[tombert]

> I think the N64 might be in a bit unique situation because all the emulators for it are kinda crap,

I think most emulators are fine for the big "brand name" games like Mario 64 and Zelda Ocarina of Time. I played through both on an emulator without any issues as far as I could tell.

Where most emulators still kind of suck are the later N64 games that really exploit the hardware, like Resident Evil 2's FMV. As of about a year ago, RetroArch with AngryLion actually does emulate that correctly, and I managed to play through most of the game without any issues, it definitely pushes my relatively beefy laptop to its absolute limit, and the only cycle-accurate N64 Emulator that I'm aware of, CEN64, only runs at like 4 fps on my machine.

I too am interested in seeing if the MiSTer can pull it off, because that would definitely work in favor of proper preservation of a lot of the later N64 stuff.

[MenhirMike]

The "100% compatility in every region" is definitely one hell of a claim for them to make. I think I also saw some emulator issues with Mario Kart 64 where one of the track billboards was actually showing a real-time 3D scene, which didn't render in some emulators.

If they can pull it off, it would be a massive achievement, even though I personally can't think of a single N64 game I'd actually still want to play personally.

[tombert]

In regards to Mario Kart, I believe that was exploiting a trick in the N64 to effectively use the second buffer from double-buffering as an image on the billboard; honestly kind of clever. I haven't tested it myself, but I seem to recall AngryLion on RetroArch fixes that particular bug.

Honestly, I do think the N64 is definitely a mixed bag; there's some real gems on there (Super Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo Kazooie, PilotWings 64, Perfect Dark), but I think pretty much all of the excellent games have more or less made it to the Virtual Console or Switch Online thing.

However, there are a few games on the N64 that never really made it to "legendary" status, and as such never got any real updates/modern ports, but are still worth checking out. Space Station Silicon Valley, for example, is a very unique and interesting game that's a lot of fun to mess around with, and the only "port" that got after the N64 was a terrible one on the PS1. The N64 was one of the earliest (popular) 3D-first consoles, and as such there's a lot of interesting experimentation going on that I do think is genuinely worth checking out.

That said, it's kind of hard to recommend the N64 to anyone; for every Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie, you have three or four extremely bland mascot platformers (e.g. Gex 3D) or uninspired racing games. It's an extremely mixed bag.