A Short Introduction
A Nintendo 64 ROM is a 'read only' file containing N64 Cartridge data that has been extracted (a.k.a. dumped) via a special device that hooks up an N64 game to a computer. ROM stands for (Read Only Memory) which is exactly
what the data was before it was dumped off of the cartridge. {Just to clarify, dumping isn't "taking" the data off of the cartridge, it is -copying- it from Game Cartridge to Hard Drive.} When you manage to find ROMs or dump them
yourself, they will mostly appear to be nothing more than what appears to be a blank file, with a N64 file extension. There are several different type of N64 ROM file extensions: .n64, .z64, .u64, .rom, .v64, .usa, .pal, .j64,
etc.. there may be more. So, Super Mario 64 could look like: SuperMario64.n64, SuperMario64.u64, SuperMario64.v64, or basically anything above and possibly more. I may as well mention now ROMS can even be zipped, so SuperMario64.zip
is also valid. Most N64 emulators can read zipped ROMs, which can save a lot of hard drive space if you have a large collection.
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, and verified good dumps by GoodN64 (hence the [!] at the end of their names). Emulators and GoodN64 can read zipped ROMs, so if you understand how to compress files into zip format, then it is a good idea to compress your ROM collection. Keep in mind,
all ROMs must be zipped into seperate archives.
This guide is strictly for N64 emulation newcomers, and wasn't intended for intermediate to advanced emulation users. The information in this tutorial is broken down
to a simple level, so advanced users will most likely not benefit from this. But, if you find this guide adequate enough for a newcomer, then by all means, send him here.
Hopefully 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 through this. The goal of this tutorial
was to make it simple enough for even a child to understand, it just takes a little bit of patience. 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....
Also, don't mind the black borders around the pictures. Older versions of this tutorial used a pure black background, so I got lazy making the pics with text. It's really no big deal though.
This is a tutorial, not an art gallery. I'll eventually update the pics to newer ones, just not in this revision.
Explorer Tip: Hold in Control and use the mouse scroller to adjust text size.
Section 1: Get some ROMs
Each ROM also has a country associated with it, such as [U] - USA, [J] - Japan, [E] - European, [G] - German, and [A] - PAL. Use the tool "GoodN64"
to see if your ROMs are a verfied good dump. Good dumps will be renamed to have a [!] at the end of their file name. Bad dumps will have a [b] in brackets, and overdumps will have an [o]. You want [!] ROMS. Unfortunately, I cannot
link you to ROMs because you are only legally allowed to own ROM dumps of cartridges that you own. Before you move on to Section 2 of 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 files) that you just spent
time looking for. An emulator is a program developed by very dedicated human being just like me and you, that "emulates" the system on your computer.
The goal of an emulator is to use your computer's hardware to execute the instructions of the game system's software/hardware. With the rise of the first N64 emulator
ever, UltraHLE, came the first concept of 'High Level Emulation'. In a nutshell, HLE allows programmers to cut certain corners to improve speed and image
quality in emulators, allowing higher resolutions and sharper graphics. Its alternative Low Level Emulation (LLE), is to try to get the instructions as close
to exact as possible of the system which in turn provides greater compatibility, at the cost of more system power and lack of higher resolutions. I won't get
into a whole lot of detail about the differences of High and Low Emulation Levels, lets just stick to playing some games.
Section 3: Get Some Plugins
Plugins come in three different categories: Graphics, Sound, and Input. Project64 author "Zilmar" created the plugin
specification 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 instruction set for graphics 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 into the Plugin folder of the N64 emulator you wish to set up. A huge "Plugins Pack" can be found
on my Downloads page, which contains all the plugins you will need. The zip archive contains a few text files to further assist in setting up
your plugins correctly. Take the time to do these steps before continuing:
Section 4: Get it Together
For this section, I'm just going to paste the ReadMe found in the plugins pack.
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:
Emulators will open up into an initially blank window, just like you would open the Windows game "Solitaire", and play a game on the screen. N64 emulation
is a little different because the emulators require "plugins" to function. Plugins are sub parts of the emulator that "fill in" code sections of the emulator.
I will describe plugins in further detail in the next section.
I am assuming at this point you have a few N64 ROMs in your posession. Now, we need the program 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. I will say now that all the best N64 emulators use HLE, so N64 emulation is not perfect. Certain
emulators will play some games others will not, so it's best to have them all. I have a list that tells the best emulator/plugin combos for certain games, but we'll
save that for the end. The emulators you want to download are:
1964: One of the fastest N64 emulators to date.
Project64: The most compatible N64 emulator 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. N64 emulators can be found on
Zophar's Domain, on EmuXhaven, or on
my Multiple Game Configuration List.
- Visit the Downloads page and get the Plugins Pack.
- Take the time to download and install Project64 before continuing.
N64 plugins are one of the hardest tools of emulation to locate. Scattered all over the internet are various
plugins with no real archive that collects the emulation communities latest work. This pack is an attempt to
gather all the most useful of N64 plugins, and all of the files that they require to work into one archive. I
myself do not create these plugins, and I take no credit for them. This means that I will not troubleshoot them
for you. I only gather them so I can help spread their hard work to others. If you have a problem, try to contact
the plugin author instead of me.
Don't worry, installing these into your emulators is a breeze. All you have to do is copy the contents of the
Plugin folder found in this archive, into the Plugin folder of your emulator. Simple! Project64, Mupen64, and
1964 are great examples, because they all have a folder in their directory named "Plugin". Keep in mind, you
must do this for every emulator you are installing plugins into. And, if you are installing these into any emu
other than Project64, it might be a good idea to get the Jabo plugins out of the PJ64 plugin folder and copy them
into the plugin folders of your other emulators, so you can use Jabo's in all your emulators.
Inside of the Required Files folder you will find two more folders, a SYSTEM32 folder and a folder that is named
EmulatorDIR. The files found in the EmulatorDIR just simply need to be copied into the main folder of the emulator.
(Yeah thats right, all seven of them!)
The files in the SYSTEM32 folder can be copied into 3 places, and still work.
Note: If you already have d3dx9_24.dll and d3dx9_25.dll in your SYSTEM32 Folder, then do not replace them. There is no
need to copy these files if you already have them, and if you do chances are you will be copying over newer versions. If
you are on Windows Vista, chances are you will probably not need these two files, but they are here just in case. If you
are sure you have both installed already, then you can skip all the rest of this document because you are done!
Option 1: The first is of course the SYSTEM32 folder found in your Windows directory. This will allow these .dll files to
be read from any emulator that you decide to run.
Option 2: Alternatively, I'm pretty sure you can copy them into the SYSTEM folder as well, at least
on Windows Vista. This is unverfied and I don't feel like testing it so just stick with the first idea.
Option 3: Third, if you don't want to mess with your Windows folder, then you can simply copy the required files into
the main folder of the emulator. The drawback of this is, you have to do it for every single emulator like the files
found in the EmulatorDIR folder.
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.
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: 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-Input8 v2.2.1 rc3 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 create as many MemPaks as you want, and use the "MemPack Content"
menu to save individual game saves.
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 8: 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 9: 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!
