N64-documentation
A repository where I try to document everything about the Nintendo 64 to the best of my ability.
All the official and homebrew Nintendo 64 documents, in one place. About time, really.
Only documents that are legal to post will be posted here.
Contributions are very welcome! Please feel free to open issues/PR's and contribute new documents, or update current documents if they have new or updated versions.
TL;DR for the entire README is this is a WIP, and is mostly all sourced from the community and legally available sources. Feedback, constructive criticism, and pull requests/issues are appreciated!
Initially this will have a lot of placeholder information and images. Eventually I hope to take high resolution photographs of everything discussed in this repository, and for all the information to be double and triple-checked for accuracy.
I am also using an "ares-like" approach for the directory structure, but everything is a work-in-progress and suggestions/constructive feedback is always welcome!
Near was a huge inspiration for this, so it made sense to utilize this approach.
Many of the tools used to generate a lot of the information about games are released under various licenses, so check the directory as to which. They are included more as a backup and also a way to give them more exposure. Some of these tools were incredibly valuable for generating some of the information, so huge props to the devs!
This repo isn't much now, but I'll be consistently updating it with new information, images, diagrams, etc. as time goes on. If you'd like to support my work here, or any of my emulation and preservation work, you can do so here:
This isn't required or necessary, I'll keep doing this as long as I am able. I have been unemployed since 2016 and so I do this all in my free time and with my own (very little) money.
But more money helps fund things like dumping tools, more ambitious research endeavors, tools, buying games to dump, etc.
If you are looking for more information or resources about the N64, here are some other places with good information:
This repository wouldn't be possible without the following people (in no particular order):
krom/PeterLemon - Incredibly helpful N64 test ROMs, and always being willing to answer questions, overall nice guy!
Zoinkity - Incredibly useful information about obscure and hard to research components, peripherals, etc. Thanks so much!
LuigiBlood - Dumping and preserving many aspects of the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, useful tools, and also a great wealth of knowledge.
jrra - Useful documents, images, source code, binary dumps, and reverse-engineered info! Thanks so much! Also good life advice sometimes, heh.
The developers of CEN64 - A ton of research, documentation, and some reverse-engineering. Very handy!
Shygoo - The work on the Project64 debugger has made some things much easier! I also borrowed his iQue code for Project64. :D
Zilmar - Being willing to answer questions and accept criticism! Helping with various tasks around Project64, accepting PR's, etc. RSP and CPU info, RDP info, help with some other things. :D
GamemasterPLC and theboy181 - Many patches and GameShark codes
Retroben - General information and pointers
AIO/Legend of Dragoon - General information and pointers
Gent - Nice guy and various little bits of info and some documentation
Azimer - The best audio plugin! Also some help.
Bryan Perris - Documentation, various info, some pointers
Dillon - Excellent documentation and a great emulator!
Rasky - A ton of info
Flagrama - Helping to put together this with some advice :D
Gonetz - Various documentation and help with some RDP things
Kaze - Various ROM hacks, entertaining person, some info
Jhynjhiruu - iQue info and documentation
kev4cards - Also some help with creating this repo, and some other general info
Kimbjo - Help with creating this repo, general info
cxd4/HatCat - RSP info, documentation, source code
Lemmy - Various info and some source code/documentation
m4xw - Info about Mupen64Plus and Mupen64Plus-Next
olivieryuyu - Various technical info and documentation
Bighead - Who's massive amount of Project64 testing in the past provided some useful test methodology and gave some very useful insight
bryc - Saves and file format info, general info about backup units and their formatting
Rosalie - Some info and fantastic plugins and interface for Mupen64Plus!
WeinerSchnitzel - Various info, tips, etc
Squall Leonhart - Various info, tips, and suggestions
Cowering - For the GoodN64 database, which was the only N64 ROM database for a very long time.
No-Intro community - For all their help with dumping info, dumping prototypes/betas/review samples/etc.
Redump community - For more dumping info.
My friends at Nintendo - Thanks for making such amazing systems and games in the first place! (also some of their support staff are really friendly and very helpful!)
The people who answered my emails at SGI and NEC - Thanks for being so helpful!
