macN64By (popular?) demand, this is another recording of an N64 promotional VHS tape called 'New Year's Revolution'. The tape came with an issue of N64 Pro magazine. I already uploaded the footage from this tape to Youtube many years ago, back when you couldn't upload a video more then 10 minutes long! You can see my original upload here: youtu.be/4uT4YsE3Zf0
The highlight of this tape is probably the N64 version of Looney Tunes Space Race, which never released for the console.
Hopefully the video quality is a little better this time? If nothing else, you can at least see the video here in it's entirety, instead of being split in two parts as before.
N64 Pro New Years Revolution Promotional VHS TapemacN642021-08-14 | By (popular?) demand, this is another recording of an N64 promotional VHS tape called 'New Year's Revolution'. The tape came with an issue of N64 Pro magazine. I already uploaded the footage from this tape to Youtube many years ago, back when you couldn't upload a video more then 10 minutes long! You can see my original upload here: youtu.be/4uT4YsE3Zf0
The highlight of this tape is probably the N64 version of Looney Tunes Space Race, which never released for the console.
Hopefully the video quality is a little better this time? If nothing else, you can at least see the video here in it's entirety, instead of being split in two parts as before.I made this video 15 years ago - The Critic Gets His Own BackmacN642023-11-09 | Yup, this wmv file was created on the 9th of November 2008. I didn't have a Youtube account at the time, but if I did, there's a good chance this would have been my first upload.
I remember importing and exporting this video a lot during the editing, so it's been compressed to hell and back. Windows XP Movie Maker quality at it's finest.
71519 bonus points to anyone who can guess the source of the sound effect used for the critic's shriek.Testing an 8BitDo Hall Effect Joystick on N64macN642023-08-20 | Here, I'm trying out one of those Hall Effect Joysticks that come with 8BitDo's DIY mod kits for N64 controllers.
These sticks use the same connector as official OEM sticks, so you can just drop them into an original official controller too, which is really nice.
This 8BitDo stick looks and feels nice (it has a Gamecube style rubber finish). At first glance, things were looking pretty promising, but problems started to emerge as I went through different tests.
This stick isn't horrible to use, and would be fine for casual Banjo, Zelda, Paper Mario, maybe even SM64. It's certainly comfortable. However, in my experience at least, when things start to get a bit heated and quick movements are required, you just can't rely on this stick to pick up your movements correctly.
00:00 Homebrew Controller tests 03:24 SM64 (tiptoe) 04:15 Goldeneye (aiming) 07:59 Zelda (spin attack) 08:54 Mario Party (rotation) 09:45 Pokemon Stadium (Ekan's Hoop Hurl) 11:19 Wave Race 64 (barrel roll) 12:54 Body Harvest (steering) 15:18 Mario Kart 64 (drifting)PALadin comparisons - Smash Remix (Part 2)macN642023-07-22 | So this one was a bust, but I thought it was worth sharing the results anyway. I struggle to see any difference between the NTSC Rom and the PALadin conversion, so there's still a pretty big speed difference compared to PAL unfortunately.
I couldn't run vanilla Smash NTSC or Smash Remix NTSC in PAL mode on my Everdrive, it would just boot to a black screen, so I had to use NTSC mode instead. I'm thinking there might be more region blocking stuff going on in Smash compared to Ocarina of Time, with it being a later release.PALadin comparisons - Smash Remix (Part 1)macN642023-07-22 | So this one was a bust, but I thought it was worth sharing the results anyway. I struggle to see any difference between the NTSC Rom and the PALadin conversion, so there's still a pretty big speed difference compared to PAL unfortunately.
I couldn't run vanilla Smash NTSC or Smash Remix NTSC in PAL mode on my Everdrive, it would just boot to a black screen, so I had to use NTSC mode instead. I'm thinking there might be more region blocking stuff going on in Smash compared to Ocarina of Time, with it being a later release.PALadin comparisons - Petries Challenge (Part 2)macN642023-05-09 | Here, I've taken an (NTSC) Ocarina of Time hack (Petrie's Challenge) and converted it to PAL using PALadin, then compared it to both the original NTSC version of the hack, and to vanilla PAL Ocarina of Time.
Why this conversion test? Well, I'm used to playing the Zelda games at the slower PAL speed. It feels weird when I play Zelda hacks based on the US version, as they play more quickly than I'm used to - the change in speed is distracting. My hope is to be able to convert Ocarina of Times hacks (and maybe hacks of other games too) to play at the slower PAL speeds I'm more used to, with hopefully minimal drawbacks.
So, in this video I'm trying to see how closely the Paladin conversion matches authentic PAL, and it's not too far off! It seems there's some slight discrepancies (the running animation and possibly also climbing speed), but it's a pretty close match. You do get borders at the top and bottom of the screen, but N64 fans from PAL regions will be well used to that already.
Music used in the video: soundcloud.com/mcbedtime/zelda-twilight-princess-hyrulePALadin comparisons - Petries Challenge (Part 1)macN642023-05-09 | Here, I've taken an (NTSC) Ocarina of Time hack (Petrie's Challenge) and converted it to PAL using PALadin, then compared it to both the original NTSC version of the hack, and to vanilla PAL Ocarina of Time.
Why this conversion test? Well, I'm used to playing the Zelda games at the slower PAL speed. It feels weird when I play Zelda hacks based on the US version, as they play more quickly than I'm used to - the change in speed is distracting. My hope is to be able to convert Ocarina of Times hacks (and maybe hacks of other games too) to play at the slower PAL speeds I'm more used to, with hopefully minimal drawbacks.
The main purpose of this video is to compare the sound, specifically the synchronization of the music in the Hyrule field opening scene. It seems to be a more or less perfect match, in that respect, to the PAL original, which is awesome!
bps patches download: mega.nz/folder/LTgSiJIJ#GTFuVZxXP_eo0YX6EnY4VgSM74 - Slowdown comparisons (F3D AA Reducer revisited)macN642022-02-25 | It's been some time since I've done one of these. This test revisits Davideesk's Fast 3D Anti Aliasing Reducer.
I was curious to see if there was much difference when the tool is used at the end of the fixing process as opposed to the beginning. Going by this test footage, the performance does look to be a bit better when it's used right at the end. I feel like my previous test video about this may have sold this tool short, sorry about that!
You can find the tool here: hack64.net/Thread-SM64-Fast3D-Anti-Aliasing-Reducer▶ Live Stream: A Decade of Flashcart OwnershipmacN642022-02-14 | In a few days time, I will have owned an Nintendo 64 flashcart for 10 years. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I'd travel back to 2012 and revisit some of the first games I remember playing on my brand new 64drive.Namp64 - Play music on your N64macN642021-08-29 | This video showcases a piece of vintage N64 homebrew that I think deserves more recognition.
One of Kaze's recent videos got me thinking about playing MP3s on N64, and I was reminded of Namp64.
Namp64, by Obsidian, is an mp3 player for your N64, from 1999. I had tried to use Namp64 in the past and hadn't been able to get it working. I've been playing around with it again however, and I think I've mostly got the hang of using it now. Although it's quite a basic player, it lets you add MP3 and MP2 files into an N64 rom and play them back on console.
People have been releasing albums intended to be played on old game consoles for some time now: retrorgb.com/?s=remute
However, I'm not aware of anyone having yet released an album on an N64 cart. Every now and again I'll come across a comment from someone expressing interest in the idea (such as in the comments of Kaze's video).
To me, Namp64 seems to be an 'off the shelf' solution to make such a thing possible - easy, even. Of course, this would be a pretty rough and ready way of going about it, and the album would need to be pretty short.
It's tricky getting Namp64 to play MP3s, so I instead converted my audio into MP2 files in Audacity first. Namp64 seems to handle MP2s way more reliably than MP3s. Namp64 gives you about 30MB of space to play with before it starts cutting off the audio at the end, which is quite constraining. I get about 17 minutes of mp2 audio saved at 128kbps before I reach the limit. Also, don't forget to byteswap the rom before you start adding your music, that's where I had been going wrong previously.
And yes, I know the 64drive has a built-in MP3 player. But playing music from an actual rom (which could be put on a physical cartridge) is just cool, you know?
bps patches download: mega.nz/folder/LTgSiJIJ#GTFuVZxXP_eo0YX6EnY4VgRegarding PatchesmacN642021-08-04 | You can find my SM64 Console Patches folder here: mega.nz/folder/LTgSiJIJ#GTFuVZxXP_eo0YX6EnY4Vg▶ Live Stream: Super Mario 64 Chaos EditionmacN642021-05-03 | It's been a while since the last live stream. The weather is getting better and we're starting to come out of lockdown now, which is nice. I've haven't been playing video games much lately, so there's not really been much opportunity to stream.
Anyway, got a bit of spare time this afternoon and feel like torturing myself, so I'm going to try and make some progress in Super Mario 64 Chaos Edition, by Kaze. This is also a bit of a stress test on the new streaming setup. I'm going to be doing a lot of resets here, and my capture card would previously freakout whenever the signal changed. Hoping for no audio drops this time!
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start 00:04:12 Stream Begins 00:06:41 Trying to beat Bowser in the Dark World 00:41:15 Bowser Time 00:44:10 Get Key! 00:46:05 Secret Slide - first star 00:55:55 Hazy Maze Cave 01:03:23 Highlight of the stream 01:06:12 Draining the Moat 01:10:05 Secret Slide - second star 01:16:35 Lucky Star from Hazy Maze Cave 01:19:41 Another Lucky Star 01:23:55 Mario gets creepy 01:35:46 Wrapping UpBody Harvest - A man on the roofmacN642021-03-07 | There's a man on the roof. You don't see that everyday.
This is basically just filler, an old bit of footage I had laying around, I'd estimate from about 2017. I think I was playing a PAL rom on an NTSC console here or something like that, and my DVD recorder REALLY didn't like it.
I'm currently making some changes to my recording setup, hence the filler. My setup was giving me a lot of audio problems and was pretty unstable overall. *coughDinosaurPlanetcough* I'll hopefully be back up and running soon.▶ Live Stream: Dinosaur Planet (missing audio)macN642021-02-21 | Ahh, I didn't realise I lost stream audio after the first crash. Sorry about that folks!
This stream was originally titled: Live Stream 20-02-2021 - "Dino World" NDPE See below for the original description of this stream. ------- I'm starting this off as something of a stealth stream. I'm trying out a certain "Dino World" that's just been released today.
There's going to be quite a lot of attention on this subject right now. I search on Youtube and see videos about this which are getting 500 views within an hour of being uploaded.
I'm still pretty new to live streaming and I don't want too many eyeballs on me here, at least right now. So I'm going to avoid using the "DP" name for the time being. I might rename the video later on. -------
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start 00:05:18 Stream Begins (File Select)
00:07:41 Game Begins
00:12:55 First Crash 00:13:33 Game Begins again (no audio) 01:19:58 Softlock 01:21:03 Reset (audio's back) 01:22:36 Second Crash and wrapping up 01:25:06 Stream Ends▶ Live Stream: Mission Impossible Part 4macN642021-01-23 | Mission Impossible Live Stream, Part 4 With any luck, I might finish the game in this stream.
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start 00:01:06 Stream Begins 00:03:23 Mainland 00:20:36 Gunboat 00:31:58 Ending 00:32:59 Credits 00:34:24 Chatting with the developers 00:44:31 Good Ending 00:45:29 Wrapping Up▶ Live Stream: Mission Impossible Part 3macN642020-12-14 | Mission Impossible Live Stream, Part 3 Finishing up the plot of the actual movie, and making a start on the last few levels.
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start 00:02:43 Stream Begins 00:03:53 Station 00:10:44 Train Car 00:26:20 Train Roof 00:31:40 Ending? 00:35:16 Subpen 00:51:38 Brief Intermission 00:53:00 More Subpen 00:57:21 Tunnel 01:05:35 Wrapping UpLugs Delightful Dioramas V1.02 on consolemacN642020-12-13 | Just a simple change is needed to get this running on console: 0xD48B7: 5C
Without this, the game crashes after the Mario head screen. You'll also need to fix the checksum after doing this.▶ Live Stream: Mission Impossible Part 2macN642020-12-05 | Mission Impossible Live Stream, Part 2. Many, many mishaps await...
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start 00:02:30 Stream Begins 00:04:26 Interrogation 00:22:30 Rooftop 00:52:56 GameFAQs Intermission 00:55:43 More Rooftop 01:04:10 Terminal Room 01:10:21 Rooftop Escape 01:36:04 Wrapping up▶ Live Stream: Mission Impossible Part 1macN642020-11-28 | My first attempt at an actual public live stream. Mission Impossible (N64)
00:00:00 Starting up 00:02:46 Ice Hit 00:13:36 Technical Difficulties 00:22:42 Embassy Function and Warehouse 00:43:06 HQ and Hallway 00:57:30 Sewer Level!! 01:03:57 Escape and Fire Alarm 01:20:29 Wrap upIts Winter 2020 - Channel UpdatemacN642020-11-20 | tl:dr I'm planning to live stream some games over the winter (gameplay only) and it's more than likely going to be pretty boring.Checking out some custom Mario Kart 64 coursesmacN642020-06-30 | Something a little different. I was just trying out Deadhamster's custom Mario Kart courses for fun, and decided to record the results. Played on console, obviously.
Here's the release video for more info: youtube.com/watch?v=GouldrsfvmISM74 - Slowdown comparisons (Cinematic Tweak HUD changes)macN642020-06-28 | I wanted to get this video recorded and uploaded last week, but my scart switchbox had other ideas...
I've tried to make this exaggerated cinematic tweak easier to live with. The viewport height has been reduced a little, I find this helps it feel less claustrophobic. The HUD elements have also been moved so that they're now visible on screen. I've attempted to combine the Mario lives counter and the camera icon, as screen space is now at a premium. For this reason, the health meter has also been moved to the corner, out of the way. The health meter would really get in the way otherwise, when trying to line up and judge a triple jump.
It's maybe a little bit slower than just the cinematic tweak on it's own, based on this test, but I think it's worth the trade off. There really is very little in it between the two of them.SM74 - Slowdown comparisons (Cinematic Tweak)macN642020-05-23 | Here, I changed the cinematic tweak a bit before applying it. Instead of incrementing things by 10, it increments by 70 for a more pronounced, letterbox look
This change does seem to reduce slowdown in normal gameplay, but the somersault test at the end appears to show it running more slowly than the fullscreen counterpart. It's not as clear cut as I would like, sadly.
Also, for some reason, the change causes the game to freeze when a timer starts counting down, which isn't great. So, no Koopa race this time.Lag Reduction combined - Attempt 1macN642020-05-08 | We did 20 takes, and that was the best one...
Consider this video a bonus, it was quickly - and poorly - put together. The purpose was to look at the lag reduction techniques covered so far and see how effective they are when combined. For comparison, there's also footage Kaze's version of Star Road and a version of Star Road that only has the f3dfix optimisations applied.
Please bear in mind the frame skipping patch I used probably isn't ready for general use. When I was recording this footage, the game crashed several times during the screen transitions. You can see in this footage the transitions at the start and end of the level are often a bit unstable.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how this looks so far - it was my hope to get things running at a speed somewhere close to Kaze's version of Star Road.SM74 - Slowdown comparisons (Frame Skipping)macN642020-05-03 | So then, frame skipping...
On the right, I've applied Davideesk's frame skipping patch (with a slight change, see below): pastebin.com/Lpk61Kx7 As usual, on the left, there's been no attempt at optimisation.
--
As Davideesk says in the code, this should be considered a "beta patch" for now.
When it works, the patch is just awesome - there are some small (negligible) graphical glitches. However, I find that roms I've applied this to often crash during screen transitions (e.g. starting a level, entering a door or warp pipe, or exiting a level after collecting a star). The patch is probably still a bit too unstable to use to actually play through a hack from start to finish (and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of me making a mistake when applying the patch). But oh man, when the patch is working, it's sweeeeet.
---
Out of the box, the code is designed to be used on vanilla SM64. As it notes, "for custom ROM hacks you will need to find some empty space somewhere".
Some years back, Davideesk shared some code for manually changing the draw distance in game with the d-pad: smwc.me/1388211. This code was designed to work with most rom hacks that had been released up until that point, and used the range of 0x11F0000-0x11F1000. I've basically just copied 2016 Davideesk and used same rom area here for the frame skipping code instead.
So yeah, Davideesk is pretty awesome! :)[Old] SM74 - Slowdown comparisons (F3D AA Reducer)macN642020-04-05 | Edit: Here is a more recent video on this subject: youtu.be/qYV7Y24osMU
Original Description: This video is long overdue. Here, I'm trying out Davideesk's Fast 3D Anti Aliasing Reducer tool on SM74. You can find the tool here: hack64.net/Thread-SM64-Fast3D-Anti-Aliasing-ReducerSM74 - Slowdown comparisons (Reduced Viewport Size)macN642020-03-14 | This is quite an extreme example, I've halved the height and width of the screen. It's actually noticeably more difficult playing the game on this small a window, but I think the performance gain you get is quite substantial. I'd like to play about with different numbers to try and find a happy medium. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to change the viewport size (thanks to Davideesk for pointing me in the right direction on this one).
You're looking for commands which look like this: 08 00 00 0A 00 A0 00 78 00 A0 00 78 The 78 right at the end is the screen height and the last A0 is the screen width. So to halve the screen height and width as I have done, you would replace all 08 00 00 0A 00 A0 00 78 00 A0 00 78 with 08 00 00 0A 00 A0 00 78 00 50 00 3C.SM74 - Slowdown comparisons (Marios Model)macN642020-02-23 | Not quite sure what happened here... The skinned model, despite having less polygons, seems to have introduced more slowdown compared to the normal Mario model. Maybe I screwed up somewhere? I really don't get it.
For anyone interested, I (think?) I managed to successfully apply Kaze's skinned Mario model to SM74, using the tweak PyroJay4 made for the SM64 Rom Manager. All I had to change was the first of the two addresses, from 823B70 to 823B64. Rom Manager: hack64.net/Thread-SM64-ROM-Manager-Info-Download
For low poly Mario, I made these changes: 12A738: 7F FE 7F FF 12A750: 7F FE 7F FF 12A768: 80 00 7F FF
Sorry about the sort of 'black flickering' at the end of the video, I think my cables were coming a little loose when I hit record.Reducing Marios polygon countmacN642020-02-22 | An actual video is coming soon.SM74 - Slowdown comparisons (Fog Removal)macN642020-02-02 | hack64.net/wiki/doku.php?id=nintendo_64:fog#disabling_fog
Making the changes below in a hex editor should remove all fog from your hack. Make sure to use f3dfix after doing this to fix up the display lists, otherwise your textures will be messed up.
Replace all BA 00 14 02 00 10 00 00 with BA 00 14 02 00 00 00 00Replace all B9 00 03 1D C8 11 20 78 with B9 00 03 1D 00 44 30 78Replace all B9 00 03 1D C8 11 30 78 with B9 00 03 1D 00 44 30 78Replace all B7 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 with B6 00 00 00 00 01 00 00SM74 - Slowdown comparisons (f3dfix + reduced render distance)macN642019-03-20 | Another comparison video. If you use the f3dfix optimisations and reduce the render distance, in some levels like this one, it can really help with slowdown. It's still not full speed in this level, but perfectly playable.
Levels that flickered between black and white will now show textures, but foggy levels that already displayed textures will now be black and blue.SM64 Level Imports on N64 - Texture Contortion Update/CorrectionmacN642016-01-28 | In a previous video, I said in the video description that this texture glitching happened when a texture repeats too many times on a surface.
Well, I got it wrong. As you can see here, a texture is spread right across the surface, with no repeats, and the glitching still occurs. It looks more like the glitching happens when the surface is just really big.
Sorry for any confusion.SM64 Level Imports on N64 - Texture Contortion ExamplemacN642016-01-21 | Update: 28/01/2016 I said that this glitching happens when a texture repeats too many times, but I was wrong. For more information, see this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kux8bRvJtEw
Original Description: This is what happens when a single texture repeats too many times on a surface.SM64 Level Imports on N64 - Water Box TestingmacN642016-01-21 | On N64, water often looks weird and contorts at some viewing angles.
It looks like the glitching occurs when the water box is too big (I guess?).
----------
Here are my tidied up notes:
waterbox6 = water texture scale=1, texture looks more stretched waterbox7 = water texture scale=32(max), small texture many repeats. waterbox9 = new model, big plane below to enlarge the level boundary, x(-7000) y(-7000), x(7000) y(7000), texture scale 32 When you spawn in level (up high), and hold R to hold the camera in place, the water contorts as you walk around.
waterbox10= same as before, but texture scale 2, also contorts when camera held up high. So, water warping not texture related as I had thought.
waterbox11= 4 water boxes, various heights, all texture scale 16 No warping, by the looks of things.
Waterbox 12 = 4 boxes of same height Waterbox 13 = 4 boxes of same height, low texture scaleSM64 Level Imports on N64 - Alpha Textures without FogmacN642015-12-17 | It seems that alpha textures are properly displayed on console, even without the presence of fog.
Once again, this was done in Level Importer 1.9S. Hacks made with some of the earlier level importers don't seem to display alpha textures correctly on console, but whatever caused that issue has seemingly been fixed in later versions.SM64 - N64 Compatible Quick Start for Jedis SM64 EditormacN642015-11-29 | // ********************************************************* // *** N64 Compatible Quick Start for Jedi's SM64 Editor *** // ********************************************************* // (To be used with CajeASM by Tarek701) // (Copy this text, paste and save in notepad, then use it as the ASM file)
// Super Mario 64 Editor (Unity) Output Settings: // - Start Game in Current Level (Requires skipping Peach and Lakitu) // - Skip Title Screen // - Skip File Select Screen
// Then apply this ASM file in CajeASM. It does the following: // - Fixes "Start Game in Current Level" by skipping Peach and Lakitu // - Skips the Mario Head Screen at the beginning of the game (N64 Compatible) // - Skips Level Intro Text
// Peach Skip .org 0x6BD4 ADDIU R0, R0, $0009
// Lakitu Skip .org 0x6D90 ADDIU S0, R0, $0000
// Skips Mario Head Screen at beginning of the game (but not after a Game Over) .org 0x9114B8 TGEI T0, 0x0000 BNEZ R0, 0x00911CF0
// Level Intro Text Skips .org 0x4B7C ADDIU R0, R0, $4B3D .org 0x4924 BEQ R0, R0, $00004940SM64 - Jedis Editor on N64macN642015-11-29 | I see I've picked up some subscribers since my last video. Hello to you all! I'm glad some of these videos are of interest to you. Hello also to CyberTanuki/Vertrex: I pretty much agree - generally speaking, the further you stray from normal SM64, the less likely it is to work on console.
Now, with all that being said, on to this video!
-=-
Here, I'm trying out Jedi's Editor on N64. I've moved four trees, banished some goombas to the back of the level, and dragged down the base of the floating island (you can't do that in Toad's Tool 64). No N64 fix required, it just works (providing you don't tick the "Skip Mario mini-game" box on output).
269F68: 05 08 00 00 14 00 02 0C 269FF4: 05 08 00 00 14 00 02 0CSM64 - SMSR Game Over on N64macN642015-08-12 | Similar symptoms to the Mario Screen skip.SM64 - Mario Screen Skip on N64 (again)macN642015-08-12 | A fresh attempt, but still no luck.SM64 - Various Skips on N64macN642015-07-14 | Tile, menu, Peach, Lakitu and Level Intro skips all work on console.SM64 - Mario Screen Skip on N64macN642015-07-14 | No picture on console!