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Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

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Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, N64 is not the PS2 or Gameboy--there are only 388 games that were released for it. Going through all of the games that were released and shepherding them through this process is feasible.

In fact, Thabeast is beating every N64 game, and he means ALL of them. [1] He has already completed all games, but the videos are waaay behind (he's releasing one video/game a week). [1] https://www.youtube.com/@Thabeast721/videos

if you're interested in this kind of thing, The Mexican Runner beat every NES game (over 700 of them [1]) including such gems as Miracle Piano Teaching System, which took 91 hours to beat and required him to become quite proficient at actual piano playing [2]

[1] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KDNGI76HoMNyYLL6RqWu... [2] https://youtu.be/PB_LMW72crY?t=3997

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#132
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was able to run 32-bit Windows games in Wine on Mac, even on Apple Silicon. GTA IV on my M1 mini. There's some kind of "32 on 64" emulation built into whatever version of the 32-bit Wine that PlayOnMac installs. Impossible to Google so idk how it really works. It's funny how the Mac is more compatible with old Windows programs than old Mac programs.

Old windows programs had the luck that intel fucked up Itanium, which left us with AMDs idea to just take the existing 16 bit compatible 32 bit processor and turn it into a 32 bit compatible 64 bit processor (that might also be 16 bit compatible, not sure on that one). As result new and old windows programs use a lot of the same basic instructs and emulating the newer programs includes a lot of the work needed to als…

Modern x86-64 processors are still capable of running 16-bit code but, assuming you want to do it from within a modern operating system, it needs to be 16-bit protected-mode code, which isn't that useful since I think most 16-bit games run in real mode. Hence why DOSbox/Bochs are used instead (also, for emulating the original sound/graphics hardware).

AFAIK, no 64-bit version of Windows ever shipped with native 16-bit support, though. That means 16-bit support on x86-64 in practice was only ever usable on a 32-bit operating system, which means you still couldn't have 64-bit, 32-bit, and 16-bit code running side-by-side, even if the hardware could theoretically support it.

Intel does want to get rid of most of the compatibility modes, including all 16-bit support, but they haven't done it yet: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/t...

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#133
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it’s pretty ironic that Microsoft, who wants to convince the entire world that c#/netcore is the next multi-os platform isn’t capable of delivering anything else than Minecraft Java on Linux. It’s a shame that I can’t play with my son from my Linux PC since he plays on switch (so the c#/bedrock edition)

It doesn't work in Wine? Or maybe that's too annoying to deal with.

The PC version of Bedrock edition is only available from the relatively locked down Microsoft Store.

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t true. The smash community has suffered for over a decade because Nintendo refuses to let them use emulation for melee in tournaments. Any tournament that tries is immediately C&D’ed. https://youtu.be/fAmidph6QU4?si=wbJvpN6ZhUSxSR17 How anyone has any sympathy or hope for Nintendo not going after their users in 2024 is beyond me. This is GameCube era games, and they’re still litigious.

I appreciate you drawing attention to more nintendo beef but historically they have cared more about protecting copyright for current consoles. You say the smash community has suffered for a decade (dramatic) but they still made Project M on GameCube and delisting Dolphin from steam is not that big of a deal. I don't need to get into Smash Tournament drama to tell you this with certainty and I have all the knowledge…

> historically they have cared more about protecting copyright for current consoles.

This is categorically false, and I even linked to evidence of it being false in the present day. I don’t know how you could say this as a smash player, but you’re acting like they won’t come after these people for doing what they’re doing. In reality it’s entirely up to the whims of Nintendo.

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the issue is that some purists believe anything less than pixel perfect fidelity is unacceptable. I recall reading a report on N64(?) Wii(?) about how the flame flicker in one level of one game was off.

Depends what you're trying to do, but some glitches used in speed runs literally depend on the exact values of pixels on the screen https://youtu.be/0B095eHBrCg?t=24m40s Not saying that supporting glitches like that is a hard requirement for these ports though

Inaccurate emulation can also result in stuff like altered physics, invisible objects, stuttering animations, etc. resulting in a different experience from the original.

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there are probably fewere games that are worth doing. Maybe 100? 200?

I really liked the N64, but if we're being charitable it's probably like 30-40 games. For any given console, even those that achieve legendary status, the game quality follows a Pareto distribution, 80% is crap, 20% is worth playing after the console has left the public mind.

What no one wants to revisit Nagano Winter Olympics or Tetrisphere? Its probably closer to 50 if you want to include some of the lesser-known but interesting titles IMO. One of the most interesting games was Body Harvest since its clearly a prototype for a lot of what became GTA3

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#137
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it’s pretty ironic that Microsoft, who wants to convince the entire world that c#/netcore is the next multi-os platform isn’t capable of delivering anything else than Minecraft Java on Linux. It’s a shame that I can’t play with my son from my Linux PC since he plays on switch (so the c#/bedrock edition)

It doesn't work in Wine? Or maybe that's too annoying to deal with.

No it doesn’t. It’s a UWP app with DRMs everywhere.

Although there is an unofficial Linux launcher capable of running Bedrock natively using the embedded machine code in the Android version but it requires to buy the game one more time from the Google play store.

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't work in Wine? Or maybe that's too annoying to deal with.

The PC version of Bedrock edition is only available from the relatively locked down Microsoft Store.

Ah, game over

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#139
post #88
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except this work can be done once, stored somewhere and shared. Take a ROM (it means read-only after all) and get native port out...

Shared legally?

It's legal if the recipient owns the game, it would be covered under fair use for compatibility purposes.

Re: Nearly all Nintendo 64 games can now be recompiled into native PC ports

#140
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it’s pretty ironic that Microsoft, who wants to convince the entire world that c#/netcore is the next multi-os platform isn’t capable of delivering anything else than Minecraft Java on Linux. It’s a shame that I can’t play with my son from my Linux PC since he plays on switch (so the c#/bedrock edition)

> It’s a shame that I can’t play with my son from my Linux PC since he plays on switch (so the c#/bedrock edition) There are some plugins for the java edition server that allow bedrock clients to join, that might be an option for you.

Oh nice ! I’ll check that !
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