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I've dabbled in N64 emulation here and there over the years, but never got into it much.
There are only a handful of games that I'm interested in since there are a lot of remakes/sequels on the Cube that kinda negate the N64 versions (a topic for another day).

But is there anything I should know besides the basics?
Do I need to be using some plugins or anything for better compatibility.

I tried running Mario Tennis, for example, and there were a lot of significant graphical glitches with a stock install of Project64.

What games are known to run really well and which don't run well at all?

Anything else that might be helpful, that would be great.

Hopefully, I can eventually repackage the advice into a future article.

As an FYI to anyone running OSX, Sixtyforce (shareware, $16) had a recent update that really improved compatibility. And some games (like 1080) that won't run in Sixtyforce will run in Mupen64 (free). Here's what I can remember from my experience with the latest versions of both ....

Games:

Mario Golf and Mario Tennis both have serious graphic glitches (golf not as bad as tennis). Ditto for Banjo Kazooie (just the main character). The Tony Hawk series, Spiderman, and F1 Championship run well, but have texture problems. Sin and Punishment has a couple minor graphics problems. Conker used to run slow, but now has serious graphic problems. Top Gear Rally has problems rendering the backgrounds.

All the Turoks run well. GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Beetle Adventure Racing run slow at times but otherwise work. WaveRace runs great. So do Super Mario, Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, F1 World Grand Prix, Rayman 2, the first Zelda (including "Master Quest"), WWF: No Mercy, Tiger Woods Golf, Ridge Racer, Smash Brothers, Ogre Battle, Harbor Moon, Rocket, Mortal Kombat 4, NBA Courtside 2, ISS 2000, KO Kings, Star Fox, Jet Force Gemini, NHL 2000, Madden 2002, NASCAR 2000 and Extreme G.

NFL Blitz 2000, ExciteBike, Bust-A-Move run, but crash. Can't remember which games just flat won't run. Some games won't run without the "expansion pack" enabled, but I can't recall any other helpful tweaks (aside from keeping graphic options tuned to low end).

N64 emulation on Windows is so convoluted. Stick with XP instead of Vista to start with and your graphics card will also affect which plugins you use. The only emus worth using are 1964, Mupen64, and Project64. There are several audio and graphical plugins, but you will still be playing with combinations of all the elements to find the best way to play a game. Majora's Mask and Paper Mario are particularly obnoxious but things are still improving. ngemu and emulation64 forums are a good place to get information. I haven't found any great comprehensive faq that tells all, but someday I hope we will have N64 emulators as compatible as SNES emulators...

N64 emulation is a bitch. That's all there is to say. I cant think of a single game that emulates perfectly. A few can come close, but that's only if you tweak the hell out of the settings on whichever emu handles that specific game the best. Be prepared to dedicate many days reading help documents and forums just so you can fully understand what all the settings do.

Then again, many people are content with how well the emus work for them. I just have high standards.

The best results I've ever had were for straight up compatibility, believe it or not, with a voodoo2 and UltraHLE. Recently, my favorite has become Project64. Look for the 1.7 torrent, it supposedly increases compatibility. Anyhow, you've definitely got to find the best plugin combo for your specific video card.

elph wrote:The best results I've ever had were for straight up compatibility, believe it or not, with a voodoo2 and UltraHLE. Recently, my favorite has become Project64. Look for the 1.7 torrent, it supposedly increases compatibility. Anyhow, you've definitely got to find the best plugin combo for your specific video card.

Yeah, UltraHLE plus a Voodoo card was definitely the way to go if you wanted to play the more mainstream titles. It couldn't do many games, but those that it did, it did very well.

Also, I've kept up to date with the beta 1.7's and they it's not looking like a drastic improvement over the very old 1.6. Some things are better, some things are worse.

Mozgus wrote:

elph wrote:The best results I've ever had were for straight up compatibility, believe it or not, with a voodoo2 and UltraHLE. Recently, my favorite has become Project64. Look for the 1.7 torrent, it supposedly increases compatibility. Anyhow, you've definitely got to find the best plugin combo for your specific video card.

Yeah, UltraHLE plus a Voodoo card was definitely the way to go if you wanted to play the more mainstream titles. It couldn't do many games, but those that it did, it did very well.

Also, I've kept up to date with the beta 1.7's and they it's not looking like a drastic improvement over the very old 1.6. Some things are better, some things are worse.

Hehe, I remember those days in college.
I still have a Voodoo card around here somewhere, but I don't think I would hook it up just for N64 action.