MiSTer FPGA N64 Core Updates! Conker Freezing Fixed with a Patch

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MiSTer FPGA N64 news time! A patch is here for Conker's Bad Fur Day on the MiSTer FPGA N64 core! And its basically solved all crashing as far as we can tell! It's on the MiSTer FPGA Discord on the N64 channel or just DM me on Twitter for it! Will host soon...still day zero! Thanks Ruleset!
Robert (or FPGAZumSpass) is doing with active development of the MiSTer FPGA N64 core, giving us 99% of a fully functioning Nintendo 64 on MiSTer FPGA. Let's talk about what happened, when N64 will his MiSTer FPGA Update_All, the videos I have planned for the future and generally just celebrate the progress made on a Nintendo 64 FPGA Core! and a MiSTer FPGA review of the N64 is coming soon...and I have plenty of MiSTer FPGA tutorials and MiSTer FPGA guides on the playlist! Retro game collecting FPGA style! Because even if the N64 is a Retro game console the fpga gaming core is modern! and Conker is one of the best retro games so....he deserves to be fixed!
and now I am researching Conker's Bad Fur Day and have discovered...a basically crash free version of the game that ALSO gives me full debug control as to WHY it crashes in the first place : you need to use the 10/25/2000 build of Conker's Bad Fur Day prototype...which is a fully finished version of Conker on N64 but with a few minor changes...and a full crash handler! and don't press any buttons in cutscenes unless prompted! again...YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY...and now with MORE information :) part 2
but he ISNT done with the Turbo core as there is a brand new MiSTer FPGA N64 core that expands on the Turbo functionality and brings it in line feature set wise with the stock N64 FPGA core! and it will run The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask at 30 frames per section with the Turbo core and this patcher : github.com/Adm...
If you need a setup guide my previous Nintendo 64 MiSTer FPGA video has that so here you go: • MiSTer FPGA N64 Core G...
I asked, you answered...and I try to listen :) Of all the requests for new content on the channel one of the most frequently asked for videos is a series on the Terasic DE-10 Nano MiSTer FPGA hardware...so here it is! Retro gaming goodness.
On this episode of our MiSTer series we are going to be talking about the recent happenings in the MiSTer FPGA scene in regards to the potential of a Nintendo 64 core for MiSTer FPGA! Nobody saw it coming...and it was long considered an "impossible core" but perhaps Nintendo's first 3D console might be coming to MiSTer soon! Which would be amazing as there are a ton of great games for it and software emulation, while much improved, is still a bit hit or miss. Plus modding a N64 for HDMI out is expensive and VERY difficult!
N64 on MiSTer FPGA would be a huge moment for video game history and preservation too!
The N64 core RSP work seems to be getting buttoned up...so next comes the RDP or Reality Display Processor which is in progress and it now has perspective correction built in! . Which means we can now "play" Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Wave Race 64, even The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask...and some other items! and most of the corrupted graphics have been solved by this point in time! Plus F-Zero and Pokemon Snap now too! and Cubivore! And Animal Crossing...and 007 (no not GoldeEye yet) plus Pokemon Stadium! And Harvest Moon 64, and Extreme G and Glover 64...plus some beta Ocarina of Time!
But after the PS1 core on MiSTer (developed by Robert as well) and the PSX 2X core…nobody should doubt his talents!
and when it comes out just play Bomberman Hero, the N64 hidden gem of choice around this channel!
Questions? Comments? Just leave them below and I will do my best to answer each and every one of them!
/ videogameesoterica
You can follow us at IG : ChicagoGameCollector , or join our Discord Server : / discord
VGE
#retrogaming #misterfpga #nintendo #nintendo64 #retrogamer #retrogames #emulator #emulation #gaming #gamingcommunity #gamingvideos #gamingvideo

[@isunshin999]

YES I'm so happy about this, CBFD to me was the biggest miss with incompatible games on the N64 core, but no longer!!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It has been done :) a five video series ending in Conker being Conquered

[@marktreerng]

The promised day has come. The squirrel cannot be stopped

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

But the freezing can be!

[@ynotwalk7391]

ride the ... squirrel? to the lake

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

What?? Lol

[@rs.matr1x]

What an elegant solution. Wonder if any of the other remaining games could use the same hack.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Unsure as of yet. Researching it on a case by case basis

[@bogey4741]

Great news! It was so fun to see your perseverance on this issue! The debug tools and other dev tools were so rudimentary back in the day as a former dev from that era of console games (worked on sega and EA games). You should obviously have this dev try his trick on the other N64 games that freeze such as that Star Wars game and Jet Force Gemini!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Def something that will be looked into in the future :)

[@turbochop3300]

Honestly, I believe it was the perfect storm of available tools that allow Conker's bad fur day to be fixed. But who knows...

[@MegaManNeo]

*VGE:* Ok, Conker crashes here, here and there. *MiSTer Dev:* Err... remember how they fixed Donkey Kong 64?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Lol similarish

[@unnormaldude68]

I played for a solid 2 hours without a crash using this patch. It finally crashed after the first cutscene with the catfish. This is extremely playable at this point. Amazing work!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Conker can randomly crash sometimes too oddly

[@unnormaldude68]

​@@VideoGameEsoterica I've been playing conker since I was a child. Probably beaten it over 100 times and I don't remember it ever crashing. This was definitely related to the core. I just saw someone in the discord had a crash in the same exact spot as me. This is a good sign since it's able to be reproduced and studied.

[@OverThinkGaming]

This is awesome. Just patched the rom and played the intro. Can’t wait to test this. You guys are awesome.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Enjoy it :)

[@Pawnband]

God bless smart people. They really make life better for dummies like me.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Lol and me too and I’m the one who found the issue. But I’m not smart like the coders who do this daily

[@KonaKonaKaabisteru]

Holy heckadoo, the Holy Grail has been saved! I was wondering long if the modders within MiSTer-discord could find a way around this but this is so incredible! Love our hacking scene so much. I must thank you for all your work so far, without you bringing awareness I wonder would the demand been as high - and you were almost there on bringing a possible workaround incase Ruleset wasn't around. 😎

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Twas fun to play my role :) now I’ll look at JFG next. But not for a week or so. I need a N64 break lol

[@Wobble2007]

Yeeeeeeeeees! Thankyou VGE for this miniseries and bringing enough attention to it for this to finally happen and thank-you to the legend who patched it, funny thing is it's my Birthday tomorrow, so I get to play my favourite game of all time (with the exception of OOT) in 480p on my BVM with real hardware with zero lag and a proper N64 controller, not to mention in quad stereo, I'm proper excited to play it, thanks again VGE & co for your hard work. PS. Maybe JFG can also be updated with expansion pack ability.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll look at JFG next. No promises. Every crash is a one off so no clue if they are related

[@Wobble2007]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Awsome, at least there's hope, never played it, so first play on FPGA would be amazing.

[@nozomuitoshiki9292]

Tested for at least 2 hours with the patch before the actual announcement. Most of the chapters (with a complete save) were launched and played for 5-10 mminutes each. No crash at all anymore.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I checked all the guaranteed crash spots I had recorded. Zero crashes

[@ynotwalk7391]

@@VideoGameEsoterica kookoo

[@Wobble2007]

Even the awsome multiplayer missions work, some of the best, if not the best, couch multiplayer known to mankind on N64 CBFD, they removed it on the OGXB sadly with a sanitized deathmatch & capture the flag multiplayer, Bank Heist on N64 is so much fun, as is the tank deathmatch and teddybears vs squirls chainsaw fight.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Good to know bout multiplayer

[@Wobble2007]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Well I haven't tried on the patched version yet, but they worked on the turbo core with the alpha version, though I only played a few rounds just to see if I could, but I'm trying to get into the Discord now but it won't let me log in lol to get the patch, I'll play an hour of Tank mode if I can get it and let you know, and let you know tomorrow to confirm single-player campaign is freeze free on a 2.5 RAM MiSTer build

[@Kilterofficial]

This is really great news! Thank you so much for coordinating this effort.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Happy to do it

[@jinxist]

My dude out there doin the lords work. Hell yeah.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Happy to do my part

[@AutumnGarnet]

This definitely backs up the hunch about a garbage collection process not running frequently enough!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

All the research in the videos and the people who tested for me and sent me results…it was easy towards the end to determine it was just an allocation problem. The core must just not be EXACT on that function like real hardware

[@NerdENerd]

​@@VideoGameEsoterica it can't be like real hardware. Robert would have had to implement his own MMU to deal with using the SDRAM module. You can't just memory map that SDRAM into the FPGA machine. He always said the issue was SDRAM not being able to keep up. Run the turbo core and you are more likely to have the MMU done it work by the time the RAM is needed, give it more memory and it's sweet for games that are on the cusp of getting an access violation.

[@NerdENerd]

@@VideoGameEsoterica The N64 has 4MB of RDRAM running at 500MHZ. Robert would have had to implement some voodoo magic to get that SDRAM to function so well with the core. The very best SDRAM modules run at 160mhz with about 140mhz being average. Some of the older modules can only hit 130mhz. Not sure how that translates to bandwidth but probably a lot lower than the N64s 562.5 MB/s peak memory bandwidth.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I just mean exact as in “issue presents a weird problem”

[@NerdENerd]

@@VideoGameEsoterica just read Robert's post and the issue is not SDRAM but the DDR3 on the DE10-Nano. The latency is too much to keep up with the core.

[@bearonguitar]

Congrats to your amazing work and findings! I have never played Conker before and it's great knowing I'll be able to enjoy it soon. The real question now is if we can get Mahjong patched and working as well. 😉

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll test mahjong around 2069 when I get free time

[@Wobble2007]

I'm jealous of anyone who gets to play CBFD fresh, it's that good that you want to do a men in black style memory wipe and replay it through fresh, that said, even then it has enormous replayability, thanks to some of the most brilliant platforming levels put together, this is Raraware's swansong, they too everything they have learned from the Banjo games, DK64 and even previous gen, and distilled it down into the most pitch perfect 3D platformer ever made, and the variety of gameplay is astounding, I won't ruin it for you, but it really takes you on a journey, and the music is just brilliant too, I know it's a massive cult game now, but It's still grossly underrated, CBFD should be recognised next to Mario 3D platformers, Rayman series, Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet & Clank series, Jak & Daxter series and so on, but I don't think it has that level of recognition it deserves, perhaps it would do if a proper remaster was made for the modern platforms, not sure how the precise timing platformer gameplay will transfer to the much higher-latency of modern platforms though.

[@NerdENerd]

VGE loves his Mahjong!

[@atomicshroom]

What incredible news! I had a feeling it would be possible to patch most games to work around the RAM inaccuracy. Can’t wait for JFG to be patched as well! It’s the only remaining non-functioning game I care about at this point! I believe!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Hopefully that can be fixed too

[@linkzz00]

What inop/problematic games are left?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

JFG and Battle for Naboo plus a mahjong game

[@stratmask5]

Not so sure if i understand its an update on the core?, if thats the case its available on update all, or do i have to make some kind of modification to the rom file if thats the case where do i find the tools to do it?, its in somebody patreon or in a discord server? 😅

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s a patch for Conker. It’s on the MiSTer Discord under the N64 channel

[@tepafray]

I'd be curious if this fix would also work on Jet Force Gemini, considering it's another Rare title with no expansion pack support.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Not sure. I’ll be looking into it but not til after the holiday

[@CanriScrub1]

I wonder if this patch will have any benefits on real hardware

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Good question. I’d have to check

[@Helvetica_Scenario]

Impressive. I'm sure the rest of the problem games will be fixed with time.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Very possible :)

[@METR0lD]

Huzzah! We did it!

[@METR0lD]

@Ruleset is a champion.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It has been done p

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

And here I have all my docs and prelim work in front of me lol. I’m glad he took my research and ran with it

[@METR0lD]

Yep, it was one of the reasons you started this project! Get more eyes on it, more people testing it, and more people problem solving it. Awesome work all around for everyone involved.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Like I say in a lot of videos…this stuff is always a team effort and I can play the conductor. Lot of testing by individual members in discord behind the scenes sending me crash reports helped me narrow down the exact presumed cause since I couldn’t just rely on my own testing

[@GadgetUK164]

This is amazing work, but surely the best fix would be to get it working correctly with memory allocation - in the same way the original worked? Why is that an issue I wonder?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

The difference would be zero so it’s kind of a “it works. Call it a day” situation IMO

[@Pawnband]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I'm wondering how most people will find out about this patch. I wonder if Robert could make it throw up a warning or something when loading the unpatched rom?

[@GadgetUK164]

@@VideoGameEsoterica What I mean is, surely the FPGA core is broken somehow in that it isnt replicating how the original N64 worked regards RAM?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Dunno how people will find out. This vid and word of mouth

[@ErdrickHero]

Didn't Rare literally do the same thing to fix the same issue in DK64?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Apparently that’s been proven to not be true

[@SuperSteve152]

Amazing work

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’m just glad a Conker is playable for all now :)

[@Tailslol]

Fun fact,dk64 had the same issue on real hardware.they fixed it the same way.this is why the game came with expansion pack.

[@Wobble2007]

Which is probably why CBFD and JFG crash on real hardware once in a blue moon, I used to play the game for hours on end, especially the multiplayer tank and tediz vz squirls modes with my brother, after about the 5-hour mark you used to have to reset CBFD, I haven't played JFG, but you can do a Google search and see that JFG could crash within 2-3 hours on real hardware, both games were developed with the expansion pack in mind, only to have it cut at the end of development to worries of lower sales, it was probably a move forced by Nintendo's hand, as they tried to cut ties with any N64 add-ons after the 64DD failed, which the Expansion-Pak was originally intended for, it was the Turok devs that convinced Nintendo to allow its use in games, for some reason they did a 180 towards the end of the N64's life span. I could be wrong, it could be Rare themselves who made the change, but I doubt it to be honest, early retail boxes of Jet Force Gemini have the Expansion-PAK label on them lol, later covered with a Rumble-PAK sticker, this must have cause a massive crunch on the CBFD & JFG teams though having to bodge job all the textures and assets into 4MB using clever compression methods, CBFD is a miracle piece of software, and wonder what would have been if they did have the extra 8MB, higher FPS, Perfect Dark style HiRes mode. Fun fact, the otherwise removed Hi-Res mode that was removed from JFG can be re-activated using a game shark code, and it looks glorious on a nice wide CRT, and make me a little sad what we could have had with CBFD, that said, we now have 480p CBFD, so it doesn't matter as much, I do wonder how CBFD would have looked with the 8MB Hi-Res textures though in 480p on MiSTer, at least we can try just that with JFG, Perfect Dark, Turok 3 and whatever other games had the Hi-Res mode, for some reason Majoras Mask doesn't have it, despite using the Expansion-PAK.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Yes it seems over time Conker can overrun it’s memory even on real hardware

[@Wobble2007]

@@VideoGameEsoterica I bet the Hi-Res code in JFG would result in consistent crashes that would give valuable data for patching.

[@overwatch761]

That myth was never fact and has been long since debunked by actual DK64 team members and more recently by Modern Vintage Gamer who did a deep dive into the claim. DK64 was originally on 64DD which required the Expansion Pak - DK64 was designed from the outset with the additional memory in mind.

[@seabassapologist]

Glad all this work has finally paid off (crossing our collective fingers)! Looks like my plans for the night have been figured out!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It’s Squirrel time this evening

[@adrianrodriguez-iz1wr]

whoa great news. so all usa games are playable now on the core??

[@smashpro1]

Jet Force Gemini still doesn't work, yet.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

JFG still has issues

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll see what I can’t figure out there

[@adrianrodriguez-iz1wr]

@@VideoGameEsoterica oh yeah forgot about that game. im on discord so off to see the scoop there :)

[@QbertKraft]

yooo i'd like to try it out but i think your discord invite link is expired

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Go to MiSTer discord : discord.gg/misterfpga

[@Pbsk85]

Nice work! Just when the game is finally patched I dont have a mister anymore. de10 nano died last week after using it for three years! :(

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

What happened?

[@NerdENerd]

Taki Udon's clone board is due soon.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

This is true

[@Zalibidas]

do you use a retrocastle io

[@mbe102]

God.... DAMN! ya did it! HELL YEAH!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Group effort but yes :)

[@draketungsten74]

Even engineers overcomplicate things so you're good.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Haha I always do it

[@paulshealthfitness7922]

is turbo core better framerate?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

In spots yes

[@gunsmithx]

Awesome work!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Take that Conker

[@antiratrace]

Nice work 👏

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Thanks! I was happy to do my part

[@manny3273]

I wonder if they can write this patch right into the core

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

No it’s game dependent

[@Ziggurat1]

But maybe in the future the MiSTer main binary can get a function where it can load an ips patch in the same directory as the game rom, and just auto patch to a temp file

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I think that would be overcomplicating it IMO

[@emmettturner9452]

Awesome news, but I still think Conker’s humor is over-rated, cringe, and decidedly IMmature, even as a long-time owner who bought this new in the store. Someone at Rare actually thought “Eat lead, mother buzzer!” was cool. Ugh.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

It was the late 90s. Can’t really blame them

[@ynotwalk7391]

beyond the very brit humour, it has some of The Best graphics and sound on the console it's fun to just wander and be silly

[@emmettturner9452]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Well, 2001, and I felt that way even for the time. “Get this bitch off me” was only funny if it were making fun of fetch quests… but it wasn’t. It was the fetchiest of fetch quests and it made no apologies for it.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

@ynotwalk7391 it’s def not an ugly game

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Probably written in 99 would be my guess

[@Genesjss]

I guess patching the retail version of the game to work on the stock and turbo cores is certainly ONE way to get it working. I declare victory, for the nerds! Even if your idea on how to try to patch the game didn't end up truly getting off the ground in the end, your research into the crashing issues definitely played a key role in helping everyone figure out a way to get around it, so pat yourself on the back Esoterica! We've now got Conker working on MiSTer, thanks to you! All hail Esoterica, King of the Squirrels!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

They are my fav animal 🤣 I’m sure my patch would have worked. I just had like 30 minutes a day to dedicate to it. Cause I’m doing ten other things at once

[@Genesjss]

@VideoGameEsoterica Then wear that crown with glee, Your Majesty! Oh I'm sure your patch would've worked too, but like you said in the video proper someone else just happened to come along and offer an alternate solution that turned out to be simpler to implement, at least for Conker's. But like you, I also don't like the word "no" when it comes to emulation compatibility in something not being complete, so I'm still remaining hopeful that the other handful of N64 games can have something done for them too, so that way we can have the entire retail library for N64 playable on MiSTer. If I knew how to for this stuff I'd jump into the ring and help out in a more direct way, but the most I can really do from what I'm aware is just provide crash reports for certain titles just like everyone else who's been testing these other games.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

@Genesjss crash reports are super useful!

[@kunka592]

Nerds rule!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Who you calling a nerd? Lol

[@blarghblargh]

​@@VideoGameEsotericayou. ... One of us! One of us!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

That’s Freaks lol

[@postpunkjustin]

Now that's a great fix. Super simple, elegant, and (in hindsight) almost obvious.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I was maybe two weeks out from my patch but I’d overcomplicated the methodology to force it into the OG 4MB ram on board

[@Wobble2007]

Oh yeah, I'm gonna now see what CBFD 480p looks like with the mClassic in 1440x1080p 72Hz, something tells me it's gonna looks really good on a Sony G520.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Have fun with it

[@lordmilch856]

Please report then. My BVM won‘t be ideal for 480p, my liyama 21“ may be.

[@Wobble2007]

@@lordmilch856 It looks fantastic in 480p btw, and even better with the mClassic with 480p to 960p, looks incredible, like it's being emulated and rendered at native 1080p,

[@lordmilch856]

@@Wobble2007 I wonder what the mclassic could add to picture quality, in the Monitor is already outputting 640*480 natively?

[@Wobble2007]

@@lordmilch856 Look into it, it's incredible how well it works.

[@sadeness]

Best n64 game ever

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

You misspelled Bomberman Hero

[@carlosalbertotribuna]

Where can I download the patchM

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

MiSTer discord under N64 channel

[@AperteStart555]

@@VideoGameEsoterica Thanks, bro!

[@jeremy__hopkins]

Congratulations! It's crazy to think that the 4MB expansion pack could help out in this way. Nice work!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Fun times indeed

[@Kilterofficial]

Would it be worth it to at least patch Jet Force to also use the expansion pak? Just to see if there's any improvement there.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Possibly. I’ve yet to really do any research on JFG

[@undertoner385]

If that's the only type of error occurring, then this solution should have no freezes. If something has or does come up, I'd be happy to help test

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

So far it’s 100% stable

[@themsv89]

Did I read your description right that there is a new N64 core? Where do you find it?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

No it’s just a patch on the discord server

[@philg8556]

Next up.. Jet Force Gemini yes? Although I'm thinking that may be more of a DRM issue at this stage. Makes one wonder what MiSTer is or isn't doing... did we miss some memory compression or clearing sequence in the hardware?

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I’ll look into that next. But not til after July 4th

[@joefuentes2977]

What games still have issues? Wasn't it only Jet Force Gemini?

[@kunka592]

I think Star Wars Battle for Naboo as well, not sure about others.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

See below. Plus Wonder Project but just on the normal core

[@bearonguitar]

Except for Conker I think the notable ones ares Tonic Trouble, Gauntlet, Resident Evil 2, Jet Force Gemini and Battle for Naboo.

[@ynotwalk7391]

@@bearonguitar isn't gauntlet fixed now?

[@bearonguitar]

@@ynotwalk7391 it's one of the games that crashes the regular core, but works well on the turbo core.

[@AFFL1CTED1]

I wonder if this is the same root issue that Rare had with DK64?? This is running an updated engine of DK64, right? Maybe Rare figured out an obscure workaround so that the expansion pack wasn't required for Conker... Just a thought. I could be way off here as I'm not a programmer.

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

I guess that ram pak required for DK64 thing was proven to be false recently

[@AFFL1CTED1]

@@VideoGameEsoterica really? I thought it was to fix a memory leak issue? So it works fine without it?

[@chinard]

Working for me on the turbo core! Nice work!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Enjoy it!

[@DrJ3RK8]

Nice work sir!

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Appreciate it

[@betweenthecolors]

I’m looking forward to the Taki-station so I can participate

[@VideoGameEsoterica]

Hopefully soon