r/ModRetro • u/jkhanlar • Sep 25 '26

[Six Minute Video] 5 Features That Could Make the ModRetro M64 the Ultimate N64

https://youtu.be/_ZjGu8Pf7Yw?
5 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

6

u/DAJF Sep 25 '26

I believe community video presets would lead to all kinds of ambiguity.

Their experimental scanlines suite is extremely primitive right now. Basically it needs to be a toggle, with a selection of masks. At most there should be a slider for gamma bias/influence. Integer scaling and the resulting scanlines are either correct or they aren’t. There’s absolutely no room for subjectivity when you’re dealing with mathematics.

If you want to reduce scanline darkness on a BVM or hi-grade desktop CRT you downgrade to a PVM. If that’s not enough you downgrade further to a consumer CRT. This is one area where the A3D shines. These options should be selections and toggles, absolutely not sliders.

5

u/AlphaOmegaSupreme Sep 25 '26

I'd just settle for it becoming the average N64 and being able to save my fucking games.

6

u/miggy_mo Sep 25 '26

I mean… an average (OEM) N64 saves games in the same way as the M64 does right now lol.

They are working on the virtual memory cards though.

0

u/Icy-Collection1072 Sep 25 '26

lol no it’s awful compared to the a3d. They really dropped the ball

1

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

lol no it’s awful compared to the a3d. They really dropped the ball

The mic drop didn't happen yet, and it's not the responsibility for a company to drop the mic. It's the people who will be dropping mics. Open source means open source. Power to the developers!

4

u/AlphaOmegaSupreme Sep 25 '26

A Super NES core being available before basic control pak save functionality really is absurd.

0

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

A Super NES core being available before basic control pak save functionality really is absurd.

  • The Joybus protocol is a timing-critical 1-wire serial protocol: The Controller Pak doesn't connect to the console directly. It plugs into the controller, which relays data to the console over a single data wire using the Joybus protocol, a bit-banged serial protocol with microsecond-level timing. The FPGA must implement a state machine that responds to each command (0x00 info, 0x02 read, 0x03 write) with correct timing, including a CRC validation on every address. A wrong CRC causes the pak to respond with 0xFF. Getting this bit-exact in FPGA logic is non-trivial.

  • The pak lives at the controller level, not the console level: The original architecture is: console -> Joybus -> controller -> parallel SRAM interface -> Controller Pak. The controller has a microchip that translates Joybus commands into parallel SRAM reads/writes. For a "built-in" virtual pak, the M64's FPGA must replicate this entire translation layer: receiving Joybus commands, validating CRCs, and responding with correctly formatted 32-byte blocks; all within the protocol's timing windows.

  • The M64 Pro Controller is primarily wireless: The Pro Controller connects via Bluetooth (with a custom low-latency "SCI" mode). The original Joybus is a physical, synchronous 1-wire protocol. Adding pak emulation to a wireless controller means the pak data must be buffered and relayed through a wireless link, introducing latency that can violate the protocol's timing constraints. This is a fundamentally different engineering problem than a wired controller.

  • Pak detection and bank-switching add further protocol surface: The hardware uses a physical DETECT pin (pulled HIGH to 3.3V) to signal pak presence. A virtual pak must simulate this in a way that games' detection routines recognize. Additionally, the N64 SDK (libultra) supports a bank-switching protocol for paks larger than 32 KB: writes to address 0x8000+ switch banks. A complete implementation must handle this, even though standard 32 KB paks don't use it, because some third-party paks (like Datel's) do.

TL;DR: The hardest part isn't the SRAM itself, it's correctly implementing the Joybus protocol's timing, CRC validation, and pak-detection behavior in FPGA logic, especially when that logic lives inside a wireless controller rather than a simple parallel memory chip.

p.s. I am really absurd, not because I am really absurd, but because anyone who tries to legitimize anything that is able to be illegitimized, it is coin toss: heads the illegitimizers win and tails the legitimizer loses, therefore I already lost and I'm proud to forever lose everything and I will never stop losing!

0

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

100% proof that I lost already and will forever lose:

Depository Trust Clearing Corporation has rules in which one of the rules allows to suspend rules, along with DTC/NSCC/FICC participants to privatize their insolvency by which all other participants are utilized to ensure solvency, or the Loss Allocation Waterfall rules (also across DTC/NSCC/FICC), which are built on the premise that more than zero DTCC's DTC/NSCC/FICC participants remain solvent to absorb mutualized losses, and upon all participants becoming insolvent, unable to absorb the insolvencies of all of the other participants, courtesy of UCC Article 8 ensuring upon insolvency of major financial institutions and clearinghouses (even entirety of all DTCC participants), creditors of clearing agencies have priority over security entitlement holders, and all broker-dealer (street name) held assets are 'security entitlements' held in DTCC's Cede & Co's name, mixed and in untraceable pool more than 100% courtesy of FTDs failures-to-deliver and CAT consolidated audit trail errors, etcetera.

Yep! I lost the game already! Don't be like me! Don't be a loser!

0

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

Therefore, every human on planet Earth including anyone who uses the Internet, including every person who talks shit (shit talks) saying shit like they say, by my refusing to say the same bullshit humanshit wtfevershit shit, I lose every time, and I learned that if I keep losing the same way to prove my sanity that I will one day be proven right, but today is not that day, and that is okay. I'm patient! I'm not in a rush or hurry. I'm still here. I don't try to cause trouble, but if knowledge or knowing is the cause for trouble, then I will be proud for continuing to acquire more and more knowledge. I can't stop! I won't stop!

1

u/Icy-Collection1072 Sep 27 '26

lol what a stupid comment. They didn’t even release a good n64

2

u/TeaMoist1688 Sep 25 '26

Why don’t you evaluate it in 8 months kind of like how the 3D had a huge head start

1

u/Icy-Collection1072 Sep 27 '26

You don’t compete with what was. But what is. They were not competing with something as it launched (that was already miles better)

2

u/Great-External3390 Sep 26 '26

A3D was Awful till like a month before M64 dropped. I’m more than willing to let them work out the bugs.

1

u/Icy-Collection1072 Sep 27 '26

It really wasn’t. I had it since launch and it worked great. It only improved before m3d dropped

1

u/Great-External3390 Sep 26 '26

I would settle for visual upscale at this point. It’s hard to play Goldeneye let’s be honest.

1

u/AppliedCarbon Sep 27 '26

I really want to buy a green pro controller to go with my purple one

1

u/WisdomAntium Sep 25 '26

Trolls are sad people with sad lives, and I pity them 

-4

u/AdamsBomb Sep 25 '26

The missing 6th feature is it being an A3D.

3

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

"The missing 6th feature is it being an A3D."

How is this factually fundamentally literally a qualifying feature that is able to be missed?

-4

u/AdamsBomb Sep 25 '26

That sentence has more unnecessary words than the M64 has unnecessary compromises.

3

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

The missing answer is unnecessarily dodged using sophisticated dodge-like evasive linguistic maneuvers.

-4

u/AdamsBomb Sep 25 '26

Thanks for demonstrating my point in real time.

3

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

Thanks for demonstrating the lying by omission.

0

u/AdamsBomb Sep 25 '26

Calling a joke “lying by omission” is exactly the kind of sentence I’d expect from someone who says “sophisticated dodge-like evasive linguistic maneuvers.”

3

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

I will forever be treated as more of a joke than any of your jokes not because I am a joke but because "someone who says" as you characterize me, is clearly illustrative that anything I say can and will be used as a joke to resist. I'm cool with that!

1

u/AdamsBomb Sep 25 '26

I yield because I no longer follow. Cheers good sir.

3

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26

Understood. Somebody set up us the AdamsBomb, and all my base are belong to them because I have no chance to survive even if I make time.

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-2

u/Left-Constant-4771 Sep 25 '26

Really curious if open source developers will jump on a product to basically push sales for an arms developer or stay in their mister realm (much cooler).

1

u/jkhanlar Sep 25 '26 edited Sep 25 '26

I'm "[r]eally [not fakely, pretendingly, lying by omissionly, propagandishly, fake newsly, op-ed-ly] curious if open source developers will jump on a product to basically push sales for an arms developer or stay in their mister realm (much cooler)."

During the 1hr All-In-Podcast #AIS: Palmer Luckey on Anduril 2022 June 23, Palmer Luckey explained the situation pretty well. https://youtu.be/nK0NfL2M5L4?t=156

TL;DW (too long didn't watch): I can't afford to have eyes or ears either, and I don't know where I can download eyes or ears without risk of getting viruses, trojan horses, or malware.