Google Search Milestone 🥁🎉😎 - staying strictly non-commercial

So I learned these days that Google Search sees this Blog, and here‘s a milestone for clicks. It is very nice to see that this bears some relevance. And repeating my pledge: No monetization whatsoever happens here! Keep on retrogaming!

Off-Topic: Mupen64plus on Mac Silicon - finally here

Update Christmas 2022: I created a script for a fully fledged compile of mupen64plus. 

Please download the zip file under this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EG6fMN-NmQl5cPZ20SNFGdych-wGmxNa/view?usp=sharing

After extraction, please check whether it is executable; if not:

chmod 755 mupen64plusSilicon.sh

With this script, you get all built automatically as described below. Be sure to have all the dependencies installed as explained below.

Only one warning: Although the Rice plugin builds successfully, it fails in my testing with several errors. For the time being, it does not work.

And if you want a frontend: That one works well, even if only an Intel binary (take the latest development build):

https://github.com/dh4/mupen64plus-qt#development-builds

Original post from 3 October 2022:

This is major (at least for me), thus I post these non-MAME news as a change: It runs on Apple Silicon, and quite well!

 

As we all know, Nintendo 64 emulation is a challenge, and modern Macs have long time been virtually excluded from proper emulation. Though OpenEmu has a N64 core based on mupen64plus, the current limitations are too big (for me), and on Apple Silicon, there is no OpenEmu binary available. But finally, you can at least compile your own mupen64plus binary, and thanks to a user, even the crucial GlideN64 plugin can be compiled now!

What you get from this adventurous compile:

• a (nearly) fully functional mupen64plus core with GildeN64 GFX, SDL joypad support and two optional RSPs (HLE and CXD4)
• very decent performance at 1280x1024 (I did not yet test higher resolutions)
• fully functional hires texture packs (crucial for me)
• everything is still considered 'experimental', but very good for me to go so far
• run it out of a directory, so I do not mess around with an app image

Requirements: Besides XCode, you need a bunch of packages to be installed (via Homebrew or via Macports). These instructions for MacOSX seem outdated. With Homebrew, an installation of the requirements is rather straight-forward:

• Homebrew (initial install)
• sdl2 (with all associated dependencies)
• libpng
• freetype2
• zlib
• cmake
• nasm

If you have already Homebrew up and running, it's very likely that you already meet these requirements.

I keep it short for the time being, but will expand if necessary. Basic Terminal knowledge and MacPorts/Homebrew will be required.

Moving to MacOS Ventura

 After some waiting, I moved to MacOS Ventura 13.0.1 from Monterey without any issues so far.

Ventura seems to be a no-brainer for MAME

This is a rather short post because there is not much to report: MAME and all frontends seem to work flawlessly. Benchmarks show approximately identical results (OpenGL became slower through various releases, Metal benchmarks still don't work properly, but at least the purple flash is gone when starting MAME and games).

Further nice things to report:

All emulators mentioned in this post work.

Joypad configuration is massively improved, and Nintendo Joypads and Joycons can be connected. For Joycons and Dolphin, you only need to follow Andrew‘s instructions:

https://youtu.be/Y4FqRpFi5Fo (a brilliant channel, by the way)

I already tested my beloved Super Mario Galaxy 2, and it blows my mind :-).

The new Apple Silicon build of GIMP 2.10.32 runs extremely well.

If there is anything else to report, I will do an update here.