How to transfer N64 ROMs to Nintendo 3DS XL R4 flashcard.

[Pokemon_Master]

Hi all. I'm going to buy a 3ds xl with a r4 flash card. I heard that i can play Nds roms,but can i play N64 or GBA roms in it.
Thanks.

[Full Metal ★]

You would need to find a homebrew emulator architectured towards the NDS. Then follow directions necessary for that to load your N64 Roms.

[Team Fail]

Just quit while you're ahead. The DS is not nearly powerful enough to emulate N64. You can probably use a Wii homebrew, but that's about it.

[Elsa]

You may think that because they've ported Ocarina of Time and Starfox, that it could emulate N64 games, when in reality, it can't. The 3ds doesn't have the processing power necessary to run the games semi-good. Sorry, bud, but it's not going to work.

[Full Metal ★]

Guys, the N64 isn't exactly impressive...I feel confident that the 3DS is able to handle emulating the N64. :l

N64 CPU:

With a clock rate of 93.75 MHz, the N64's VR4300 was the most powerful console CPU of its generation.

RCP: [ the GPU, basically ]

The RCP is a 62.5 MHz chip split internally into two major components, the "Reality Drawing Processor" (RDP) and the "Reality Signal Processor" (RSP).

Memory:

The memory itself consists of 4 megabytes of RDRAM, made by Rambus.

All of this taken from the wikipedia page.

Now, let's see the 3DS specs.

CPU: 2 x 266MHz ARM11
GPU: PICA200 133MHz GPU by DMP
RAM: 64MB
Video RAM: 4MB
Storage: 1.5GB Flash-based

Taken from Kotaku. Now the general rule of thumb for emulation "capacity" is that the host system should be 4x as powerful as the targeted emulated system. In raw clock speed, we have 2x266MHz = 532MHz. The N64 on the other hand has 93.75, which x 4 is 375 MHz. You wouldn't be emulating the RCP hardware as seperate hardware, but as extensions of the CPU which doesn't really need any extra clocks since programming has massively evolved since 1996. So, done right, N64 emulation on a 3DS is not at all unrealistic. It would probably need an intermediate bytecode - ie: take the ROM and "interpret" or "compile" it before running it. But actual run-time issues are not likely [ when it comes to raw strength, that is. ]

[Team Fail]

Originally Posted by Full Metal ★

Guys, the N64 isn't exactly impressive...I feel confident that the 3DS is able to handle emulating the N64. :l

It appears you don't know exactly how flashcards work. Allow me to explain:

The Nintendo 3DS has three modes:

• Nintendo 3DS Mode (Full hardware access, including all 128MB of ram and all sensors)
• Nintendo DSi Mode (SD access, camera access, 16MB of ram) *sandboxed*
• Nintendo DS Mode (Basic features, only 4MB of ram) *sandboxed*

Most flashcards run on a 3DS, however, they only run in Nintendo DS mode, therefore becoming sandboxed within the system. Therefore, they only have so much power as an original Nintendo DS can use. Only flashcards designed for those modes will work properly, and there's only a small handful of cards that work in 3DS mode (Only one of which runs homebrew, the Gateway 3DS).

Any emulator you run off an R4i will run in the super-limited mode of the Nintendo DS, and will not be able to run N64 games.