Mupen64Plus Emulator: The Ultimate Guide

Mupen64Plus is a free and open-source cross-platform N64 emulator that allows users to play Nintendo 64 games on a computer using ROM files.

Some would argue that Mupen64Plus is the best N64 emulator available. It was previously known as Mupen64-64bit and Mupen64-amd64. The emulator is written in the programming languages C and C++.

It’s capable of playing lots of games quite well and it includes four MIPS R4300 CPU emulators (with dynamic recompilers for 32-bit x86 and 64-bit amd64 systems) and necessary plugins for audio, graphical rendering (RDP), signal co-processor (RSP), and input.

Suffice it to say, Mupen64Plus is a pretty powerful emulator. The RetroArch emulator even uses Mupen64Plus as its official Nintendo 64 emulation core. There was even an app created named the M64Plus FZ emulator for Android that is based on Mupen64Plus.

It’s is a plugin-based emulator that provides a flexible and customizable experience for users and be used on all sorts of different platforms including Windows, Mac, and Linux. The emulator is regularly updated, with some recent updates arriving just a few months ago. Mupen64Plus is a popular choice for playing classic Nintendo 64 games.

Overview

The Mupen64Plus project is hosted on GitHub where users can find the latest code, report issues, and contribute to the development of the emulator if they wish. The lead developer of Mupen64Plus is Richard42, who is also known as Hacktarux. The project is worked on by the community of contributors all who upkeep various aspects of the emulator including its plugins, its UI, and ensuring its compatibility with games.

Mupen64Plus-Next is the recommended version for users who want to use LLE N64 with the highest compatibility and best performance. It is also suggested that the GLideN64 plugin will work better than ParaLLEl N64’s equivalents, provided that the graphics card meets the OpenGL requirements.

One thing that is very cool from a technical perspective is that Mupen64Plus provides an API that allows developers to create their own plugins and extensions for the emulator. This has led to the development of several third-party plugins that enhance its functionality. One of the most popular of these user created plugins is Glide64mk2, which is a modified version of the Glide64 plugin that is optimized for Mupen64Plus.

Users can play N64 games on Mupen64Plus using ROMs. These ROMs can either dumped from the read-only memory of a Nintendo 64 cartridge or created directly on the computer as homebrew.

We should mention that downloading ROMs of commercial games is illegal in most countries.

Installation

Mupen64Plus is available for installation through both command-line and GUI interfaces.

Command Line Installation

To install Mupen64Plus on the command line, follow these steps:

1. Open a terminal on your system. You will need to have apt-get or its equivalent installed and accessible via your command line.
2. Type the following command to install Mupen64Plus: sudo apt-get install mupen64plus
3. Once the installation is complete, you can run Mupen64Plus by typing mupen64plus in the terminal.

GUI Installation

To install Mupen64Plus with a GUI, follow these steps:

1. Open a terminal on your system.
2. Type the following command to install Mupen64Plus with a GUI: sudo apt-get install mupen64plus-ui-console
3. Once the installation is complete, you can run Mupen64Plus with a graphical user interface by typing mupen64plus-ui-console in the terminal.

When Mupen64Plus is first launched, it will open in windowed mode by default. You can configure Mupen64Plus to run in full-screen mode if you wish.

All Available Hotkey Commands

• Escape (Esc) Quit the emulator
• 0-9 Select virtual ‘slot’ for save/load state (F5 and F7) commands
• F5 Save emulator state
• F7 Load emulator state
• F9 Reset emulator
• F10 Slow down emulator by 5%
• F11 Speed up emulator by 5%
• F12 Take screenshot
• Alt-Enter Toggle between windowed and fullscreen (may not be supported by all video plugins)
• p or P Pause on/off
• m or M Mute/unmute sound
• g or G Press “Game Shark” button (only if cheats are enabled)
• / or ? Single frame advance while paused
• F Fast Forward (playback at 250% normal speed while F key is pressed)
• [ Decrease volume
• ] Increase volume

Mupen64Plus can also be configured to use different plugins for audio, graphical rendering (RDP), signal co-processor (RSP), and input. These plugins can be configured in the mupen64plus.cfg file located in your home directory. To edit this file, open a terminal and type nano ~/.config/mupen64plus/mupen64plus.cfg. From there, you can modify the configuration settings as you see fit.

Installing Mupen64Plus isn’t too difficult, but for those with a less technical background it may seem daunting at first. That being said, it’s the emulator’s ability to run in both command-line and GUI interfaces that allows users to choose the installation method that best suits their needs.

Usage

As mentioned previously in this guide, this N64 emulator can be used through either a command-line interface or a graphical user interface (GUI). This section will cover how to use Mupen64Plus with both options.

Command Line Options

After installing the emulator and any necessary dependencies, you can run the emulator by typing mupen64plus followed by any necessary options and the ROM file name.

Some options that can be used with Mupen64Plus include:

• --gfx mupen64plus-video-rice: Sets the graphics plugin to Rice Video.
• --audio mupen64plus-audio-sdl: Sets the audio plugin to SDL Audio.
• --input mupen64plus-input-sdl: Sets the input plugin to SDL Input.
• --pause: Starts the emulator in pause mode.
• --noosd: Disables the on screen display.

For a full list of options, you can use mupen64plus --help.

GUI Options

Mupen64Plus can also be used with a GUI through a frontend such as M64Py. Once the frontend is installed, the user can open it and configure the necessary settings such as the graphics plugin, audio plugin, and input plugin.

In the M64Py frontend, the user can also configure their custom joystick and keyboard settings as well as enable or disable the N64 rumble pak feature.

When using a GUI, the user can simply select the ROM file they wish to play and click the play button to start the game. It makes the process much simpler for those that don’t prefer using a command line each time to play a game.

It is important to note that some plugins may not work with all frontends so you may need to experiment with different options to find the best combination for your system.

Conclusion

Some would argue that Mupen64Plus is currently the best N64 emulator available, but it can be difficult to compare N64 emulators like that and often it depends.

Players will often find that Mupen64Plus is better for some games while the Project64 emulator may be better for others. For example, one unique feature of the emulator is the Project64 speed up button that allows players to fast forward through gameplay and cutscenes.

Overall, Mupen64Plus is a reliable and efficient Nintendo 64 emulator that provides users with a great gaming experience.