Nintendo N64 Emulator Coming to iPhone
I love Nintendo, and I especially love Nintendo games. This is why I hope that one day, the Gameboy line (of which the DS is surely a part, despite the name) will die. Why? Because then the big N, like Sega before it, will sell its real talent - the software - to other console makers. This is a roundabout way to say that I want Super Mario World on my iPod Touch.
This is unlikely to happen for a while, but owners of the latest and fastest (and jailbroken) iPhones and iPod Touches will soon be able to play N64 titles on their devices. ZodTTD, previously seen here on the Lab for his VLC port to the iPhone, promises to follow his GBA emulator with the rather juicier home console, which was home to the fair MarioKart 64 and the awesome, time-sucking GoldenEye. ZodTTD says that, because of the new hardware graphics accelerators inside the iPhone 3GS and the bigger of the new iPod Touches, they should be able to handle most, if not all, game ROMs from the N64.
Rightly, though, ZodTTD is worried about handling the huge number of buttons on the N64 controller, which were very intuitive in 3D hardware but almost impossible to translate to a touch-screen:
I’m somewhat light on details at the moment due to wanting to balance the hype. Things look good for this project though. Only thing I’m concerned about is currently software based controls. I would like to keep my current software based controls with overlays in use, if possible.
One day, we may be able to buy these games direct from the App Store. Until then, it’s just a jailbreak (and a short wait) away.
