# Is it possible to play SNES games on the N64 without the Tristar 64?



## TeeR (Dec 17, 2012)

Is it possible to play SNES games on the N64 without the Tristar 64 in a method similar to the above image? And from that couldn't you use adapters for NES, Famicom, Super Famicom, Genesis and GameBoy?


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## Attila13 (Dec 17, 2012)

I don't think you can...


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## RodrigoDavy (Dec 17, 2012)

You want to play snes on a N64? Wouldn't it be better to just buy an actual snes or use an emulator? Anyway, if you really want to do this, you should find a Tristar 64...


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## TeeR (Dec 18, 2012)

That can't be the onlt way; what was going on in the picture?


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## Armadillo (Dec 18, 2012)

Looks like someone has just connected a load together for a joke, n64 isn't even on. Besides that, why would you want to do it? Without modding the best an N64 can do is S-video. Snes can do RGB, why would you want to play on n64 and get lower video quality.


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## Psionic Roshambo (Dec 18, 2012)

Buy a used Wii and a SD card and a classic controller, hack it and enjoy nearly perfect SNES emulation.


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## libertyernie (Dec 21, 2012)

The N64 doesn't have SNES hardware. I think the Tristar worked because it had SNES hardware in it (a la Super Game Boy.)


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## the_randomizer (Dec 21, 2012)

PsionicRoshambo said:


> Buy a used Wii and a SD card and a classic controller, hack it and enjoy nearly perfect SNES emulation.


 
^This.  Snes9x Next for the Wii is near perfect (and often better than the VC) for emulation, and it's easier to set up.


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## PROTOBOY (Aug 30, 2016)

Yes it does!!!

You will need to open the cartridge and insert the chip in the middle of the connector.

It does also support 4 player games such as Bomberman and FinalFight.

The games would recognize like you are playing on a SNES with a mulpad adapter.


There are some limited Nintendo 64 Editions made by Gradiente which the size of the cartridge slot is the same as Super Famicom (European SNES).

With these limited models you can just insert the original PAL SNES or/and Super Famicom cartrisges into the N64 slot and would play and boot normally like a SNES.


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## richy11 (Dec 18, 2017)

PROTOBOY said:


> Yes it does!!!
> 
> You will need to open the cartridge and insert the chip in the middle of the connector.
> 
> ...


do you mean insert the cartridge chip in the middle of the n64 connector?


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## ital (Dec 19, 2017)

TeeR said:


> That can't be the onlt way; what was going on in the picture?



Digital centipede.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Just because the SNES cartridge board connector can fit into an N64 slot with the use of a gameshark or universal adapter doesn't mean that anything is going to happen when you turn the power on.  While I haven't tried it, I highly doubt that the setup shown in the picture above will give you anything other than a black screen.  For one thing the N64 uses a 64 bit architecture with 3D graphics while the SNES is 16 and 2D: the data reads from the ROM cart would be totally different.  As far as I know the only way to play SNES games on the N64 is to pay $500+ for a Tri-Star which has image quality issues and basically is the size of an SNES that sits on top of the N64 with its own power and video out cables... Don't get me wrong, I would love to play SNES games on my N64 just to have less consoles lying around, I just don't think that there is a viable way to do it until somebody designs a small form factor game-shark style adapter that fully converts the SNES 16 bit instruction set into something that is understandable to the N64's architecture... I am thinking of an emulator that runs SNES gameplay as FMV into the N64's hardware or something.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Plz delete.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Plz delete.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Plz delete.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Plz delete.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Plz delete.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Please delete.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

Plz delete.


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## Nygmatech133 (Oct 1, 2020)

delete.


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## Jokey_Carrot (Oct 1, 2020)

Are you on glue?


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## KiiWii (Oct 1, 2020)




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## Nygmatech133 (Jul 8, 2021)

Jokey_Carrot said:


> Are you on glue?


I probably was.  I remember not even one of these posts would show up and so I thought it was a browser problem and kept refreshing the page.  Days later I guess that all of these posts show up and now there is no way for me to delete them.  I look like an idiot on this thread now which is probably for the best.

Anyways, I am creating an adapter that lets you insert a raspberry pi in the cartridge slot of the N64.  It effectively will allow you to play RetroPie on the N64 at 360i resolution as well as hopefully allowing for direct cartridge emulation on the N64 bare metal similar to the Everdrive or ED64.  It should be a big upgrade over the Tristar as it can play PS1 and may even Dreamcast games and will be way cheaper.  Once it is done, I will upload it on Github as open source hardware and software and you can make your own for cheap.  My goal is for this to allow the N64 to become a one stop shop for all retro gaming while allowing for native gameplay of N64 games on the N64 hardware since the current state of N64 emulation is quite poor.


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