Plugins" tab if you are not already there. If you correctly installed all of your plugins, then you can select them here.
Section 8: Configuring a Controller I don't cover this in my Multiple Game Configuration List, so I will cover it here and now. Return to the plugin menu, and select "N-Rage's Direct-Input8V2 1.80a" as your controller plugin. Hit Ok. Now go to "Options", and click "Configure Controller Plugin...". Step 1: Set the Device If you don't have an actual controller you can hook up to your computer, then skip this step. Click on the "Devices" tab. If you look to the right, you will see "Gamepad", under that "Device". In the white box select your controller. You can also set the deadzone, and enable rumble features if your controller supports it.
I don't cover this in my Multiple Game Configuration List, so I will cover it here and now. Return to the plugin menu, and select "N-Rage's Direct-Input8V2 1.80a" as your controller plugin. Hit Ok. Now go to "Options", and click "Configure Controller Plugin...". Step 1: Set the Device If you don't have an actual controller you can hook up to your computer, then skip this step. Click on the "Devices" tab. If you look to the right, you will see "Gamepad", under that "Device". In the white box select your controller. You can also set the deadzone, and enable rumble features if your controller supports it.
Step 2: Set up the Buttons This part may take some thought, especially if you want to have good controls. You can use a keyboard, but it sucks. To set a button, click on one of the buttons with the mouse, then click the button on your controller/keyboard to set that key. Do this for all your keys (obviously).
Step 3: Set up a Controller Pak If you want Controller Pak or Rumble Pak support for games that require it, then read on. Click on the "Controller Pak" tab, and click on the dropdown menu. You can choose between the 3 controller accessories that were for Nintendo 64. The one I will explain is the Controller Pak, so click "Mem Pak". Now your controller has a virtual Mem Pack plugged into it (not technically...). For advanced features, check "Raw Data". Here you can edit, import, export, or copy your controller pak game saves, much like holding the start button when loading a game. What you want to do is click "New MemPak / Browse". Make a name for your MemPak, and save it. You can also use this button to select an existing Mempack. You may create as many MemPaks as you want, and use the "MemPack Content" menu to save individual game saves. Saving individual notes allows you to import them into a different MemPack file. The button "Change MemPack Directory" will tell your computer where you want so store your MemPack files.
After you are all done, click the "Save" button. Your controller plugin is configured. If you want to set up more than one player, just click on a different controller tab, and repeat all of the steps.
Section 9: Choosing the Right Emulator and Plugins You now know how to change your plugins, but what plugins do you choose? I have a whole document on N64 game settings, and it is an awesome quick reference to what emulator/plugin combo to use. Don't limit yourself to just one emulator, download them all. All emulators are set up about the same as Project64, and by now you should be able to figure them all out. To find the best emulator/plugin combo, refer to my N64 Multiple Game Configuration List. It is another whole guide in itself, and it too will further help you. Section 10: Let's Play a Game When you want to play a game, refer to my Multiple Game Configuration List. Find the game you want to play, and apply the settings to your emulator. Then just load up the game by double clicking it in the ROM Browser. The game will start and you are ready to play. There is a whole lot more to learn from personal experience and browsing the web. The forums at EmuTalk and EmuXhaven are a great place to go for any questions you have. There you can converse with the real experts: the emulator and plugin developers, along with thousands of other members who can share their personal experiences. Have fun!
You now know how to change your plugins, but what plugins do you choose? I have a whole document on N64 game settings, and it is an awesome quick reference to what emulator/plugin combo to use. Don't limit yourself to just one emulator, download them all. All emulators are set up about the same as Project64, and by now you should be able to figure them all out. To find the best emulator/plugin combo, refer to my N64 Multiple Game Configuration List. It is another whole guide in itself, and it too will further help you.
Section 10: Let's Play a Game When you want to play a game, refer to my Multiple Game Configuration List. Find the game you want to play, and apply the settings to your emulator. Then just load up the game by double clicking it in the ROM Browser. The game will start and you are ready to play. There is a whole lot more to learn from personal experience and browsing the web. The forums at EmuTalk and EmuXhaven are a great place to go for any questions you have. There you can converse with the real experts: the emulator and plugin developers, along with thousands of other members who can share their personal experiences. Have fun!
When you want to play a game, refer to my Multiple Game Configuration List. Find the game you want to play, and apply the settings to your emulator. Then just load up the game by double clicking it in the ROM Browser. The game will start and you are ready to play. There is a whole lot more to learn from personal experience and browsing the web. The forums at EmuTalk and EmuXhaven are a great place to go for any questions you have. There you can converse with the real experts: the emulator and plugin developers, along with thousands of other members who can share their personal experiences. Have fun!
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