Project64



Project64 is a Nintendo 64 emulator for the Windows platform that was first released in 2001. It employs a plugin system to allow other developers to implement their own software.

The emulator executes with a good speed on most Intel/AMD-based computers. Fatal exceptions sometimes appear, but Project64 can intercept most common plug-in errors without causing the emulation to freeze. Project64 also has support for GameShark codes.

With the 3rd party plug-in Rice Video, one can temporarily swap the textures in a ROM image from an external source (bmp, png or jpeg) at higher resolutions (than was originally intended) to dramatically improve the game's graphical quality. The feature, which debuted in early 2005, has renewed interest in, and has helped the N64 emulation community as a whole. This is a feature to be added in Project64's future video plug-in, which will be bundled with the 1.7 release. Project64 recommends using the Adaptoid to connect an original N64 controller to a USB port. Adaptoids, however were only produced for a short time by WishTech, which is no longer in business. This has led to the Adaptoid becoming a rare product. ZTNET has announced that they will be reproducing the Adaptoid.

The latest stable release, Project64 Version 1.6 (released publicly on 1 April 2005) is available for download and comes packaged with plug-ins created by the authors. The authors have released certain parts of the source code for version 1.4, which is available from the normal download page.

The versions before 1.6 are no longer supported by the Project64 team, but are still available for download for those interested in Project64's history:

1.0 (released 26 May 2001) 1.1 (9 June 2001) 1.2 (23 July 2001) 1.3 (1 September 2001) 1.4 (25 December 2001) 1.5 (29 August 2002) 1.6 (1 April 2005)