Mupen64Plus PS5 – Native N64 Emulator
![[Image: mupen64.png]](https://raaproductions.ca/forum/uploads/ps5/mupen64.png)
Mupen64Plus
A Nintendo 64 emulator as a native PS5 home-screen app
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mupen64plus-core 2.6.0, ported to the PS5 • eboot.bin • no payload to send
▌ What is it?
Mupen64Plus PS5 is a port of mupen64plus-core 2.6.0 to the PS5 as a real native app (title ID PPSA99064). It sits on your home screen like any other game: open it, pick a game from the cover shelf (or grid, or list), and play with your DualSense.
Since v0.6 it's just an app folder: copy it to the console and ShadowMountPlus puts it on the home screen. The app unlocks itself when it starts, so there's no .elf to send.
▌ Features
- GPU renderer: paraLLEl-RDP at up to 8x internal resolution (4x by default), with its shaders included, so most scenes don't pause the first time they appear
- Accurate CPU renderer: angrylion-rdp-plus, pixel-accurate at the N64's own resolution, using up to 12 CPU threads
- x86-64 dynamic recompiler: the core's dynarec runs on the PS5, so even demanding games run at full speed
- RSP: fast HLE for sound, low-level cxd4 for graphics (games run their own graphics microcode)
- Low-latency audio (~67 ms), with rate control that keeps the sound in step with the 60 Hz picture
- Game list with box art, downloaded automatically: a 3D shelf, a grid of covers or a list of titles
- Save states: 10 slots per game
- Continue where you left off: leaving a game saves your spot, and starting it again offers to continue there
- CPU overclock (2x, 4x) for games that slowed down on the N64
- In-game saves: EEPROM, SRAM, FlashRAM and Controller Pak
- Rumble Pak support through the DualSense
- Fast forward from the pause menu
- Display options: 4:3, integer scale or 16:9 stretch; smooth or sharp scaling; the N64's own video filter; hiding the overscan border
- Adjustable stick dead zone, and either stick can be inverted (X, Y or both)
- ROM formats: .z64 / .n64 / .v64 / .rom files, zipped or not, from internal storage or USB; ROM hacks up to 252 MB
▌ Tested at full speed (GPU renderer, 4x)
- ✔ GoldenEye 007
- ✔ Perfect Dark
- ✔ Conker's Bad Fur Day
- ✔ The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
- ✔ Donkey Kong 64
- ✔ Mario Kart 64 (ghosts and records save)
- ✔ Resident Evil 2
- ✔ Pokémon Stadium 2
- ✔ Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- ✔ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- ✔ Super Mario 64
▌ Compatibility
- Compatibility list: how each tested game runs (public, view-only).
- Report a game: tested one? A short form, no account needed. Reports go straight into the list.
▌ Requirements
- ► A jailbroken PS5 with kstuff or kstuff-lite
- ► ShadowMountPlus (to put the app on the home screen)
- ► An ELF loader running (elfldr, etaHEN or PS5 Payload Manager's). You already have one if you load kstuff and ShadowMountPlus. You don't send anything to it yourself: the app uses it to unlock itself when it starts.
- ► Your own legally dumped N64 ROMs. No games are included.
▌ Installation
1. Download Mupen64PlusPS5.zip and extract it.
2. Copy the whole PPSA99064 folder (the folder itself, not just what's inside it) to one of these places:
- On the console: /data/homebrew/PPSA99064
- On an exFAT USB drive: homebrew/PPSA99064
4. Copy your ROMs to /data/mupen64plus/roms or to mupen64plus/roms on a USB drive. Subfolders work.
5. Open the app and play!
⟳ Updating: from 0.6.3 on, the app offers new versions when it starts and installs them itself (it closes, then a notification says when to reopen it). To update by hand, close the app and copy the new PPSA99064 folder over the old one. Your saves, save states, covers and settings are kept in /data/mupen64plus.
⚠ On 0.6.0, 0.6.1 or 0.6.2? Their in-app updater was broken (the updated app wouldn't start), so install by hand once: delete /data/homebrew/PPSA99064, then copy the new PPSA99064 folder.
⟳ Coming from an older version? Versions before 0.6 installed through Mupen64PS5.elf. They used the same folder, so just copy the new one over it. You don't need to delete anything.
▌ Controls
In a game (buttons in the same positions as on the N64 controller)
- Left stick ➜ analog stick
- D-pad ➜ D-pad
- ✕ Cross / □ Square ➜ A / B
- L2 or R2 ➜ Z
- L1 / R1 ➜ L / R
- Right stick ➜ C buttons
- △ Triangle / ○ Circle ➜ C-up / C-down
- OPTIONS ➜ Start
- Touchpad click or L3 + R3 ➜ pause menu (save/load state, fast forward, settings, reset, back to the game list)
On the game list
- D-pad / left stick ➜ choose a game (Left / Right on the shelf, all four directions in the grid, Up / Down in the list)
- L1 / R1 ➜ skip 10 games on the shelf, a page in the grid or list
- ✕ ➜ play (a game you left from the pause menu asks whether to continue where you left off)
- △ ➜ settings
- □ ➜ download the cover again
- Touchpad ➜ switch between shelf, grid and list
- OPTIONS ➜ quit
▌ Folders
- /data/mupen64plus/roms ➜ your games
- /data/mupen64plus/saves ➜ in-game saves
- /data/mupen64plus/states ➜ save states, and where you left each game (.resume)
- /data/mupen64plus/covers ➜ box art (add your own .png or .jpg named after the ROM file)
- /data/mupen64plus/logs ➜ boot.log, plus boot.prev.log to boot.prev4.log from earlier sessions (please attach it when reporting a problem)
▌ Known limitations
- ⚠ No 64DD, Transfer Pak, cheats or netplay yet
- ⚠ PAL games run slightly less smoothly than NTSC games
- ⚠ If a game looks wrong, try Settings ➜ Renderer ➜ CPU; if it sounds wrong, Audio processing ➜ Accurate (LLE)
- ⚠ If a game misbehaves otherwise, try Settings ➜ CPU core ➜ Interpreter (slower, but useful for checking whether the dynarec is the cause)
- ⚠ If a game misbehaves with CPU overclock on, set it back to Off
- ⚠ Scenes whose shaders aren't among the ones included may pause briefly the first time they appear, while the GPU prepares them. They are saved, so it won't pause there again.
▌ Credits
- mupen64plus team: mupen64plus-core and mupen64plus-rsp-hle (GPL-2.0)
- Themaister: paraLLEl-RDP, the GPU renderer
- mihawk-99: PS5_Vulkan, and the Mesa RADV developers: the Vulkan driver
- angrylion and the angrylion-rdp-plus contributors: the software RDP renderer (MAME license)
- Iconoclast: mupen64plus-rsp-cxd4
- ps5-payload-dev: the PS5 payload SDK
- ps5-native-app-boilerplate: native app tooling
- drakmor: ShadowMountPlus
- EchoStretch: kstuff-lite
- libretro-thumbnails: box art
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For homebrew use only. Please only use ROMs you dumped from cartridges you own.
For homebrew use only. Please only use ROMs you dumped from cartridges you own.
Changelog13 updates
- A new icon and background on the home screen
- A new look for the pause menu and Settings: one panel with switches, a volume slider and icons. In the pause menu the touchpad resumes, Square resets the game (it asks first) and Triangle goes back to the game list
- Quick save and load: R3 saves in the current state slot, L3 loads it. The pause menu opens with the touchpad only
- Cheats: GameShark codes for about 560 game versions, switched on and off from the pause menu; the game remembers them
- Controller layout: any DualSense button on any N64 button (L2 and R2 separately), for every game or just one
- Settings: Volume (0 to 100%)
Show 12 older updates
- Continue where you left off: leaving a game from the pause menu saves where you were; starting it again asks whether to continue there
- Settings: CPU overclock (Off, 2x, 4x)
- ROM hacks bigger than an N64 cartridge (64 MB) load, up to 252 MB
- The GPU renderer's shaders come with the app, so most scenes no longer pause the first time they appear
- When a game can't start because its file is empty or too big, the message says so, with the file's size
- Game list views: a grid of covers or a list of titles besides the 3D shelf (touchpad, or Settings ➜ Game list view)
- Settings: Invert left stick and Invert right stick (X, Y or both)
- Covers for over 160 more games download now: the app asked for them under the wrong name
- After you add games, the app reopens by itself once it has closed to fetch their covers (before, it only closed)
- GPU renderer: interlaced pictures are steady (proper bob deinterlacing): no combing on moving things, no jitter or flicker at the top and bottom
- The line under the title on the game list was out of date and ran behind the covers
- GPU renderer (paraLLEl-RDP on Vulkan): 1x-8x internal resolution, 4x by default; the CPU renderer stays selectable
- HLE sound processing (Audio processing setting)
- Blanked loading screens show black; scrolling pause menu; the logs folder keeps the last 5 sessions
- In-app updates install correctly (0.6.0-0.6.2 left the updated app unable to start: the files lacked execute permission)
- The app closes after you accept an update; a background helper installs it and a notification says when to reopen it
- The release zip is now Mupen64PlusPS5.zip
- Replaced a faulty 0.6.1 build
- Released as a native app folder (PPSA99064.zip): no more .elf to send
- The app starts its built-in helper through the ELF loader by itself
- Optional compressed .ffpfsc image
- Rumble on the DualSense (switched to its compatible vibration mode)
- Save file details in boot.log
- Fixed a crash when starting a second game in the same session
- Audio latency lowered from ~120 ms to ~67 ms
- x86-64 dynamic recompiler: GoldenEye, Rogue Squadron and Donkey Kong 64 at full speed
- First releases: cached interpreter, game shelf, covers, save states