N64 emulation status in RetroArch

Libretro Cores
#1

I feel like 2025 was a bad year for N64 emulation in RetroArch. The main core (mupen64plus-next) got a regression early this year (and games like Stunt Racer 64 and World Driver Championship don’t load anymore) and no notable improvements.

So we are stuck with the last “good” version which is from January. There weren’t many commits during the whole year so i assumed it would be easy for someone to spot the regression but alas, the core is still not fixed and the small number of commits show there’s not much interest in this core anymore.

So what’s the alternative? The Parallel core is based on a much older Mupen build and it’s still maintained for low powered devices so that’s not good. There’s also a different Parallel core in this link:

https://github.com/hunterk/libretro_builds/releases/download/Windows_64-bit/parallel_n64_libretro.dll.zip

AFAIK, this core is the one used in Parallel Launcher. So it gets some updates, unlike the regular, buildbot Parallel core. But unfortunately, this one also doesn’t load these games so other than that, i have no idea how it compares to the older Parallel core or Mupen64plus_next.

Are there any other alternatives i missed? Is the Mupen64plus_next from January 2025 the best N64 core to use or there’s something else?

#2

You should lurk in the libretro Discord. Carmiker, dev of the various jg emulators, keeps hinting at making a new N64 core. Dunno if it’ll be based on ares or anything like that, but his cores are always solid.

#3

What other cores he made?

I’m already on RetroArch discord, is the Libretro a different one?

If not, what sub channel should i look for?

#4

There’s only one libretro/RetroArch Discord afaik. He most recently mentioned N64 work in the main #retroarch channel. You can always use Discord’s search to find his posts (he’s under Contributors). Bsnes-jg is his latest core, but also did JollyCV (Colecovision) and Geolith (Neo Geo).

1 Like
#5

I hope he is trying to create an ares core. Ares is the most advanced n64 emulator without dealing with plugins. I hope he can also add some QoS features like texture filtering.