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EverDrive 64 / Re: Linux now running on the N64!
« on: Today at 04:41 PM »
This is very interesting, technically, and that alone is reason for someone to put Linux on a new (to Linux) system. But could this result in any actual benefits for N64 users? I've never used Linux, so i don't know how easy it would be to run any native Linux software on the N64, but I'd imagine that even if this is easily possible then given the N64's low hardware specs, and with whatever portion of those specs Linux itself will eat up, then only very basic programs and games will run well. Getting emulators of old consoles and computers running on Linux N64 would be great, if they could run fast enough, though of course I doubt 16 bit or later emulators will run at all well, but if ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, etc, emulators could be made to run well then that would be great. But even that might be pushing it, given that most of the N64's real power came from it's graphics hardware, which won't be involved in running emulators.
And I take it there is no N64 3D graphics driver/API in the N64 Linux build? Lack of public hard information about the N64's GFX hardware (is that still the case?), and the disparity between the N64's 3D hardware and other, more commonly used 3D hardware, make Linux N64 based 3D hardware support seem very unlikely, and that unfortunately probably won't change, give the tiny number of people who would use it even if someone put in the very hard work of writing it.
I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just curious as to what is possible here. N64 homebrew is very rare, so it would be good to believe that this could lead to more stuff running on the console. But at the moment, I can't help thinking that it would have been a better use of the Linux N64's programmer's time and effort to have directly ported an open source game or two to the N64. But maybe he has real plans for this new version of Linux.
And I take it there is no N64 3D graphics driver/API in the N64 Linux build? Lack of public hard information about the N64's GFX hardware (is that still the case?), and the disparity between the N64's 3D hardware and other, more commonly used 3D hardware, make Linux N64 based 3D hardware support seem very unlikely, and that unfortunately probably won't change, give the tiny number of people who would use it even if someone put in the very hard work of writing it.
I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just curious as to what is possible here. N64 homebrew is very rare, so it would be good to believe that this could lead to more stuff running on the console. But at the moment, I can't help thinking that it would have been a better use of the Linux N64's programmer's time and effort to have directly ported an open source game or two to the N64. But maybe he has real plans for this new version of Linux.
