Super Mario Star Road is a mess.

[iwasaperson]

https://i.imgur.com/dqXZQYU.png

This is a ROM hack of Super Mario 64, and I don't know how it runs on console since I don't have a flash cart or even an expansion pak, but in M64P, it works just fine.

[MarathonMan]

I don't have my 64drive ATM, and won't in the forseeable future.

Until I hear from someone how it behaves on an actual console, there's no reason to look into it. :-p

[iwasaperson]

I don't have my 64drive ATM, and won't in the forseeable future.

Until I hear from someone how it behaves on an actual console, there's no reason to look into it. :-p

I'm planning on getting an Everdrive in the future (because it's a lot cheaper than the 64drive), so I'll report back then. I need to get an expansion pak first though, so I can play DK64 which I just have laying around.

Not really going to use N64 emulators until CEN64 is complete and will actually run on my hardware full speed. I have noticed speed improvements on my 3570K recently btw, so that's pretty awesome.

From what I've heard from Beta64, SM64 and OoT hacks don't work on real hardware, so I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm getting ZSNES flashbacks.

[MarathonMan]

The real performance boosts will come with the next core/dynarec.

The current situation is more or less in holdover-mode and most benefits will probably end up coming from new GCC versions.

[iwasaperson]

The real performance boosts will come with the next core/dynarec.

The current situation is more or less in holdover-mode and most benefits will probably end up coming from new GCC versions.

Dynarec in a cycle-accurate emulator? Can't wait to see that.

[juef]

I have tried many SM64 hacks on real hardware using a 64drive, and none of them worked so far. I'm actually surprised Star Road even boots in Cen64!

[ShadowFX]

I don't have my 64drive ATM, and won't in the forseeable future.

Until I hear from someone how it behaves on an actual console, there's no reason to look into it. :-p

I've tried the ROM on my 64drive (on a PAL unit), and it doesn't work. The screen stays black, both with default settings and adjusted to different save sizes and regions.

The 64drive is on firmware 2.01.

I have a feeling the hack was not meant to be played on real hardware, unless the author says otherwise. There's also no mention of it in the Readme, whatsoever.

[Narann]

I think only Goldeneye X is.

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

I'm getting ZSNES flashbacks.

Quick, someone make a Cen64 frontend that looks exactly like PJ64 1.6!

(idea inspired by ZMZ)


At the very least we can be safe knowing that this won't occur with anything GameCube and Wii related since it's much easier to run games on real hardware thanks to the proliferation of Wii homebrew.

[iwasaperson]

By the way, what's with the messed up lighting in Super Mario 64? Some things are way darker than they should be. Probably a known issue by this point, but I would still like to know.

[MarathonMan]

By the way, what's with the messed up lighting in Super Mario 64? Some things are way darker than they should be. Probably a known issue by this point, but I would still like to know.

Unimplemented RSP opcodes, I think. LTV/STV.

[iwasaperson]

Got my Everdrive a while ago and forgot to report back. SM Star Road still behaves incorrectly.

In CEN64, "Let's a-go" at the beginning is played at the correct speed, it goes to the file select menu, and it goes in-game with missing textures.
On real hardware, "Let's a-go" is fast-forwarded, and it's just a black screen past that.

So essentially, it should be even more broken than it already is.

[Snowstorm64]

Got my Everdrive a while ago and forgot to report back. SM Star Road still behaves incorrectly.

In CEN64, "Let's a-go" at the beginning is played at the correct speed, it goes to the file select menu, and it goes in-game with missing textures.
On real hardware, "Let's a-go" is fast-forwarded, and it's just a black screen past that.

So essentially, it should be even more broken than it already is.

Sounds like a cycle issue. Well, also the original version has timing issues, because currently CEN64 has fixed cache delay, so I think that is it.

[Kerr Avon]

And now Super Mario 64: Last Impact has been released:

v1.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JG4PCVfu4qo

v1.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho0CHVAT4jM

It's supposed to be excellent, but of course it won't run on a real N64. I don't follow the SM64 hacking scene, so I don't know if the talented people who take the time and trouble to make these mods actually care that they won't run on the real hardware or not.

From what I've heard, the problem is that the SM64 editor itself was written and tested only on emulators, and since the emulators were not accurate, so the resulting editor creates mods that do something that a real N64 doesn't allow; the mods use odd (as in 'not even') memory addresses in cases where the real N64 will crash if the address is not an even value. This problem has been known about for years now, but (as far as I know) the editor has never been fixed so that it will create mods that run on real hardware.

There's little enough homebrew and modded games on the N64 as it is, so it's doubly sad that this problem is not being fixed. Still, if you can get Project64 running to your satisfaction, and you like SM64, then from what I've heard, you'll probably love SM64: Last Impact. There download for v1.1 is on the v1.1 video page.

[AIO]

LLE graphic plugins don't even look right with this game. Seems to only look ok with HLE.. I guess the devs only use / test with HLE.

[Sintendo]

It's Super Mario World hacks only working in ZSNES all over again, but worse.

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

Turns out that the people over as smwcentral.net have been looking into getting various SM64 hacks working on real hardware, and it turns out that at least several of the hacks are much more compatible than you'd think!

https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=78265

A big thing is that the level editor that's typically used for these hacks seems to simply uses some incorrect memory addresses - as is explained early in the thread, there are parts of memory that are empty in PJ64 that are not at all empty in Cen64 and real hardware.

The fears of repeating ZSNES romhack history may have been greatly exaggerated.