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Mupen64 user guide
Hacktarux - Malcolm
August 26, 2005

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Contents
1

Introduction

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2

Technical Overview
2.1 Pure interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Dynamic recompiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Windows
3.1Requirements . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Compatibility . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.1 Shortcut keys . . . . . .
3.3.2 Command Line Support
3.3.3 Other features . . . . . .
3.3.4 Configuration . . . . . .
3.4 Compiling (Source) . . . . . . .

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Linux
4.1 Requirements . . .
4.2 Compiling (Source)
4.3 Compatibility . . .
4.4 GUI . . . . . . . .
4.5 Plugins . . . . . .

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Thanks

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Contact Information

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2

1 Introduction
Mupen64 is a n64 emulator desgined to be multi-OS. It has been developpedon/for
Linux originally but the emulator has already been ported succesfully on Windows and
MacOSX for example. Actually the program can be easily ported on all OS supported
by the SDL library.
In its current state, the emulator is highly compatible and use a plugin system. With
the correct plugins (“correct” can be computer dependent), it can achieve nearly perfect
graphics and sound inmany games.
The biggest problem of this emulator until now was its speed but now it’s progressively changing with a totally new core and there’s still a huge room for improvements.
Anyway if you have a fast machine, you should already be able to get many games
running fullspeed.

2 Technical Overview
When you configure Mupen64, you’ll have to choose between three CPU emulation
cores. Here we’llintroduce the technology used by those three cores so that you can
understand what you are doing.

2.1

Pure interpreter

In the pure interpreter core, opcodes have to be decoded each time they are executed.
So if a loop is executed one million times, each opcode of the loop has to be be decoded
one million times. Needless to say it’s a slow core, but it has theoretically less bugs
thanthe others because it’s simpler to program.

2.2

Interpreter

In interpreter core, the opcodes are put in a cache after decoding them. When programming such core, the biggest difficulty is to detect when the cache become invalid
when for example the game doesn’t need some code anymore and erases it with some
new code. That’s why it can have some compatibility issues, but in its currentstate
i’m considering the compatibility is nearly the same. Of course, this core is far much
faster than the pure interpreter core and we are encouraging people to use this core by
default with this release on computers not supported by the dynamic recompiler (mac
for example).

2.3

Dynamic recompiler

The mupen64’s dynamic recompiler is an extension of the interpreter core. Not only it...