N64 revisited.

Well following on from my last post raving on about how great the emulator version of Ocarina of time is Graphically and entirely. I decided to dig out all the old N64 games I had and, straight up, create a collection of all my old N64 games and have them running in some oddly-polygony HD glory.

Sadly none of them work.

My top 5 of my favourite games for the N64 that dont work on an Emulator. (click the images for full rez versions)

Mario 64.

Mario actually ran quite well despite some visible games between walls, but I'm sure they were there in the fist place. However, there were many areas where things were just not visible first example being the first bonus slide:

Closer you got to the slide the more it would disappear, so annoying.

4. Shadows of the Empire.

This one I was really looking forward to, I remember this game quite fondly, one of the most under-rated launch titles. However, once you get past this screen, the menus are a garbled mess:

3. Super Smash Bros.

This one actually does fine, I rattled through 1 player as Pikachu, good fun still, remembering how to hit all the targets in the bonus round, however melee is the superior Smash Bros. so kinna pointless.

2. Resident Evil 2.

Yes that's right RE2 came out for the N64, and I was one of the chumps that bought it. The game was actually really good for the N64, considering RE2 came out on two disks (PS1), totalling around 1.3 GB between them, the game was shrunk down to 64MB on the N64 cartridge. Unfortunately when attempting to get screenshots on the emulator RE2 crashed. So I shall attempt to describe to you what a mess it is. Firstly the opening movie didn't play, not that bothered, though i figured the other movies in game would also suffer the same fate, licker cut-scene etc. Secondly None of the backgrounds matched the models. RE2 (in all formats) used Pre-rendered backgrounds, and the models moved around it, the background images in the emulator were stretched and garbled, it made your character look like it was standing on the ruined cars etc. And lastly, i managed somehow to make it through to Kendo's gun shop, and that iconic "Hold your fire. I'm a human" line was missing, in fact all speech was. I was left with Leon flailing about albeit Leon did look impressive, in high-res. Still, the game is unplayable.

1. Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

This was the main reason I picked up the emulator and configured 360 controllers and such. the game plays beautifully, and does look much more impressive (check the detail on Navi's wings!). To the point I am actually playing around with it again. There are some issues the buttons are still a tad pixely, and some of the textures could me smoothed over more. and for some reason (observe picture at the top of the post) Link is slightly see-through in some areas. But these are minor issues and playing this again is a pleasure.

In conclusion, this emulator (Project 64) is great for Ocarina of Time, but many of the other games are unplayable, but considering these games are not likely to receive the HD treatment it is a fun way to revisit the games without needing to buy them again (well, some of them, the Marketplace does not stock all of them). Ocarina is a great game to play again, and actually stands the test of time (insert song of time) despite it's simple mechanics. Though anything other than Ocarina, I advise you just stick with the retail versions.

Love and emulated hugs,

Richie X