Short Line About Nintendo 64: Nintendo 64 which is commonly abbreviated as N64 was the third video game console launched by Nintendo. This console was released in 1996 and was meant to compete against the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The best part about this console was that this was the first Nintendo’s console made for 3D graphics, so it was quite fascinating. The cost for making the game for Nintendo 64 was more expensive than making games for Playstation so many video games companies stopped making games for Nintendo 64.
However, the time N64 was live, it served/featured many popular games such as Jet Force Gemini, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, WinBack, Star Fox 64, Resident Evil 2, Bomberman 64, Pokemon Stadium and many others. If you are one of them who played those Nintendo 64 games then you must be missing the old times and if you have decided to enjoy those games again then the only way is by using a Nintendo 64 emulator.
So, even if you are an Android user or using Windows PC here are some best N64 Emulator so you can enjoy playing Nintendo’s games anytime you want:
Best N64 Emulators
If you are into PC and uses Windows OS then you must check the below Emulators for your Windows:
Emulators for Windows:
1. Project64
Project64 is one of the top best Nintendo 64 emulators for Windows OS. This Emulator is written in C and C++ programming languages. Apart from being an awesome emulator for N64 it is also very lightweight and occupies only 2mb of your storage. It’s been a long time since Project64 is out there serving Nintendo game lovers but now other platforms have taken the lead and the development of these emulators is quite slow now. None of these emulators out there are perfect and even you will find some games unplayable. So, there will be a case as well when certain games will work in one emulator and some will work on other so you must have a couple of these emulators around if you actually want to enjoy the gameplay.
You can play many games from Nintendo 64 in the form of Roms and another best part about this emulator is that it supports plugins for video, audio, and controller input for extra features as well. Also, unlock extra features with built-in cheats and GameShark codes. It also allows you to play games with nearly any USB gamepad and customize the button layout.
2. Mupen64Plus
Mupen64Plus is a cross-platform Nintendo 64 Emulator which means it will work for Windows, Mac OSX, Linux and FreeBSD as well. This emulator is quite capable of playing many games. This is a plugin based emulator and has Cheat system with GameShark code support, Speed adjustment with smooth sound output, LIRC Infrared remote control support, Command-line Front-end application, 2 OpenGL video plugins, with Hi-resolution texture support and Dynamic recompilers for Intel (x86 and amd64) and ARM CPUs as well.
3. 1964
1964 is one of the first N64 emulators for Javascript and this emulator is also written in C and C++ language for Windows. This emulator usually runs faster and has support for additional ROM customizations which makes it quite fascinating. With the right plugins, you can play almost any Nintendo64 game on your Windows PC.
4. CEN64
It is a Cycle-Accurate Nintendo 64 Emulator which is still undergoing yet capable of playing many games. The aim of this emulator is to provide a perfect emulation by emulating the hardware inside of the Nintendo 64 itself, down to the RTL and make it run ROMs at full speed, even on modest systems but since its still in development so can’t expect more from it, but soon will be. It is N64 Emulator is capable of running on Windows, Mac and Linux as well.
If you are an Android Lover and want to Enjoy the gameplay in your Android device than your PC then pick one from below list:
Emulators for Android
5. MegaN64
MegaN64 is one of the fastest N64 Emulator for Android. This android n64 emulator is the modified version of Mupen64Plus licensed by GNU GPL v3. It is very popular worldwide and has over 10million downloads on Playstore. and To start right away with this, all you need to do is place your game file onto the SD card before running this emulator and you can enjoy playing all your favorite games as much as you want.
6. ClassicBoy
It is another advanced emulator which is capable of playing many N64 games easily. This is a multi-system emulator and many other platforms like Playstation, NES, SNK NeoGeo, Sega and GameBoy(classic, Advance, Color) as well. The Graphics buttons make it more easy to play games and other features like save/load states, gesture controls, sensor support, and many other makes it an advanced emulator. This Emulator is available for free with the majority of its features, to activate all features of it, you can buy the full version.
7. Tendo64
Tendo64 also emulates the environment so you can enjoy Nintendo 64 games anytime you want. There are many features such as Customizable button layout, Physical controller capabilities, the new GUI design, Multiplayer capabilities, over 20 language support and many others features which makes it amazing. This emulator is still coming with new versions and including new features & fixing old bugs.
8. RetroArch
RetroArch is an Open-source project, this emulator is the best one for playing N64 games and it also supports a lot of other systems as well. Due to the availability as open source, this emulator has no spyware, adware and gives a clean and smooth gaming experience. It has built-in input remapping and gives you the ability to remap controls, enter and load cheats with Multi-language support and many other features counting on.
9. Mupen64
Mupen64 is still in Beta version but capable of playing some Nintendo games. Yet there are many graphical, lag, and audio problems, even on modern devices but its still part of the development and can run some lightweight games easily.