The Nintendo 64 has always been a difficult machine to emulate correctly. But in 2025 - we should be well and truly past all of it right? Not exactly. Issues with Plugins, performance, graphical glitches, stutters. Unless you have a very powerful machine, these are common things many of us will run into when emulating the Nintendo 64. But why? And Is there any hope for fast, accurate N64 emulation in 2025 and beyond?
Dolphin is not an N64 emulator.
Yes, you are correct Dolphin will not play N64 ROMs directly. It will however play SOME Wii virtual console games which includes around 22 N64 games. Soooo, sorta?? 🤷♂️
It’ll emulate an emulator on another emulator!
Xzibit approves
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And yet I play all my N64 games on it.
Then you are playing virtual console roms/injections, which typically have more issues than current proper n64 emulators.
If it’s good enough for you, that’s fine but it’s far from perfect.
What issues do you notice while playing the games?
Edit: Also, what you said has nothing to do with the video. So…
If you are only playing officially released virtual console games then they only have minior issues, Nintendo did a really good job with n64 on the Wii. With injected roms you will run in to a lot more issues. Like I said, if it’s good enough for you then that’s fine but a proper n64 emulator will be more responsive and give you more options.
Ah, an emulator within an emulator. Yes, I’m sure the results must be just like the original hardware!
The games work just fine. I played them when they were new, and get just as much enjoyment out of them now.
I’m not sorry i don’t care about milliseconds or whatever technical details the programmers care about. I am thankful for their hard work though.
How are you using dolphin to emulate N64?
Dolphin has no native N64 emulation support. Are you using N64 ports from the Wii? Those are running using Nintendo’s Wii-based emulator (which also has known issues) on top of the Wii emulation. That introduced a whole second layer of technical issues.
Not that the N64 roms aren’t playable, but the problem is more technical on why it’s so difficult to emulate the specific N64 hardware perfectly using just modern software
Thanks. Like i said i haven’t been able to check the video out yet.
I am enjoying everyone jumping down my throat about being able to play n64 games with no issues though. It’s giving me a good laugh with my coffee.
People are jumping down your throat because you’re talking about N64 emulation being just fine on a GameCube emulator which plays a total of 21 of the 388 N64 games.
That’s fine that you only like those games, but it’s irrelevant to a discussion about N64 emulators and it’s only a tiny subset of games for the system.
You can see this right? Surely you understand that?
come back after you’ve watched the video. Thanks.
You’re chiming in on a discussion that’s already ended. Surely you understand that right? Hurdur
Ended when you haven’t said shit huh
can you explain how?
I boot up Dolphin, and then choose the game I want to play.
😅
no but, how do you make it handle n64 games? i’m interested in setting this up. like i have this old rom of airboarder 64, which to my knowledge was not on the gamecube, and it emulates terribly. how do i set it up to run with dolphin?
I just use the wiiware games. It covers pretty much all the N64 games I care about.
It’s funny, I can picture the Airboarder cover in my head. Kinda crazy how those things can get burned into your memory.