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Sections

Introduction Downloading Project64 Installing Project64 Installing Games Setting Up Project64 Jabo's D3D Plugin Jabo's Directsound Plugin Jabo's Direct Input Plugin Install 3rd Party Plugins Playing A Game In-Game Screenshots

Introduction

Project64 is the best N64 emulator ever! Enough Said!! Well OK there some more to say. Having previously owned a 3dfx card I cut my teeth in Nintendo 64 emulation on Ultrahle which was absolutely fantastic for it's time. Project64 blows Ultrahle out of the water completely. For those not in the know the N64 was Nintendo's attempt at a Playstation beating console. It was a true 64Bit console with full hardware 3D support, stereo sound and a controller with analog as well as digital controls. As you can guess by my use of the word attempt it was no where near as popular as the Playstation. This was mostly due to high software costs, a cartridge based system which again was expensive and limiting and in my opinion the fact that Nintendo applied it's usual "aim for kids" attitude. Iif you looked at Playstation games they appealed to all ages. Nintendo did wise up later and alot of decent games appeared on the N64 however the battle was already won. The N64 did appear in arcade form running most famously Killer Instinct which had the 64Bit hardware as well as a hard disk full of graphics. Project64 boasts up to 95% compatability with Nintendo 64 games although in some cases not perfectly. It has a fantastic plugin system which means it's easy to upgrade and configure. It has a nice frontend which makes it easy to run your games. Sorry can't carry on as I need to get back to Ridge Racer 64... Top

Downloading Project64

You can find the latest version of Project64 here. Top

Installing Project64

Project64 comes in a self extracting archive so all you need to do is change the extraction path to C:\Project64. You will need to create three extra folders. They are called Roms, Save and Screenshots. If you do not know how to do this follow the Windows Basics guide and naming your folders accordingly. Here is what the directory structure should look like...   Docs - Contains the official Project64 documentation. Lang - Has the language packs for the Project64 GUI Plugin - This is where the plugins go. Roms - Where you put your roms Save - This is where Project64 puts your saved games Screenshots - This is where Project64 saves captured screenshots. Uninstall - Uninstall information for windows (Don't Touch)   Project64 also creates icons on you desktop and start menu. Top

Installing Games

Check out the links page for the latest information on where to get roms. To install the games you will need to place the zipped roms into the C:\Project64\Roms directory. If you are unsure on how to do this then try the Windows Basics tutorial. You must remember to press F5 to refresh the roms list after installing games. If Project64 recognizes the rom it will give you information on the game including it's proper name, whether it works and any information you need to know about it. Top

Setting Up Project64

Here's what you see when you first start Project64... As you can see it's a list of the roms that you have. If this is truly the first time you have started Project64 then you won't see anything in the list. You'll need to set up the default roms folder by looking in the menu's. Here's a complete description of what you can find on them...   File Menu Open Rom Open a standard file window for you to select your rom file. End Emulation Ends the currently playing game Language Sets the language for the Project64 GUI Choose Rom Directory Lets you pick the folder you want Project64 to look for roms in Refresh Rom List Refreshes the main rom list if you add/remove rom files Recent Games This is a list of recent games you have loaded Exit Exits Project64   Options Menu Fullscreen Runs your game using the whole of your screen. Configure Graphics Plugin See below Configure Audio Plugin See below Configure Controller Plugin See below Settings Open this window... This first page lets you select the plugins that Project64 will use for your games. As I said before I'm only going to cover the plugins that come with Project64 so it's bet left unchanged. If you click the options tab you'll see this window... Pause Emulation... - This will make sure that your game stops should you select a different window or program. On loading rom... - This will open all games using the full screen. Remember Selected Cheats - This will start sny cheats you have selected when your games starts. Hide Advanced Settings - The advanced settings are best left hidden as they deal with how Project64 deals with roms and are mostly used for compatability. As you load a games these settings are automatically set as per the project64.rdb game database file.   Settings Menu (Only seen when running a game) Reset Resets the currently loaded game Pause Pauses the current game Save Saves your current position in a game Restore Loads your saved position in a game. Current Save State Lets you pick which slot to save your game in. Cheats,,, Opens this window... What you see will relate to whats in the current Project64 cheat database. You can get the latest database from here. To activate a cheat simply check its box. GS Button This is the same as pressing the button on top of the Game Shark cheating cartridge. This is used to activate some cheats.   Top

Jabo's D3D Plugins

This part will deal with the default Direct3D plugin supplied with Project64. To change it's settings you need to go to the options menu and selecting Configure Graphics plugin. You will see this window... Settings Video Card Shows which video card Project64 will use. Rendering Device Determines which system you video card will use to display the games graphics. Anisotropic filtering Lets you add high quality texture filtering to games (if your card supports it). Sort independant anti-aliasing Uses you video card hardware to smooth the edge of on-screen graphics. (Again if your card supports it) Full screen resolution Sets the screen resolution for games running fullscreen Buffer display mode Sets how many screen buffers you game will use. The more buffers you have, the smoother your games are but the more video memory Project64 will need. Windowed Resolution Sets the resolution of the game when running in a window on your desktop. Hide advanced settings Hides the more advanced graphics settings. You should only need to access more advanced settings if the game database information says so. These are automatically set for most games when the game runs.   Top

Jabo's Directsound Plugin

This part will deal with the default sound plugin supplied with Project64. To change it's settings you need to go to the options menu and selecting Configure Audio plugin. You will see this window... As you can see there isn't much too it. You have a volume slider for your games volume (well duh!). The audio logging will create a file with details of any sound produced during gameplay. Finally the sync game to audio option may help on games where the sound seens to run faster or slower than the graphics. This does have an adverse affect sometimes and stops some games from working. Top

Jabo's Direct Input Plugin

This part will deal with the default controller plugin supplied with Project64. To change it's settings you need to go to the options menu and selecting Configure Controller plugin. You will see this window... As you can see its a fairly straightforward click a control then press the button you want to use affair. The slider at the top controls the deadzone on your analog controller (if you have one). The deadzone is the amount of movement you have to make on the controller before it registers in your game. There are 4 controllers on the N64 and the plugin will let you configure controls for each player. It also support the N64 mempacks so you can save your games progress exactly like the N64 does. Top

Installing 3rd Party Plugins

One of the most important parts of Project64 is the plugin system. Along with several other N64 emulators the Project64 team have created a standard specification for plugins. You may find certain games will only work with certain plugins installed this especially applies to graphics plugins as they do the most work in recreating the game. Although different audio plugins can help on low spec machines or systems with specific sound cards. A good graphics plugins is Jabo's Direct7 plugins as although it's not as new as the one supplied with Project64 it helps on alot of games to prevent graphics problems and boosts compatability a bit. The only place I've found this is in the Project64 v1.5b1 distribution which is the beta version of version 1.5. You can still get this from the Project64 site along with a rdb (Project64 Game Database) file which tells you which games it helps. The audio plugin with Project64 is more than adequate though if you do have problems you can use a plugin by Azimer which lets you have a bit more control over the audio produced. For an alternate to the default controller plugin you could try NRages Direct Input plugin as it emulates the N64 rumble pack via force feedback (if you controller has it!) as well as supporting original N64 control pads via an adapter call an Adaptoid. The best place to find plugins is at www.ngemu.com and to install them it's a simple case of putting the plugin dll file into the C:\Project64\Plugins folder. Top

Playing A Game

Ok to play a game you need to make sure you've configured your 3 plugins and you've got your roms in the roms folder. Open Project64 and you'll see this screen...   You may need to press F5 to refresh the list if you've added new games. If you've configured the controller plugin you'll know the in-game keys however there are other keys you need to know that are use in Project64. Here they are...   Project64 GUI Keyboard Commands CTRL+T Opens the Settings window ALT+F4 Quit Project64 F11 Start Game F12 End Game F5 Refresh Game List Home Jump to top of list End Jump to bottom of list Page Up Up one page in the list Page Down Down one page in the list Right Mouse Button Edit Cheats (only available in advanced mode) Enter Starts the selected game Keys Used During Emulation ALT+ENTER / Escape Switch between fullscreen and windowed F1 Reset Game F2 Pause Game F3 Save screenshot F4 Enable/Disable game speed limiter F5 Quick save a games state CTRL+S Save state dialog F7 Quick load a game state CTRL+L Save state load dialog 0-9 Select save game slot CTRL+A Make the Project64 windows always the top window on your desktop. CTRL+C Opens the cheat dialog F9 Used to activate certain cheats Now double click you game and off you go... Top

In-Game Screenshots

Here are a few screenshots of games running on Project64....   Top

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