N64 Flashcart Menu

An open source menu for N64 flashcarts.

Supported Flashcarts

Fully supported

• SummerCart64
• 64Drive

Work in Progress

• ED64
• ED64P

Current (notable) menu features

• Fully Open Source.
• Loads all known N64 games (including iQue and Aleck64 ROMs), even if they are byteswapped.
• Fully emulates the 64DD and loads 64DD disks (SummerCart64 only).
• Emulator support (NES, SNES, GB, GBC, SMS, GG, CHF) ROMs.
• N64 ROM box image support.
• Background image (PNG) support.
• Comprehensive ROM save database (including homebrew headers).
• Comprehensive ROM information display.
• Real Time Clock support.
• Music playback (MP3).
• Menu sound effects.
• N64 ROM autoload.

Documentation

• Getting started guide
• Menu controls
• Menu customization
• Developer guide

Video showcase (as of Oct 12 2023)

Aims

• Support as many N64 FlashCarts as possible.
• Be open source, using permissively licensed third-party libraries.
• Be testable, using unit and smoke tests in ares emulated environment.
• Encourage active development from community members and N64 FlashCart owners.
• Support as many common mods and features as possible.

Experimental features

These features are subject to change:

N64 ROM autoload

To use the autoload function, while on the N64 ROM information display, press the R button on your joypad and select the Set ROM to autoload option. When you restart the console, it will now only load the selected ROM rather than the menu. The autoload setting is stored in config.ini and persists until changed. This feature may slightly increase boot time as the menu needs to check for the Start button state. NOTE: To return to the menu, hold the joypad Start button while powering on the console.

GamePak sprites

To use N64 GamePak sprites, place PNG files within the sd:/menu/boxart/ folder.

Supported sprites

These must be PNG files that use the following dimensions:

• Standard N64 GamePak boxart sprites: 158x112
• Japanese N64 GamePak boxart sprites: 112x158
• 64DD boxart sprites: 129x112

Supported PNG formats:

• RGB/RGBA color formats
• 8-bit color depth

They will be loaded by directories using each character (case-sensitive) of the full 4 character Game Code (as identified in the menu ROM information). i.e. for GoldenEye NTSC USA (NGEE), this would be sd:/menu/boxart/N/G/E/E/boxart_front.png. i.e. for GoldenEye PAL (NGEP), this would be sd:/menu/boxart/N/G/E/P/boxart_front.png.

To improve compatibility between regions (as a fallback), you may exclude the region ID (last matched directory) for GamePaks to match with 3 letter IDs instead: i.e. for GoldenEye, this would be sd:/menu/boxart/N/G/E/boxart_front.png.

Warning: Excluding the region ID may show the wrong boxart. Note: For future support, boxart sprites should also include:

• boxart_back.png
• boxart_top.png
• boxart_bottom.png
• boxart_left.png
• boxart_right.png

As a starting point, here is a link to a boxart pack following the new structure, including boxart_front.png and fallback images:

• Link

Compatibility mode

If you cannot yet satisfy the correct boxart layout, The menu still has deprecated support for filenames containing the Game ID.

Note: This will add a noticeable delay for displaying parts of the menu.

Each file must be named according to the 2,3 or 4 letter GamePak ID (matched in this order). i.e.

• for GoldenEye 4 letters, this would be sd:/menu/boxart/NGEE.png and/or sd:/menu/boxart/NGEP.png.
• for GoldenEye 3 letters, this would be sd:/menu/boxart/NGE.png.
• for GoldenEye 2 letters, this would be sd:/menu/boxart/GE.png.

As a starting point, here are some links to boxart packs:

• Japan Boxart
• American Boxart
• European Boxart
• 64DD Boxart

Menu Settings

The Menu creates a config.ini file in sd:/menu/ which contains various settings that are used by the menu. If required, you can manually adjust the file on the SD card using your computer.

Flashcart specific

SC64

• Ensure the cart has the latest firmware installed.
• Download the latest sc64menu.n64 file from the releases page, then put it in the root directory of your SD card.

64drive

• Ensure the cart has the latest firmware installed.
• Download the latest menu.bin file from the releases page, then put it in the root directory of your SD card.

ED64 - WIP - UNTESTED AND UNSUPPORTED - USE AT OWN RISK

Currently not supported, but work is in progress (See PRs). Warning: The menu may be able to load ROMs but cannot guarantee save functionality. Existing saves may be corrupted.

ED64 (Vseries)

The aim is to reach feature parity with ED64-UnofficialOS / ED64-OfficialOS. Download the OS64.v64 ROM from the latest [action run - assets] and place it in the /ED64 folder.

ED64 (X series)

X Series support is currently awaiting fixes. Please use the official OS for now.

ED64 (P clone)

Download the OS64P.v64 ROM from the latest [action run - assets] and place it in the /ED64P folder. The aim is to reach feature parity with Altra64

Open source software and licenses used

• libdragon (UNLICENSE License)
• libspng (BSD 2-Clause License)
• mini.c (BSD 2-Clause License)
• minimp3 (CC0 1.0 Universal)
• miniz (MIT License)

Sounds

See License for the following sounds:

• Cursor sound by Skyscraper_seven (Free to use)
• Actions (Enter, Back) sound by Liecio (Free to use)
• Error sound by Universfield (Free to use)