Mupen64

infobox software
name = Mupen64



caption =
developer = Hacktarux
latest_release_version = 0.5.1
forum = http://emutalk.net/forumdisplay.php?f=50
latest_release_date = August 26th 2005
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Emulator
license = GNU General Public License
website = http://mupen64.emulation64.com/index.htm

Mupen64 ("MUlti Platform Emulator for the N64") is a Nintendo 64 game console emulator.

Mupen64 was originally developed on and for Linux, but is designed to be cross-platform. It has been ported to other operating systems supported by the SDL library, including Microsoft Windows, BeOS, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD. Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Mupen64 is free software.

Mupen64's popularity became known after the website [http://www.goldeneyeforever.com Goldeneye Forever] used its online functionality to start tournaments. [http://www.shootersforever.com/forums_message_boards/viewtopic.php?t=1853 [1] ]

History

In 2001, Mupen64 was first publicly released. It originally advertised itself as a multiplatform emulator written using SDL, with a dynamic recompiler and a Microsoft Windows port. 8 days later it was announced that there would be a BeOS port of the emulator, which was released; however, it was not updated after version 0.0.4.

Mupen64 was enhanced over time, gaining features like Recording, Sound Synchronization, and a GTK 2 GUI. Hacktarux had been working on the project actively until its last official release in 2005: Mupen64 0.5.1.

Core

In the core of Mupen64 there exist 3 different CPU emulators. An interpreter style CPU, an x86 dynamic recompiler, and a pure interpreter.

The interpreter CPU emulator is an optimized interpreter that caches opcodes to become faster than a pure interpreter. The dynamic recompiler CPU emulator consists of a dynamically recompiling CPU core that recompiles N64 code into native machine code dynamically.The pure interpreter CPU emulator is a plain interpreter. It is slower and less efficient than the other cores.

Because a dynamic recompiler has to be specialized for a specific host processor, sometimes it may be necessary to use the interpreter when the CPU you are using does not have a corresponding dynamic recompiler. In the case of Mupen64, all x86 computers should be able to run with the dynamic recompiler.

Forks

Mupen64k

Mupen64k is a patch for Mupen64 adding Kaillera Multiplayer support. Although it is out of date, the source is missing, and it is only available for Windows (as is Kaillera), it is still the only branch of Mupen64 with network capability. Mupen64k was developed by okaygo, who has joined the Mupen64Plus project. Mupen64k was packaged with SupraClient for Kaillera and had support for full speed AVI capture.

Mupen64Plus

[http://code.google.com/p/mupen64plus/ Mupen64Plus] is a project which aims to improve the Mupen64 0.5 code. Originally it was developed to add a 64-bit recompilation core; however, it was decided soon after its creation that it would become a much larger project. Currently housing its own plugins in a Subversion repository, it includes a 64-bit recompiler, a port of Glide64 Wonder Plus, slightly bug fixed and up to date versions of Rice Video and glN64, continuations of JttL's SDL Audio Plugin and Mupen64's own Audio Plugin, a continuation of Blight's SDL Input Plugin, the original Mupen64 Input plugin, and the Mupen64 HLE RSP plugin.

Its source is stored in a home repository while its homepage is stored at Google Code, where it has a Google group and a Wiki.

Additionally, a Windows port has been released by demand. It is still a work in progress.

External links

* [http://mupen64.emulation64.com/what.htm Mupen64's Home Page]
* [http://www.emutalk.net/forumdisplay.php?f=50 Mupen64's Official Forum]
* [http://bmgcl.emuxhaven.net/n64mgcl/N64ConfigList.htm N64 Emulation Configuration List]
* [http://code.google.com/p/mupen64plus/ Mupen64Plus's Home Page]
* [http://emutalk.net/showthread.php?t=44284 Mupen64Plus for Windows thread at EmuTalk]
* [http://nmnnotmyname.googlepages.com/home Mupen64Plus for Windows Website]