Well as if the 2.5 / 2.6 Downgrader wasn't big enough news for one weekend, upon checking my email today I noticed an update from longtime GBA developer and reader ZoMbi146. We have been in contact over the last few days and just today I received two brand spanking new teaser shots from ZoMbi146's new Nintendo 64 Emulator.

Work on this emulator which is based on the UltraHLE engine, has been going on for some time. It appears now the emulator will be split into separate eboots that are hard coded for specific roms. For example Mario64 and Zelda would not use the exact same loader. What this allows is for the emulator to be specifically tweaked to run the specific game at the best possible speed, sound and compatibility. A current available and rather general example would be SnesTYL switching graphic modes.

In addition "each version would have special tweaks with optimizations that would make each appropriate rom run correctly at full speed with sound." The games that are currently working in this method are Mario 64, Zelda OOT, and Goldeneye 64.

Just on a side note, the Nintendo 64 was a good platform and did have quite a few games. One of the things that made the system suffer, however, was a rather difficult programming interface. For these games to play very well, or in this case at full speed, is quite an amazing feat.

Not sure about you but I look forward to hearing more from Zombi146 in the coming days. Until then we will be standing on our heads and drooling from the mouth (yuck) as we await the reawakening of Mario 64, Zelda OOT, and Goldeneye on the PSP. Nice work ZoMbi146, nice work!

Update: So what happened, what was the final resolution you ask? Myth Busters Takes on PSP