I accidentally fell in love with the N64 thanks to Shaun Taylor's libdragon, a really fantastic open source toolchain for the N64.
The console is architecturally interesting. It has a MIPS CPU (not very interesting) connected to a custom graphics coprocessor, the RSP (interesting). I plan to learn much more about this coprocessor and its microcode, with the intention of writing code that runs on the RSP.
Given my love of Game Boy it should come as no surprise that I like the Transfer Pak.
Most popularly used by Pokémon Stadium, the Transfer Pak plugs into a controller and gives the console access to data stored on the game boy cart.
The console actually has full access to the cart at the MBC-level. That is to say, the console is required to manually perform bank switches, RAM-enable, and so forth. This is tantalizing, because it provides and off-the-shelf mechanism for dumping game boy carts and saves.
I already have some preliminary work done on dumping game boy saves on the N64. I am awaiting a functioning Gameshark comms to complete this project. Bug casm on efnet for me.
I also have a largely complete implementation of transfer pak for libdragon. Email me for more info.
I have a mostly working port of NRage's input plugin for mupen64plus, which has transfer pak support.
I haven't had a chance to clean it up enough to release it. I will update this page once that is complete.
Those of you who have played Pokémon Stadium with the transfer pak probably know that there's a special mode wherein you can play the game boy red/blue/yellow version of Pokémon.
As you may have read above, the transfer pak only gives the console raw access to the cartridge. It does not contain a game boy CPU. This means that Pokémon Stadium actually contains a game boy emulator!
I have been attempting to rip the emulator from the game. So far I have located compressed segments of the game boy ROM, as well as the location of the emulator in the ROM. I have not succeeded in ripping it yet. I will update this page with more info as I continue working on it.
I have no flash cart at the moment. I do all my work with a Gameshark over parallel thank to the fantastic work of hcs and casm.
If you have a Gameshark Pro 3.2 or 3.3, do check out their work for running homebrow on your Gameshark.
I am the author of the FAT32 driver for an upcoming N64 flash cart. I can't give many details on the cart at present time.
Check out the FAT64 project page for more info. Features a FUSE implementation for testing on Linux/BSD/Mac!
