Yep, it’s an awesome product. I have two of the v2 ones and they work flawlessly with the wavebird. The analogue stick mapping is dead on too, unlike those shitty third party GameCube style replacements for the N64 pads.
That’s great. I remember when you got yours and you were saying how impressed you were with it and here you are a year or 2 later still saying how great it is so I finally took the plunge.
I bought a few of the replacement sticks off ebay, not the gamecube ones, and they are straight fucking garbage.
Yeah! Just bear in mind that they are by default set up to have Z set to Z and L set to L. If you want to swap those two around (of course you do!), you need to change the mapping and save it as default.
It’s pretty easy to do, just use the tool on this page and then enter in the button combination following the instructions: http://www.raphnet-tech.com/support/gc2n64/index.php
I’d say these adapters are an essential purchase for any N64 owner. They really do make a massive difference. You can also daisy chain them - so your classic controller to GC adapter will work on the N64 via it!!
Oh dear lord. I assumed Z would be mapped to L by default since basically no game uses the L button lol. I’ll have to change that asap.
I never thought of daisy chaining the adapters. That’s still only 1/2 a frame of delay which is fine. I can’t think of any game I’d want to use any other controller for though but having options is always welcome
I’ve been touting how great Raphnet’s adapters are for years now. Glad to see others giving him some love.
Part of my hate for the N64 comes from the controller. The other part is just how fucking awful the system looks (compared to the PS1 and older Nintendo consoles). I heard there is a new RGB board that does what the ultra HDMI does but taking out some of that bilinear filtering.
Last night I tried playing Ocarina of Time on the gamecube in 480p. WOW! The low polys look really nice when it’s not a blurry mess. How good does the Ultra HDMI look compared to Tim’s RGB board. I really want to redo the RGB mod and get the ultra hdmi but since it’s my least favorite Nintendo console I keep passing over the chance to get the kit.
I forgot to mention, my hands are too big for the N64. I have to wedge my hands into the space between the left dpad and middled analog stick. I’ve been trying to get one of those HORI pads for what seems like forever. I wish Hori would remake their N64 and Gamecube Pads so they aren’t $100+ each for 2nd hand units.
The blurriness of the visuals is an issue, but also sort of overblown into being an extremely big deal.
I played Sin and Punishment at 480p on my CRT via Wii over the weekend, then again at 240p on N64, and thought it looked far more natural at lower res with the natural filtering provided by the hardware.
Will N64 games ever look as sharp as PS1 and Saturn stuff? No… but it still has a good aesthetic on its own provided you are playing on a low-res enough CRT monitor.
Games like OOT, Majora’s Mask, Sin and Punishment, Paper Mario, and Super Mario 64 look absolutely phenomenal on original hardware over S-Video/RGB.
When you render these games at a higher native resolution without the blur filters, the 3D models tend to look far more “low poly” and angular.
When you remove the blur filters at 240p, well, I do think the results are mixed. I haven’t tried this myself, but I would love to see it on my CRT with proper scanlines eventually.
My concern is seeing all that dithering that really isn’t supposed to be there.
The MLiG guys did a really great episode on this:
You don’t even need viletim’s RGB board or an ultraHDMI to remove the blurring. Everdrive has auto-patching functionality for it, or you can use an action replay.
That’s to remove the anti aliasing. The RGB board and HDMI use an algorithm to reverse some blurring applied by the VI that is separate to the AA.
Personally I think the deblur is pretty bad. Most games on N64 are designed with blur in mind, especially text tends to look much worse in deblur. For 2D games or ports of PS1 games I think it is nice but for Ocarina of Time or Goldeneye or Banjo Kazooie or any other N64 exclusive it’s better to just leave the blur.
Oh? I never knew that there was a difference!
Curious to try it out then when I get my UltraHDMI board. In any case, it’s great to have options.
I think the N64 has to be the best example of a console that looks so much better on a CRT. I can play around with the deblur codes and take some screenshots (direct capture and off screen crt) if anyone is interested
Socks, I’d love to see this. I’m still rocking S-Video with my N64, and have been debating whether to get an RGB mod, Ultra HDMI, or just leave as is. Maybe it’s because I barely play the thing…
I’ve actually just taken some shots of my RGB modded N64 on my JVC CRT (H1950CG). Each one has the AA patch applied. Not the best photos, sorry - it’s hard to get the exposure/colour temp right when photographing a CRT
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I like the deblur on the Ultra HDMI connected to a modern TV + hybrid scanlines on. I had my Ultra HDMI conncted to a CRT via adapter for a while and the deblur does add a bit of nice clarity to the image but it isn’t that critical.
The anti-AA is neat for a PS1-like look, but it’s pretty bad because the games lose some of their smoothness and there’s a side effect where disabling AA reveals the always-present full-screen dithering we aren’t supposed to see. It’'s not as obvious on CRT, but clear as day on a pixel display. If the Ultra HDMI for some reason had an option to apply a modern blending filter, it would remove this pattern without negatively affecting the sharpness of the game. I remember NormalFish posted an example of such a filter smoothing out dithered graphics from HD/RGB Genesis screens without any impact on visuals.
RGB/S-video N64 on a low-medium TVL, shadowmask CRT is really the best. But I still like the clean, pixelated upscale of the Ultra HDMI on a huge TV with integer scale+ (1200p), de-blur and hybrid scanlines.
I believe this is standard output, no kind of de-blurring applied, possible non-integer upscale.
This looks like integer scale with de-blur applied. Skies are clear so no anti-AA in this image.
Here’s another comparison where you can see deblur only in the first image vs. deblur + anti-AA in the second (check out all the dithering)
This is deblur + anti-AA patch + hybrid lines. Somewhat helps mask the dithering but it was still noticeable to me on a HDTV.
Another comparison of deblur vs anti-AA. Both at integer scale/960p this time.
Those shots look fantastic!
Oh awesome! Would you say the UltraHDMI is definitely worth it? Ive got a board I pre-ordered back in November and it hopefully will be coming next month. Really can’t wait to install it, because then along with the Super NT and my NT Mini, my Nintendo collection will be fully HDMI with zero lag.
Yes, definitely worth it. Unless you already have OSSC and a modded N64 with that RGB board that carries the same deblur feature as the Ultra HDMI.
I am interested in seeing the codes to remove the blur but I don’t even agree it looks good on a CRT. Phonedork did an episode about the N64 and his findings were like mine. Get a small PVM 14" for N64. I think it looks terrible on my 20" and I am curious what the HDMI mod would do for it on an LCD screen. I can’t stand it on my framemeister or ossc.
At 14" I would just keep S-Video. If you rarely play it then why spend the extra money?
Edit. Mario is a great looking game on the N64. I want to see Ocarina. I think it’s one of the more muddy games.
Everything looks better on a 14” PVM in general. Higher pixel density does wonders for IQ.
I was at a retro show this weekend. Tons of small no name CRTs connected with composite cables looked fine.