The BEST N64 (Nintendo 64) Emulator For SteamDeck! Full Setup Guide And Gameplay

[@Soup-man]

No Alexx!!! You need to pay 50 dollars a year on the Switch because you can play it online!!! Even though there's only like 10 N64 games on there.

[@cooparchive7857]

But that emulator also have netplay and is free

[@03bgood]

21 games, as of November 2022.

[@brodywise4750]

This is literally why I bought a brand new switch and sold it to my brother 8 days later. I didn’t realize they were locked behind an expansion pack purchase AND a subscription and only having 10 games. 2 of which I wanted to play. I was planning on buying the switch and 8-10 games individually. Then realized I could take that same money and put it into a steam deck and play every N64 game ever. Also every GameCube, ps1/2/3 game, and nearly any game imaginable.

[@lexidemun]

Yea but if you wanna play specific games it's not worth it I wanna play conkers bad fur day and it ain't on there

[@iamCifu]

You guys are bums. Just enjoy your emulation without downplaying the online service.

[@kalebporter1529]

I don't even have a steam deck, but I watched because Alex is so soothing to watch. the Bob Ross of pc gaming.

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

💛💛

[@dannydogs4385]

Thanks for this! I know how to set emulators for the most part on Windows, but ever since I switched to Linux I’m still learning about these other open source emulators. This saved me a lot of time setting up.

[@speed3414]

Simple64 uses the Parallel RDP plugin which is one of the biggest breakthroughs on N64 emulation It's as accurate as Angrylion (Software Renderer plugin) but it's uses your GPU (but requires Vulkan API support) and unlike Angrylion you can actually upscale the resolution

[@johnfrankster3244]

Ya bro but unlike retroarchs mupen64plus next, has limited plugin support is less accurate & doesnt support hd texture packs because gliden64 isnt available as a plugin. Even on deck id probably take Rosalies mupen over simple, its closer to project64 which has always been the competition on windows to the mupen64plus next core. As a final note the mupennext-core actually offers the RDP Plugin as a choice of core options lol.

[@speed3414]

@@johnfrankster3244 you are totally right, I wish the GlideN64 plugin in Rosalie's Muppen GUI had Widescreen hack just like it does in the Android emulator Muppen64 FZ

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

Project64 tries to charge you for its use. Simple 64 in my opinion is superior because it is based on a heavily modified version of mupen64plus-core, and ParaLLEl RSP/RDP.

[@johnfrankster3244]

@speedj Ya i absolutely love mupenfz, shame its android only, so many features. @OhNoItsAlexx Ya Project64 has a “supportproject64 popup”, its very very annoying but easy enough to rid of. Literally just a matter of setting the timer in the project64 config to -1 second.

[@kriscarrdublr]

Damn this actually works and looks great. Never thought I'd see Zelda 64 in my steam library.

[@carlosmaldonado5697]

Does everything run smoothly?

[@jawessome]

Thanks Alex. As a new Deck user, your guides are simply invaluable and so well explained. Thanks so much for the walkthroughs mate. 🙏

[@RonBurgundy-iw1xl]

How do you add the games? He automatically has them all???? He skipped the most important part

[@askingshoe2]

I actually just used what everyone was preloaded in duckstation. It runs pretty well. Playing Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story on the steam deck is something I didn't think I needed till I tried it

[@donmcron3334]

Isn’t duckstation a ps1 emulator?

[@papajuicy880]

Thank You Ben Affleck for the great tutorial =)

[@Medsas]

Nice video, throwing shade at Quantumtv I see 😂😂😂

[@un-for-given]

Who?

[@Medsas]

@@un-for-given lol he spent the whole week pumping videos shitting on the steam deck saying its too complicated to install games and emulation so Alex emphasizing how simple it is and even mentioning the same game as quantum (wcw nwo revenge) instantly reminded me of that 😂😂😂

[@RedChaos173]

@@Medsas Again Who?

[@iceyflowergamer4474]

@@RedChaos173 Some Homophobic, Copyright Abusing, Narcissistic, Contrarian who can’t take criticism to put it simply. He has a rabbit hole so big that it would take ages to explain in the comments, just look up “Quantum TV drama” and you’ll find the full answer.

[@RedChaos173]

@@iceyflowergamer4474 I was being sarcastic Icey. I know who Cupcake TV is.

[@Randolf2013]

Your tutorials have helped me so much the past few days, thank you!

[@markpokemon1134]

At time stamp 9 minutes could you tell me please what the symbol is between .n64 and .z64 thanks.

[@itsallmobilegaming1472]

Can’t find steam directory for the steam directory? My steam rom manager must be new it looks different than yours?

[@hermss__]

I was having the same issue and searched in the community parse, found one for Simple64 and it worked :)

[@GooTheMighty]

This is a fantastic guide! Most Linux adjacent guides I’ve looked up for modding or whatever else on Steam Deck assume the viewer knows jack squat about Linux, so thanks a TON for just going step by step! Now I can finally play Shiren the Wanderer 64 on the go!

[@TheAbsol7448]

Dude. I was just trying to get this set up. You saved my neck. I'm having a lot of trouble getting the directories to show, so I tagged the developer with the SteamOS image. If he sees it, then maybe he can fix that problem.

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

Did my tutorial work for ya?

[@TheAbsol7448]

@@OhNoItsAlexx It did, but now I'm suffering performance issues that I'm struggling to figure out. I just wanna run SM64 hacks, man. And need get that online multiplayer tool set up.

[@Fresc0]

Fantastic tutorial ! Ordering my steam deck soon and 100% trying this . thank you !

[@RonBurgundy-iw1xl]

Hope you cancelled cause dude is a liar

[@NewDawnFadesX]

I don’t see my .local folder. Its not showing up like yours did. Help?

[@Nostalgieletsplays]

Younhave to press ctrl+h to make it show up

[@NewDawnFadesX]

@@Nostalgieletsplays Ok thank you. I’ll try that.

[@krispykleen3404]

Did this work?

[@NewDawnFadesX]

@@krispykleen3404 it worked for me.

[@krispykleen3404]

@@NewDawnFadesX how can I press ctrl-h? I’m sorry is it possible to do it without a keyboard

[@Gabelleroux]

For some reason when using the Steam Mod Manager when browsing for the stream Directory I cannot find the .local file under home. I can only access that .local file out of the app through the desktop by also allowing to view hidden files. Any ideas to bypass this?

[@pigster4900]

Show hidden files by clicking L2 and hitting “show hidden files”

[@GHRKGehrke]

​@@pigster4900 thank you

[@AmawolfTwitch]

Alex, again a man of culture with the Majoras Mask Thumbnail ✅

[@A1trizzy]

Stuck on steam directory i click home there is no local please help..

[@MrDaveCoresh]

🎉🎉🎉it's working. Bravo

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

Enjoy

[@mfreddy22]

Nice. Can you map hotkeys for save state, fast forward, etc? RetroArch N64 emulation isn't great on steam but I do like having hotkeys.

[@OnMy1s]

nice one Alex you helped me so much with my steam deck bro

[@sivslayer7428]

I cant find my .local file T_T do I need to do something to set it up first or is it hidden in a different folder other than home?

[@cristianmorales5207]

Same, did you figure this out?

[@TheHox69]

I see nobody has posted an answer for this lol

[@CrimsonOptics]

Yeah for whatever reason my .local file isn't showing up at all in Steam Rom Manager. I have show hidden files selected and I can find it in my regular files so I'm not sure why I can't find it here.

[@linkfiedproductions2246]

Hey alex, my games aren’t launching even though I followed ever step to a T. Why?

[@KillerSkullX]

Probably malware promotion idk

[@LumbyMcGumby]

I never heard of this what a game changer. Thanks!

[@senya920]

I'm having trouble with this guide. I followed your instructions exactly, except for the ROMS directory as I don't have an SD card. So my ROMS directory is set to the desktop, which I dont think should be an issue. That's the only thing I did different, but when I test the Parser I get this: Error encountered while reading user configurations! SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input Testing "simple64" parser (SRM version - 2.3.52 Non-Portable). Operating System is "Linux 5.13" Im not sure what any of this means. My other issue is when I click on Generate Apps List on the Steam ROM it keeps giving me a message to please shut down Steam if it is running. How do I shut the Steam application down on the deck?

[@slimeinabox]

Thankfully theres currently a community preset for simple 64! Just requires setting the rom directory. (And steam directory)

[@GloriousKev]

You glorious SOB!! I couldn't figure out how to get this guy working with Steam Rom Manager.

[@CreepyMisfit7]

Yo, this is awesome. Thank you so much!

[@Bowling4GeezersYT]

Good morning Alex, well I guess I can't help myself but I ended up selling my Deck only Because I have started a new Career and I am no longer always on the go. I am working from home, and frankly, I just wanted something that could give me more power. And I found a dell XPS 17 9700 with I7 10th gen 16 gigs of ram 512 SSD and an RTX2060 Max Q at a great price well below market value 1400 on Amazon and I nabbed it for 520. This place always sells at great prices hehe. I'm going to wait and get the next steam deck when they eventually announce it and work on building me a desktop over the next couple of months now that I can afford to :P

[@azrim19]

Thanks for another helpful video for Steamdeck emulation, I use Mupen64 on my phone all the time,now I can give my phone a break and play on Steamdeck instead..lol

[@Dprill95]

1080 certified banger double verified

[@goodnight4u]

This might be a silly question but how did you get the floating keyboard instead of the keyboard that takes half the screen?

[@MrDaveCoresh]

No one knows lol

[@mikiclassic]

Thank you this is very helpful.

[@Chris-nm9pe]

My son has been emulating GameCube on his Mac book using dolphin they seen to be running really good.

[@robmalcolm8042]

GameCube runs very well on mac especially newer ones. But I still prefer this or android for convenience

[@mattt333]

anyone know why my games aren't showing up when i click testparser?

[@Gabelleroux]

I really appreciate you doing this guide for us. I’m pretty much already all set up. Only problem is where and how do I get the roms? I have all the games personally as cartridges not sure if that’s needed? I know it’s like a unspoken thing but it seems you already have all the roms downloaded to your SD card. I’m still trying to figure out how to even get the roms or where to.

[@brooklyngray1527]

there are a lot of roms on the internet archive. Found mario 64, conker, and majoras mask

[@KrispysRC]

Thanks for the easy to follow guide. Couple questions when I load up a game im seeing a menue on top of the game that wont go away. Also sound clipping anyway to fix these two issues?

[@yodafanatic_]

If anyone is having problems when the ROMs are not showing up when you test parser what I did was get rid of .n64 on users glob and I started showing up

[@many3322]

This video helps me a lot, I don't like de retroarch n64 emulation and simple64 does a pretty good job for me, the only problem is that my games looks with a horrible black bars and I don't know how to change that.

[@Dprill95]

On 1080 hold the "z" button just before landing. Lands you smooth every time

[@rabidrivas]

Are there any reason to follow this individual tutorials instead of using emudeck?

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

Emudeck uses only flatpak versions. It also has some quirks that are annoying to get around. It’s why I selected to do individual videos of people want them

[@johnfrankster3244]

I dont think emudeck offers simple64.

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

I don’t think so either

[@rabidrivas]

@@OhNoItsAlexx I see. I'll have to check if I can replace the emulator emudeck uses once I get into emulation on deck. Because the convenience it offers seems incredible for me.

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

One of the biggest differences is emulators like Yuzu and PCSX2 are vastly better non flatpak

[@StarLord10k]

I just got a steam deck immidatley subbed to your channel you've helped me male short work of this emulation beast thanks top g

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

You’re welcome my dude

[@kpbstudios9642]

How do you save and load games??

[@Retrojunkies_Retroboy]

Thanks for the video, literally followed all your videos so far for my steam deck. But do you know if there is an emu for N64 that has cheat support and how to configure the same way so it is in the steam deck collection with art work.

[@offbrandcheetos4821]

i can get the ROM going in simple64 but when i try to launch it trough steam in game mode it just loads for eternity

[@florianh5067]

Thank you so much

[@quentenburnett7296]

The game crashes as soon as I push any button. Tutorial doesn't account for this.

[@blacklotus9121]

I get an error when entering the executable. Everything looks correct

[@retrogamerguy2155]

Is the jigsaw transition in Banjo-Kazooie able to be fixed on the steam deck? It's supposed to work with the "copy color buffer to rdram" set to "sync" in the GLideN64 plugin settings. Please could you test this for me? I know ParaLLel-RDP and Angrylion should work, but not sure how the game would even perform in general with those plugins, can they run at full speed at 2x resolution? Any help would be really appreciated.

[@iSaucyy_Boii]

When I open game it just opens simple 64 and game won’t open?

[@Soup-man]

Might use this to play the OG Ocarina of Time. I played the remaster on the 3DS.

[@kidcasgaming62]

Use the Linux port, its way better with a ton of quality of life stuff

[@jeffarruda8191]

Not getting the .local folder

[@mediummastagh3]

Hey there, hope you can help. I followed everything 100% step by step, but when i click the game to play on steam the emulator pops up, but then nothing happens. i hit file, open rom, hit the game, still nothing. Any ideas?

[@coryl996]

same problem here

[@predatorx7828]

So when I enter /usr/bin/flatpack it says that it is invalid and I won’t be able to run the tester. It also states I have 0 games when I have 1 downloaded

[@blade8424]

How well will this handle B3313 and other Rom Hacks like OoT Indigo, etc?

[@BrunoTicianelli]

Be careful, the description is wrong, it says "flatpack" but is "flatpak"!

[@rogergibson9433]

hey man so i have the Nintendo N64 controller that i bought from Nintendo for NSO. but i want to use it with my steam deck emulating my n64 games. but i DO NOT, and AM NOT, understanding how to map the controls. do i have to do it per game? thru the emulator? thru the deck? then i still haven't found a descent video explaining how to map random controllers. It shows up "N64 Pro Controller" when i connect it via Bluetooth. then when i look at the provided layout of what controller they have on screen. it looks like a regular game pad. idk, if u could maybe recommend a tutorial, or maybe point me in the right direction, i would greatly appreciate it. i love everything you do, and enjoy your content. thank you so much, this has been a battle for me since i got the deck a couple months ago

[@ryancrackel8958]

I'm having the same issue as well, specifically with mapping the C buttons from the n64 controllers to the Steam Deck. That's the only part I can't seem to figure out.

[@JarredSalas]

This work perfect.. is there anyway to remap controls since it seems on donkey kong i cant press Z? Thanks for the tutorial

[@dragonball3166]

I will say this thanks to you I am now invested buy steam deck never though stupid emulator will cause problems not to play Roms on new 3ds and laptop

[@jackburtonwii]

Merci / Thanks Alex !

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

You are welcome!

[@tjfierce3283]

Ugh I’ve followed this step by step and when I go to test it none of the games come up 😢 help!!!

[@Nostalgieletsplays]

Followed all steps but the game wont start. It shows up in game mode but when i try to start it, it just closes itself

[@crowner9302]

Have the same issue as well hope it has a fix!

[@jackblack7354]

Same here any solutions?

[@MackDaddyVic]

When you click on “Steam Directory” and you say click on “home, deck, local, share” I can’t find the local tab/folder. Didn’t exist. So I’m stuck here just kinda wondering what to do.

[@Mike750200]

thank you!!!!

[@iReaperGaming89]

is there any way to save your progress with these games or you have to start over every time you reload it

[@myronbercier4929]

Why is my audio “popping”?

[@bibabutzemann5661]

you completly skipped the part on how you add your games

[@osten2004]

You have to go and download the roms themselves

[@FollowAzra]

For some reason my EmuDeck can't find the "Simple64" toggle option as a parse when I'm in the SteamRom Manager. I just don't understand why. Any idea how to fix this? :

[@Rogue-76]

its weird after their most recent update that changed the icon for the application when ever I try to open a rom it shows me a bunch of files that don't have my rom folder anywhere

[@iamnotmrlebowski]

Thanks for the tutorial. Any idea why I can only play my roms in desktop mode? I believe I did every step correctly, as my 64 games parsed in Steam Rom Manager and show up in Gaming Mode. But when I open roms in Gaming Mode they immediately exit. Any help would be appreciated.

[@TheTeeKayProject]

i did everything step by step like in the video and the games show up in steam correctly, but when i try to launch one, i just briefly see steam icon and it puts me back to where i can click play, is there a problem with the executable?

[@carlosmaldonado5697]

I don't have dolphin. I am stuck on where to find my sd card on the folder

[@H.Cook420]

My files are not set up remotely like that and I can’t figure it out 😭

[@audiovectra]

Does anyone know how to make the settings screen go away once you open it in steam when your running a game? Every time I change a setting I have to reset the whole game

[@linkfiedproductions2246]

Is there some reason why my Mupen64plus emulator isn’t working well? I know that this video is on a different emulator, but is there some reason why they should have weird framerates

[@TheMacC117]

What reason is there to just not use emudeck? I'm asking seriously, because I'm having issues with n64 on emudeck.

[@chuggyman5606]

My steam deck won’t let me map buttons in the controller settings, no idea why. Can’t figure out how to play games. A reply would be greatly appreciated

[@janazjot8123]

Please, can you make a video for flycast (Dreamcast) ? My games won't start via Rom manager. I don't know the command line arguments

[@jamielishbrook2384]

Hey I'm a bit late but seriously I need a bit of help. Trying to replay hey you Pikachu... I know weird I'm probably the only guy who actually liked this game. But ony steam deck when I try to set up player 4 to emulate the VRU it automatically sets it to auto and then won't register the VRU in game. What am I doing wrong? Do I need an external mic for the deck or something?

[@ItachiUchiha-md4ti]

Flathead wnt launch on my steam deck. Do I need to install Linux 1st or something?

[@sirsmalls4565]

I’m getting just a white screen when launching a game. I triple checked everything and went through all the steps again but still only getting the white emulator screen No Games launching. They do show up in steam though just not working anyone know what’s wrong

[@azku]

I can’t find the steam folder. There’s no .locl in Home

[@krispykleen3404]

Same dude. Did u fix it

[@azku]

@@krispykleen3404 still can’t play no mercy.

[@sharronpeters7753]

what character was used to separate .n64/.z64??

[@ThePongo]

What if I type in steam room manager in and it doesn’t come up?

[@Apistogramma1130]

I got stuck on the .n64 and .z64 file tipes

[@banafighta]

it worked!! but game looks blurry, anyway to get it looking 4k?

[@krispykleen3404]

9:03 how do u separate the two file types. Is the an “l” in the middle?

[@jackblack7354]

There is that sign push „alt Gr“ on the keyboard to find it on keyboard

[@TheLazyNitro]

I wanna get the game (Captain) Claw game so bad but I can't find anything how to get it on my steam deck 😭

[@carlrigby9370]

Users glob I'm not sure of, can you paste that too 👍

[@MrDaveCoresh]

Why does mine not look like this? Im doing everything step by step but no success. There's no .local file when i select home. What am i doing wrong?????

[@TheHox69]

Same here

[@TheHox69]

Click L2 over Home and select “show hidden folders”.

[@TCSGaurdian]

Dude, exactly what I needed, Thanks!@@TheHox69

[@jonathanbawden312]

Agreed this is a the best emulator but when Simple64 has its own parser in Steam Rom Manager, everytime I generate app list, I am alerted with a fatal error message because of a file created called JSON, I have to delete this everytime in order to generate app list and be able to save it as well

[@RonBurgundy-iw1xl]

Games won’t launch. Got them onto library and everything. They won’t launch. Wow.

[@RonBurgundy-iw1xl]

How do you get the games? You automatically had them? Wtf

[@masonsmith6299]

Trying to find a good controller configuration, any ideas?

[@OhNoItsAlexx]

I use the right stick as the C-buttons

[@masonsmith6299]

If you get the chance you should do a video sometime showing you mapping the controls. Thank you for all of your awesome videos!@@OhNoItsAlexx

[@offbrandcheetos4821]

this is my first time ever emulating anything :) safe to say im a bit confused. ive got no games on the preview. Asuming because i havent downloaded any games. Where do i download the games and install them??? edit: i figured it out!

[@carlosmaldonado5697]

How?

[@GalaxyGamer3993]

i was able to get everything ready and it starts to load when i start it up on the deck but it seems to just get stuck loading it wont do anything else. anyway to fix this

[@beastmachine264]

Yea I’m in the same boat

[@beastmachine264]

Just got mine going, I realized I forgot to save the data at the end before going back to steam handheld

[@blade122]

Cant find .local

[@AngelRodriguez-oc2eb]

Microsoft price hike video?

[@darko_0682]

How would you compare this to mupen64?

[@johnfrankster3244]

@Darko_06 Its a fork of it. As its name suggests its easy to use with a nice gui. If you like having a large quantity of configurable plugins, settings & general options it offers less than mupen. Parrallel & RDP are both decent options for accuracy though & vulkan is always good.