N64 Emulation on Mac OSX

Post by **racketboy** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:00 pm

I'm planning on posting a N64 101 Guide but realized I need a good Mac emulator for the N64.
Recommendations? Commentary?

Post by **Niode** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:15 pm

I tried sixty force around 0.5 and it wasn't brilliant. It was fast on my Macbook Pro with a Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz. Shadows and skyboxes were glitchy. Quite a few games I tried had lots of graphical glitches. I don't remember what games I tried.

Since we are still only on 0.8 I can't see it being much better. I think it's a little premature for full speed emulation right now. Not in comparison to the windows N64 emulation scene anyway.

Post by **racketboy** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:17 pm

Thanks!
Mind if I summarize what you just said in the guide?

Post by **andymol21** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:22 pm

You might want to go over the import section as well, there was a discussion a few days ago about US and Jap NTSC N64s being the same, just with a plastic tab for lockout. I didn't include that so you might want to fit that in. I can write something if you need, but I'd just be copying off the topic.

Edit: Heres the topic. http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7464

Post by **ott0bot** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:33 pm

Unfortunately I haven't found anything reliable yet either.

Post by **Niode** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:12 pm

I don't mind if you use any of my posts racket. I'll write it up my post for you if you like? Fill it out a little, do some of my own research if it'll help?

Post by **Niode** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:43 pm

After re-familiarising myself with sixty force I've decided to tidy up my initial post a little.

N64 emulation on mac is not a new thing, Sixtyforce has been handling emulation on this platform since OS 9. It has only now started to gain enough performance to be playable, with the advent of intel macs with their powerful graphics accelerators. The latest version of Sixty force is available at http://www.sixtyforce.com/ and an incomplete compatibility list can be found at http://www.sixtyforce.com/compatibility/.

Not every game works on the emulator but the ones that do tend to work from average to very well. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time works well, albeit with slightly glitchy audio and sometimes there are strange glitches on indoor scenes, but it works at full speed and looks very good. Pilot wings 64 is playable but many times the screen will have large black boxes and sometimes the pilot will disappear. These are just a few examples.

All in all N64 emulation is possible, but it is far from being at the same level as what is available for Windows users. Another downside is that Sixtyforce is shareware. It costs $16 to enable the full version which allows you to get rid of the 'Gerrit' logo and enables full screen support.

Racket, if there's any more games you want me to try just let me know, i'll have a play around tomorrow and let you know. If anybody else wants to contribute games that they have play-tested (I only have a limited selection of roms unfortunately!) feel free I know there are a few Mac users here!

Post by **GSZX1337** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 9:32 pm

Mupen64 has a MacOSX version.

Post by **Niode** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:01 pm

Just tried Mupen64. The sound is terrible on a lot of high poly games. Perfect dark is almost unplayable but slightly smoother than Sixtyforce. OOT is a lot worse on mupen, not very smooth in game and very low fps on cutscenes, the audio is terrible. Mario 64 is slightly smoother but the sound is worse. Mario Kart 64 doesn't crash randomly on mupen and performs very similarly. Haven't had time to test any other games yet.

Post by **GSZX1337** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:29 pm

Niode wrote:Just tried Mupen64. The sound is terrible on a lot of high poly games. Perfect dark is almost unplayable but slightly smoother than Sixtyforce. OOT is a lot worse on mupen, not very smooth in game and very low fps on cutscenes, the audio is terrible. Mario 64 is slightly smoother but the sound is worse. Mario Kart 64 doesn't crash randomly on mupen and performs very similarly. Haven't had time to test any other games yet.

Sorry I mentioned it.

*slinks away*