N64 Core

[d3viant]

Is this core available in update all ?

Is N64 on the updater script yet? I'm still not seeing it in my menu.

Not currently. You have to add a line to downloader.ini

Code: Select all

[n64_dev]
db_url = https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RobertPeip/Mister64/db/db.json.zip

NOTE this is downloader.ini not any other file. You will also need to obtain the bios files

As of this morning, that repo no longer appears to exist. Update_all fails with a 404 error. I checked on github but FPGAzumSpass/RobertPeip's Mister64 repo is gone. I googled for any info or news but nada. With all the recent news about legal actions taken by a certain Japanese console maker, I fear the worst. I hope I'm wrong. Does anyone know anything?

[MrSniffles]

Is this core available in update all ?

Is N64 on the updater script yet? I'm still not seeing it in my menu.

Not currently. You have to add a line to downloader.ini

Code: Select all

[n64_dev]
db_url = https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RobertPeip/Mister64/db/db.json.zip

NOTE this is downloader.ini not any other file. You will also need to obtain the bios files

As of this morning, that repo no longer appears to exist. Update_all fails with a 404 error. I checked on github but FPGAzumSpass/RobertPeip's Mister64 repo is gone. I googled for any info or news but nada. With all the recent news about legal actions taken by a certain Japanese console maker, I fear the worst. I hope I'm wrong. Does anyone know anything?

Looks like it's part of official repo now https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/N64_MiSTer

BTW, I think Robert has announced he's taking a break from FPGA development now. If anyone deserves a rest, it's him!

[RealLarry]

BTW, I think Robert has announced he's taking a break from FPGA development now. If anyone deserves a rest, it's him!

That's it! As a former Patreon of him (he has closed his Patreon account today), I may quote his last post:

I'm closing this patreon account

Hi Everyone,

I've been thinking about my existing and future projects a lot in the past weeks and came to the conclusion that I will stop for now.

I was never interested in arcade systems, both for the type of games that they offer and for the library that can be unlocked after one system is finished.

Many of you would like to see me work on other 5th gen consoles like the 3DO, but there is currently nothing that would motivate me to spend another 1-2 years for the games they have.

Instead I want to spend my energy to tackle something new with developing my own games. I always wanted to make games for the cores I have built and with all the things learned, I hope I can do some interesting new things there.

It doesn't mean that I will never work on my old cores or new ones again, with potential new hardware coming up enabling new possibilities, but for the next 6-12 months that will not be the case.

You probably noticed over the last years that I can only follow one project and give it full focus, it's just the way I work. Therefore I decided it's not fair to keep that account here open and let so many people spend money every month. I would have a bad feeling all the time.

I will preserve all the articles in PDF format and make them public accessible soon. My code and cores have been public anyway, so nothing is lost.

For the yearly subscribers I can try to refund a part of the money, as far as Patreon does allow it. Please contact me with a private message if you want that.

I don't want to make this very long here and I really hope you respect my decision.

We had a great time here and on discord working together on a journey over more than 4 years now and those have been probably the best of my life.

I will always be available on discord and try to answer questions or just chat with you.

Thank you so much to everyone and hopefully we meet again one way or the other in future.

[Waifu4Life]

Robert has brought 3 powerful cores to the MiSTer with the GBA, PSX and N64, that's more than anyone could ask for. As for the MiSTer project itself, besides the ongoing development of the Saturn and NEO-GEO pocket cores, it has pretty much stabilized for me. Sure, a Virtual Boy, TMNT Turtles in Time (Arc), X-Men (Arc) and a CPS3 core would be great, but they're more like "nice to have" instead of essentials.

[akeley]

Aside from other, obvious great things he has done, I have a huge respect for being able to walk away from such a profitable Patreon.

[Chris23235]

Robert has brought 3 powerful cores to the MiSTer with the GBA, PSX and N64, that's more than anyone could ask for.

It's even more, he also made the Lynx and the Wonderswan core, so he has 5 cores under his belt and I would say at least 50% of the 486 core should also be contributed to him

[Waifu4Life]

It's even more, he also made the Lynx and the Wonderswan core, so he has 5 cores under his belt and I would say at least 50% of the 486 core should also be contributed to him

I said 3 powerful cores, not 3 cores. Back in the days (2018-2019}, GBA, PSX and N64 were considered impossible on the MiSTer.

[thorr]

I would say his speedup of ao486 counts too because it became a serious core with real performance at that point and it has a massive library of games.

[16Bittt]

It's even more, he also made the Lynx and the Wonderswan core, so he has 5 cores under his belt and I would say at least 50% of the 486 core should also be contributed to him

I said 3 powerful cores, not 3 cores. Back in the days (2018-2019}, GBA, PSX and N64 were considered impossible on the MiSTer.

in the end,N64 wasn't 100% complete / possible on Mister hardware.
so they were not wrong calling it "impossible"

[Waifu4Life]

in the end,N64 wasn't 100% complete / possible on Mister hardware.
so they were not wrong calling it "impossible"

No counting regional variants but counting the games that can be played on the the Turbo core, only 8 games or 2.06% of N64 games can't be played on the MiSTer. Out of those 8, 3 of them could be placed on the "Who gives a fuck" list and as for the other 5, who knows, maybe the compatibility can be patched into the ROMs in the future. I say a 98/100 is close enough to 100.

[MattG]

Now that this core is available through update_all, I thought I'd back to my main MiSTer stable build. However, when I did that and ran update_all one more time, the N64 games wouldn't load. Went back to the unstable build, and they work.

Is it possible my unstable build was updated to become a stable build? I noticed my "unstable" build was updated March 5 this year. I also have a "MiSTer.ini.bak" file updated March 5, but I never updated those beyond running update all and had the "unstable" build well before March 5.

Curious if anyone has thoughts or feedback.

[Krypto]

When it went mainline, I had two N64 choices distinguished by date on the menu. I just hit the console and deleted the older rbf that I installed manually. The current N64 on mine is 20240322 and it works great.

[HerrBerzerk]

The N64 Core is not working on my Mister (DB9 @Antonio Villena).

I tried Everdrive .z64 roms and NoIntro .z64 roms, located on an external USB SSD in ...USB0/Games/N64.

Boot.rom, Boot1.rom and NB64-database.txt is in the N64 folder of the SSD and in the N64 folder of the SD-Card.

When I start the core and select an .Z64 file, It loads the file and after loading, the screen stays black. No sound. I see the menu when I hit f12.

Already deleted the core and reinstalled it with update_all and tried like 20 different roms. I have no Idea what's going on, everything else is working fine.

Any Idea? Thank you.

[FPGA64]

Non standard Hw behaving in a Non Standard way is my Guess. The current core is working fine on my system. It sound as if you have it set up correctly you may just be out of luck, the same way you would be out of luck with Saturn with that HW

[HerrBerzerk]

hmm... not sure... saturn core works w/o problems and all other cores too... actually the only difference is in the snac as DB9. Since I'm for sure not the only one with a DB9 version, it would be interesting to know if others also have the same problem.

[Chris23235]

The N64 Core is not working on my Mister (DB9 @Antonio Villena).

I tried Everdrive .z64 roms and NoIntro .z64 roms, located on an external USB SSD in ...USB0/Games/N64.

Boot.rom, Boot1.rom and NB64-database.txt is in the N64 folder of the SSD and in the N64 folder of the SD-Card.

When I start the core and select an .Z64 file, It loads the file and after loading, the screen stays black. No sound. I see the menu when I hit f12.

Already deleted the core and reinstalled it with update_all and tried like 20 different roms. I have no Idea what's going on, everything else is working fine.

Any Idea? Thank you.

Have you tried to delete the config file for the core? I remember other people having an issue with black screen and from what I recall it helped to delete the config file.

[HerrBerzerk]

Have you tried to delete the config file for the core? I remember other people having an issue with black screen and from what I recall it helped to delete the config file.

I just tried and deleted all N64 files from the config folder. Doesn't help. Can someone point me to an older version of the core before Robert integrated SNAC? Maybe it's related to SNAC. I can only find the latest version of the core on Github.

[MattG]

I had a similar issue after using an unstable MiSTer build and trying to return to a stable build. If you have access to the MiSTer discord, I suggest grabbing an unstable build there, unless anyone thinks that's a bad idea. Mine was last updated March 5, and the most recent N64 core works fine with it.

[edr]

I tried Everdrive .z64 roms and NoIntro .z64 roms, located on an external USB SSD in ...USB0/Games/N64.

Boot.rom, Boot1.rom and NB64-database.txt is in the N64 folder of the SSD and in the N64 folder of the SD-Card.

You wrote NB64-database.txt, should be instead N64-database.txt. The latest one is here if you want to doublecheck yours:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MiSTe ... tabase.txt

My checksums (US and Euro boot roms)

$ sha256sum /media/fat/games/N64/N64-database.txt
0b8d9871e38ec6b9ba4bc8baefe93e70e535072c5ac930524d9b0e6636a466da /media/fat/games/N64/N64-database.txt

$ sha256sum /media/fat/games/N64/boot.rom
fa7b09795ef1e54461e59f6f2d902368133e3f1cd980e34383e6a780d74beffd /media/fat/games/N64/boot.rom

$ sha256sum /media/fat/games/N64/boot1.rom
79c81fffae934b6df251da6c3a394f52c6a0eaa07115a3b9677743e3c1335f4a /media/fat/games/N64/boot1.rom

[HerrBerzerk]

I checked the checksums and they were all right. Then I installed the MiSTer_20240110 build from https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... r/releases

With this build, the N64 Core WORKS, yippee!

After that, I tried with the mister build form den MISTer-DB9Distribution https://github.com/MiSTer-DB9/Distribution_MiSTer

Though according to github this is only some hours old, the N64 core does not work.

I'm not sure if I'm missing some DB9 functionality now but for now I stay with the main core then.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[16Bittt]

in the end,N64 wasn't 100% complete / possible on Mister hardware.
so they were not wrong calling it "impossible"

No counting regional variants but counting the games that can be played on the the Turbo core, only 8 games or 2.06% of N64 games can't be played on the MiSTer. Out of those 8, 3 of them could be placed on the "Who gives a fuck" list and as for the other 5, who knows, maybe the compatibility can be patched into the ROMs in the future. I say a 98/100 is close enough to 100.

As far as I know, the issues with some games are because of Mister's hardware limitations, so I doubt a patch can fix them. One of the key titles and best games on the system, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, isn’t working properly. That alone is a deal-breaker for me when comparing FPGA to software emulation. I don’t see the point in using FPGA if it’s not more accurate than software emulation or nearly identical to real hardware. Software emulation is out there, and for N64 games, it’s a better way to play.

[virtuali]

As far as I know, the issues with some games are because of Mister's hardware limitations, so I doubt a patch can fix them. One of the key titles and best games on the system, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, isn’t working properly. That alone is a deal-breaker for me when comparing FPGA to software emulation. I don’t see the point in using FPGA if it’s not more accurate than software emulation or nearly identical to real hardware. Software emulation is out there, and for N64 games, it’s a better way to play.

The vast majorify (98%) of games that DO work on Mister, work better than software emulation, especially in areas like audio sync, controller response and texture artifacts. Considering you can use a CRT on Mister, and you are getting the same video signal than a real N64 (and having a real N64 besides connected to the same display, makes it easy to verify this), it makes the Mister THE "better way to play" N64 games, regardless of the fact you can't play a couple of them.

Just use software emulation for JFG and Conker, if you really must, but the Mister N64 is clearly a better choice for everything else.

[FPGA64]

I checked the checksums and they were all right. Then I installed the MiSTer_20240110 build from https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... r/releases

With this build, the N64 Core WORKS, yippee!

After that, I tried with the mister build form den MISTer-DB9Distribution https://github.com/MiSTer-DB9/Distribution_MiSTer

Though according to github this is only some hours old, the N64 core does not work.

I'm not sure if I'm missing some DB9 functionality now but for now I stay with the main core then.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

DB9 cores have to be written specially . By default its not supported HW. By chooisng to go the DB9 route you have to accept the wait until the branched cores are developed.

Anyway Glad you have it working, but it may be time to move to a more standard HW and have less of these problems.

[akeley]

The vast majorify (98%) of games that DO work on Mister, work better than software emulation, especially in areas like audio sync, controller response and texture artifacts.

What's your source for this claim?

[poypoy98]

and texture artifacts.

Parallel plugins in software emulation visually look exactly the same as the MiSTer core, not surprising given Angrylion was like the reference to develop the core equivalent functions.

Considering you can use a CRT on Mister, and you are getting the same video signal than a real N64

Possible with a PC too.

but the Mister N64 is clearly a better choice for everything else.

I played the core for the first time and saw 4 graphic bugs in the first 4 games I booted (Pokemon Puzzle League, both T & E Soft Golf games and Susume! Taisen Puzzle Dama). This core is no where near well tested enough to know what all the issues are and to accurately make a statement like that.

[Chris23235]

As far as I know, the issues with some games are because of Mister's hardware limitations, so I doubt a patch can fix them. One of the key titles and best games on the system, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, isn’t working properly. That alone is a deal-breaker for me when comparing FPGA to software emulation. I don’t see the point in using FPGA if it’s not more accurate than software emulation or nearly identical to real hardware. Software emulation is out there, and for N64 games, it’s a better way to play.

The vast majorify (98%) of games that DO work on Mister, work better than software emulation, especially in areas like audio sync, controller response and texture artifacts. Considering you can use a CRT on Mister, and you are getting the same video signal than a real N64 (and having a real N64 besides connected to the same display, makes it easy to verify this), it makes the Mister THE "better way to play" N64 games, regardless of the fact you can't play a couple of them.

Just use software emulation for JFG and Conker, if you really must, but the Mister N64 is clearly a better choice for everything else.

This is how the Donkey Kong 64 attract mode looks on real hardware:

https://youtu.be/ubkr3o-RUBk?t=212

Note that Donkey Kong grabs 3 vines swinging through the stage. It also looks like this on the Ares emulator. Now compare this to how the attract mode looks on the MiSTer core.

Don't get me wrong, I love what Robert achieved here and it is on par with older N64 emulators like Project64, but there are better - meaning more accurate - emulator solutions. About the possibility to use a CRT, I don't see the point, you can connect a CRT to a PC too (you can even use the MiSTer for that).

[virtuali]

Note that Donkey Kong grabs 3 vines swinging through the stage. It also looks like this on the Ares emulator. Now compare this to how the attract mode looks on the MiSTer core.

On the other hand, using the lates Ares 1.37:

• Tetris N64, crashes at start on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Hybrid Heaven (JP), crashes at start on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Rugrats in Paris - The Movie (all versions), crashes at start on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Daikatana (JP) - crashes after pressing A on 1st screen on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Gauntlet Legends - crashes when entering a level on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• WCW Nitro - plays too fast on Ares and Mister on too.

• Knife Edge Nose Gunner - plays too fast on Ares and on Mister too.

Note that, these are the ones I tried which are listed as problematic on Ares compatibility list, there are others too I haven't tried.

So no, it doesn't seem Ares is particularly better than the Mister core, some games which works on Mister don't even start on Ares, although some that have timing issues in Ares (Knife Edge, WCW Nitro play too fast), have the same timing issues on Mister.

Games which are listed as problematic on both Ares compatibility list and Mister, like Resident Evil 2, seems to work for the few minutes I tested them on both, but FMV audio crackles a bit with Ares, not on Mister.

[retrodroid]

Finally got a chance to try out this core yesterday on my MiSTer arcade cab with 27" tri-sync arcade CRT.

Amazing! Just a fantastic piece of work. Playing C64 on a real CRT is total game-changer for my enjoyment of C64 content, the low-res polygons don't age well otherwise.

Thanks Robert!

[Chris23235]

Note that Donkey Kong grabs 3 vines swinging through the stage. It also looks like this on the Ares emulator. Now compare this to how the attract mode looks on the MiSTer core.

On the other hand, using the lates Ares 1.37:

• Tetris N64, crashes at start on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Hybrid Heaven (JP), crashes at start on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Rugrats in Paris - The Movie (all versions), crashes at start on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Daikatana (JP) - crashes after pressing A on 1st screen on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• Gauntlet Legends - crashes when entering a level on Ares, works on Mister N64 core

• WCW Nitro - plays too fast on Ares and Mister on too.

• Knife Edge Nose Gunner - plays too fast on Ares and on Mister too.

Note that, these are the ones I tried which are listed as problematic on Ares compatibility list, there are others too I haven't tried.

So no, it doesn't seem Ares is particularly better than the Mister core, some games which works on Mister don't even start on Ares, although some that have timing issues in Ares (Knife Edge, WCW Nitro play too fast), have the same timing issues on Mister.

Games which are listed as problematic on both Ares compatibility list and Mister, like Resident Evil 2, seems to work for the few minutes I tested them on both, but FMV audio crackles a bit with Ares, not on Mister.

The compability list on the Ares website is outdated. I tried some of the games you listed on the latest nightly build. I didn't try WCW and Knife Edge as I don't know if I can tell the correct speed, I never played these 2 games. From the games on your list only Daikatana (JP) and Rugrats in Paris don't work in the latest nightly build of Ares, the other bugs are already fixed.
The point is as far as nobody else picks up the development of the N64 core from Robert Peip the core will be as it is while Ares is still in active development and already showing greater accuracy then the N64 core.
It is impressive to see what can be done when it comes to the MiSTer but there's also a limit and an N64 core with the accuracy of e.g. the NeoGeo or PSX core is not within these limits, but it is well within reach of a software emulator.

[Neocaron]

I don't know what point you are trying to make, but you are so full of it. The N64 core is completely open source so why wouldn't it be finished? It's build for FPGA, it doesn't have an expiration date. The whole point of the FPGA community is that all the cores will be passed down generations and preserved forever with ease on the Mister or any other piece of FPGA hardware. There are more chances for an emulator to be broken in 5 years because it's not maintained anymore than any FPGA core. The N64 core will absolutely be finished in a year, two, five... on the Mister or not, who cares. What we have here is a marvel of creation by Robert. And by the way I use my Mister only with CRTs so yeah there is a point, it's a thing, people who can do it and enjoy it.