Main window

Should be straightforward enough - starting fom the top:

Title bar, showing the internal name of the loaded ROM, followed by the app title and version number. A minimise button and maximise button (only available in the ROM Browser) and exit button.

File menu - deals with all ROM loading tasks, Start/End emulation and language selection.

System menu - only available while emulator is running, everything you will need while running games.

Options menu - all configuration is done from here, including access to main settings dialog and plugin selection.

Help menu - access to documentation and About information.

At lower left, the status bar, provides feedback on the current state of the emulator, and is also used for the CPU load statistics if enabled.

At the bottom right, the FPS counter.. note that this displays current VI/s or you can think of it as "Fields Per Second" of the CPU core, not Frames Per Second from the graphics plugin.

• Status and colour coding
• "Notes" fields
• Navigation, Sorting, Configuration

Points:

1. The ROM Browser does not verify your ROMs! you must use a seperate ROM verification utility in conjunction with it - GoodN64 is what we use and highly recommend. See Verifying ROMs
2. The "Good Name" is simply a field in the RDS that was filed in with the correct value at the time the RDS was made. It is included for people who have good ROMs without the right names, and to help the RDS author navigate the file. Don't make the mistake of thinking this verifies your ROMs! See point above.
3. ROMs are identified in the Browser by a pair of CRCs in their header and a country code, which references a pair of CRCs and a country code in the RDS. This means that bad ROMs with codes that match good ROMS will be identified as their good counterparts! See point 1.
4. Status categories, colours and notes come from the RDS file. This is supplied with Project64 but you may edit or change it (advanced users only).
5. Any ROM with status "Unknown" is very likely to be a bad ROM, or should be assumed to be a bad ROM, because (very nearly) all the known good ROMs are in the RDS
6. The Browser uses a cache (it creates a file in the Project64 root folder) to speed loading between sessions. Don't forget to refresh if the ROM folder contents have changed! Project64 does not do this for you.

the default "Status" colour coding:

You are probably famililar with the terms "Playable" and "Not playable" from other emulators. Although these words are easy for beginners, they have limitations which the authors of Project64 wanted to avoid (such as being open to a very large degree of personal opinion). Project64 uses the term "Status". "Status" is a definate category (the categories are explained below) giving a summary judgement about the compatibility of particular game with Project64 as a whole. For precise details, see the Notes fields. Status is a field in the RDS which the RDS author defines based on his and other peoples' experience of the compatibility of each game (this is where some human error inevitably comes in). Project64 uses the Status field to define a colour for each row in the ROM Browser. By default (with the RDS supplied) you will come across some or all of the following colours (depending, of course, on which games you actually have!):

"Compatible" (green)
The game is, to the best of our knowledge, fully playable, with no issues severe enough to seriously effect gameplay. Some judgement exercised here; being green does not equal "flawless", only the original console will guarantee that. Note that system requirements are variable within this category - minimum spec may not be enough to run all "Compatible" games. There is also the possibility of mistakes, because not all games can have been fully tested. However, a lot of these games have been completed in Project64, you should be reasonably confident that you can do the same.

"Issues (core)/Issues (plugin)" (muddy yellow)
These games can be played, but they have moderate to severe issues that may effect your enjoyment of the game. If a game is marked "Issues (plugin)" then switching to another more suitable plugin could resolve the issue. If a game is marked "Issue (core)" then you can't do anything about the problem short of rewriting parts of the core (out of the question for most people!) or looking for a newer/different version or a different emulator altogether. "Issues (mixed)", as you might guess, means that the game shows both core and plugin issues.

"Needs video plugin" (turquoise)
These games are (we believe) supported on the core of the emulator, but are known to have serious enough problems with the default plugins that they cannot be considered playable (although often it's just the menu portion of the game that's missing, and if you can get past this you might be OK). Because of this, and the obvious problems in testing a game we cannot see properly, you should consider core status on these games as being somewhat uncertain also. You need to find a suitable 3rd party video plugin to be able to play this game - one may or may not exist. Check your favourite emulation news sites.

"Needs audio plugin" (turquoise)
As for "Needs video plugin"(see above) but the issue is with the audio plugin rather than the video plugin. This sitaution is very rare.

"Use (a certain named) plugin" (purple)
As for "Use (a certain named)  plugin"(see above) lets the user know that the plugin named here will give the best results for the particular game.

"Unsupported" (dark red)
These games areknown to not work on the core of the emulator. No amount of plugin switching or settings fiddling will help you here, further (probably highly difficult!) development of the core would be required to get these games working.

"Broken (core)/Broken (plugin)" (brown)
You are advised to use an older version of either the Project64 application or a Project64 plugin to play this game. See Notes for details. Important! See which field the recommended is in. For example, if it says "use older version" in the Notes (default plugins) field, you only have to use an older plugin, NOT an older version of the Project64 application! Remember you can mix and match plugins and executables. Similarly, if it says "use older version" in the Notes (core) field, you should only have to use an older version of the Project64 application - you can continue to use the newer plugins! This way you are not missing out on all the other benefits of the newer versions.

"Region issue" (blue)
This is to let you know that although this ROM doesn't work properly, there is another version of it (i.e. the same game) that does work. Read the note to learn which area of the emulator has the problem and which version of the ROM you should use instead.

"Interpreter only" (medium green)
This is to let you know that although this ROM works, it only runs on Intereter core.

"Uncertain" (black)
It could not be determined before release exactly what the status of this game was... you'll have to try it and see for yourself how well it works... check for an updated RDS.

"Unknown" (grey)
This ROM has not been found in the RDS, OR there is no status defined in the RDS by the RDS author. A ROM is marked Unknown probably because it is not a known good GoodN64 ROM, and hence hasn't been included. There is also a chance that the reason you are seeing Unknown status is that you have a New Prototype or Hack etc that the RDS at the time was not aware of. If the ROM is still marked Unknown, you are advised to check it is a good rom or add it yourself.

the "Notes" fields:

Notes (sometimes called "Comments" in other emulators ) are split into two fields in Project64 to reflect the fact that the core and the plugins are seperate and have seperate compatibility. (Each game's status is derived from both the core and the default plugin compatibility considered together).

When reading both Notes fields it will help you to keep this in mind:

• most text is explaining known issues, such as a graphics glitch, that you cannot prevent.
• most instructions to the user start "use..." - pay attention!
• if the notes are particularly complex i preferred to just refer you to the GameFAQ, where i have more space to explain things properly. The GameFAQ is accessible from the Help menu.

Some abbreviation was necessary to keep the notes within the space:

• the colon ":" is used to give an explanation, it stands for "for" e.g. "Framebuffer:flare" is shorthand for "enable Framebuffer for flare".
• the semicolon ";" is used as "therefore" or "so" e.g. "doesn't start; use PAL version" means "the game does not start, so you are advised to use the PAL version (which does)".

some common abbreviations:

• "res." = resolution
• "v." or "ver" = version
• (E), (U) etc. are standard GoodN64 country codes.
• "NTSC" means US, Jap etc
• "PAL" means Europe, Australia etc.
• ? = RDS author was not sure about something!

ROM Browser Navigation:

In addition to using the mouse to move around the Browser (scroll bars, mouse wheel and buttons), you may find the shortcut keys speed up your navigation.

You can sort by any column by clicking in the header of that column - click once to sort descending, subsequent clicks reverse the direction of sort.

The browser is highly configurable.