Commercial Nintendo 64 Emulation
The N64 was released in mid-1996 as Nintendo's front-runner in the original next-gen console wars. Although it was a much higher powered machine than Sony's Playstation or Sega's Saturn, the N64 always lagged behind in sales. Nintendo chose to sell the machine on the merits of its fast-loading cartridge system and the insignificant fact that it featured* a 64-bit architecture - unfortunately for Nintendo, people were more impressed by high-capacity CD media, in-game movie sequences and pre-recorded soundtracks than fast loading and the size of the machine's pipeline. Developers often preferred the Playstation for their titles due to the N64's inability to provide media rich content which games such as the Final Fantasy series demanded. Although the hardware facilitated classics such as Goldeneye and the late Perfect Dark, it wasn't enough to win over the masses.
Fortunately the system is well-emulated, allowing us to play legendary games such as Zelda, Turok & Goldeneye. A fairly modern system is needed to play emulate the machine, and a 3D accelerated graphics card is an absolute must (onboard graphics won't cut the mustard here). Game ROMs are available from ripped cartridges, ranging in size (5MB-70MB).
*) Although this turned out to be a false claim, an advertising point based on rephrasing a technicality similar to calling two 32-bit processors a single 64-bit unit.
Specs:
- CPU: MIPS R4300i, 93.75MHz, 64-bit, 24KB L1, 125 MIPS, 250 MB/sec Bus
- Graphics: SGI RCP, 62.5MHz, 100 MFLOPS, 150K Polygons/Sec, 32-bit Color, 500 MB/sec Bus
- Sound: SGI RCP, 64 2D Voices, ADPCM, 500 MB/sec Bus
- Data: 4MB (500 MB/s), Cartridge (32MB), Expansion 4MB RAM
| File | Platform | License | Date | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project64 1.6 | Windows | Freeware | Apr 1, 2005 | 2033 Kb. |  |
Commercial GBA Emulation
Since the first version of Visual Boy Advance which lacked some major features (such as an interface), this Gameboy Advance emulator has progressed greatly. I found compatibility to be quite good and many games were playable. Actually I didn't have any problems with every game I tried, though I must admit I didn't test a whole lot of games.
The games ran at full speed (with sound) on my Celeron 900 Mhz., so if you have a similar or faster PC you shouldn't have any problem either. A Pentium III 500 Mhz. is the absolute minimum requirement to play games. The Gameboy Advance is a 32-bit machine so emulating it requires more CPU power.
ZIP Support
Visual Boy Advance has ZIP support. This means you don't need to unzip your ROMs before playing. Just select the ZIP file and Visual Boy Advance will automatically load the ROM from it.Gameboy Emulation
Visual Boy Advance can just like a real Gameboy Advance also play original Gameboy (Color) games. So there is no need to get a seperate emulator. Because of this the author has stopped development of his "normal" Gameboy emulator Visual Boy.Default Keys
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System Requirements
As with most emulators for Windows you may need to install the latest version of Microsoft DirectX.
| File | Platform | License | Date | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Boy Advance 1.8.0 Beta3 | Windows | Freeware | Oct 2, 2005 | 645 Kb. | |
| File | Platform | License | Date | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VBALink v1.8.0 Beta 0 with link support | Windows | Freeware | May 1, 2006 | 552 Kb. | |
Commercial NDS Emulation
The Nintendo DS is the most recent handheld system developed by Nintendo. It was released in 2004 and was the first handheld system to feature dual screens. In improved edition called the DS Lite was released in 2006. The term "Lite" refers to it having brighter screens, smaller size and lower weight, it still has the same features as the original.
Specs:
- Two backlit 3-inch TFT color LCDs with 256x192 pixel resolution
- Lower screen is a touch screen
- Color: Capable of displaying 260,000 colors
- Wireless Communication: IEEE 802.11 and Nintendo's proprietary format
- Multiple users can play multiplayer games using just one DS game card
- Controls: Touch screen, embedded microphone for voice recognition, A/B/X/Y face buttons, plus control pad, L/R shoulder buttons, Start and Select buttons
- Input/Output: Ports for both Nintendo DS game cards and Game Boy Advance Game packs, terminals for stereo headphones and microphone
- Other Features: Embedded PictoChat software that allows up to 16 users to chat at once; embedded real-time clock; date, time and alarm; touch-screen calibration
- CPUs: One ARM9 and one ARM7
- Sound: Stereo speakers providing virtual surround sound, depending on the software
- Battery: Lithium ion battery delivering six to 10 hours of play on a four-hour charge, depending on use; power-saving sleep mode; AC adapter
- Languages: English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian
- Available colors: various, depending on region
File Platform License Date Size No$gba 2.5 Windows Freeware Oct 6, 2007 150 Kb.
Commercial SNES Emulation
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was Nintendo's first 16 bit gaming console that was originally released in Japan.Specs:
- CPU: 65c816 (16-bit)
- CPU speed: 2.68 and 3.58 Mhz
- RAM memory: 1 Mbit (128 Kbyte)
- Picture Proc. Unit: 16-bit
- Video RAM: 0.5 Mbit (64 Kbyte)
- Resolution: 256x224 512 x 448 pixels max hi res and interlaced modes
- Colors Available: 32,768 colors
- Max colors on screen: 256 colors
- Max sprite size: 64 x 64 pixels
- Max sprites: 128
- Min/Max Cart Size: 2 Mbit - 48 Mbit
- Sound chip: 8-bit Sony SPC700
- Sound channels: 8, uses compressed wave samples
| File | Platform | License | Date | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snes9x 1.51 | Windows | Freeware | May 15, 2007 | 769 Kb. | |
| Snes9k 0.09 Snes9x with Kaillera support | Windows | Freeware | Nov 3, 2004 | 578 Kb. | |
Commercial NES Emulation
The Nintendo's 8 bit console was Sega's biggest rival for its Master System which was a huge hit as well at the time.
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