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

TeeR

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
122
Trophies
0
XP
148
Country
halolz-dot-com-n64-snes-youmightbetryingtohard.jpg

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?
 
  • Like
Reactions: KiiWii

RodrigoDavy

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2011
Messages
1,453
Trophies
0
XP
879
Country
Brazil
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...
 

Armadillo

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2003
Messages
4,290
Trophies
3
XP
5,308
Country
United Kingdom
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.
 

libertyernie

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
115
Trophies
1
XP
397
Country
United States
The N64 doesn't have SNES hardware. I think the Tristar worked because it had SNES hardware in it (a la Super Game Boy.)
 

PROTOBOY

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2011
Messages
369
Trophies
1
XP
464
Country
Canada
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Monty Kensicle

richy11

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 18, 2017
Messages
1
Trophies
0
Age
28
XP
51
Country
United States
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.
do you mean insert the cartridge chip in the middle of the n64 connector?
 

Nygmatech133

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Oct 1, 2020
Messages
11
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
54
Country
Canada
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.
 

Nygmatech133

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Oct 1, 2020
Messages
11
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
54
Country
Canada
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: zfreeman

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    I thought PS4/5 and Xbox One emulation would be kind of easy since they basically just a PC
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    they sorta are a pc
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    They haslve dedicated on board chips that aren't tweaked like x64/x32 afaik
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    but its a custom os for both of them
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    designed for only specific hardware
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    so you have to learn to emulate that specific hardware which isn't as easy as you'd think
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    It's a locked down Linux distro basically
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    I think the only custom hardware is to do with the SSD and a security chip
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Probably combined in one chip
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    They place married security chips onto boards iirc
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Damn Frontier is offering 5Gbps now lol
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I honestly can't recommend any of the big 3 this years I'd say buy a rog ally z1 if we're being honest
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Honestly after the PS3 and 360 I just went full PC
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Every games basically cross platform they only have about 6 titles making it worth the $600 price tag
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Didn't see much need for a console, all the advantages have kind of disappeared
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    the ps3 used to support installing linux because the cpu was so powerful
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Then the games are $70 and they want to reboot and refresh the same game every year
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    The ps3 was always Linux they just found a way to make it open source
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    I'm avoiding buying from the big 3 at all atm
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    At one point PC game pads where poorly supported, loading a game had setup, it was complicated. Now it's almost as easy as a console.
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    nintendo needs to up their game soon
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Yeah even bt support for Xbox one controllers are just as easy as pairing
  • ColdBlitz @ ColdBlitz:
    considering the steamdeck can emulate the switch (yikes) theres almost 0 reason to buy the switch apart from playing online and using cartridges
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Xinput and 360 dongles were a driver nightmare
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I remember having to manually put in drivers and what not
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: I remember having to manually put in drivers and what not