ForumsGamesPlaying N64 games on Pc (tutorial)

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DACMiester
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DACMiester
74 posts
Shepherd

Alright, guys. I've been telling everyone I would make this thread for some time, now, and I think I've decided that I might just post the tutorial here instead of on my profile. Let's dive right in, shall we?

First, there are some basic keywords you need to know.

Emulator- An emulator is a program made with the specific purpose as playing an N64 game. You will think of this as your N64 console.

ROM- Roms are the N64 games themselves you use the emulator to play. You will think of these as your N64 cartridges. Another name for a Rom is an emulation (what is being emulated by the emulator you are using).

Plugins- If an emulator is the N64 console, then the plugins are the wires you hook up to your N64. I'll explain more about this later.

Directories- A directory is the folder you keep either your Roms, emulators, or plugins at. Do you have a cabinet somewhere that you keep all of your spare games, controllers, old busted consoles, and wires? Yeah, pretty much the same thing.

"Why are these keywords so important?" you may ask. "I can just download the program and start playing, right?" Well, kind of. Most of it is pretty straight forward, but it would be easy to get caught up on the more intricate parts of installing and using Emulators if you don't have a clue as to what you're doing. So, let's deal with the more confusing bits first.

Plugins are a very important part in running emulators because without plugins, there is no guarantee that you will see or hears things working properly (or even at all). Plugins control audio, graphics, and controller input/output, and not all plugins work for the same games. For instance, you might use a plugin on, say, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that makes the game run as perfect as it would on a real N64. However, those plugins might cause a game like Goldeneye to have extremely odd graphics or snippy audio. You have to find the right plugins for the game you're trying to play.

The good news is that most every N64 emulator you can download already has plugins that are pre-installed so that you can play most any game without a problem. However, if you really want the absolute best experience you can possibly have to feed your nostalgia with, you're going to have to do a little bit of work (more on that later). But you don't have to worry, because that's where directories come in.

Thus, where I start my tutorial.

You will want to make a folder somewhere on your computer (your desktop, if you prefer) to hold everything you need. You should probably call it something indicative of the contents (simply naming it "N64" should do). Now, you can't just pile everything in there like a big mess though, now can you? Well, you can, but that would get confusing very quickly. So, open that nifty folder you just made and make a few more folders-one for Emulators, a second for Roms, a third for plugins, and a fourth to download the stuff into so you can move it around later. Great! You're already well on your way.

Now, when you download an emulator, it will probably install it's own folders for these things wherever you put it. So, installing that fourth folder can help. Just copy and paste anything you download into the correct folder.

Alright. Now that you have everything set up, it's time to get downloading. It is probably a good idea to set your computer and/or web browser to automatically download new content into the fourth folder you made in your N64 folder. You don't want to have a bunch of files scattered around your computer you have to go searching for, do you? No. So first, I'm going to give you a few links to try for downloading games (Roms).

My favorite (you might have to try some of the others because this site may not have every game you're looking for): http://www.freeroms.com/n64.htm

A couple for backup: http://www.romulation.net/roms/N64/

http://coolrom.com/

Alright, so you have all the games you want (even if you don't you can just download more). Make sure to have put them all into your Roms folder, because that's where you're going to set the directory for later.

Meanwhile, I am well overdue for a shower. I'll keep this thread going with a continuation of my tutorial later (don't worry...I wouldn't lead you all this way for nothing).

  • 11 Replies
Charlie506
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Charlie506
1,298 posts
Nomad

No, Go on vizzed.com for only one plugin.

royalguy
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royalguy
148 posts
Nomad

Will this work on my mac?

DACMiester
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DACMiester
74 posts
Shepherd

@royalguyI'm going to give you an honest answer: I don't know, but probably. It should be 100% safe, so you should be able to try it without any problems.

@Charlie506 I'm really not sure that would work, especially with the most popular emulators. If you're talking about the RSP plugin, it might work, but there is no way to guarantee that.

Jack80
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Jack80
8 posts
Nomad

i like Steam games...not N64 games

me like STARMADE

neoking007
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neoking007
31 posts
Jester

hi, good job of creator of this post, but
i like more game boy advance, download of this link:[url=http://www.coolrom.com/emulators/gba/14/Visual_Boy_Advance.php]
and download rooms in this link:
[url=http://www.coolrom.com/roms/gba/]
see this little tutorial to run rooms:
http://es.tinypic.com/r/4ild9g/5http://es.tinypic.com/r/2vm7eir/5
now see one game of my favorite run in emulator ,Advance war:
http://es.tinypic.com/r/9unfrm/5
¡have fun!

neoking007
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neoking007
31 posts
Jester

^^
^^
l
l
l
l
up=image not found=epic fail
Postdata: armorgame; can add button to delete comment???

DACMiester
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DACMiester
74 posts
Shepherd

For anyone that might actually be keeping up with this thread, I'm going to bed soon. I should have most if not all of the tutorial up tomorrow.

Gamer_Cale
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Gamer_Cale
1,372 posts
Nomad

I would make sure you check reviews of a lot of the rom/emulator sites theres quite a lot that give you viruses just google the name of the website and review and there tend to be a load of reports on whether they are trusted or not.

DACMiester
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DACMiester
74 posts
Shepherd

Gamer_Cale makes a good point. I can tell you with a good amount of confidence that this process is safe, but I would also not advise a lack of caution.

Also, I know I didn't post the rest of the tutorial today...I guess I was just mentally roadblocked. I have obligations to fulfill tomorrow, so there is no guarantee I can post it then. You can, however, expect to see something over the weekend.

Drink
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Drink
1,622 posts
Blacksmith

im sure most people by now knows how to get emulators and roms for most games and consoles now, even though n64 has the glitchy roms

buffro
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buffro
30 posts
Jester

everybody, go to emulatorzone.com and get project 64, its the best emulator for nintendo 64 http://emulator-zone.com/doc.php/n64/project64.html. to get roms, doperoms.com and coolroms.com are both pretty good.

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