Mupen64Plus
Encyclopedia
Mupen64Plus is a cross-platform
Nintendo 64
emulator
, written in C
and released as free software
. Mupen64Plus allows the user to play Nintendo 64 games on a computer by reading ROM images
, either dumped from the read-only memory of a Nintendo 64 cartridge or created directly on the computer as homebrew.
Mupen64 version 0.5 was released August 26, 2005. This was the last version of Mupen64 to be released by Hackatrux, although there were several branches of the project made, one of which was Mupen64Plus.
Mupen64Plus originally aimed to provide a 64-bit recompiler and to fix bugs present in Mupen64 0.5. The emulator expanded over time, maintaining and improving existing video plugins, and providing extra features outside of the project's original scope.
A beta of Mupen64Plus version 2.0 was released December 14, 2009. Several other beta versions have been released since then. Mupen64Plus 2.0 is currently being developed. It's source can be downloaded from the project's Mercurial
repository.
Branches of Mupen64Plus:
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, 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...
emulator
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
, written in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
and released as free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
. Mupen64Plus allows the user to play Nintendo 64 games on a computer by reading ROM images
ROM image
A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's main board...
, either dumped from the read-only memory of a Nintendo 64 cartridge or created directly on the computer as homebrew.
History
Mupen64, the forerunner to Mupen64Plus, was released December 10, 2001 by Hackatrux. Mupen64 was designed to be multi-platform, the first release running on both Linux and Windows operating systems. As the emulator progressed, support was added for FreeBSD and Mac OS X, but these ports weren't maintained as much or as well as the Linux and Windows versions.Mupen64 version 0.5 was released August 26, 2005. This was the last version of Mupen64 to be released by Hackatrux, although there were several branches of the project made, one of which was Mupen64Plus.
Mupen64Plus originally aimed to provide a 64-bit recompiler and to fix bugs present in Mupen64 0.5. The emulator expanded over time, maintaining and improving existing video plugins, and providing extra features outside of the project's original scope.
A beta of Mupen64Plus version 2.0 was released December 14, 2009. Several other beta versions have been released since then. Mupen64Plus 2.0 is currently being developed. It's source can be downloaded from the project's Mercurial
Mercurial
Mercurial is a cross-platform, distributed revision control tool for software developers. It is mainly implemented using the Python programming language, but includes a binary diff implementation written in C. It is supported on Windows and Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Linux...
repository.
Features
- 64-bit (amd64) recompiler
- OpenGLOpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
video plugin with high resolution texture support - Plug-in system so third-party plug-ins can be used
Branches
Branches of Mupen64:- mupen64-rr - Mupen64 rerecording version provides tools and functions used to make tool assisted videos
- mupen64gc - Mupen64 GameCube/Wii64 is a port of Mupen64 to the Nintendo GameCube and Wii. It features a MIPS to PowerPC dynamic recompiler.
- PS364 - A port of mupen64gc to Sony's PlayStation 3. Currently unreleased.
- mupcan64 - Mupen64 cycle accurate version aims to emulate the Nintendo 64 as accurately as possible using clean code. Currently unreleased.
Branches of Mupen64Plus:
- Mupen64Plus has been ported to the PandoraPandora (console)The Pandora is a handheld game console designed to take advantage of existing open source software and to be a target for homebrew development...
portable video game console.