Resources - Emulation - Nintendo 64 - Le Bottin des Jeux Linux

📰 Title:	Resources - Emulation - Nintendo 64	🕹️ / 🛠️ Type:	Info
🗃️ Genre:	Emulation	👁️ Visual:	Text
🏷️ Category:	Emulation ➤ Engine ➤ Nintendo	🏝️ Perspective:	Third person
🔖 Tags:	Documentation; Resources; Emulation; NINTENDO; n64	⏱️ Pacing:	Real Time
🐣️ Approx. start:		👫️ Played:	Single
🐓️ Latest:		🚦 Status:	00. Purposeless
📍️ Version:	Latest: -	❤️ Like it:	0. Purposeless
🏛️ License type:	🕊️ Libre	🎀️ Quality:	0. Purposeless
🏛️ License:	CC BY	✨️ (temporary):
🐛️ Created:	2011-12-30	🐜️ Updated:	2024-10-09

📰 What's new?:		👻️ Temporary:
💡 Lights on:		🎨️ Significant improvement:
👔️ Already shown:		💭️ New version published (to be updated):
🎖️ This work:		🚧️ Some work remains to be done:
👫️ Contrib.:	goupildb & Louis	🦺️ Work in progress:
🎰️ ID:	12584

📜️[en]:	A set of links to resources and / or documentation for the Nintendo 64 game console	📜️[fr]:	Un ensemble de liens vers des ressources ou documentations relatives à l'émulation de la console de jeu Nintendo 64

📕 Description [en]

📜️ "A set of links to resources and / or documentation for the Nintendo 64 game console." 📜️

🌍️ Wikipedia :

The Nintendo 64, often referred to as N64 (formerly known as the Nintendo Ultra 64, and codenamed Project Reality) is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit central processing unit, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil. It is Nintendo's last home console to use ROM cartridges to store games (Nintendo switched to a MiniDVD-based format for the successor GameCube); handhelds in the Game Boy line, however, continued to use Game Paks. As part of the fifth generation of gaming, it primarily competed with the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. Succeeded by Nintendo's GameCube in November 2001, N64 consoles continued to be produced until its discontinuation in Japan on April 30, 2002, Europe on May 16, 2003, North America on November 30, 2003, and Australia in 2003.

The N64 was released with two launch games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, and a third in Japan, Saikyō Habu Shōgi. The N64's suggested retail price was US $199.99 at its launch and it was later marketed with the slogan "Get N, or get Out!". The console was ultimately released in a range of different colors and designs, and an assortment of limited-edition controllers were sold or used as contest prizes during the N64's lifespan. The N64 sold 32.93 million units worldwide, and in 2009, it was named the 9th greatest video game console by IGN. Time Magazine named it their 1996 Machine of the Year award.

Of the consoles in the fifth generation, the Nintendo 64 was the latest to be released. One of its technical drawbacks was a limited texture cache, which could hold textures of limited dimensions and reduced color depth, which had to be stretched to cover larger in-game surfaces. More significantly, the N64 still relied upon ROM cartridges, which were constrained by small capacity (particularly in an era when games became more complex and their contents took up more memory) and high production expenses, compared to the compact disc format used by its chief competitors. As a result of the N64's storage media limitations, many third-party publishers that previously supported Nintendo's past consoles would reduce or stop publishing games; the N64's most successful titles came from first-party or second-party studios.

Hardware

The Nintendo 64's central processing unit (CPU) is the NEC VR4300. This processor was the most powerful console CPU of its generation; Popular Electronics said it had power similar to the Pentium processors found in desktop computers. Except for its narrower 32-bit system bus, the VR4300 retained the computational abilities of the more powerful 64-bit MIPS R4300i, though software rarely took advantage of 64-bit data precision operations. N64 game-titles generally used faster (and more compact) 32-bit data-operations, as these were sufficient to generate 3D-scene data for the console's RSP (Reality Signal Processor; see below) unit. In addition, 32-bit code executed faster and required less storage space (which was at a premium on the N64's cartridges).

In terms of its random-access memory, or RAM, the Nintendo 64 was one of the first modern consoles to implement a unified memory subsystem, instead of having separate banks of memory for CPU, audio, and video, for example. The memory itself consists of 4 megabytes of RDRAM, made by Rambus. The RAM is expandable to 8 MB with the Expansion Pak. Rambus was quite new at the time and offered Nintendo a way to provide a large amount of bandwidth for a relatively low cost.

The system allows for video output in two formats: composite video and S-Video. The composite and S-Video cables are the same as those used with the earlier SNES and later GameCube systems.

The Nintendo 64 supports 16.8 million unique color variations. The system can display resolutions of 256 × 224, 320 × 240 and 640 × 480 pixels. It supports standard-definition resolutions up to 480i (576i for units in the PAL region). Few games made use of this mode, and many of them required use of the Expansion Pak RAM upgrade. The majority of games instead used the system's low-definition 240p (288p for PAL models) modes. A number of games also support a video display ratio of up to 16:9 using either Anamorphic widescreen or Letterboxing. However, very few of its games provided options to use this feature.

Programming characteristics

Programming for the Nintendo 64 presented unique challenges. The Economist described effective programming for the Nintendo 64 as being "horrendously complex." The Nintendo 64 had weaknesses that were caused by a combination of oversight on the part of the hardware designers, limitations on 3D technology of the time, and manufacturing capabilities.

As the Nintendo 64 reached the end of its lifecycle, hardware development chief Genyo Takeda referred to the programming challenges using the word hansei. Looking back, Takeda said "When we made Nintendo 64, we thought it was logical that if you want to make advanced games, it becomes technically more difficult. We were wrong. We now understand it's the cruising speed that matters, not the momentary flash of peak power."

📕 Description [fr]

Un ensemble de liens vers des ressources ou documentations relatives à l'émulation de la console de jeu Nintendo 64.

🌍️ Wikipedia :

La Nintendo 64, également connue sous les noms de code Project Reality et Ultra 64 lors de sa phase de développement, est une console de jeux vidéo de salon, sortie en 1996 (1997 en Europe), du constructeur japonais Nintendo en collaboration avec Silicon Graphics. Elle fut la dernière des consoles de cinquième génération à être sortie, en concurrence avec la Saturn et la PlayStation.

La Nintendo 64 a plusieurs particularités : c'est une console « 64 bits » contrairement à ces principales concurrentes dites « 32 bits » ; l'entreprise a préféré le support cartouche, plus rentable pour Nintendo mais plus contraignant pour le développement et plus chère que le support CD proposé par ses concurrents ; elle innove en instaurant un joystick sur sa manette qui se révélera indispensable pour la 3D en temps réel ; et instaurera le multijoueur jusqu'à quatre simultanément.

Architecture

Puissante et flexible, l'architecture de la Nintendo 64 en devient également plus complexe et la programmation se révèle difficile pour les développeurs peu familiers du support par rapport aux autres consoles de l'époque comme la PlayStation19.

La Nintendo 64 est équipée de deux microprocesseurs. Le processeur central est appelé « Reality Engine », il appartient à la famille R4000 de MIPS Technologies et est fabriqué par NEC. Le « Reality Immersion Co-Processor » (RCP) est le coprocesseur conçu spécifiquement par Silicon Graphics pour la Nintendo 6421. Il est divisé en deux composants : le « Reality Signal Processor » (RSP), qui exécute les graphismes et les sons, et le « Reality Display Processor » (RDP), qui affiche les données graphiques à partir de la liste d'affichage créée par le RSP22. Pour que le RSP crée cette liste d'affichage, l'application utilise l'appel système pour charger un microcode23. Le RSP est donc entièrement programmable à partir du microcode.

Bien que dotée d'un puissant processeur, la Nintendo 64 avait des limitations techniques dues à des causes multiples. L'une des principales critiques à l'encontre de la Nintendo 64 fut le rendu flou des textures, contrastant avec l'aspect pixelisé des graphismes de la PlayStation15. Si les techniques d’anti-aliasing et de MIP mapping permettaient de lisser les textures quand la vue s'en éloignait ou s'en rapprochait, la capacité limitée des cartouche et la très faible mémoire cache des textures aboutissaient souvent à ce rendu flou qui devint une marque caractéristique de la console19. Pour masquer les problèmes de clipping, de nombreux jeux étaient noyés dans un brouillard permanent. En ajoutant la capacité limitée de stockage audio et l'architecture trop complexe, il en résulte que de nombreux jeux Nintendo 64 ont une qualité sonore et visuelle inférieure à leurs homologues sur PlayStation19.

Néanmoins, en modifiant intelligemment le microcode et en utilisant diverses astuces, il était possible de surpasser ces limitations et d'exploiter tout le potentiel de la Nintendo 64. Les studios de développement Factor 5 et Rare furent notamment réputés pour avoir su exploiter toute la puissance de la console.
Caractéristiques détaillées

Processeur

• Processeur central : "Reality Engine" NEC/MIPS VR4300, dérivé du processeur RISC 64-bits R4300i, cadencé à 93,75 MHz.
• Coprocesseur : "Reality Co-Processor" (RCP), cadencé à 62,5 MHz.

Graphisme

• "Reality Drawing Processor" (RDP), cadencé à 62,5 MHz
• MIPS : 500
• Résolutions d'affichage : 640×480, 320×240 ou 256×224 entrelacée
• Polygones par seconde : 150 000
• Palette couleurs : 21 bits (2,097,152)
• Effets graphiques : anti-aliasing, perspective correction, ombrage de Gouraud, MIP mapping trilinéaire, environment mapping

Audio

• "Reality Signal Processor" (RSP), 64 canaux, fréquence d'échantillonnage de 44,1 MHz, mémoire système
• Stéréo en 16 bits 48 kHz.

Mémoire

• Mémoire principale : 4 MB RDRAM (8 MB avec l’Expansion Pack)
• bande passante du bus mémoire : 562,5 MB/s.

Cartouches

• 4 MB à 64 MB.

💡 Nota:
• La copie d'écran provient du site Wikipedia (licence Domaine public).
• Attention : le téléchargement de ROMS commerciales est illégal à moins de les avoir acquises financièrement.

Resources - Emulation - Nintendo 64

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