The Nintendo 64 was a great console. Unfortunately, it is now gone. But you don’t have to despair. You don’t need a Nintendo 64 to play your favorite N64 games. Just get an emulator. Mupen64Plus has a lot of fans but does it deserve your attention.
What Is Mupen64Plus?
Mupen64Plus is a free cross-platform emulator for the N64. It came out of the foundation that Hacktarux created with Mupen64.
Mupen64 was also a cross-platform emulator. It worked on Windows and Linux. Though, the developers eventually expressed interest in making the emulator available on additional systems, including AROS and OS X. Development on Mupen64 stopped in 2005 following the release of version 0.5.
Of all the branch projects that came out of that original emulator, Mupen64Plus is the most celebrated. At first, the goal of the program was to fix the bugs the new team saw in Mupen64 0.5.
But in the years that followed, the emulator’s architecture was designed significantly. The plugin application programming interface was modified, a change that allowed Mupen64Plus to use plugins that cannot work on any other emulator.
Even though the modifications were initially controversial, today, many people place Mupen64Plus in the same category as prominent N64 emulators like Project 64.
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Mupen64Plus Features
- User-friendly
- Four R4300 CPU Emulators
- Compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit systems
- Graphical Rendering and Audio Stream Playback
- You Can Adjust the Speed of Games
- High-Resolution Texture Support
- You Can Adjust the Speed of the Audio
- Command-line Front-End
How To Install Mupen64Plus?
Step 1. Find a Mupen64Plus download that can be trusted. This step is very important because some downloads are accompanied by malware. Before you download the emulator from a particular website, investigate the website. Look for reviews from other people that have used the same download.
If the website has a reputation for disseminating malware, the reviews will tell you.
Step 2. The emulator will come in a zipped format. If you don’t have one, acquire a program that can safely extract the files.
Step 3. Create a directory for the emulator and extract the files to that directory.
Step 4. Copy and paste the .ini and .cfg files to this directory.
Step 5. Add a ‘Save’ folder to the directory
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How To Use Mupen64Plus?
1). Command Line
The Mupen64Plus emulator does not have a GUI. Depending on your experience and expertise, you can use the command line to operate the emulator.
2). Front End
Another option involves getting a front end. M64Py is often recommended because it is ready to go. Not only is the front-end already configured but it has all the plugins you need. You can also try mupen64plus-GUI.
3). ROMs
This is the easy part. You can play games by dragging their ROMs and dropping them onto the executable file.
Conclusion
Many N64 emulators that debuted in the 2000s are practically useless today. They do not have the functionality needed to compete with modern emulators because they haven’t been updated in so many years. Mupen64Plus is one of the few exceptions.
It can work on 32 and 64-bit machines. Besides adjusting the speed of the game and audio, it comes with cheat functions.