Nintendo 64 emulators

Nintendo 64

Charcoal-gray Nintendo 64 Control Deck with solid gray controller
Developer	Nintendo R&D3
Manufacturer	Nintendo
Type	Home video game console
Generation	Fifth
Release date	June 23, 1996
Discontinued	2002
Predecessor	Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Successor	GameCube
Emulated	✓

For emulators that run on the Nintendo 64, see Emulators on Nintendo 64.

The Nintendo 64 is a 64-bit fifth-generation console released by Nintendo on September 29, 1996, for $199.99 ($411 in 2026). Nintendo was the second company approached by Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), which wanted to roll out its previously enterprise-only technology in the consumer space. They originally pitched their idea to Sega, but it is assumed that Nintendo's offer was more appealing. With the NEC VR4300 CPU clocked at 93.75 MHz, 4 MB of RAM, and an SGI RCP GPU at 62.5 MHz, Nintendo had finished much of the hardware at least a year before launch, preventing video games from needing drastic rewrites due to architectural changes. A separate add-on was later released called the "Expansion Pak" that added another 4 MB of RAM, totaling to 8 MB. The development workstations were often Unix-based, which would later help reverse engineers in some projects.­­

Unlike competitors such as the PlayStation, the N64 used cartridges instead of CDs. While a big advantage was that data could be read faster than CDs, meaning load times were minimal or even non-existent, the main disadvantages of cartridges was the small data capacity, and CDs were cheaper to manufacture, which meant that many third-party developers switched to the PlayStation.

Nintendo 64 emulator development began during the console's lifespan, with UltraHLE being a landmark release in emulation. Despite the impressive feat of playing retail games on a standard computer of the period, emulation of the console had serious issues for nearly the next two decades. This was largely due to the "plugin hell" exacerbated by closed-source development practices, an over-reliance on the leaked "Oman archive" documentation that hindered true reverse engineering of console behavior, and the use of endless hacks and shortcuts due to the weak hardware of the time. However, newer open-source emulators and plugins now offer greatly improved accuracy alongside visual enhancements.

Comparison

Before editing, review the getting involved and recommended pages. See system requirements page for performance demand of the emulators.
See tables for enhancements, hardware features & peripherals, and hardware variants.
For more details such as licensing, programming language, emulation method, visit each emulator’s dedicated page.

Standalone emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Active?	Latest version	License	Compatibility	Accuracy	iQue Player	Aleck 64	Recommended? (overall)
PC
Gopher64		✓	1.1.34	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	?	High	✗	✗	✓
RMG		✓	0.9.0 stable 0.9.0-dev	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	Plugin-dependent	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	✓
Mupen64Plus		✓	MXE Builds nightly	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	Plugin-dependent	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	~ RMG is recommended instead of using Mupen64Plus MXE builds because RMG comes bundled with GLideN64, angrylion's RDP Plus and ParaLLEl-RDP for video plugins, and mupen64plus-hle-rsp, CXD4 and ParaLLEl-RSP for RSP plugins. Mupen64Plus experience is also front-end-dependent.
1964		✗	1964GEPD 1.1 (Official) 1.2 r146 (Unofficial SVN)	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	?	Low	✗	✗	✗ 1964GEPD is only recommended to use for GoldenEye 007 or Perfect Dark; because this emulator is primarily made for GoldenEye 007/Perfect Dark and modified for use with the Mouse Injector and their ROM hacks. It has poor ROM support outside of these games. Another and recommended option for GoldenEye 007 is garungorp's MouseInjectorDolphinDuck with mupen64plus_next_libretro.
CEN64		✗	0.3	BSD-3-Clause (Permissive)	?	Partial Cycle	✗	✗	✗
DaedalusX64		~	git	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	?	?	✗	✗	✗
Kaizen		✗	git	BSD-3-Clause (Permissive)	?	?	✗	✗	✗
Larper64		✗	0.4	Proprietary	?	?	✗	✗	✗
n64		✓	git	?	?	?	✗	✗	✗
Project64		✓	Luna's Project64 3.7.3 git Rosalie241's MMHD Nightly 3.0.1 Keygen	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	Plugin-dependent	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	✗ Project64 accuracy is plugin-dependent and below than Ares, simple64, and Mupen64Plus and related forks. Its official GUI is also not only obsolete but tedious having pay-to-remove long pop-ups asking for support. Project64 should now only be considered for debugging purposes. For a better Project64 experience based on v3.0.1 with no nagware and RetroAchievements support, use Luna's Project64 fork instead. Luna's Project64 also has Linux compatibility and is actively being developed.
R64Emu		✗	git	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	?	?	✗	✗	✗
Rokuyon		✗	git	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	?	?	✗	✗	✗
Ryu64		✗	git	Unlicense (Public domain equivalent)	?	?	✗	✗	✗
simple64		✗	2024.12.1 GLideN64	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	?	High	✗	✗	✗
Sixtyforce		✗	2.0.2	Proprietary	?	?	✗	✗	✗
UltraHLE		✗	1.0	Proprietary	?	Low	✗	✗	✗
Project64-EM		?	1.0.3	?	?	?	✗	✗	?
Mobile
Mupen64Plus FZ		✓	3.0.322 (beta) git	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	Plugin-dependent	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	✓

Multi-system emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Active?	Latest version	License	Compatibility	Accuracy	iQue Player	Aleck 64	Recommended? (overall)
PC
ares		✓	git Artifacts v148	ISC (Permissive)	83.38% 828 out of 993 titles 91.69% 828 out of 903 reported titles	High	✗	✓	✓
BizHawk (Mupen64Plus, ares, MAME)		✓	Dev builds 2.11.1	MIT GPL	Plugin-dependent Core-dependent	Plugin-dependent Core-dependent	✗	~ MAME only.	~
MAME		✓	0.289	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	1.31% 13 out of 993 reported titles	?	✗	✓	✗
Mobile
Delta		✓	1.7.3s git	?	?	?	✗	✗	?
Folium		✓	App Store ($) 2.0 Latest IPA	?	?	?	✗	✗	?
Manic EMU		✓	2.0.0 git	AGPLv3 (Copyleft)	?	?	✗	✗	?
NiN10		✓	3.6	Proprietary	?	?	✗	✗	?
Provenance		✓	3.3.0 git	?	?	?	✗	✗	?

Frontend cores

Platform (e.g., Android, Windows, and Linux) and architecture support (e.g., x86, ARM, and consoles) mostly depends on the frontend software, not on the individual cores themselves.

API	Core(s)	Active?	Latest version	License	Compatibility	Accuracy	iQue Player	Aleck 64	Recommended? (overall)
	Mupen64Plus-Next	✓	2.8-Vulkan f275caf	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	Plugin-dependent	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	✓
	MAME 0.251, 0.139 (2010), 0.78 (2003), 0.37b5 (2000)	✓		GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	1.31% 13 out of 993 reported titles	?	✗	✓	✗
	ParaLLEl-N64	✓		GPLv3 (Copyleft)	Plugin-dependent	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	✗ Obsolete and replaced by Mupen64Plus-Next. ParaLLEl-N64 should now only be considered for older ROM hacks that don't play well with the newer, more accurate plugins.

Emulators on other hardware

Name	Platform(s)	Active?	Latest version	License	Compatibility	Accuracy	iQue Player	Aleck 64	Recommended? (overall)
Not64		✓	20260410	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	30.51% 303 out of 993 titles 71.46% 303 out of 424 reported titles (Plugin-dependent)	?	✗	✗	✓
DaedalusX64		~	PSP 3DS VitaGL PS2	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	PS Vita 23.56% 234 out of 993 titles 49.37% 234 out of 474 reported titles PSP (from 1.1.6-1.1.8) 9.77% 97 out of 993 titles 61.78% 97 out of 157 reported titles 3DS 7.15% 71 out of 993 titles 27.31% 71 out of 260 reported titles	?	✗	✗	✓ (PS Vita)
Virtual Console		✗	N/A	Proprietary	Only for selected titles (Wii)	Game-dependent	✗	✗	✓
Wii64		✗	1.1 beta git	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	30.51% 303 out of 993 titles 71.46% 303 out of 424 reported titles (Plugin-dependent)	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	~
Surreal64 CE		✗	Beta 6.0	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	23.77% 236 out of 993 titles 75.88% 236 out of 311 reported titles (Plugin-dependent)	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	~
Nintendo Classics (Hovercraft)		✓	N/A	Proprietary	Only for selected titles	Game-dependent	✗	✗	~
Virtual Console		✗	N/A	Proprietary	Only for selected titles (Wii U)	Game-dependent	✗	✗	~
mupen64-360		✗	0.96 beta	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	Plugin-dependent	Plugin-dependent	✗	✗	~

FPGA

Name	Platform(s)	Active?	Latest version	License	Compatibility	Accuracy	Recommended? (overall)
N64_MiSTer	MiSTer	✓	git	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	100% officialy released catridge games some games with built-in per-game hacks	Game-dependent	?

Description

Ares

An open-source multi-system emulator and successor to Near's higan project, with a mostly original N64 core. Unlike most other N64 emulators, it aims for high accuracy and doesn't employ HLE RSP or RDP emulation of any kind, nor does it use game-specific hacks. It uses Themaister's ParaLLEl-RDP Vulkan renderer (with the MAME renderer as a software-based fallback) for pixel-perfect LLE graphics. It currently passes several stringent accuracy tests the other emulators do not, also CPU & RSP timings are fantastic based on real hardware tests.

System requirements are more demanding than other popular N64 emulators; for Windows users, you'd need at least a Ryzen 7 3700X to maintain full speed, system requirements for macOS and Linux users may be significantly lower due to: ARM64 ABI Microsoft has chosen for Windows makes context switches more expensive than on the SysV ABI used in *nix.

• v130 version brings 64DD emulation and macOS support, developer LuigiBlood said "This is the most accurate 64DD emulation attempt I've ever done, honestly. A lot of the stuff I programmed is sometimes genuinely useless. A lot also involves timings of the drive itself and more."
• v132 version brings improved accuracy of Controller Pak and Rumble Pak emulation.
• v133 version brings lots of performance tuning, timing improvements (fixes Jet Force Gemini and Mickey's Speedway USA) and emulation of RSP SU pipeline stalls (fixes Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie).
• v134 version brings support for .D64 disk images, 64DD disk swapping, support the N64 Transfer Pak, homebrew mode, fixed RTC 64DD emulation and other accuracy fixes.

*v146 version improve VI timings and interrupts.

RMG

Rosalie's Mupen GUI aims to close the gap between Project64 and Mupen64Plus in terms of user experience. Its interface is about on par with simple64's in terms of cleanliness and ease of use, but unlike simple64, it remains a shallow fork of upstream Mupen64Plus and allows you to use other plugins. The latest development versions come bundled with GLideN64, Angrylion RDP Plus and ParaLLEl-RDP for video plugins, and mupen64plus-hle-rsp, CXD4 and ParaLLEl-RSP for RSP plugins It can still use the older plugins that come with regular Mupen64Plus in case if your PC can't handle the newer plugins. If you prefer GLideN64, this is a superior alternative to simple64, as the last version of simple64 that uses GLideN64 is becoming increasingly outdated.

Mupen64Plus-Next

A libretro core for use in RetroArch. It succeeds ParaLLEl-N64, below. Mupen64Plus-Next is a new rebase off the bleeding-edge Mupen64Plus mainline, and more compatible than ParaLLEl-N64. It ditches the legacy plugins and replaces them with GLideN64 as a better HLE solution (though, of course, the ParaLLEl plugins and Angrylion Plus stay), considerably cleans up the Core Options menu for easier configuration, and adds Transfer Pak support. Furthermore, all future improvements and new features will be applied to the Mupen64Plus-Next core. As a result, Mupen64Plus-Next is now recommended over ParaLLEl-N64.

ParaLLEl-N64

The original libretro core to contain the ParaLLEl-RDP. The RDP plugin was a breakthrough in N64 emulation that enabled low-level emulation on mid-range hardware, unlike the accurate but extremely CPU-hungry Angrylion off which it was based. It uses Vulkan to move much of the workload from the CPU to the GPU. It even added native high-resolution rendering, only available in integer scales of the original N64 resolution. It has a special " Super VI Mode" option, which, if used, can make the visuals of N64 games look less blurry with fairly mitigated jaggies even at their native resolutions, although it may need a powerful GPU. The ParaLLEl-N64 core is a heavily modified fork of the old Mupen64Plus libretro core, having been renamed to ParaLLEl-N64 upon its initial integration of the ParaLLEl-RDP and RSP plugins. It has many features and optimizations that aren't present in the mainline build. Alongside RetroArch's general features, it adds 3-point texture filtering for Glide64, superior A/V sync and latency. In addition to the ParaLLEl plugins, it also retains the older HLE plugins (glN64, Rice and Glide64) and Angrylion Plus. Older than Mupen64Plus-Next, ParaLLEl-N64 should now only be considered for performance reasons or perhaps for older ROM hacks that don't play well with the newer, more accurate plugins.

Gopher64

A successor to simple64 below, the author, loganmc10, archived that project in February 2025 and now works on this emulator. The author describes it as more accurate than simple64, with similar system requirements. It supports netplay, like simple64 before it, and has active public netplay servers.

simple64

A fork of Mupen64Plus with a custom-made Qt GUI. As per its name, this emulator is simple and "just works out of the box", without messing with plugins or settings. It comes bundled with ParaLLEl-RDP and ParaLLEl-RSP, ensuring excellent compatibility and good speed provided your hardware supports Vulkan. However, unlike other emulators, it doesn't allow you to use other plugins. While it began as a shallow fork, it has increasingly become closer to a hard fork, as its developer opted to make various accuracy-focused changes to the emulation core that require additional work to port back to upstream or to other forks. It also currently features only a cached interpreter core, as the dynarecs used by Mupen64Plus are incompatible with the core timing changes made by the developer. While this makes simple64 more accurate (especially DMA transfers), than most other N64 emulators, it also results in slower performance. If faster speed and more enhancements are desired, there is an older build that is closer to upstream and uses GLideN64 as its graphics plugin. Unfortunately, it lacks the texture enhancement suite required for using packs and upscaling, though.

Mupen64Plus

A multi-platform emulator based on Hacktarux's Mupen64. For a while it lagged behind Project64 in compatibility and simplicity of use, but recent forks have changed this. The stable release on the main repository was becoming increasingly out of date, though a new 2.6.0 version was released in 2024. Mupen64Plus lacks a native GUI, instead being launched either from the command line or by dragging and dropping ROMs into the executable and editing the config with a text editor. It also only comes bundled with outdated video plugins, so to ensure the best possible compatibility, sourcing better third-party plugins such as ParaLLEl or GLideN64 is a must. BizHawk and OpenEmu use forks of Mupen64Plus and its plugins for their N64 emulation, but they seem shallow. As of 2022, Project64-style overclocking for faster frame rates has been added under the option 'CountPerOpDenomPot.'

Wii64 and Not64

Both are based on Mupen64, with Not64 being a fork of Wii64. Not64 claims to be better optimized, alongside having higher compatibility and more frequent updates. N64 emulation on Wii is not very good, and it is recommended to stick with the Virtual Console releases whenever possible.

BizHawk

Another out-of-the-box solution. Supports two cores for n64 (mupen64plus and Ares64). Supports GLideN64 and Angrylion video plugins for mupen64plus core.

Project64

An open-source emulator for Windows, as well as one of the oldest. Once more up-to-date and compatible than Mupen64Plus and its derivatives, the gap was closed around 2017, when comparing both emulators with the same plugins. And the Mupen64Plus derivatives took further leaps forwards as they were integrated with the highly accurate ParaLLEl plugins. Project64 was known for being more user-friendly than Mupen64Plus, with a built-in user interface that supports Transfer Pak emulation and 64DD emulation. Now, RMG and simple64 have their own user interfaces, and the advantages of Project64 have faded. Annoyingly, it also nags you with a timed, unskippable message asking for donations to the project upon launch, though this can be gotten around through a script. An alternative is to download it through Rosalie's BetterMajorasMaskInstaller, which downloads the latest nightly version of Project64 with the nagging message removed and installs several useful third-party plugins (it also offers to install HD texture packs for OoT and MM, but you can opt out of those). Though take heed - Project64 is currently in the middle of a major code rewrite in preparation for the upcoming 4.0 version, and more than a few regressions and bugs have crept into the nightly builds as a result, so it might be better to just grab the latest plugins and stick to version 3.0.1. For the most part, it works well in Wine, but if you're on a different platform, there is little reason to use it over the multi-platform Mupen64Plus these days. In versions of Project64 older than 3.0, there is an exploit allowing people to remotely access your computer (arbitrary code execution). This exploit only works if you have a ROM from a random website, so watch where you get your ROMs from if you're still using these versions of Project64.

Luna's Project64

A fork of Project64 v3.0.1 that removes the nagware from Project64 v3.0.1. It also has plugins that fix issues with some games. Other additions and changes include Linux compatibility, an auto-updater, 100 save state slots that loads faster, keyboard shortcuts to change the game speed, fixes to the EEPROM, RetroAchievements support as of v3.5.4 which was officially supported by RetroAchievement developers by v3.5.6 on April 2, 2025, and more. New releases also keep the GLideN64 plugin up-to-date.

CEN64

Aims for cycle accuracy while at the same time aiming to be usable on modern PC hardware eventually. It lacks many features and has spotty compatibility, but it can already emulate some well-known edge cases, such as picture recognition in Pokémon Snap. Unfortunately, its creator appears to have abandoned the project citing a lack of satisfaction with the program's performance in its current interpreter-based incarnation. While the baton has been collectively passed to the n64dev community for further development, progress has been slow.

Kaizen

Rewrite of another Nintendo 64 emulator project "shibumi" which is developed by the same developer. It already has a QT frontend with recent builds, but lacks #Enhancements and support for Hardware features and peripherals (roadmap). RDP is implemented via ParaLLEl-RDP and R4300i, RCP, TLB, joybus are fully implemented. See their discord server for more information.

1964

Along with its various versions and forks, it was once a decent, speedy open-source alternative to Project64 and Mupen64, though it usually lagged the two compatibility-wise. Nowadays, it has completely fallen off the radar as development has halted, and there is no longer a central code repo to speak of. There is little reason to use it nowadays outside historical purposes, very specific edge cases, or if your device is too slow to run Mupen64Plus or Project64.

Daedalus

A Nintendo 64 emulator for PC which was ported to the PSP under the name of DaedalusX64. The PSP version later became the main version and got ported to platforms such as the Dreamcast, the PS2, the PS Vita, and the 3DS. On PSP, several games can reach full speed, and most of them work with few emulation issues.

Sixtyforce

macOS-only, closed-source emulator. It asks you to pay for full access to its features. It was once one of the few choices for Mac users, particularly those with older Macs, since it's the only emulator with a PowerPC dynarec, but, with the switch to x86 and Mupen64Plus being ported to macOS, it has now become rather obsolete. However, development is still ongoing, and it is currently in its third rewrite to support the upcoming Apple Silicon.

Ryu64

A Nintendo 64 emulator made in C#. The 'Ryu' word is named after the "RyuJIT" used in both Visual Basic & C#. But it might have been inspired by the lead author's sole (so far) commit to Switch emulator Ryujinx's Git repository and his depreciated Ryujinx Auto-Updater tool. "86RYU," an x86 JIT compiler, is being developed alongside this emulator too.

UltraHLE

Marked a milestone in Nintendo 64 emulation, in that it was the first to play some popular N64 titles at full speed on hardware made at the time of its release through high-level emulation. It isn't without its drawbacks, though - pressure from users, plus legal threats from Nintendo, forced them to discontinue development. Besides being for historical value, there is little to expect from this emulator anyway due to compatibility issues.

n64oid

An Android-exclusive Nintendo 64 emulator based on Mupen64Plus by freeman_zy. It is similar to Project 64 1.6 in terms of compatibility. The APK for n64oid circulates on many legally questionable APK sites. n64oid has the infamous problem in Mario Kart 64 of the screen in Wario Stadium not displaying properly, as it displays nothing but black. It upscales all games to widescreen, which works well most of the time, but it will have performance issues on some older phones. The emulator is relatively poor, but it is much easier to set up than other options. The emulator features a menu with many similarities to the mobile edition of Snes9x EX+ and the My Boy! family of Android emulators for Game Boy systems.

Nintendo Classics (Hovercraft)

• Nintendo 64 support was added to Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack in September 2021, alongside Sega Genesis games.
• Users are limited to the selection of games Nintendo chooses to make available on the service.
• Supports online and Local Play (up to 4 players).
• Emulation accuracy varies between games; sometimes, being equal or worse than their Wii and/or Wii U Virtual Console versions.
• Updates on the app can be slow compared to the NES, SNES, Game Boy and Sega Genesis apps due to how Nintendo 64 ROMs require more debugging time (for third-party games, licensing might be an issue as well).
• Different games between regions (Japan and International).
• A separate mature-rated version of the app is available for titles that received a mature/adult-like age rating within their region. Japan has the "+18" branding for titles that received a CERO Z rating (e.g.: GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark). The United States has the "Mature 17+" branding for titles that received a Mature 17+ rating from the ESRB (e.g.: Shadow Man and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter). Europe and Australia has the "Mature" branding for titles that received a PEGI 16 or PEGI 18 rating. Brazil has "ClassInd: 18 Anos" branding and Korea has "19+" branding.
• Features such as rewind, CRT filter and in-app button remapping was confirmed when the emulator is running only on Nintendo Switch 2 (the latter is available for standard Nintendo Switch users).

Enhancements

Please only include recommended emulators in this table. Do not bump or spam GitHub threads, issues, or feature request pages.

Name		ares	Gopher64	Mupen64Plus-Next	RMG
Controls	Input lag mitigating	?	?	✗	?
	Mouse injector	✗	?	✓	?
	Turbo button	?	?	?	?
Graphics	Better texture filtering Enhancement option for providing better texture filtering methods comparing the original hardware had.	?	?	?	?
	Pre-rendering anti-aliasing (SSAA, MSAA)	?	?	✗	?
	Ray tracing (DXR, VRT and MRT)	Implementing ray tracing in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future. However you can try "Screen-Space Ray Traced Global Illumination" shader using ReShade. There is a new video plugin called RT64, which will support Ray Tracing in the future.
	Resizable internal resolution	✓	?	✓	?
	RTX Remix	Implementing RTX Remix technology in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future. Besides, some of these emulators already supports most of RTX Remix features such as texture replacement and post-processing effects etc. On top of that you can use ReShade for post-processing.
	Tessellation	✗	?	?	?
	Texture packs	✗	?	✓ Only with GLideN64 video plugin.	?
	Widescreen hack	?	?	✓	?
Performance	Frame generation (LSFG, DLSS-FG and SM, XeSS-FG, AFMF and FSR FG)	Implementing frame generation technology in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future, however post-processing techniques such as motion interpolation is quite possible. Input latency will be a crucial factor, but its impact likely varies depending on the specific technique employed, it's recommended to use after applying the "Internal frame rate hack". While AFMF or LSFG could be used with Mupen64Plus-Next, please be aware that some visual glitches and artifacts may occur at this time.
	Internal frame rate hack	?	?	?	?
	Overclocking	?	?	?	?
	Rendering latency reduction technologies (LatencyFleX, Reflex, Xe-LL and Anti-Lag+)	While most emulators offer frame pacing or framebuffer latency control options, implementing rendering latency reduction technologies isn't currently feasible. This is likely doesn't offer enough benefit to justify the development effort.
Post-processing	AI-powered filter (Freestyle)	?	?	?	?
	Deinterlacing	✓ Supports weave algorithm, and also lots of deinterlacing shaders.	?	?	?
	Filters	✓	?	✓	?
	Inverse tone mapping	?	?	✓	?
	Post-rendering anti-aliasing (FXAA, TXAA, and MLAA/SMAA)	?	?	✓	?
	Post-rendering scaling (Sharp bilinear, Lanczos, and FSR 1)	?	?	✓	?
	Shader chain	✓	?	✓	?
Quality of life	Automatic emulated controller connect/disconnect Automatically connects or disconnects emulated controllers when a new or current controller is connected or disconnected.	✗	✗	✗	✗
	Automatic updater	?	?	✓	?
	Big Picture Mode	?	?	✓	?
	Built-in cheat manager	✗	?	✓	?
	Built-in custom resolution/CRTSwitchRes For using this on Windows, you need CRT Emudriver. Another option is using EDID editor tool such as "Custom Resolution Utility".	Exclusive to libretro cores and GroovyMAME at the moment. Also there is a project for achieving software emulators like libretro cores and GroovyMAME send the raw RGB data over a network to a core running on MiSTer, it basically turns the MiSTer into a GPU for the emulator allowing for easy setup and use with CRT TVs/Arcade monitors.
	Built-in mod editor and manager	✗	?	✗	?
	Built-in patch manager	?	?	?	?
	Built-in save manager Saving game data was typically on cartridges with lithium batteries, Controller Paks, or 64DD disks. The console itself couldn't save data. So, you can use 64DD emulation supported ones for this job as well.	?	?	?	?
	Command-line options	?	?	✓	?
	Pause/Resume emulation	✓	?	✓	?
	Per-game profiles	?	?	✓	?
	Portable and stealth Useful enhancement feature for non-personal computer use or plug-and-play scenarios. However, the software may still require the necessary prerequisites and dependencies for your operating system if it is not statically linked.	✓	?	✓	?
	Streamable compression format	✓	?	✓	?
	Variable refresh rate	?	?	✓	?
TAS features	Fast forward/Turbo speed	✓	?	✓	?
	Frame step (forwards and backwards)	?	?	?	?
	Macros/Scripts/Lua	?	?	✗	?
	Movie recording/playback	?	?	✓	?
	Rewind	✓	?	✓	?
	Save states	✓	✓	✓	?
Misc.	Ambient sounds simulation Simulation of audio from original hardware and environments, such as mechanical hard drive, floppy diskette, and optical drive noises (e.g., head seeks, spin-up/down, tray loading, disc spinning, and clicking), variable CRT flyback transformer whine (the classic high-pitched "coil whine" that dynamically changes pitch based on screen brightness and content), arcade cabinet effects (e.g., fan hum or button rattles), and other background ambient noises.	✗	✗	✗	✗
	Audio filters and presets Simulation of characteristic playback limitations and coloration of vintage consumer audio hardware, such as CRT television speakers, arcade cabinets, handheld consoles, early PC sound outputs, and low-fidelity integrated speakers. These filters are not intended to be perfectly accurate recreations, but rather to evoke the tonal qualities, distortion, bandwidth limits, resonance, and compression associated with 8-bit and 16-bit era devices. Examples include mono or narrow stereo output, reduced frequency response, speaker cone distortion, mild saturation, aliasing, and preset lo-fi profiles inspired by classic TVs, portable game systems, radios, and retro multimedia hardware.	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment.
	Debug features and libdragon	✓	?	✗	?
	EmuVR support	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment.
	File browser Lets the user look at the ROM's internal files.	✗	✗	✗	✗
	Free Look Free Look is an enhancement feature that allows manipulation of the in-game camera.	While freecam would be technically possible, it will require per-game patches. Said patches would require a significant amount of time to reverse the game's engine, which means that only someone talented with enough dedication to a single game could do it. Nemu64 has a free cam mode sort of. It changes the perspective the camera is facing. Reddit Thread: Nintendo 64 camera?
	Netplay	✗	✓	✗	?
	RetroAchievements	roadmap	~ Gopher64 has implemented RetroAchievements in v1.1.16 on April 16, 2026. However, it is only softcore-supported and was rejected from receiving hardcore support on May 14, 2026, due to a lack of an in-game achievement browser, which the developer has difficulty implementing in its GUI. For more information, see the forum topic on RetroAchievements and Gopher64's GitHub wiki page.	✓	?
	Rich Presence (RPC) Allows the emulator to share real-time game session details (e.g., current game title, level, boss, playtime, or custom status) with external applications. This enables features such as displaying what you're playing on your profile, inviting friends to spectate, or triggering join-in-progress functionality where supported.	?	✓	?	?
	Screen translator Using optical character recognition (OCR) and other techniques, this feature can provide live translation of in-game text, text-to-speech for visually impaired users, and more — either on demand or automatically.	You can use RetroArch's AI Service or the standalone offline bquenin's Interpreter.

Hardware features and peripherals

Reddit Thread: Unemulated console features and accessories

Please only include recommended emulators in this table. Do not bump or spam GitHub threads, issues, or feature request pages.

Name			ares	Gopher64	Mupen64Plus-Next	RMG
Hardware features	On-cartridge storage All first-party games and some third-party games support saving progress on their on-cartridge SRAM, EEPROM or FlashRAM instead of the Controller Pak. Or even in addition to it (e.g. Diddy Kong Racing and Excitebike 64 use EEPROM for main save data, the Controller Pak for secondary (time trial/ghost) save data).		✓	✓	✓	✓
Peripherals	64DD		✓	~ Supports 64DD games converted to the regular N64 cart format, but you can't save on emulators.	~ While not fully compatible, you need to use subsystems menu, for more information see 64DD emulation section.	~ While not fully compatible, you can now use RMG builds with a brand new Project64 style interface to play 64DD games, and includes every relevant plugins including parallel-rdp and rsp and a brand new easy to setup Input plugin.
	Controller attachments	Bio Sensor	✓	✗	✗	✗
		Controller Pak	✓	✓	✓	✓ Under the name "Memory Pak".
		Rumble Pak	✓	✓	✓	✓
		Transfer Pak	✓	✓	✓	✓
	Controller port	64DD keyboard	✗	✗	✗	✗
		ASCIIWHEEL 64	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Dance Dance Revolution dance mat	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Densha de Go! controller	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Joycard 64	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Mouse	✓	✗	✗	✗
		Tsurikon 64	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Voice Recognition Unit	✗	✓	✓	✓
	Expansion Pak		✓	✓	✓	✓
	Special cartridges	Modem cartridge (NUS-029)	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Morita Shogi 64 RJ-11 modem connection port	✗	✗	✗	✗
		SmartMedia	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Video Capture Cassette cartridge	✗	✗	✗	✗
	Unofficial	64GB Cable	✗	✗	✗	✗
		CD64	✗	✗	✗	✗
		DexDrive	✗	✗	✗	✗
		Doctor V64	✗	✗	✗	✗
		GameCube controller (libdragon)	✗	✗	✗	✗
		GameShark	✗	✗	✗	✗
		SharkWire Online	?	?	?	?
		Tristar 64	✗	✗	✗	✗
		WideBoy64 AGB	✗	✗	✗	✗
		WideBoy64 CGB	✗	✗	✗	✗
Misc.	Access to coverage bit via CPU		✗	?	✗	✗
	Cartridge hot swapping		?	?	?	?
	Cartridge tilting		You can use Project64-tilt build for this, other than that there is no emulator currently includes built-in cartridge tilting simulation. As a workaround, you can try the external Real-Time Corruptor (RTCV) tool. It is a real-time memory/data corruption tool for inducing glitches during emulation, which might mimic some effects of cartridge tilting (e.g., visual/audio artifacts or crashes). However, it is not a true "cartridge tilting" simulator, as it works on live memory rather than simulating cartridge read errors.
	Dolby Surround		?	?	?	?
	Game Boy Camera via Transfer Pak		✗	✗	✗	✗
	Pokémon Snap Station		✗	✗	✗	✗
	Power light		✗	✗	✗	✗
	Real-time clock		?	?	?	?
	SD cards		Exclusive to Parallel Launcher and Gopher64 at the moment.
	Soft reset		?	?	✓	?

Densha de Go! Controller

Also available for the PlayStation, Densha de Go! 64 is a Japan-only train simulator released by Taito that is compatible with an optional special controller that plugs into the player 3 port. No emulator supports it.

Pokémon Snap Station

There was a special kiosk designed to promote Pokémon Snap called the Pokémon Snap Station, which is also compatible with the North American Pokémon Stadium with its gallery mode. It is just a Nintendo 64 with special hardware designed for the station. Although the special cartridge does boot in emulators compatible with the regular version, the printing functions are inaccessible due to no emulation of the printer for the player 4 slot, credit system, or the special board to switch between the regular and special cartridges. On August 17, 2021, jamchamb reverse-engineered the Snap Station and created a Project64 fork (source code only) and an iCEBreaker FPGA board hardware implementation.

Transfer Pak emulation

A few games, such as Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Artist: Paint Studio, and the Pokémon Stadium games, can use the Transfer Pak, an attachment that allows interfacing with specific Game Boy/Color games for certain features on the N64 side. Most N64 emulators can emulate the Transfer Pak's functionality to one degree or another, with the most robust being Project64 with N-Rage's input plugin. But there are still a few things that are difficult to emulate or are just not emulated at all:

• Taking pictures with the Japanese Game Boy Camera (called Pocket Camera) while in Transfer Pak mode playing Mario Artist: Paint Studio displays static.
• Playing the Gen 1 and 2 Pokémon games through the Game Boy Tower in Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 is notoriously finicky. At the moment, only Project64, using the N-Rage input plugin, can properly load either game's Game Boy Tower at all, with other emulators either crashing or failing to establish the connection. Even here, extra steps must be taken: for Pokémon Stadium 2, set the CPU core to Interpreter and Counter factor to 1 in the emulator's game settings. For the first Stadium game, in addition to the aforementioned settings, Delay SI Interrupt must also be turned on, and an LLE RSP plugin other than the default Projec64 RSP must be used, such as ParaLLEl-RSP.

GB(C) games can unlock bonus content on their side as well because their cartridges save data on their own on-board memory (so once N64 "marks" the cartridge, you can put it back into your GB(C) and enjoy the unlocked content).

64DD emulation

The 64DD (abbreviation for "64 Dynamic Drive") was a peripheral which allowed a proprietary disk format to be used with the N64. These disks had more space at a cheaper manufacturing cost. The peripheral was a commercial failure and was never released outside Japan. Internal evidence suggests that, much like the GBA e-Reader, it wasn't even intended for a European release.

Expansion disks are region-coded to either Japan or the US (obviously unused) and won't work with N64 games from the wrong region. Only F-Zero X has an official disk, but Ocarina of Time, Mario Party, and Pokémon Stadium (JP) have fully implemented but unused disk support.

The special AV-In cartridge (NUS-028) that Mario Artist: Talent Studio can use doesn't work because it requires an RCA cable signal.

Recently, there has been an effort to emulate the 64DD, and now, Project64 and MAME can run several commercial 64DD games as part of its N64 emulator. This is being ported to CEN64 with the help of LuigiBlood. Mupen64Plus supports 64DD as well, which is the base of other emulators such as simple64 and RMG. The latest newcomer is Ares with the (again) help of LuigiBlood.

• Project64's latest versions emulate the N64 mouse and can load Zoinkity's hacked 64DD cartridge conversions at playable speeds. You will need to set every game to have 8MB of Memory by default manually. Games don't save, some need "32-bit engine" to be unchecked (like Talent Studio), and some (like Polygon Studio to fix models and Paint Studio to fix stamps) need the Angrylion GFX plugin rather than GlideN64, which does the job for the rest. 64DD.org has step-by-step tutorials for Project64

**The 64DD hardware started to be emulated around 2.3's release with the help of LuigiBlood. Saving works but in the form of NDR files. NDR files are copied versions of NDD images with save data included as to not write to the clean unaltered images. To play 64DD games in their original forms, 8MB of memory is still needed because the real hardware needed the Expansion Pak upgrade. The IPL is also needed.

• MAME includes early, basic 64DD emulation as well, but it is much slower. Disk images need to be in head/track format. See here for more information. It doesn't currently support disk swapping or saving disks to files. The writes only update the copy in memory, and once the MAME process ends, the changes are lost. Current usage: mame n64dd -quickload disk -cart cart -nodrc (both disk and cart are optional)

• CEN64, like Project64, had 64DD emulation ported to it from MAME. However, it focuses on accuracy and plays much slower than other emulators; aside from the 64DD emulation itself is imperfect.

• RetroArch's Mupen64Plus-Next and ParaLLEl cores support the 64DD. For Mupen64Plus-Next: the bios must be placed in [RetroArch directory]\system\Mupen64plus\IPL.n64. To launch 64DD games: Load the Mupen64Plus-Next core, select the new menu item "Subsystems" in the Main Menu, then click "Load N64 Disk Drive" three times to load the disk, cartridge, and start emulation; Both expansion disks and stand-alone disks can be launched this way. For ParaLLEl: the bios must be placed in the "system" directory and named 64DD_IPL.bin. In ParaLLEl's core options: 64DD must be enabled and GFX plugin and RSP must both be set to parallel; stand-alone disks can't be launched using the Subsystem, they must be launched through either "Load Content" or a playlist.

• Ares supports 64DD as well, developer LuigiBlood said: "This is the most accurate 64DD emulation attempt I've ever done, honestly. A lot of the stuff I programmed is sometimes genuinely useless. A lot also involves timings of the drive itself and more," also supports disc-swapping with v134 version.

Hardware variants

iQue Player

Before the GBA, the DS, and the 3DS, Nintendo released a modified version of their Nintendo 64 system for the Chinese market, called the iQue Player, through their not-quite-subsidiary iQue. Fourteen games were translated into Simplified Chinese, including Sin and Punishment, Ocarina of Time (the Majora's Mask port was canceled), Super Mario 64, and others.

Unlike the Chinese releases of their more recent systems and games, iQue Player releases are regular N64 ROMs wrapped with several layers of encryption and a ticket and signature system like that on the Wii, the DSi, the 3DS, the Wii U, and the Switch. The Chinese ROM-hacking scene is very active, though, and has translated the Japanese regular N64 releases for many of these to their language already, which explains some Chinese ROMs floating for those. However, almost all pieces of iQue Player software were recently decrypted to regular .z64 ROM format.

Several of the Chinese game localizations already run on N64 emulators, but as some hardware features of the iQue Player aren't yet supported, some games, as well as the system menu and features in games such as saving, don't work yet.

There is a pull request for adding iQue Player support to Ares.

iQue Player-specific features

Name		ares	Gopher64	Mupen64Plus-Next	RMG
iQue Player Memory Card		?	?	?	?
Multiplayer Box/Multitap		?	?	?	?
Multiplayer Controller		?	?	?	?
Online	iQue Depot	?	?	?	?
	iQue@Home	?	?	?	?

Aleck 64

Nintendo collaborated with SETA to release an arcade system based on their Nintendo 64 system (kind of like their PlayChoice-10 for the NES, Super System arcade hardware for SNES, and later Triforce for GCN). The Nintendo 64-variant with more RAM, the Aleck 64, failed to catch on and bombed. It was never released outside Japan, even though one N64 port made it.

The Aleck 64 ROMs were dumped, and Zoinkity is working on converting them to regular N64 ROMs (with controls remapped to N64 controller buttons). They generally require an 8 MB Expansion Pak to run at all and 4K EEPROM to save settings and scores. The ones covered by these patches are:

• Donchan Puzzle Hanabi de Doon!
• Eleven Beat: World Tournament
• Hi Pai Paradise
• Hi Pai Paradise 2
• Kuru Kuru Fever
• Magical Tetris Challenge
• Mayjinsen 3 / Meijin-Sen
• Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (also ported to N64)
• Super Real Mahjong VS
• Tower & Shaft
• Vivid Dolls (official eroge game on a Nintendo console)

The remaining ones from the system's library not yet covered are:

• Rev Limit
• Variant Schwanzer (never released, but there is a PCB board and was tested and played on Game Center Mikado in 2015. No known ROM dumps on the internet)

Ares emulator and MAME including BizHawk's MAME core supports this arcade variation. Also, the already available patches to convert arcade ROM dumps to regular N64 ROM format can be found here. While Mupen64Plus-based emulators can't run these conversions out of the box, Project64 does just fine. Your best bet to play Aleck 64 games (other than using emulator) is through the SummerCart64 flashcart, which includes support for the Aleck 64's own CIC chip.

Game-specific features

Name		MAME	ares	Gopher64	Mupen64Plus-Next	RMG
Custom I/O devices		?	✗	✗	✗	✗
Expansion Pak		?	✗	✗	✗	✗
Game media formats		?	✗	✗	✗	✗
Modem		?	✗	✗	✗	✗

Virtual Console games in Dolphin

A number of N64 games were released for the Wii's Virtual Console service throughout its lifespan. While the emulators at the heart of each Virtual Console title were of average accuracy (rather than using one generic emulator used for every game, each title had an emulator specifically tailored to that game), they were good enough to render the games in full, playable capacity with few to no glaring errors. Many of these titles are emulated well through Dolphin. For a good while, due to persistent long-standing inaccuracies in N64 emulators and plugins, this was the best way to emulate certain N64 games, particularly Pokémon Snap and Mario Tennis. The system requirements are much higher than running them on regular N64 emulators, but it is doable for many games. Today regular N64 emulators and plugins have advanced to the degree this has become unnecessary, relegating this method of N64 game emulation to little more than a curiosity, at least on PC.

The following games are on the N64 Virtual Console for Wii:

1080° Snowboarding Bomberman Hero Cruis'n USA Custom Robo V2 (Japan only) F-Zero X Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Mario Golf Mario Kart 64 Mario Party 2 Mario Tennis Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber Paper Mario Pokémon Puzzle League

Pokémon Snap Sin & Punishment (English) Star Fox 64 Super Mario 64 Super Smash Bros. Wave Race 64 Yoshi's Story

References

Nintendo(edit)

• Consoles: Color TV-Game • Nintendo Entertainment System (Family Computer) • Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Family Computer) • Nintendo 64 • GameCube • Wii • Wii U • Nintendo Switch • Nintendo Switch 2
• Handhelds: Game & Watch • Game Boy/Color • Virtual Boy • Pokémon Mini • Game Boy Advance • Nintendo DS • Nintendo DSi • Nintendo 3DS
• Arcade: Aleck 64 • Namco ES3 • Triforce
• Related: Family Computer Disk System • Satellaview • 64DD • Super Game Boy • e-Reader • Amiibo