But, again, laws are subject to change depending on where you live.

Most of the time, ROMs are legal to own if you have a copy of the physical game, or if you’ve ripped your own ROM from a game for personal use. It’s where ROMs of games come in that the legality gets foggy. In most places, emulators are perfectly legal. Obligatory legal warning:ĭepending on where you are, emulation and ROMs may be illegal.

If you’re an audiophile who loves the music of your favorite game, make sure you’re not getting some compressed or watered-down version. Some emulators are known for their wonky sound. Read around, confirm that the emulator you’re thinking of plays the game. Project64 does allow some GameShark and built-in cheats, however. If you really want to play Majora’s Mask, check that the emulator you’re about to download supports it. Probably one of the most famous and popular N64 emulators, Project64 has really earned. Not all emulators support all ROMs, and not all Nintendo64 games are equal. Not just with your device, but with the games you want to play. The nice thing about many of the emulators on this list, though, is that they have portable versions that don’t even require you install the program in order to play games. Then, and only then, should you extract and run the executable file. Then, when you’re absolutely sure it’s safe, download the file and use your local anti-virus software to scan the file before you run it. Make sure you’re downloading your emulator from a reputable source.īecause the world of emulation is a bit seat-of-the-pants, wild-west in nature, it’s easy to grab the wrong file from the wrong website and end up knee-deep in a virus or other malware.īefore you download from a site, just do a quick Google search with the site’s name, and “review” or “safe.” Make sure you use a third-party site and check a few websites to make sure you’re not getting bamboozled.

However, there are a few things you need to watch out for, no matter your reason for needing an emulator. Now, your choice on the best n64 emulator is going to depend greatly on your particular needs – platform, reliability, flexibility, and price.

Mac n64 emulator with gameshark