¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Nintendo
- Year of release: 1996
- Units sold: 32.93 millions
- Best-selling game: Super Mario 64
- CPU: NEC VR4300 (64-bit MIPS R4300i) @ 93.75 MHz
- RAM: 4 MB of RDRAM, expandable to 8 MB with the Expansion Pak
- Video: Reality Coprocessor (SGI) @ 62.5 MHz, hardware bilinear filtering and anti-aliasing
- Resolution: 256x224 to 640x480
- Sound: 16-bit stereo, up to 100 channels handled by the RCP
- Media: cartridge
¶ Presentation
The Nintendo 64 is Nintendo's 64-bit console, released on June 23, 1996 in Japan, in September 1996 in North America and in March 1997 in Europe. Developed with Silicon Graphics, it bets everything on real-time 3D: its Reality Coprocessor handles both graphics rendering and audio processing, with hardware texture filtering and anti-aliasing that give its games their distinctive soft, slightly blurry look.
Nintendo chose to stay with the cartridge while Sony and Sega moved to CD-ROM. That bet had a cost: less storage space (64 MB at most against 650 MB for a CD), so no full-motion video and no streamed music, and expensive cartridges that drove several third-party publishers away. In exchange, loading times are almost non-existent and piracy is far harder.
The console innovates above all with its three-pronged controller, which introduced the first mainstream analogue stick and the Z trigger, and with the Rumble Pak that popularised force feedback. It is also the first home machine to offer four controller ports as standard, which makes it the king of local four-player gaming with GoldenEye 007, Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros. Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time defined, and still define, the grammar of the 3D action-adventure game.
¶ Emulators
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gliden64 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| glide64mk2 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| n64_gles2 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| rice_gles2 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Libretro parallel_n64 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro mupen64plus_next | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| rice | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
The GLideN64, N64_GLES2 and RICE_GLES2 video plugins are restricted to the RPi3 and RPi Zero 2: they rely on the GLES2 driver specific to those machines. On every other board, GLide64MK2, RICE and the two libretro cores take over.
The gliden64, glide64mk2, n64_gles2, rice_gles2 and rice emulators are video plugins of mupen64plus, the standalone emulator; parallel_n64 and mupen64plus_next are libretro cores, launched inside RetroArch.
GLide64MK2 is the default emulator on every board, and its priority is even explicitly raised to the top on RPi3 and on PC. It is the most reliable plugin in practice. On RPi3, GLideN64 comes second and gives better results on some games, at the cost of a heavier load. The ParaLLEl N64 and Mupen64Plus-Next libretro cores are worth trying when a game misbehaves with mupen64plus: they benefit from the whole RetroArch infrastructure (shaders, save states, rewind).
Netplay is not available on any Nintendo 64 emulator. Softpatching is only supported by Mupen64Plus-Next. CRT output is possible with both libretro cores, ParaLLEl N64 and Mupen64Plus-Next. RetroAchievements are available on this system. No BIOS is required.
The Nintendo 64 is the trickiest system of its generation to emulate: a video plugin that is perfect for one game can produce artefacts in another. If a title displays badly or stutters, switch emulator for that specific game from the EmulationStation context menu rather than changing the global setting.
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/n64/
Supported extensions per emulator:
| Emulator | Extensions |
|---|---|
| GLideN64 | .n64 .v64 .z64 |
| GLide64MK2 | .n64 .v64 .z64 |
| N64_GLES2 | .n64 .v64 .z64 |
| RICE_GLES2 | .n64 .v64 .z64 |
| ParaLLEl N64 | .n64 .v64 .z64 .zip .7z |
| Mupen64Plus-Next | .n64 .v64 .z64 .zip .7z |
| RICE | .n64 .v64 .z64 |
The three extensions correspond to three different byte orders for the same content: .z64 is the native format (big endian), .v64 is swapped in 16-bit words and .n64 in 32-bit words. Prefer .z64 roms from a No-Intro romset, they are the ones that cause the fewest problems.
Only the libretro cores (ParaLLEl N64 and Mupen64Plus-Next) read
.zipand.7zarchives. If you use mupen64plus, keep your roms uncompressed.
Also have a look at the Nintendo 64 guide for game preparation, configuration and system-specific tips.