I've been emulating N64 games. Thanks to   Isinia for helping me with some issues during set up.

Emulating N64 games has always been imperfect. Not only does the consoles unique controller mean getting a good set up on PC is difficult, but the emulators themselves are a mess of various plug ins and settings that have to be tweaked and re-tweaked to get a game running right. Now, those issues have been solved. Kind of.

-Tribute 64 controller-
The N64 controller is unique beast. It's a shame then that Nintendo decided to make the sticks out of chalk, meaning even real hardware has a limited shelf life. If you owned a 64 back in the day, you likely remember that weird white powder that used to build up at the base of the stick. I do have a nearly new controller, but I'm afraid to use it.

For reasons I don't recall, I bought the Tribute 64 controller from Amazon. I got the USB version for use on PC, but there is a real N64 compatible version available as well. I'm kind of tempted to get one as the Tribute is a good controller.

First, the layout. It uses a Dreamcast/360-ish layout, with triggers acting as Z, and the D-pad being down and right from the stick, in the middle of the controller. This 2 hand approach is arguably better than Nintendo's weird 3 pronged monstrosity, but that's debatable.

The D-pad is not good. Not as bad as the 360s, but then what is? The build quality of the d-pad is fine, it's the position that's bad. While it's fine for menus, trying to play a d-pad heavy game on it is awkward due it it being crammed against the A and B buttons.
Buttons are decent. Nothing to write home about, there's no fancy switches or anything, but they are good enough to be reliable and they don't distract. One quirk is the start button would open Big Picture mode if I had steam open.
Shoulder buttons are fairly weak. The larger z triggers are fine, but the L and R buttons are a bit vague. They aren't PS3 levels of horrible, but they are enough to distract me when playing Goldeneye or Resident Evil, and I didn't feel I could rely on them. They have to be pressed in the middle to work properly. The build quality of the controller as a whole is decent, so maybe I just have to get used to them, or maybe it's the position that's bad. Whatever the case, there were a few times where I'd stop aiming for a moment in Goldeneye because I wasn't holding the button right.

But where the controller shines is the stick. They claim it was made in Japan for the best quality, and I believe it. It's basically the GameCube stick. ie. The gold standard of analogue sticks imo. This thing is glorious, and I'm kind of tempted to get one of these controllers for my real N64. It could be great for Smash Bros and racing games. On emulators, I had to tweak it a bit to get the sensitivity feeling right, but I don't want to blame the controller for that.

For the price, this is a good controller for playing N64 emulators. I've not tried it with other emulators, and I've the only d-pad heavy game I tried didn't play well on it, but so far I'm happy with it. And like I said, I'm considering getting another one to use on actual hardware.


-AngryLion Graphics Plugin-
I guess you could call me a mid tier emulation snob. I'm not someone who demands 100% cycle accurate emulation, although I see the value in that for archiving. But I do want emulators to "just work", and play the games fairly close to how they originally played. I don't mind playing Goldeneye at 1080p 60fps, but I don't want to play it with a mouse and keyboard or HD texture pack.
I think it's why the Xbox Live port of Perfect Dark didn't really do it for me, because they tried to cram a N64 control scheme on a 360 controller, and they messed with the graphics resulting in something that was uglier.

I was never happy with N64 emulation because it was always a hassle getting games working right, and by the time I got a combination of plug ins and settings I was happy with, I didn't want to play that game any more. I've been looking forward to the Cen64 emulator that seeks to do away with these plug in shenanigans, but that's not ready yet.

Anyway, enter AngryLion's N64 video plugin. A "pixel accurate" video plugin for N64 emulators. This is what I wanted. It runs games at native resolution at proper speeds. So while you don't get to play Goldeneye at 1080p 60fps, it does mean that most games I've thrown at it just work without any fiddling or graphical glitches.
For example, on the default Glide plugins, Shadows of the Empire stutters during the snow speeder level, and the on foot mission flickers like it's having a seizure. With AngryLion, the game just works and looks how I remember it.
It is technically slower than using Glide, but my 3.5hz i5 was enough to have it work, and I didn't notice any real glitches even on the "fast" setting.

By default it has some kind of filter on, but with a resolution this low it just serves to make it feel like you're looking at the game through a tub of Vaseline. I turned that off and enjoyed the raw pixels.
Which brings me to something that isn't a problem for me, but seems to be for others. The N64 had a standard resolution of 320×240. That's a lot of chunkiness for those who aren't used to that kind of thing. For me, the trade off is worth it. For others, it's a bit much. Especially if you're at your desk top.

At time I've writing, I've not tried it with the notoriously tough-to-emulate games like Rogue Squadron and Pokemon Snap. I did give Resident Evil 2 a go, and it worked fine with only a couple of minor glitches that could have been in the original version for all I know.

-Conclusion-
While it's too early to say for sure, I think the combination of the controller and reasonably accurate graphics plugins means N64 emulation is now something I can enjoy. Yes, it was a hassle doing the first time set-up, and some games still require tweaking (Body Harvest had some sound issues that required some fiddling to fix). But so far, N64 emulation is looking like something I can enjoy, instead of being a endless string of troubleshooting and compromises.