nice job with n64

DarishZone

However you choose to approach it, there's always a compromise. Sure you could buy either an N64 plus a load of classic games or an Everdrive, but the compromise is that will cost a lot of money and it will only play N64 stuff, albeit completely authentically.

You could buy a powerful gaming rig and play everything accurately, but that will also cost a heck of a lot of money (potentially more) depending on where (and if) you draw your line.

The Pi is another compromise. It's pretty cheap to get it going, and it plays a lot of classic systems extremely confidently. N64 isn't perfect, but taking into account all the other things it does, the wonderful community, and the general collective ownership of it, it's the one that suits me the best.

Anyway, I generally only play about 20 games on N64 (the ones I have), and the details are below, though my settings were posted above:

1080 Snowboarding - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
Banjo Kazooie - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well though the jigsaw transition error is present on the Pi
Castlevania - lr-mupen64plus - runs very well indeed though I've not played a great deal of it
Diddy Kong Racing - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
Donkey Kong 64 - Rice - runs really well
Doom 64 - lr-mupen64plus - some slowdown on the intro screen but perfect in play
Fighter's Destiny - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
Forsaken 64 - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
F-Zero X - lr-mupen64plus - largely excellent with only occasional stutter on vehicle select
Hydro Thunder - lr-mupen64plus - runs really well
ISS 98 - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well only some slowdown on cutscenes
Majora's Mask - lr-mupen64plus - runs really well but misses the opening mask zoom intro for some reason
Mario Kart 64 - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
ShadowMan - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
StarFox 64 - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
Super Mario 64 - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
Ocarina of Time - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
Rocket - Robot on Wheels - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well
Wave Race 64 - Rice - runs extremely well only very rare stutter
Wayne Gretsky 98 - lr-mupen64plus - runs extremely well

To be fair there are one or two others that run OK too like Mystical Ninja and Snowboard Kids, but you may find their slowdown unpalatable to your gameplay experience so I haven't listed them. These are the ones I play and that work well enough for me. YMMV. :-)

Dunno if changed something but i remember severe slowdowns on Super Mario 64 under lr-mupen64plus. Is that setting overclock free?

DarishZone

Sorry, saw later posting your settings, that makes sense, but i'm interested on a list that could work decently on vanilla setup.

Ranma

@sirhenrythe5th said in nice job with n64:

@ranma "a lot of money" is relative imo....
.....................
So in the end i spent about 200€/250$ for everything.
This is absolutely o.k. imo.

Please don't misunderstand. I did NOT mean to issue a judgement of any type. I was simply saying that all these different choices involve a compromise to the user one way or another. Even someone who says "I am not willing to compromise, here's a ton of money for a high end PC", well, you may not see it but this is still a compromise. You've had to hand over a lot of money for that! But we simply pick the one that suits us best, with the most acceptable compromise to us personally. Many would look at my choice and say well, there are Android boxes out there that perform better for not much more money, or that they couldn't stomach these occasional issues with N64, or that they prefer the original hardware. Each of us might find the next person's choice of compromise less palatable than their own. :-)

@darishzone said in nice job with n64:

Sorry, saw later posting your settings, that makes sense, but i'm interested on a list that could work decently on vanilla setup.

Apologies, I didn't realise you needed the list without overclock. Super Mario 64 performs extremely well with the adjustments made. Luckily my Pi 3 can handle it with no problems. I really recommend looking into the settings for a better N64 experience on the Pi, though Goldeneye I fear will never work well on the hardware as it stands today.

DarishZone

I see, at the moment got working right only Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64, they both runs decently under gles2n64, the libretro version heavy slowdown on certain areas. Doom and Wipeout 64 also runs well under lr-mupen64plus.
I could see emulation on Pi3 without oc is problematic, will try your list and let you know.

mediamogul

@bobharris said in nice job with n64:

I will never go back to those crt's

Actually, there are a few really nice ways of presenting the N64 onto modern HD screens. Of course, this too would be an additional expense.

I've only got a passing interest in N64

Same here really. I was a PSX guy during this generation myself. It's why I've never been bothered by the cost of a real hardware solution, or the apparent controversial state of N64 emulation. However, for people I talk to who really love N64 games and want a rock-solid experience without worrying about the ever-changing landscape and nuances that are somewhat unique to N64 emulation, I personally believe that a real hardware solution is the only way to go and is worth the extra cost if it can be spent. That being said, I am still very grateful for the work that has been done in N64 emulation and I'm glad to see that it continues to advance.

Ranma

@mediamogul said in nice job with n64:

...However, for people I talk to who really love N64 games and want a rock-solid experience without worrying about the ever-changing landscape and nuances that are somewhat unique to N64 emulation, I personally believe that a real hardware solution is the only way to go and is worth the extra cost if it can be spent. That being said, I am still very grateful for the work that has been done in N64 emulation and I'm glad to see that it continues to advance.

I think you're absolutely right. Up until recently I had a more powerful Android box which was slightly better at N64, but not really dramatically so, and it wasn't any better at anything else so I got rid of it. For the proper N64 experience though, until the preservation scene improves it, really if you are a massive fan the original hardware is the only way to go. But I have to echo your sentiment - I am massively and incredibly grateful for what we have right now, and it is getting better too. For me, just having a handful of my favourite titles playing so well on the Pi is a minor miracle and enough right now.

sirhenrythe5th

What you Guys are saying is absolutely right! 👍😎
It was never my Intention to say "my way is the best, all other suck!"

I also enjoyed all the improvments in N64 Emulation over the years based on a PC.
When i stopped doing emulation on Windows "Project64" was able to run about 60% of the Games near perfect.
But in the end there will be some games that will never be emulated (those using the miracle U-Codes i mentioned) and this is why i said that it is interesting for those who want it all.
Then the only way is the genuine hardware.

But of course i love my Pi too!
Its so great to have it all in one fantastic Interface.
No more changing between
emulators who all look like database-applications!

One last Word to CRTs :
of course i also own a great SONY Triluminos HDTV.
And i even have a Scanline-Generator that i could use with the N64.
But for me (again: thats my cup of tea, i dont want to say that everyone should do so!) the best experience for retrogaming is a CRT.
I also use Scanlines and shaders with my Pi that is connected to the HDTV.
But it is still a difference to the original picture.
Plus, and that was much more importing to me, the input lag is smaller because the image doesnt have to be processed.
You will really see the difference once you try it, it is this one little millisecond that makes you get all the highscores

quicksilver

@ranma I just beat GoldenEye on my overclocked pi3 using the gliden64 plugin. Most levels ran pretty smoothly only encountering slowdown if there was a lot of action on the screen (I believe this happened to a degree on the original hardware as well). Even with the slowdown I found it very playable otherwise I would have never finished it. This is one title that is right on the verge of being perfect. I think if the next gen pi has a better GPU this will no longer be an issue.

quicksilver

@sirhenrythe5th said in nice job with n64:

What you Guys are saying is absolutely right! 👍😎
It was never my Intention to say "my way is the best, all other suck!"

I also enjoyed all the improvments in N64 Emulation over the years based on a PC.
When i stopped doing emulation on Windows "Project64" was able to run about 60% of the Games near perfect.
But in the end there will be some games that will never be emulated (those using the miracle U-Codes i mentioned) and this is why i said that it is interesting for those who want it all.
Then the only way is the genuine hardware.

But of course i love my Pi too!
Its so great to have it all in one fantastic Interface.
No more changing between
emulators who all look like database-applications!

Never say never. Wasn't rogue squadron one of those games? That game was recently made playable in the last year or two with the gliden64 plugin.

HornsOverIthaca

I hope that one day Goldeneye will work well.

mitu

@hornsoverithaca You just had the previous post saying it works well....

HornsOverIthaca

Hmm... Well I'll try again, but the slowdowns on my previous try were too much for me.

Ranma

@quicksilver said in nice job with n64:

@ranma I just beat GoldenEye on my overclocked pi3 using the gliden64 plugin. Most levels ran pretty smoothly only encountering slowdown if there was a lot of action on the screen (I believe this happened to a degree on the original hardware as well). Even with the slowdown I found it very playable otherwise I would have never finished it. This is one title that is right on the verge of being perfect. I think if the next gen pi has a better GPU this will no longer be an issue.

Really? Admittedly it's been a while since I last tried it. It was pretty laggy as I remember. I'll give it another go, thanks! :-)

Can I ask what version of Retropie you're on? I'm still on 4.3 at the moment. Also, what joypad settings do you use for Goldeneye? That was always another issue with the game for me as I could not find a setup that worked well. Thanks again.

quicksilver

@ranma I'm using the mupen64plus-gliden64 emulator/plugin, retropie 4.3, and my GPU core is overclocked to 575mhz. I'm using an Xbox 360 wireless controller with default mapping (left analog stick is direction control, x and a become a and b and left trigger is z). Ill stress that even with overclock it is not perfect but it was certainly fast enough for me to complete the game. A few levels like the runway, statue park and skyhook were a little slow to be enjoyable but most of the other levels ran pretty smoothly.

Ranma

@quicksilver said in nice job with n64:

@ranma I'm using the mupen64plus-gliden64 emulator/plugin, retropie 4.3, and my GPU core is overclocked to 575mhz. I'm using an Xbox 360 wireless controller with default mapping (left analog stick is direction control, x and a become a and b and left trigger is z). Ill stress that even with overclock it is not perfect but it was certainly fast enough for me to complete the game. A few levels like the runway, statue park and skyhook were a little slow to be enjoyable but most of the other levels ran pretty smoothly.

Sorry for late reply. Given it a go and yeah it's not too bad is it? Still a bit laggy on the intro, but the game runs largely pretty well. Tried also on lr-mupen64plus and it's pretty good there too. The funny thing is it got me thinking how people seem to expect perfect frame rates from N64 games, but the original hardware was often laggy when things got busy. Despite it's "64 bit" status, I often thought the PSX outperformed it.

On Goldeneye, what settings for your pad do you use in-game? I have a Logitech F710 dual analogue thing, but I just can't get the right set-up in-game.

Spent a couple of hours with N64 on the Pi 3 today. Really nice. Lots of Wave Race, SM64, Wipeout 64, Banjo...there's like a real hardcore of good games that do play very well indeed.

quicksilver

@ranma I used the default mapping for my Xbox 360 controller. Since retropie 4.0 I believe, it will automatically generate a config for you in mupen64plus. So my left analog is the the analog stick, left trigger is z, l and r are unchanged. The only thing that is a little awkward is the right analog stick controls the c buttons but there isn't a good way around this. How is your controller configured in mupen64plus?

Ranma

@quicksilver
Sorry, I meant from in the game. There's a number of presets in Goldeneye but I can't get one that suits. There's Solitaire, Domino, Goodnight and others. Ideally I'd like one that simply puts the 'look' function on the C buttons (right analogue) rather than the left stick. I play like an idiot otherwise!

quicksilver

@ranma I think I play with the default (honey something?) It definitely takes a bit of getting used to. Or should I say re-used to? It's amazing how little standardization there was in video game controls back then. Go try to play turok on N64, I suppose it's ironic that it's controls are quite primitive :)

Ranma

@quicksilver said in nice job with n64:

@ranma I think I play with the default (honey something?) It definitely takes a bit of getting used to. Or should I say re-used to? It's amazing how little standardization there was in video game controls back then. Go try to play turok on N64, I suppose it's ironic that it's controls are quite primitive :)

Yeah I've tried to play Turok, and yeah it drives you crazy! I suppose there's nothing for it - I have to get (re)used to it. :-)

Or maybe I could try one of those USB N64 knock-offs? God I wonder how an N64 pad would feel after all these years!

Then again, nah, I'll stick with the Logitech!

quicksilver

@ranma N64 controllers feel awful imo and the analog sticks are garbage. Really the only thing that doesn't translate to a modern controller is the c buttons, it's a little awkward having them mapped to the right analog.