Nintendo 64

[zinc dew]

We’ll likely need a memcard/rumble pak swap option in the core menu. Enough games ask the Player to do that that it warrants being a top-level option.

Or maybe it can be automated? Who knows.

[topaz otter]

Does the ps1 core support rumble

[quaint rune]

Oh yeaaaaaah

[worn delta]

Yeah, also GBA and GBC core has support for the games that utilised it

[topaz otter]

I had the rumble catridge for the ds

It was useless

Only worked with metroud prime pinball

[fierce girder]

I still have mine lol

I only have a red fat DS to use it with though, it’s less than ideal but that game is so good

[quasi storm]

No issues? Try running pole position... 😆

[chrome quest]

F1? I'm just curious to understand if I'm missing something in setup, not really trying to run games yet I think it's fair to say!

Certainly on the Patreon others have got "HelloWorldCPU16BPP320X240.N64" to run as one of the first examples. I must be missing something.....

[devout leaf]

I’m getting the weird color issue on Namco. What was the fix for that?

[remote hatch]

Latest test core?

[devout leaf]

Pretty sure. 7/9 I think.

Things going by so fast though I’m probably behind.

[remote hatch]

20230710

[devout leaf]

Oh thanks!

[zenith orchid]

so I'm guessing rdp and rsp are next? the essential functions?

[quaint rune]

Yes. Robert is up in Tibet on a mountain training to become ultra instinct mode.

[devout leaf]

*Death Mountain

Needs the Goron Tunic for the core.

[zenith orchid]

It's just exciting knowing he has the experience of making a software emulator, he knows exactly which are the critical functions of each of those components, so he can develop it in a sequence that every update makes the most noticeable difference in game compatibility

[lament escarp]

I don't think he is making a software emulator though. I can't wait for all the games that will start booting in all their broken beauty wen enough of the components are assembled. 🙂

[vagrant ivy]

He always builds a SW emulator first

then he can use it to debug issues in the FPGA

Its thje way Robert works

[cold pollen]

He already has

It's not one you'd use for gaming though as it runs too slow but it functions as a test bed

[lament escarp]

Didn't know that. Thought he'd just use a common software emulator.

[cold pollen]

Nope it's part of his method he builds a barebones software emulator to learn the components then uses that knowledge for the FPGA core

[vagrant ivy]

His emulator is Cycle accurate so so slow it can never be used to play games

It can be used with save states from his FPGA work to help him find bugs without the overhead of the FPGA compile

[quaint rune]

Like iron man’s origin. He secludes himself and builds a software emulator from a box of scraps and uses it for testing purposes.

[quasi storm]

What really gets me is the state of Nintendo 64 emulation in general. It stagnated for YEARS, and only recently have there been any significant advancements. I'm not sure what happened, but it almost seems like N64 emulation was an absolute headache.
Then Robert comes along, and just sort of bangs out a cycle accurate emulator like it was nothing...

[brisk edge]

Some of it was complex to solve, and nobody was that interested for a long time. Most games worked with hacks and workarounds, and a patchwork of plugins.
Cycle accuracy probably wasn't really on most people's minds because it's not playable at all.

Even right now, it's definitely an accuracy vs playability situation for most N64 emulators. It's nice to see Ares making strides but even then there's plenty of stuff broken on it.

[quasi storm]

I still remember when 3 point filtering became a thing, and it was after... Like, what... Ten years of nothing?

And then emulation finally got WAY better. Indiana Jones and the infernal machine was FINALLY playable. ( For what that's worth)

[hearty oar]

Parallel-RDP is really cool at least, no idea how accurate it is but I love the idea of emulating retro GPU fixed functionality in compute shaders

[brisk edge]

N64 seems to be a console where removing the limitations is more appealing than keeping them for most emulators

[quasi storm]

I'll admit, it's output really hasn't aged well at all.

It was blurry, choppy, clunky. The only time it could shine was when an obscenely talented developer got their hands on it...

Hmm, I was about to compare it to the number of great games for the PS1, but there was more to that than just the output.

It's such a dilemma; where would the N64 be had it used CDs? It's not such an easy question to answer. On the one hand, carts allowed data to be streamed in ways CDs weren't able to do. On the other hand, take a PS1 game, and put on the 64, and it will outperform it every time. (Minus MK trilogy, of course... Barf. But that's probably a media limitation.)

I dunno...

I'm all over the place 😆. But would the 64 have been at an advantage had it used CDs? Would Zelda have been possible? Conkers Bad Fur Day?

[brisk edge]

The biggest impact probably would have been better third party support. Square might have stayed

[languid dune]

Nintendo's licensing practices were also really bad back then.

[quasi storm]

Care to expand?

[languid dune]

I don't remember all the details, but Nintendo was well known for charging a lot for production. And one of the reasons they went with cartridges for the N64 was to control production so that third parties would have to go through them to manufacture their games.

Hiroshi Yamauchi was cut throat. He held a major grudge against Squaresoft for moving to Playstation.

[quasi storm]

Oh, yeah. I actually forgot about that. It wasn't until the GameCube were they able to figure out a proprietary disc based solution, and it was actually pretty snappy, as well. I wonder, then, how things may have been different id Nintendo had access to that tech during the 64 era.

[devout leaf]

I can confirm Nintendo has some backwards thoughts on things from around then.

Nintendo was worried about online accounts and a big concern was that people would buy a console, the name the want would be taken, and they’d sell the console or abandon it.

[native mesa]

N64 is probably the second worst Nintendo Console

[orchid nimbus]

Virtual boy

N64 had some good games

for the time it was cool

most games didn't age well

[lament escarp]

And still everybody is feverishly anticipating quest vierundsechzig.

[topaz otter]

ultrahle came out and it blew everyones mind, that the n64 could be emulated at high level. Then we got project64 and zilmar made good progress for a few years and then the whole project stagnated.

people focused on plugins to fix problems and add features

that was in 1998, I was a teenager. I'm now 41 and project64 has not really had any meaningful advancement. Rogue Squadron wasn't playable and as far as I know it still isn't.

the advances in PS1 emulation over the years have absolutely blown away the n64

not to mention gamecube and wii emulation which is largely done and only took half the time

[devout leaf]

Agreed which is wild because I still love it. Wii U was dead on arrival but the homebrew scene saved it a lot.

[hearty oar]

There’s been real advancement in N64 emulation in recent years, just elsewhere - angrylion RDP was a big step for accurate, LLE rendering, which was followed by the aforementioned parallel-rdp to accelerate it on the GPU and enable up scaling again

[gaunt star]

Idk as a WiiU owner the system that whole system was quite a bungle. Like N64 it has some good games but idk the sluggish OS and poor third-party support put it below N64

But also, if it’s 2nd worst that’s okay. 2nd worst Sony system is PSP, 2nd worst Sega system is Dreamcast. Own and enjoy both.

[native mesa]

Yeah WiiU is worst the N64

[gaunt star]

Oh where is VB then

[native mesa]

I don't consider that a console

[gaunt star]

Oh you mean home console etc

What about FDS, better or not included?

[native mesa]

Fds was a Famicom addon

[gaunt star]

Yeah but like sega cd it gets its own library so it could be considered its own thing

Like 32x etc

Could say ps2 is an add on bc it required ps1 chip to function until the slim

Not that there didn’t sell it separately but does that mean if Neptune made it past poc that it would be in a different camp?

Or someone that bought turboduo only to play CDs etc

[native mesa]

https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/64DD

[gaunt star]

Idk if add on is the question more like does it’s own library separate it in any way from the original console

Like could I unironically say that I consider sega CD library as genesis games etc

[native mesa]

I don't think so in the fds especially since most were ported to cartridge

[gaunt star]

Yeah I hear you not many differences aside from audio and pre-bb saving etc

[zinc dew]

Nintendo 64 is better than GameCube

Switch > SNES > N64 > DS > 3DS > NES > GB/GBC > GameCube > GBA > Wii > Wii U > Virtual Boy

[remote hatch]

https://tenor.com/view/oh-really-hmph-surprised-gif-18286648

https://tenor.com/view/sarcasm-derr-duh-gif-26104542

neva! Metroid Primes, Resident Evil Remake/ Zero, Wind Waker , Twilight Princess, RE 4, Soul Calibur II

GC is a great console

[zinc dew]

It really is

[remote hatch]

N64 ..... Mario 64

duh

[zinc dew]

and the game THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED

[remote hatch]

haha yes , West 64

[restive anchor]

I stopped reading after “Switch > SNES”

[hearty oar]

I think I might be the biggest Wii U apologist on the planet, I just love the thing

[restive anchor]

The problem with it is that it’s so good because it plays so many games not actually made for it

After you cut out the remasters and VC stuff you have virtual boy amounts of games left

[raw oriole]

And once you take out the games ported to Switch, you're left with Xenoblade Chronicles X. Which is a great game, but it's a tough sell to buy a whole console for that one game now 😄

(The Wii U emulator Cemu is pretty good, btw)

[hearty oar]

Eh I still fondly remember it for what it was at the time - I played so much Splatoon 1 it’s insane, and the sequels on Switch never grabbed me the same way

[cold pollen]

Eh, you should add shovelware to your list

Otherwise there are still thousands lol

[raw oriole]

I still have mine plugged in, although tbf mostly for occasionally dumping another WiiU game disk to play on Cemu

[restive anchor]

Wii U barely had shovelware

[raw oriole]

Or beta-testing the dumping homebrew software Dumpling.

Didn't survive long enough to get buried in shovelware

[restive anchor]

It was too unpopular to be worth picking up the shovel

[cold pollen]

Weren't you talking about switch

[raw oriole]

Nintendo did anyway 🪦

[restive anchor]

No, Wii U

[cold pollen]

Oh okay two sentences above was about Switch, my bad

Wii U was meh

Great system to hack

Still a couple of games to port to switch then we can forget it lol

[zinc dew]

Oh without question, stop being stuck in the past!

[raw oriole]

The Wii U did somehow give Nintendo confidence to go all in on making the Switch handheld though, so deserves kudos for that

[zinc dew]

confidence/desperation, who can tell, who can say

[raw oriole]

Worked out pretty well for them

[hearty oar]

Lucky they were able to find exactly the right 2015 tablet chip to make it work on the cheap…

[zinc dew]

Nintendo has infinite money, they’re in zero risk of anything. I think it was trying to find any talent to support the Wii U when the 3DS was doing great to be really difficult.

[ocean lily]

maybe we'll get a definitive edition that's actually finished

[raw oriole]

That'd be nice

[restive anchor]

I think it's weird we don't have WWHD and TPHD for switch yet

[ocean lily]

X brought so much lore and nothing has been done with it

[restive anchor]

by this point they should be able to port them from wii u to switch in their sleep

[zinc dew]

Truuuuue

[ocean lily]

1 had a nice substory side quest all about the war between the giants and spiders

[zinc dew]

Wii U going to be crazy expensive in a few years

Everyone who was shitting on it will all go “you know, the Wii U wasn’t that bad. That tablet was kinda cool”

Always happens!

[restive anchor]

also backward compatibility with hdmi

[zinc dew]

yeah that’s how I finished Xenoblade lol

[raw oriole]

Yup yup

[ocean lily]

my problem with the tablet was the awful compression they used that made reds stupidly fuzzy

[raw oriole]

The whole 'clone your Wii -> WiiU's vWii' was great

[twin barn]

I'm a man of the people.

[ocean lily]

but it's the definitive way to play games like Wondeful 101, Lego City Undercover, and Xenoblade X

[zinc dew]

I bought all those, I liked the Wii U

[raw oriole]

Lego City Undercover caused me to get into a Twitter doomscrolling habit

The level loading was soooooooo slooooooooow

[zinc dew]

lol wat

Ahahaha

[raw oriole]

Replayed it on PC. Bit crashy, but much quicker

[restive anchor]

The Wii U was fine honestly, too bad it tanked

[ocean lily]

It was stupidly slow, yet somehow every port of it has even slower load times

[raw oriole]

Friend of mine wrote most of the dialogue 🙂

[twin barn]

Imagine if Twitter existed when the neo Geo CD was fresh 💀

[zinc dew]

the Wii U was perfect for me because I would put my kids down for a nap or for bed and I’d keep playing on the tablet

[ocean lily]

Nothing like loading up lego city undercover on ps4/5 and seeing it take even longer to load then only run at 720p and 30 fps

[raw oriole]

The lego games have always been astonishingly low performers

But LCU was the worst

[hearty oar]

Almost forgotten about the platinum games, wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2…and Star Fox Zero…

[zinc dew]

We can keep forgetting about Star Fox Zero

[ocean lily]

zero deserves to be forgotten tho

[restive anchor]

Zero isn’t even the worst star fox exclusive on Wii u

[zinc dew]

lol you talking about Guard

[restive anchor]

Which is an impressive feat

Yes

[ocean lily]

LCU was wonderful with its nonstop puns and pop culture references and homages

[hearty oar]

Nintendoland is the best star fox on Wii U

[zinc dew]

lol

You’re not wrong

[hearty oar]

I wonder if Tantalus will do any more Switch ports, I work with one of the guys who worked on SSHD, so of course he cannot say now…

[raw oriole]

Blame Graham Goring for most of that. He used to do a podcast, Pig Ignorant Indie Gamers, which is probably still funny

[devout leaf]

I'm super curious which one is worse. If you don't count the 32X and SEGA CD there are still the SG-1000 and Master System.

[carmine kettle]

https://tenor.com/view/nick-miller-new-girl-jake-johnson-ew-no-gif-16761984

[viral wadi]

Damn these are some hot takes. NES > SNES > game boy > gamecube >= n64 > 3/ds > switch > wiiu > virtual boy > Wii imho

[hearty oar]

I refuse to take the virtual boy > Wii bait

[viral wadi]

Atleast virtual boy was less phallic than wii

Not by much though

[hollow pebble]

GameCube equal to N64?!

[topaz otter]

they aren't equal

the n64 has mario 64

mario sunshine is not as good as that game and its certainly no mario 64 2

[hollow pebble]

I agree there, somewhat, but as a whole GameCube stomps N64.

Like, it’s not even close.

[topaz otter]

https://tenor.com/view/wrong-not-nope-gif-22294097

the gamecube has more shovelware, third party trash(not as bad as the wii), and movie games

you could argue that luigi's mansion is good but its a tech demo

[hollow pebble]

The N64 wasn’t even good enough to get shovelware.

[topaz otter]

which is why the N64 library is as pure as Brian the Wizard's pure soul

the gamecube does has rogue squadron II and III

[hollow pebble]

N64 library is as pure as exhaust fumes from a 60s car.

[topaz otter]

but the first rogue squadron is one of the best star wars games of all time

putting the franchise in space didn't really make it better, RSII is just a bigger badder version of the first game but with a worse story

[hollow pebble]

These takes are so bad the British Museum wants to hire you.

[topaz otter]

I'm curious what are some blockbuster titles on the gamecube

the ones that really moved systems off the shelves

[cold pollen]

Wind Waker, Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime probably?

Twilight Princess I suppose

[hearty oar]

Metroid Prime/2, SSB Melee, Sunshine, F Zero GX, wind Waker

[cold pollen]

Yeah Smash for sure

Eternal Darkness sold a couple maybe lol

[hearty oar]

Pikmin

[elfin relic]

Animal Crossing

[cold pollen]

What was that mature game that was black and white and red

The whole "Gamecube is for kiddie games" chicken egg thing was really annoying

[hollow pebble]

You talking about MadWorld for Wii?

[gaunt star]

I was gonna say Pico

[hearty oar]

Although everyone knows the greatest GameCube game of all time is Gotcha Force

What a flawless masterpiece of robot collecting, and amazing voice acting

[quasi storm]

I remember seeing Pikmin in a demo kiosk at target. The sheer number of characters onscreen blew me away!

[zinc dew]

N64 gang rise up, we’re winning against the GamePubes

[hollow pebble]

Paper Mario, RE4, Super Monkey Ball

[cold pollen]

I swear it was for GC but maybe

[hollow pebble]

TimeSplitter 2, Viewtiful Joe

[elfin relic]

man Super Monkey Ball was a great game and had good shit for party gaming too

[cold pollen]

yeah Super Monkey Ball is legit

[elfin relic]

did we mention Wario Land 4 yet

err

no

Wario World? the gamecube one

[zinc dew]

lol, best pause music of all time

[elfin relic]

yeah

[quasi storm]

Road rash 64 is pretty neat. The first game I remember that had something resembling crash physics.

[hollow pebble]

And of course, the seminal classic. Donkey Konga 😎

[quasi storm]

ER, wait... Where even are we?

[hollow pebble]

This is a GameCube chat now.

[quasi storm]

Oh... (Switches hats)

[zinc dew]

We’re letting the HeathenCubes fight it out while us N64 upper crust watch from the bandstands.

[elfin relic]

I just like vija games

I will play them on the systems

[quasi storm]

Yay (Brandishing my trident controller)

[zinc dew]

I only play MiSTer

Bubsy 3D and Chameleon Twist exclusively

[elfin relic]

we need one of those ps3 era ads for mister

MiSTer: It Only Does Everything

[zinc dew]

I’m kidding btw, I love GameCube

[elfin relic]

i love lamp game

[zinc dew]

I was so excited for it

It delivered imo

[elfin relic]

I got the freeloader swap disc for mine to play imports

Japan got the better game cases imo, smol little bois

[zinc dew]

Yeah but with paper sleeves

[elfin relic]

but smol

[zinc dew]

Yeah they’re cool

[quasi storm]

... What's the matter with you?

You got to play Barbies adventures...

[zinc dew]

Lol

[quasi storm]

As for me, I'm looking forward to the day I can defeat the Great Mighty Poo on MiSTer.

[viral wadi]

HAWKS

i think steel bowl hawks is the jam after convo yesterday

[topaz otter]

https://tenor.com/view/nerf-gun-lol-goofy-gif-25204871

[topaz otter]

I guess you could call them system sellers, when they are the only games worth selling on the system lmao

[cold pollen]

Huh?

Gamecube had a lot of good games so I'm not sure what that means

It was back when they actually had competitive hardware so a lot of multiplatform games were on GC as well

[gaunt star]

If they hadn’t skewered 3rd party with n64 GameCube probably would have enjoyed better success

But honestly anything coming up against the PS2 at the time isn’t really a fair comparison to now

Probably the only time a year lead really decimated any chance of fair competition in market share

[cold pollen]

Sure but the existence of the PS2 doesn't negate the good games on GC

[gaunt star]

I’m saying it would have been bigger without going up against a juggernaut like ps2. If they hadn’t ruined their 3rd party support with the previous gen they probably would have had more like 75-80 million sold

[cold pollen]

right

[gaunt star]

I like GameCube, their main problem with ports was that controller

I played a lot of Tony Hawk on GameCube and hoo boy

[cold pollen]

It was all I had and I enjoyed the controller

[gaunt star]

Top kidney button for ‘grind’ is 🤮

[cold pollen]

it was my first console since Genesis

[gaunt star]

The controller is fine when games are designed with it in mind, nice even

But the face button layout specifically in conjunction with the dpad, not to mention games that want you to hammer the shoulder buttons were all issues with 3rd party games

Like that controller got the grip shape and the analog stick down so well

Everything else kinda eh on it

[quasi storm]

Then the GameCube had the Wavebird. Best birthday present I ever got!

[hearty oar]

I've grown weirdly attached to using the gamecube controller in place of the original for N64 games, thanks to the virtual console, it's probably what I'll end up using for most games on this core

even though yeah the button layout isn't always ideal

[quasi storm]

It really is interesting picking button mappings on... Any controller, really.

Unless using the right analog stick for c buttons doesn't bother you. Good luck playing MK with that, though.

[wanton sun]

have all roots but still miss some shrines. mostly the ones that are in caves and i cannot find the entrance. also have some quests open that require a lot if searching, like the wells. will maybe play some hour occasional over the next months, but all the grind now...its not much fun anymore

but i will not complain. still the best new game i played since a long time

[mellow raft]

I waited on opening my collector's edition because I just did not want it to be another BotW where I played it for a rush and then shelved it because of being another open world game with a lot of content that's repetitive with no direction for the player, all in a baren world.

But I've heard enough good close friends tell me they gave botw a 7/10 for the same reasons... and this is the best game they've played in a while... so I think I'll open it up and give it a go.... once I'm done finishing up Xenoblade 3's side story

[viral portal]

There's a way to see cave entrances in game!

[sharp ermine]

How? Im only aware of shooting the blue rabits trick

[hearty python]

Wii U was such a nice System. Think that any Switch games would also run on the Wii U. Not 1080p, but 720p seems possible in my eyes. I love the systems where you put a game disk in and instantly get start with the games. Nintendo go all in with the switch. Hope they get not in trouble with the switch 2. in Wii U eara there was also the 3Ds as a second platform, that minimizes risks. I think you have to count the sales of the 3Ds to the stationary system to see the needed amount of sales. If I can decide, the next system came in 2 versions. Handheld and stationary for the Big tv screen.

[fair walrus]

(cherry tree)

[sharp ermine]

Oh right, I found one that highlighted nearby caves, are there multiple such trees

[cold pollen]

Yes

[sharp ermine]

Ah kk

In total I find myself exploring the overworld less compared to botw

Because you can just Glide everywhere from sky islands / towers

[cold pollen]

That's an advantage to me because in BOTW it felt like I was wandering around an empty field

[chrome lodge]

ooooo what game is that

[mellow raft]

Quarst 64 obviously

[chrome lodge]

クエスト64

technically Eltale Monsters

[mellow raft]

How about Qwark 64?

https://tenor.com/view/qwark-ratchetandclank-epicfortnite-gif-20756086

[topaz otter]

If this game were rebooted as an anime i think it would have potential

[worn delta]

It would need a new modern anime title: "I Was The Only Boy In An All Girls School Then I Fell Down A Hole And Now I Am Called Brian And Am Stuck Inside An Obscure 90s RPG"

[wanton sun]

yes, but unfortunatly i also didn't found it in the areas where i still miss shrines

on the other hand it's not really important to me. Those hidden shrines all seem to have nothing inside, the only quest is to even find them

[worn delta]

Some of them you trigger elsewhere and then they appear, like one where you jump off a sky island on your shield and wind up snowboarding all the way down a mountain and at the end a shrine appears

[wanton sun]

this might also be a reason why i can't find the cave 🙂 but does the radar detect them?

it's tough...i think getting all without guide is very hard, but using a guide or detailed hints is also pointless in the end

[cold pollen]

I use a guide if I can't find one, which is unusual

[sharp ermine]

Zeldadungeon interactive map was my last resort for a few i couldnt find

[devout leaf]

I used a map after beating the story. Fun to see the sights.

[languid dune]

Accurate.

[quick arch]

https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2023/07/nintendo-64-test-cart-rom/

[viral portal]

I know some shrines were in caves whose entrances were annoyingly out of the way and pretty far off from the radar ping. You'll get it!

[worn delta]

I still haven't got the radar thing, I don't know where Robbie went after the first time I met him in the depths and how to find him again, will probably need to look it up

I've managed to not get the well quest either somehow

It's amazing how you can just miss things in this game it is so big

[worn delta]

Now this is interesting, anyone tried it on the core (asuming it is the right format)?

This is a curious comment as well:
It runs some tests a bit differently if 4MB, 6MB, or 8MB of RDRAM are detected. If you don’t think 6MB was ever a thing, try asking around about 64DD support in Ocarina of Time ;*)

Anyone know what this 6MB for Ocarina 64DD support is about?

[quick arch]

it is kind of 3d stuff so no point to check it for the moment.
I tried on Ares none of the test are fulfilled

[worn delta]

Maybe useful for Robert to try pass the tests, interesting none of the emulators do

Very curious about this 6MB 64DD comment if anyone knows more

Oh, it's a post from @lapis sequoia! Any idea what this comment is about?

[lapis sequoia]

Honestly this release was way over my head on the tech stuff lol

basically my role was just to get it a home and publicized

[hearty python]

Perhaps a 2MB Buffer to reduce loading time for DD?

[wanton sun]

maybe worth checking when we run out of open source homebrew testroms that fail. First will be the easy things and having source code available makes it like 100 times easier

[languid ore]

Does having the 'source' for some of the decompiled games like Mario 64 and OOT help as well? Does (or will when the time comes) having those games decompiled help flesh out parts of the core and help give those games a much higher chance of running 100% vs not having it?

[modest helm]

At the very least I hope the decompilation projects lead to rom hacks for said games running much better on original hardware, MiSTer and emulators

[mellow path]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_rzYnXEQlE <--- relevant

[native mesa]

No anime has potential

[native mesa]

The better radar can detect anything you want. Veins are common in caves

[topaz otter]

It does when it features the most popular n64 mascot of all time

[quaint rune]

thats true. mario movie broke bank with a sequel in the works

https://tenor.com/view/cigar-smoking-smoke-back-off-gif-17958464

[ocean lily]

Brian?

[cerulean elk]

Seriously. My wife and I have about 100 hours in and it feels like we’ve only seen 20% of anything

In a good way. Constant discovery

[stoic parcel]

https://tenor.com/view/anime-peek-hide-angry-scary-gif-16080231

[topaz otter]

Ken griffey jr

[quick arch]

with the last commit of today we go further of two Ubisoft games

[inner bronze]

[teal citrus]

Back when Ubisoft had love and care put into their games.

[worn delta]

Oh wow, what has Robert added that has got more games working?

Is the new version available to download anywhere?

[sharp beacon]

EEPROM save suppport with yesterday commit and some rewriting of the RSP I/F with today's

[worn delta]

Oh nice, didn't realise EEPROM sabve was coming so soon

[sharp beacon]

he said t was necessary because many games that used this functionality would block

[modest helm]

Dang. Eeprom saving already? Saving is usually much later down the pipeline. Good news!

Makes sense, but it'll be fun to know that when games like Super Mario 64 start running, we can save it

[wanton sun]

added the rsp dma. Not sure what it does for that games, as the RSP is still missing. Maybe just some deadlock is avoided

i'm currently doing a change in the ddr3 handling of that dma. Once that works, i will upload a version here in the channel. But don't expect too much from it

eeprom handling is implemented, saving to sdcard is not yet. So you can save ingame, but it will not persist a core reload

[modest helm]

Good to know

Those save states are gonna come in handy then

[wanton sun]

unfortunatly the savestate system currently only allows to load states, not save them as that saves a lot of ressources. Need to see if all fits in with full savestate support

[hearty python]

Cool, I saw a few days ago also the Ubisoft screen, but than nothing else. Don’t remember wich game it was, cause tested so many. 😂

Just wanted to be prepared if things move faster than expected 😁

[marble cargo]

Any luck trying to boot Mischief Makers?

[zinc dew]

Need to shake shake the MiSTer first

[blissful plaza]

Just a black screen.

[marble cargo]

Damn.

[modest helm]

Do we need a bios?

[blissful plaza]

At least the NTSC PIF ROM named as 'boot.rom' inside the N64 folder.

[modest helm]

Is there a preferred ROM set? Tried loading Pac-Man and get a black screen
Edit: Nevermind. Ms. Pac-Man seems to work. I guess Pac-Man is busted lol

[zinc dew]

Also write “FPGAzumSpass” on a piece of paper, cut your finger and place a drop of blood on it, then cast it into a fire.

@wanton sun is an FPGA wizard but he demands blood sacrifices to perform his dark arts

The GAME THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED was based on his life. His rise to true FPGA wizardry.

[novel junco]

So can FPGAzumSpass expect a large donation once the Game That Shall Not Be Names becomes playable? 😂🤣

[worn delta]

I am using the Everdrive collection of ROMs, which is very comprehensive and could load Namco Arcade on previous core so set seems a good one to grab (on archive)

[zinc dew]

Thanks for the heads-up!

[zinc dew]

On that day the prophecy will be fulfilled!

[worn delta]

That's the one I used to make the testing matrix, so hopefully other people are wanting to use that set as well

[quick arch]

normally the core is only able to load big endian roms

[worn delta]

Is this set big endian? Namco loads up

[zinc dew]

when do you move onto matrix reloaded and matrix revolutions testing?

[quick arch]

I don't know but the one of no intro is labelled big endian roms or byteswapped

[zealous hull]

@stoic parcel I was digging through archive.org for a big endian collection, and found a collection of patches that removes AA from a lot of N64 games. I personally wasn't aware of its existence. Wanted to put it on your radar too.

[wanton sun]

anything with z64 should be fine

[stoic parcel]

Please DM me that, if you dont mind 🙂 Thank you

[wanton sun]

i think the confusion comes from the core being able to load .N64 (but not .n64) files and people use little endian .n64 files

or even renaming v64 as z64/N64

[modest helm]

Same friend. I have an Everdrive N64 and am using the same files from those. They should be the most compatible, but just want to double check. Pac-Man doesn't work but every other game in the Namco Museum does. Anyone else able to play Pac-Man?

[zealous hull]

Woah. I didn't even realize that .N64 != .n64.

[modest helm]

Btw, definitely recommend the Everdrive pack because it includes controller hacks for the Turok games and all those FPS games where the X and Y axis are flipped which is impossible to go back to if you ever played any FPS post Halo: CE

[worn delta]

Will little endian ROMs work at some point? The difference is a bit over my head

[zinc dew]

haha bit

[zealous hull]

Okay, yeah that was a good one.

[worn delta]

Everdrive pack also includes all regions, betas, protos, the arcade games, 64DD, test roms, translations, hacks. All organised nicely into different folders

Everything in there should work on OG hardware as well which is a good mark of quality

[wanton sun]

probably. The question is if i can convince sorg that the handling(detection + conversion) will be in main or if i have to spend ressources in the core 🙂

but as the roms are relativly large, i want some fast load to ddr3 anyway at some point like the GBA core got

this seems like a good time to support all formats

[hollow pebble]

Well, that was a fast turn around.

Regardless of the method, both would certainly be ideal just from a UX POV.

Otherwise, we’re gonna have a lot of tech support 😂

[zinc dew]

or you could cast your support behind one format and win the war

[modest helm]

Hopefully I'll be able to sell my Everdrive N64 one day. It's the one console I want to be rid of bc my hope is that MiSTer will be capable of running everything through the 5th gen of consoles

[modest helm]

Everdrive 4 Life!

[hollow pebble]

https://tenor.com/view/why-not-both-why-not-take-both-gif-11478682

[modest helm]

https://tenor.com/view/you-have-to-pick-one-choose-decide-pick-molly-gif-16683388

[zinc dew]

I ended up owning most of the n64 library that an ever drive 64 didn’t make sense for me. If I could do things differently I would get an everdrive lol.

[modest helm]

Only got an Everdrive N64 bc it's my fav console. Would glady sell it if MiSTer is up to par. Plus I want to be able to play GoldenEye and PD with dual sticks!

[devout leaf]

You can’t just say you want to be rid of the Everdrive then say Everydrive 4 Life lol

[modest helm]

Everdrive ROM set my guy! Everdrive is a stop gap for a glorious FPGA solution

[modest helm]

I agree!

[zinc dew]

https://tenor.com/view/hulk-hogan-nodding-nod-yes-yup-gif-13973219

[hollow pebble]

This is top tier brain worm shit.

[zinc dew]

lolol

if GameCube is so cool where’s the MiSTer core huuuuuuuuuuuh

[hollow pebble]

My uncle works at MiSTer Corp and he told me it’s coming to Super MiSTer.

[modest helm]

Wii is also better than GameCube lol not even trolling 🙂

[zinc dew]

Hmmmmm, I’ll have to think about that one

[modest helm]

Wii VC + GC backwards compatibility

[zinc dew]

oh ok

[modest helm]

Not to mention double the amount of games. GC has 600 games vs Wii's 1500 or so

[modest helm]

https://tenor.com/view/steve-harvey-wii-sports-bowling-gif-21835437

Best game ever

[mellow raft]

The main thing to know is all the formats just have the data organized in different ways. The file extensions came from the dump tools they originated from mostly. Big endian (usually .z64) is the most native format to the actual way the code is organized on the cartridge. Little endian and byte-swapped are the same data but just aren't organized proper, so that's why no-intro switched to big endian some time in 2018 I think. Old no-intro packs used a different format. You can convert between them. Just use tool64.

[devout leaf]

https://tenor.com/view/abuelo-simpson-grandpa-abraham-the-simpsons-gif-7855872

[hearty python]

Rayman loads now a little further, but dont come over the start screen. E62

[modest helm]

Yeah I tried Rayman 2 and Donald Duck. It's crazy that you can press get to the main menu on those games

[hearty python]

Wave Race shows now the N64 Logo

[sullen harbor]

Because it is already a gamecube and so much more

[modest helm]

Precisely

[hearty python]

GC, Wii, WII U are the same evolution with enhacements.

[topaz otter]

When was that

[teal citrus]

When they remembered Rayman.

[modest helm]

It's pretty interesting when you consider that the Wii and Wii U were the only Nintendo home consoles that were backwards compatible. The Wii U was even backwards compatible with the GameCube if you mod it

[worn delta]

You are forgetting the handhelds

GBA could play GBC

DS could play GBA I think?

[zinc dew]

Correct!

[restive anchor]

You had some accessories on earlier consoles that allowed for it

Super gameboy, gameboy player etc

[cold pollen]

I don't think those are considered home consoles

[worn delta]

Actually yeah, he did specify home consoles, I missed that

[modest helm]

I think Sony forced Nintendo's hand. The PS2 selling as well as it did made Nintendo realize making the GC back compat with the Wii as well as the VC was likely a result of the PS2's influence

[mellow path]

Then Sony forever understood the importance of backwards compatibility

[zinc dew]

Until the PS4 😢

[static trout]

In fairness to Sony, I don't think there was ever any chance of the PS4 or PS5 running PS3 games

[zinc dew]

oh it could’ve happened, at great financial loss lol

[static trout]

The fact that they can't at least run PS1 discs with emulation is sad, though.

[zinc dew]

They can, they just choose not to

[woeful grove]

It's good to know there is no Quest64 in our future

[inner bronze]

"Hey, reporting in from the future. I'd just like to say we all love the MiSTer N64 core and we're all happily playing Zelda and Mario hacks. It's a shame we never got that JRPG with that boy Brian to work."

[modest helm]

There's plenty of _______ 64 games in our future. The sheer amount of games with 64 in the title is astounding lol

[inner bronze]

Sorry, time traveler me forgot that was a banned word

[woeful grove]

muahaha

[topaz otter]

hey is there a way to have the mister automatically boot to a certain core

[inner bronze]

Yus

ini setting bootcore

[topaz otter]

neat

[fair stump]

The day Qvest works Robby's face becomes the icon for the server

[topaz otter]

I'm from even farther in the future and you can't allow robert to finish the core, i won't go into details but it involves a certain game that once it becomes playable causes the end of the world

[inner bronze]

Maybe that is just our fate

[worn delta]

We'll need Robert to implement the save pak before we can go Questing with Brian 64, as that game requires it. Not sure if that is on his list before he takes on the big things

[languid ore]

PS5 could absolutely have perfect PS1 and PS2 emulation. I reckon it could do a really good job of PS3 as well. I'd love is Sony did more of the M$ route but even better and built in a whole bunch of back compat stuff into the PS5. Then they could sell all of those games digitally while letting those very few people who have physical copies use theirs. Even if they just went pure digital it'd still be a huge win.

Lots of those games you can't play anywhere else (legally) except on original hardware with original discs. That's not right.

[wanton sun]

no, controller pak is not a hard requirement for games to work, so it will be late in the plan

[worn delta]

Makes sense

Was just looking at what games actually used it, is a long list but not full of big hitters

https://www.nintendo64ever.com/Nintendo-64-Games-Memory-Card.html

[wanton sun]

that list also includes the games where it has minor effect. E.g. mario kart is 99% playable without it

[worn delta]

Yeah, I think Brian 64 and Mystical Ninja may be the ones that really need it for saving, not sure if any others do

[wanton sun]

of course it has to be there at some point, but as long as we can have fun without it, i will postpone it

wouldn't be surprised if it works with SNAC before the core can emulate it

[worn delta]

Do you think it may be quite involved to add support for it? Is it similar to PS1 memory card support?

[wanton sun]

about the same, yes

pure logic is like eeprom support, but it's too large to be stored inside the core, so it must have external ram communciation

unlike psx memcard, it probably can be saved online without opening the osd

but that would be confusing: eeprom/flash/sram needs OSD to open, controller pak does not. So better all need it

[worn delta]

Ah, that is involved for a lot fewer games that rely on it than PS1

[worn delta]

Hopefully rumble Pak is a lot simpler, I don't think it is critical for any game but it does add to the experience on a lot of them

[languid dune]

Excitement levels...rising.

[hollow rune]

is there an n64 snac adapter available to buy

I am kind of wondering what route I should go to play games. Should I do the 8bitdo replacement board

[worn delta]

No, blue is looking to design one though

He mentioned the possibility of having 4 player support that would be very exciting

[hollow rune]

Then I think that is the ticket. We have 5 controllers in the storage bins

I think my other controllers can be used for most things

[worn delta]

It may be awhile yet, and maybe there will be single controller prototypes before then

[hollow rune]

I hear you. I guess I will just focus on using 8bitdo controllers I already have until more options surface

[worn delta]

Yeah, that's my plan

4 player one will all for the full Denshe De Go! Experience if it is possible 🙂

[hollow rune]

I keep thinking about the order that games will start working

I imagine Mystical Ninja will be latter one, since it didn't emulate well for the longest time

some weird behavior when the camera would roate around the player

I guess 2d stuff will be first

[worn delta]

I don't know if emulator issues are going to be as much of a thing here, so I know one of the things emulators really struggled with was the faux camera screens in mario cart around the track and those were working in Roberts emulator right away

[hollow rune]

that is true

[worn delta]

Although Mystical Ninja really needs the controller Pak to save so won't really be worth playing until that is in, which as Robert says will be later in development cycle

I am curious at what point these arcade games will work as I have never played any of those

[wanton sun]

first (real) game i want to have playable is mario kart. It worked very early in my emulator, so i know it doesn't need anything fancy and it only uses 30% of what the rdp can do. It's an easy choise to work on

[hollow rune]

That makes sense

[wanton sun]

if something else works before that's fine, but i will not target it

[hollow rune]

You get a lot of features for the system out of that one too. Lots of sprite scaling. 4 player. 3D. Different speeds and framerates depending on the modes

Voice files and more standard music

[wanton sun]

every part of the startup covers different things of the RDP: the spinning logo, the title screen, the main menu and ingame. But it's always small chunks. I could get each of them rendering fine in less than a day in the emulator. It was just a perfect starter candidate

[past mango]

An incredibly popular title too, gonna be a riot in here when that lands

[mild ether]

How far into your development of the emulator was Mario 64 from Mario Kart?

I think the only games I actually played back in the 90s for n64 was Maro 64, GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. I assume that the later games will be late into your development before they work well.

[wanton sun]

very far, because it requires the TLB for the face pulling stuff. We have a patch now that removes this screen, so maybe it's working earlier with the core, no idea

[mild ether]

Ah, I better get out the n64 and practice Mario Kart.

[wanton sun]

i mean, going back my commit history it was only 11 days between mario kart and Mario 64, but well, that was the emulator. I doubt it will be that fast on the core. Depends a lot on the priorities

[languid dune]

11 days. 11 weeks. Or 11 months. It'll be exciting when it happens regardless of how long it is.

Or 11 ||nano seconds||!

[devout leaf]

The New Tetris doesn't load, BUT, it doesn't give the graphical glitch screen. That's something new lol.

[mild ether]

Yeah I am pretty excited to see any games working. I think I will be much more likely to play through some of the N64 library on MiSTer rather than the console itself.

[maiden lintel]

Does the test cart work yet?

[wanton sun]

i read it mostly tests controller, rsp and rdp, so very unlikely

[worn delta]

I meant to download it and see what the format ones, let me go have a look...

[maiden lintel]

What about 240p?

[worn delta]

There isn't one for N64

Not anything usable anyway

[maiden lintel]

There is one

[devout leaf]

The Chinese iQue roms are weird. The screen glitches out but then you can see it load a new screen under it. Probably absolutely nothing but the only game I've seen do it.

[worn delta]

moondandy — 09/04/2023 03:15
Hey guys, just wondering, what state is 240pTS for N64?
Artemio — 09/04/2023 10:57
Unreleased and incomplete

-I asked about it awhile back in the 240pTS discord

[devout leaf]

Are you from the future? 🇺🇸

[worn delta]

Usually people ask if I am from the past

[mild ether]

Do any Aleck 64 games do anything? I don't recall vivid dolls having 3D.

It's a pretty basic game but hilarious that it got released for Nintendo hardware.

[worn delta]

So the two testcard files are .n64, one loads to a garbled screen and the other a short bit of garbled graphics then black screen. .n64 isn't supported though is it right now, .N64 is right? As per big/little endian discussion earlier

I'll try the Aleck 64 games now while I am looking at the core and see what happens out of interest

mine are .z64 files, and slow to load...

[mild ether]

I think Vivid Dolls would have the most chance of doing something.

[brisk edge]

Apparently the test ROM is supposed to load garbage at the start

[worn delta]

get an E04 on Eleven Beat

Donchan Puzzle and Hi Pai Paradise load to black screen, some corrupt graphics at top on Donchan

Same with Kuru Kuru Fever

and Magical Tetris

Majinsen 3 also just black screen

Star Soldier is full corrupt screen

Super Rwal Majong is black screen

[modest helm]

It's wild that we're legitimately in the testing phase of N64 now

[brisk edge]

Did anyone ever test the recent port of Xenocrisis? It's built with modern homebrew libraries iirc

[worn delta]

Tower & Shaft is black with some corrupt at the top

[mild ether]

Donchan is pretty basic also Elven is the soccer game and I don't think that would work for quite a while.

[worn delta]

Vivid Dolls is another E04

So none load, and only codes are Vivid Dolls and Eleven Beat which give E04

What does that code mean again?

[wanton sun]

CPU stalls forever

most likely the game does something the core doesn't support yet, so the CPU gets no response for a request

[worn delta]

Got you

Should everything have an error code at this point or are there reasons things won't load that don't have a code?

[wanton sun]

there can be a softlock. E.g. game triggers RSP and waits for it to complete, but as it's missing the status bit will never be set and the game polls it over and over forever

in this case there is no error code

but for now the error codes are not very useful unless bit 3 is set, which should never happen (ddr3 controller hangs)

[zinc dew]

Wait a second, the filter doesn’t apply to you

[woeful grove]

of course not

I am above the rules

[zinc dew]

insult to injury lmao

[woeful grove]

I AM THE LAW

[zinc dew]

https://tenor.com/view/law-police-judge-cop-dredd-gif-8606130

@stoic parcel need roll wearing the dredd helmet plz

[woeful grove]

I'd be surprised if she doesn't have it already

[stoic parcel]

I aint got that

Have something cute instead

Always some kind of sausage fest request

[woeful grove]

at least she's a teenager 😛

or whatever

or 150 year old robot

stuck as a teenager, like the girl from Interview with the Vampire

[stoic parcel]

I have no idea how old classic series roll is

Probably 60 by the time Mega Man 11 happens or something

[woeful grove]

I wouldn't mind being stuck at 19 forever

[stoic parcel]

Youd be bored at 700

[woeful grove]

unlikely

[stoic parcel]

https://tenor.com/view/doubt-press-x-la-noire-meme-x-button-gif-19259237

[woeful grove]

there's always higher stakes

you only get bored if you limit your scope

[stoic parcel]

I just had a major case of deja vu

Anyway

[woeful grove]

I probably sounded like some villain or something you've seen in a movie

but it's true

[stoic parcel]

What if FTL isnt possible? You'd go crazygonuts in the spaceship when you had to eventually leave Terra

[woeful grove]

gimme three stacks of high society

[little socket]

a complete c64 set should about take that long to go through

[stoic parcel]

I said go crazy, not experience hell

[woeful grove]

I mean if you get bored enough people start creating their own problems to solve

like you think those guys in alien didn't know to stick their face in a bunch of alien eggs in space? no

they were bored

they needed some excitement

[stoic parcel]

"Whats the worst 50hz computer system I can play. . . . oh I know ZX Spectrum. So I can be colorblind when I reach Alpha Centauri!"

[woeful grove]

after 700 years I imagine it would be just starting and ending wars

keep people on earth for your own amusment

[stoic parcel]

Lets start a new war with Britain

[woeful grove]

assault their tea plantations

[stoic parcel]

Somebody said ZX Spectrum Robocop is better than Arcade Robocop, Im salty

London must burn or something

[modest helm]

Some weird homebrew called "77A Special Edition" loads for a few seconds and freezes fyi

[ocean lily]

did someone say Qυεsτ64?

[stoic parcel]

Nope.

https://tenor.com/view/get-out-of-here-get-tf-outta-here-lion-king-simba-throw-gif-17502134

[topaz otter]

Spiderman 64 uses it, as do a lot of early third party games

Perfect dark you can transfer your saves to memory card

Turok 2 its required

Almost all rare games use sram

Starfox 64 has a battery but it doesnt save progress

[topaz otter]

well guys I'm defecting

n64 boards are too expensive now for me to try and fix my portable project

but ps1 boards are so cheap, I think I'm going to replace it with the motherboard from a ps1

[languid dune]

Yeah, it saves your medals and unlocked vehicles for multiplayer.

[brisk edge]

The vast majority of Konami titles use the memory pak

Shadowgate 64 also uses it

[hearty python]

Uses and needed seems different pairs of shoes. 😁

[vapid hawk]

gamecube actually is better than n64 tho, sorry

going by the standard "quality of resident evil titles" its really not even close

[oblique remnant]

Overall I agree but well Resident Evil 2 is pretty impressive for what it is on the N64. Of course the Gamecube version is the best version you can play.

[hearty python]

N64 was impressive as it’s time it was announced. But was so long delayed that the specs wasn’t so cool on release.

[hearty python]

You can’t compare a 100 MHz Console against a 500 MHz range console 😂

But I agree that this both Maschines are the only ones from Nintendo where the hardware was competitive.

[modest helm]

SNES too

If you consider that the NES came out in 1983 as the Famicom then that was pretty advanced too

[hearty python]

Agree, but Megadrive was much better than the SNES. The cpu was weak. 😂

I asked me sometimes was could have been, if the SNES was shipped with an 68000 processor as cpu.

[native mesa]

But the SA-1 fixed that

Fastrom hacks are good too

I'm pretty sure they could be put in real SA-1 carts

https://github.com/VitorVilela7/fastrom

[hearty python]

Cool was the rare stuff with donkey Kong pre rendered Grafik,

[zinc dew]

@woeful grove / @stoic parcel

Ok that's my contribution to the meme pile

[native mesa]

https://github.com/VitorVilela7/SA1-Root

[woeful grove]

queue the hanna barbera laser beam noise

[native mesa]

Remember when Mega Man X showed up in that cartoon? I came

[topaz otter]

Remember when pharoah man punched megaman in the face

[hearty python]

Cool Projects @native mesa

[weary palm]

Nah, SNES was better than the Mega Drive. Weaker CPU, but a much more capable GPU.

[native mesa]

And APU

[brisk drum]

And PPU

[hearty python]

Hard to say, mode 7 is cool of course. But Nintendo packs more often additional chips in the cartridges to compensate Defizite. Is there a game, that was released on both systems, that looks and plays better on snes?

[fair walrus]

Sunset rider🤘

[hearty python]

Ok, i will take a Look. Thx

[native mesa]

Earthworm Jim

[fair walrus]

Tbh, the Megadrive version is awful and a homebrew version, which seems to be close to the arcade version is in the work.

There is a specific selection on the htgdb for "better on SNES than Genesis" and "better on Genesis than SNES" which is interesting.

[hearty python]

Htgdb ?

[fair walrus]

https://github.com/frederic-mahe/Hardware-Target-Game-Database

Named smokemonster pack before

[hearty python]

Thx 🙏 Seems interesting

[fair walrus]

I've made my own curated lists over the year, but this is the best selection i've seen.

[cold pollen]

Whenever I see "made for flash carts" I think to myself, that means it's not going to include games that aren't compatible

[hearty python]

Speaking of ROMs, what I particularly noticed in comparison to the Neo Geo Core are the comparatively very slow loading times. Is there a reason for ?

[fair walrus]

Well there are specific versions for mister if i remember well, but yeah for SNES, there was a selection for special chips which has flashcarts in mind. But for most consoles, there is no such pb.

You mean that the neogeo roms are slow to load? I believe it is almost a (sorg) miracle that the loading is that fast. For certain mvs flashcarts, the loading Can tave several minutes 🐌

[marble cargo]

Rule of thumb is that larger file sizes of ROMs will load slower.

[hearty python]

No, N64 is slow compared to the Loadtime of Neo Geo.

And i gues most Neo Geo Roms are more MB as N64 Roms.

[worn delta]

Did Neo Geo core get the fast loading implementation that Robert developed for GBA?

[hearty python]

I dont know. I'm also unsure if Neo Geo Core rom loading was always this fast

[worn delta]

Robert did mention earlier he would try to implement the speedy loading further down the line

[modest helm]

The loading isn’t that big of an issue as of right now

[marble cargo]

I might see it being an issue with the larger N64 games.

[modest helm]

I mean I loaded RE2 and games of that size and it's no worse than the larger Neo Geo games imo

[worn delta]

It's certainly not an issue right now, unless you are the sort of person who likes loading things up to see if you get a blank screen or an error code...

i.e. me

[modest helm]

Lol me too haha

I mean it takes no more than 10 seconds. Compared to original hardware or even switching games on a modern console, it's the same time

[worn delta]

Yeah, we are pretty spoiled

[modest helm]

Obviously it'd be a nice QoL feature, but it's not a problem for me

[worn delta]

if at some point Robert is able to speed it up then that would be lovely, but that's not something we need to think about for a good while and if it's not possible it's no deal breaker

I would be keen to know if Robert's fast loading technique has been added to the Neo Geo core, and if not would it be doable

[modest helm]

It's insane how playable the NGCD is now with 4x speed. It works on all games. I tested it a couple of days ago. Way better experience than real hardware

[worn delta]

I need to move all my images to the new folder before I can check it again

Sounds like it is almost there though, just a few bugs left

[modest helm]

It's extremely close. Like 98% there

[worn delta]

Hopefully Paul is up for looking at the other issues on the core, and adding support for the unliscenced carts

[modest helm]

I'd love to have a turbo option so Metal Slug 2 doesn't play like crap. Yeah I know there's an unofficial build, but talking about official

[cloud peak]

There is the rom hack version

[modest helm]

Yeah. I've used that and it fixes a lot of the slowdown. Still is present. Tried it with the unoffical core's turbo mode and there's literally no slowdown. It's amazing

Just wish mode that was officially in the core

[worn delta]

Any reason why that can't be merged in?

Who made it?

[cloud peak]

It would be interesting to see if the synchronous core version could be merged

[languid dune]

I got the legendary E64 error code today. It was hype as fudge.

[mellow raft]

I agree. There's still slowdown. Metal Slug X is a far cry in smoothness.

[cloud peak]

https://github.com/gyurco/NeoGeo_FPGA

[mellow raft]

But Metal Slug 2 looks SOOO much prettier

[worn delta]

Oh, the Mist dev?

Interesting

[cloud peak]

No

Another person made a turbo version

[modest helm]

To be fair, it breaks tons of games. Windjammers for instance doesn't work at all with turbo. So it's only recommended on select titles

Found the Turbo Neo Geo test core: https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?p=20194&hilit=neo+geo+turbo#p20194

Anyone know Cyril1980?

[worn delta]

Not someone I am aware of

Pocket dev?

[simple glacier]

The N64 port of the Uxn ROM “Donsol” seems to be playable on the latest commit of the N64 core from today. It’s a dungeon-crawler card game.
https://hundredrabbits.itch.io/donsol

[zinc dew]

If anyone is curious, these are the right mgl settings to use to launch games directly:

<mistergamedescription>
<rbf>_Console/N64</rbf>
<file delay="1" type="s" index="1" path="../../../../media/fat/games/N64/USA/Rayman 2 - The Great Escape.z64"/>
</mistergamedescription>

seems like it might be type="f" if your games are .N64

[orchid nimbus]

New version?

[zinc dew]

Yeah, posted earlier today - #1096015979055697940 message

[orchid nimbus]

Nice

Thanks, will check kwest65 soon

[cold pollen]

https://tenor.com/view/f-respect-coffin-respect-video-game-gif-17724130

[zinc dew]

lol I caused the core to BSOD

Ohh wait, this demo is now playing nice Latin music 🎵

[modern sleet]

In two builds we will have more playable games, and I know this because of how I've been naming my builds...

I could also keep going with decimals until its true... 63..631..632..

[zinc dew]

If I get an E64 error does that mean I win the grand prize!?

[languid dune]

Too late! I already won it earlier today.

[zinc dew]

nooooooooo!

[cerulean elk]

Anything of note loading that’s update worthy :)?

I’ve got the entire day tomorrow to make whatever I want

[zinc dew]

I’m going though all my games and so far nothing yet. I guess the Nacho64 demo plays nice music.

[cerulean elk]

So should I carve out time for the 64 or wire up another arcade board?

Haha sounds like I’ll move N64 to later then. Thanks @zinc dew

If something cool loads just @ me or DM me tho

Please and thank you obv!

[zinc dew]

Yeah definitely, I’ll ping ya.

[cerulean elk]

Appreciate it 👍

[wanton sun]

i fear there will be nothing big the next weeks. RSP will take some time and nearly all games use it. RDP also needs at least texture load and a simple rendering pipeline for drawing it to a rectangle so 2D could work at all.

[wanton sun]

Neo Geo got it first. I implemented/copied it for GBA. The idea behind it is to transfer the rom from sdcard to ddr3 and then the core copies it over to sdram instead of the traditional way of transfering it over the slow 16bit download bus

in theory this should work for all cores, but it's easiest for those that don't use ddr3

[zinc dew]

@cerulean elk Tested over 185 games and the only ones that produced any sort of recognizable visuals were:

• Rayman 2 (USA)
• StarCraft 64 (USA)
• Wave Race 64 (USA)

All tested were using the .z64 file type.

[devout leaf]

A few iQue games I could recognize parts of the instruction screen. About it.

[zenith orchid]

I'm pretty excited about RSP and RDP, I think these are the next major hurdles before there are playable games that we are all excited to play

[lament escarp]

Step on me, brian-daddy.

[cerulean elk]

Damn. That’s a lotta tests!

[brisk drum]

“Will set the standard for 3-D epics” Nintendo Power

[brisk drum]

Omg that’s probably a fury under there

“Incredibly sweet graphics” EGM

[zinc dew]

I forgot which magazine I read but they praised the game in a preview and said it was the perfect game to play while waiting for Zelda. I was kinda mad when I rented Quesr64 lol.

[whole zinc]

Has anyone tested the latency on the 8bitdo drop in replacement board for the n64 controller?

Bluetooth one

[worn delta]

Good effort! Let's keep a mental note of these and check them again each build, may become more playable as Robert targets Mario. I am sure he will be pleased to see StarCraft in that wee list 🙂

[zinc dew]

I can output my rom list if that helps.

also thank you

[worn delta]

That's interesting, do you (or anyone here) know if it is in any other cores? I am wondering if any other cores could see a decent speed boost for loading. Trying to think what cores take a noticeable time to load ROMs. 32x would probably benefit

Are you using the Everdrive pack Robby?

[zinc dew]

Nah, it’s No-Intro. But I noticed they were the same file type.

[quick arch]

The GBA core used it i think and also the core Cave.

[modest helm]

As mentioned yesterday, the Neo Geo core would benefit the most from a cartridge loading boost

32X is probably second. Otherwise, there aren't any other cartridge systems that have big enough cartridges to make much of an impact

[worn delta]

Robert said NG was the first to get cart loading boost and he ported it over to GBA

If Jaguar ever becomes stable that could really use it

Might be interesting to take some timing benchmarks on the cart system cores for load times

[modest helm]

Okay so NG does have cart loading boost. That's good.

[quick arch]

32x is around 4Mb for rom

so like genesis or snes

[topaz otter]

what the hell is this render lol

[marble cargo]

An attempt to make the game more epic I guess.

[zinc dew]

“EPIC he says. LAWL”

[worn delta]

Robby, if you are keen to start testing then if you grab the Everdrive pack you could start logging things on my sheet if you would like

[zinc dew]

To be clear, that’s the one I should use right? Stop using No-Intro?

[worn delta]

I think Everdrive is most comprehensive, and is confirmed to work on OG hardware, and the format works with the core

Here is the sheet I made from the files, so you can see what is all in there:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H4KYg0gsOWGayioXKSETtlM7d7g3Tk4w0QXqtXvugG8/edit#gid=0

[modest helm]

Excellent work! Is it too early to note which games are "working"? 1 game is playable and about 3-4 display a copyright logo at least

[worn delta]

I don't see why not, You could mark them as "Bootable" list the build and make a note of what happens/issues. I don't think we should be marking ones that don't load at all at this stage but could be fun to track the ones where something happens

If you fancy doing that then just request sheet access

Stick to just "Bootable" right now as how to mark them

It might be interesting to put a PAL BIOS in the PAL folder and check and see what the PAL and Japanese versions of the booting games do

[modest helm]

Cool. Just sent my request. I know all the games that "run" off the top of my head

To be fair, it's just the NTSC games I've tested

[worn delta]

You got rights 🙂

[modest helm]

Made my changes 🙂

Maybe Namco Museum 64 should say: playable with issues. Your call @worn delta

[orchid nimbus]

https://vampier.net/N64/ added to the page

thanks

[worn delta]

Cool, added in a bit of conditional formatting, that's fine to mark Namco as playable as it is a special case and is pretty much but with caviats

So Rayman 2 is also booting? Did you try that one @modest helm ?

[orchid nimbus]

yeah

[modest helm]

I tried every retail game USA game lol. I made MGL files for them all and tested if they loaded correctly

[orchid nimbus]

it's on the list

[mellow raft]

https://tenor.com/view/approved-anime-dandy-approves-baby-space-dandy-gif-16278183

[modest helm]

@worn delta That's the most comprehensive compatibiltiy sheet I've ever seen. The amount of sheets is astounding. Excellent work!

[mellow raft]

sad you used a very old Everdrive pack though

They've had heaps of updates since then

The ones on archhive are just super outdated

And I believe they use bad rom dumps for a lot of stuff too

And a number of the hacks were improperly patched

[orchid nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/puri-puripuriprisoner-onepunchman-onepunch-man-gif-11133394

@mellow raft

[blissful plaza]

Everdrive pack WAS based on an old N64 No-Intro DAT when I checked some weeks ago.
EDIT : WAS instead of 'is'.
The (almost) whole N64 set have been redone completely these last 3 years and some games were overdumped/badly dumped on older sets/scene sets.

It could be better to test with an up-to-date NI set for the (future of the) core.

[worn delta]

@mellow raft where can we find the newest everdrive pack?

I can migrate over to a better one and update the sheet if there is one we can all easily find

Does NI have everything in the Everdrive pack and is it well organised?

[blissful plaza]

NI is about the physical (official, betas, protos and Virtual Console) sets, there are no hacks and translated games.

[mellow raft]

you build it yourself

https://github.com/frederic-mahe/Hardware-Target-Game-Database

just run the script and supply it the roms. bam

[worn delta]

Is the Is the htgdb everdrive pack that ends with 202023-05-15.7z the most up to date and comprehensive set?

[blissful plaza]

FYI, on the Namco Museum (USA) entry : Pac-Man works on my side, but Pole Position & Dig Dug can't work anymore (they used to work with the 20230710 version).

Tested with the 20230719 version of the core.

[modest helm]

Interesting. Gotta be a difference with the ROM sets

[blissful plaza]

That's why I want to talk about it already and quickly.

For the further tests, it will be important to have a common test base.

[worn delta]

We need a set that people can just go and download and use that we can recommend as the best to use, and all be on the same page for testing. If the one I have is out of date, is what is on archive for hdgdb right now the one we should all use?

[modest helm]

Indeed. So is it unaminous that the best set is No Intro?

[worn delta]

No

As it seems to be missing a lot of things

[blissful plaza]

It misses translated and hacked games.

[worn delta]

Does it have everything else?

what format are the files in no intro?

[blissful plaza]

But, for me, if we want to test the core, we should use a proper set without hacks and translated games first.
We could test those games in a latter time.

[worn delta]

OK, let me have a look at this no intro set

[No-Intro] Nintendo - Nintendo 64 (BigEndian) (20230114-063942)

This the one?

[blissful plaza]

That's the one. @worn delta

[worn delta]

Can anyone confirm how big the file is? and the unzipped pack?

[modest helm]

12.1 GB

[worn delta]

Thanks

Are they split nicely into folders?

[devout leaf]

Which romset are we trying to get working?

[blissful plaza]

The most recent one is "Nintendo - Nintendo 64 (BigEndian) (20230524-110819).zip" and should be 13.8GB.
But the differences with yours are just some beta dumps.

[worn delta]

Ugh, it's just every version in one folder isn't it? That's a fucking mess

[blissful plaza]

You need more splitted ones ?

[grizzled phoenix]

There is a recent N64 everdrive collection on archive.org, look for htgdb-gamepacks @worn delta

[devout leaf]

Most recent should be 20230527

Not sure what the changes are

[worn delta]

Yeah, the way the everdrive pack is split is perfect as all the US official games are in one folder, and all the PAL in another, so no confusion testing, easy to read, and we can put the right BIOS in the folder

[blissful plaza]

Just some more betas.

[devout leaf]

Figured. Thanks.

[worn delta]

OK, is there anything in current no-intro that isn't in the current htgdb everdrive pack?

Could we work off of this everdrive pack instead?

[blissful plaza]

The correct dumps for Mystical Ninja, Paper Mario US and EU, Killer Instinct...

[worn delta]

And nobody has update them on the htgdb pack yet?

[blissful plaza]

I can check rapidly.

[worn delta]

The best option may be to find out what is out of date, if anything, on htgdb everdrive pack and swap in the updated versions, then we can work off of that, since it has a proper folder structure which we need

I know Birdy has updated htgdb game packs in the past so is doable

[blissful plaza]

I need 4-5 minutes for testing everything, I will test rapidly the last changes on the commercial sets done these last 3 years at NI.

If those SHA256 values are correct between the two sets, we could go to the htgdb everdrive pack.

So, I've tested the last 20 changes on the commercial set.
Green light for me for using the Hardware-Target-Game-Database N64 base that @mellow raft mentioned earlier.

[worn delta]

OK, this is all positive. I am going to suggest that collectively we try get involved in making sure that the htgdb N64 pack is the best pack out there for MiSTer (and everything else) and it can become our go to pack that has everything all the others do and is up to date

Do people think this is the best idea for us?

[mellow raft]

this is always the updated set. This is where the everdrive packs on archive.org originated

[blissful plaza]

I vote "Hay!".

[mellow raft]

a number of the actual games in the main folders are also bad.

I was the one that pushed a lot of updates to the pack for N64

it was heavily outdated compared to current good no-intro dumps

[modest helm]

Thank you for your service! 🫡

[mellow raft]

AFAIK the roms were not even all big-endian from what I recall

They were named wrong

[blissful plaza]

A lot of cleaning, that's for sure.

[mellow raft]

It was a lot of work to clean that one up. Nobody was biting the N64 for a while

It needed a lot :S

[blissful plaza]

I remember the time when we didn't have any serious dumping and reporting methods.

[mellow raft]

https://github.com/frederic-mahe/Hardware-Target-Game-Database/pull/497

Like... this was in December of 2020

lol

So you won't have that

xD

pretty much EVERY rom replaced with that one

[blissful plaza]

Tool64 was/is pretty handy.

For correcting the endianess.

[devout leaf]

It’s just taken over two decades lol

[mellow raft]

it is... if the dump is actually the correct one. Not all were

https://github.com/frederic-mahe/Hardware-Target-Game-Database/pull/544

As you can see I did a LOT lol

this is just one pr I did

[worn delta]

Good effort!

[mellow raft]

xD

But yeah highly recommend building the latest pack if you can

[worn delta]

Do you think it is all good now, or does it need more thorough investigation and updates from the No Intro set?

[mellow raft]

it takes a little effort at first but you can give it an entire set of roms all in one folder of subfolders and subfolders and it will delve through it all

[blissful plaza]

And more...

[mellow raft]

It's constantly being updated, but mostly hacks. It should be up to date, but it's far more than what you're using

Yours is 100% not matching no-intro since they're all byte-swapped roms

[worn delta]

Cool, I will grab this new pack and update the sheet

Is the recently dumped Brazilian pif file in the pack now out of interest?

Also is it worth adding in the new test roms from gaming Alexandria?

[mellow raft]

The pack tries to stick to commonly accepted items. It's possible those could be added but someone would need to make a PR

For that you have to have the updated pack first and then generate a new SMDB file

like they really don't want to add something if it's not publicly accessible, is what I mean

[blissful plaza]

Some recent ROMs are also not available to the public, as they are aftermarket games that are just released, like XenoCrisis N64.

[mellow raft]

I'm not sure the brazilian pif makes sense for this. It's a database of games, not bioses and they don't serve a purpose for the everdrive/64drive carts

[worn delta]

Hmm, I thought there was a BIOS folder or they were all in there somewhere

[mellow raft]

not for N64

There's a Tools & Service Test Carts folder though

[worn delta]

AH OK, I must have got mine elsewhere

[mellow raft]

If the download had them, then it would've been added by the uploader

[worn delta]

Be worth adding in the recent Gaming Alexandria files in there I imagine

[modest helm]

Indeed. Looks like a collaboritve effort might be our best bet 🙂

[worn delta]

OK, sorry if I am asking questions again or am not fully understanding anything, but to get us all on the same page:

1. htgdb N64 packs is the one we all agree to use
2. It is up to date with all the best no intro dumps of the retail carts
3. There is nothing missing from the pack that anyone would like to see added before I download and redo the sheet and we comit to this being what we advise people to download and what we test with

Everyone on board with these?

[blissful plaza]

Just a reminder for a later time, if you need to test some RARE games (Banjo games, Jet Force Gemini, Mickey Speedway USA...), try with the unpatched/cleaned ones.
As there are also patched ED64 versions inside the pack, for bypassing the CIC protection and PIF challenge.

[modest helm]

Is it better to use the non copy protection versions of these games on the N64 core or is that too early to determine?

[blissful plaza]

Maybe, too early to determine, but I'm not the most knowledgeable N64 expert here.

I'm just passing that info right now, it could be useful at a later time when testing with the core.

[mellow raft]

the latest HTGDB pack removed the "patched" roms.

[blissful plaza]

Okay, I didn't have that info.

Thanks.

[mellow raft]

it was removed late last year

[blissful plaza]

So, null and void previous advice on my part.

[modest helm]

lol thanks anyways

[blissful plaza]

'I'm on board.'

[languid dune]

Me reading this conversation.

https://tenor.com/view/over-my-head-the-simpsons-bart-gif-7356355

[mellow raft]

hahaha

[blissful plaza]

https://tenor.com/view/steve-harvey-sorry-about-that-sorry-apologies-gif-4910797

[mellow raft]

https://tenor.com/view/bruce-kevin-almighty-baxter-head-burning-gif-13944557

[blissful plaza]

When reading the NEC VR4300 CPU (N644) manual too.

[mellow raft]

xD

[hearty python]

Most newer products from them seems 1.3ms with BT.

[worn delta]

Thanks chaps, I will get the downloaded and sheet reworked over the next few days and let you know when it's done. If there are any updates to the htgdb pack on archive after I have updated the sheet if people can keep an eye on the files and update us here

[mellow raft]

Nobody maintains any of the packs on archive.org

They're all super outdated

@worn delta

I always recommend building the latest packs yourself. The archive.org are 3-year-old packs that nobody ever updates

[worn delta]

I thought the htgdb pack was up to date? Was that not established earlier?

[whole zinc]

Dates change on the uploads so I assume they are added to

[worn delta]

We can't expect people to be faffing about with scripts, that's a major barrier to entry. People will just download a pack of ROMs so we need that back to be decent and if it isn't them collectively we need to take it upon ourselves to make it so

[mellow raft]

They are.

I said the everdrive packs on archive.org are not updated

Whoever uploaded them there never maintained them

They just built the pack from the github at some random point 3 years ago, uploaded them and never did it again

[worn delta]

OK, right, well let's forget this Everdrive pack and we will be working exclusively with this htgdb pack

[mellow raft]

Everdrive packs ARE HTGDB

The project was renamed

It used to be called SMDB packs or Everdrive Game Database

[worn delta]

You are just confusing people now. The htgdb N64 pack is up to date and we should all use that, correct?

[mellow raft]

Yes

[worn delta]

OK.

Nobody ever talk about other Everdrive packs again please.

[mellow raft]

I'm not sure why you're being so hostile about it. 😛

[worn delta]

I am not, but we are going round in circles for no reason and even I am struggling to keep up now, I hate to think what people trying to keep up are feeling 🙂

[mellow raft]

I am Groot

[worn delta]

Maybe @orchid nimbus can direct people to where to get the correct htgdb pack on his web page

[mellow raft]

I was trying to alleviate the confusion by saying these packs come from the same source. You're just using a newer version of them by building your own. 😛

[chrome quest]

A good time to raise the PIF? If they are not added to the pack (for a decent reason), is there a definitive single PAL and NTSC version we should highlight. Presumably only 1 for each is correct?

I found like 5 different hash value files when I last checked

[mellow raft]

PIF's have no purpose to be in the pack. They aren't used by Everdrives or 64Drives, which is the purpose of the packs. To run games off flashcarts

[chrome quest]

But is there only one correct version? To avoid other potential testing inconsistencies

[orchid nimbus]

sorry no linking to rompacks on any website I own

I'm not crazy and I don't want to draw attention of big N

[mellow raft]

Yeah...

[devout leaf]

Plus they’re easy enough to find

[mellow raft]

Maybe some angel will upload the latest one to archive when they build a complete one

:3

[orchid nimbus]

people can look for archive+htgbdb

[worn delta]

The rompack name for what to Google for would be useful to have noted

Holding out for an angel...

[orchid nimbus]

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=+archive%2Bhtgbdb

?

[raw oriole]

It's funny how often htgdb is the search string you want

/edits to spell it right 🙄

[mellow raft]

have you actually tried searching it before recommending to?

Because there are no updated packs on archive lol

Like I said, nobody maintains them. The database is updated on github. So you have to build your own if you want the latest

How many times do I have to say it? xD

[raw oriole]

N64 - EverDrive 64 2023-05-15.7z looks pretty updated to me

[mellow raft]

oh lol

[raw oriole]

The top level stays at original 2021 date, but the contents are updated

[mellow raft]

I didn't realize anyone maintained that folder still. Every other pack is from like 2021

[worn delta]

Yeah that is why I was getting confused, this one looked up to date so we should use that one

[orchid nimbus]

link added to a google search

[worn delta]

Ace, thanks

[orchid nimbus]

with @raw oriole's recommended correction 😉

[raw oriole]

As you can see I got it wrong myself first time too 😄

[orchid nimbus]

home and garden tv database

😄

wow - the episodes are archived

[zinc dew]

damnit @modest helm beat me to updating the spreadsheet , he is much better and more thorough than me but I still thought I had a chance lol

[orchid nimbus]

@remote hatch also was beat by creating one

[worn delta]

I had this sheet assembled before the core was announced 🙂

But now I need to go do it again... Good to get it right at this stage though before we get deep into testing though

Does anyone have a comprehensive list of all the different BIOS files (pif files) that are out there?

[chrome quest]

These are the ones I found;
NTSC:
9174EADC0F0EA2654C95FD941406AB46B9DC9BDD
B7A0070CBE4B9BCAA08EC0B76B8C4955B2AE535A
3A23E4CCCCA2CAD62A83EEA8519C7184FE1F7BE2
PAL:
46CAE59D31F9298B93F3380879454FCEF54EE6CC
15C23C3B671A8828302603F30C81D464B24A7FB1

Topmost being referenced on two different websites as the "correct" versions, but I have no idea personally

Would be nice for Everdrive owners to confirm with the "pif_rom_dumper". Or to know which file Robert is using, if it is unclear which are correct

[worn delta]

I noticed Vampier has a US, JP and PAL (presumably UK) ones listed on his site it would make sense we all use, was wondering if there were any other foreign ones it may be worth doing the few foreign versions with (as listed on the sheet) I will also need to make a note of what region each country is i.e. "Asia" would be NTSC while "Australia" would be PAL

But may be fun to put the Brazil pif in the Brazil folder, not sure if any others are out there for different countries

[wanton sun]

wow a lot of preparation going on already 🙂

https://tenor.com/view/pressure-sweating-nervous-gif-22339203

[wanton sun]

i think pole position never really worked, it always hangs after some seconds. Dig Dug still work here. But every of the games has a chance to black screen on selection...

[blissful plaza]

Thanks for noticing me.

[wanton sun]

having randomness in doesn't make the testing easier, but i fear we have to live with it for some time

[blissful plaza]

So, I had a 'chance' to have a black screen 3 times in a row on Dig Dug.

[wanton sun]

sounds a lot, but well, i just checked and had a 1/1 chance of it working 😅

[blissful plaza]

The previous discussion was just to prepare a common basis for regular testing here in the following months.
I know only too well, from the beta testing phases spent on emulators, that this was a sticking point at one time between testers.

[wanton sun]

It's all fine. I appreciate any help on this. I would have not found namco or the other games showing something now, it costs way to much time to do it all on my own, so it's great

knowing if something regressed is also a big help

[blissful plaza]

Each one up to their task.

[vapid hawk]

hey Rob i just had time to read your FPU deep dive, really interesting i think i finally slightly understand what floating point is about

[worn delta]

Yeah, good to get all us testers aligned now before people actually start testing a proper in the coming months 🙂

[vapid hawk]

i'm holding off until like, rob says its mostly complete, kinda like roughly around when PSX got sound

[wanton sun]

i think it's not worth spending too much time before the RSP is complete. After that there is at least a chance, but most games will render nothing

when texture load + simple rendering is in, at least some 2D games could work

[blissful plaza]

I think we are agree for most of us here, take all the time you need to work at your own pace and testers will be there when it will be due time.

[vapid hawk]

my real value is in completing resident evil once a day to check for regressions so i'm useless till then 😄

[devout leaf]

Hypothetically would any sdk info help? Not sure if that would have relevant info for fpga development.

[wanton sun]

no idea, but i won't touch anything nintendo-official

[devout leaf]

Ok I figured for a clean room.

[blissful plaza]

From past experiences with other emudevs, they always refused to touch anything official.

Clean room reverse engineering, yeah.

N64 emus were soiled with the Omar leaks since the last 90s.

[wanton sun]

it's always difficult as you never know if existing emulators have also done that and if you don't look at them it would take ages

however, they improved a lot with recent community/open source testroms, so you could argue that is the main driver for current accuracy and not leaks

[blissful plaza]

People like rasky have helped so much these last years.

[wanton sun]

yes, you wouldn't expect how much research has been done recently when the console is already quite old