For Voodoo owners only.... (UltraHLE)

Member Name: Retron

Product:	UltraHLE
Date:	31/07/01 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing speed on supported games, High resolution graphics, Runs acceptably on 1997 hardware

Disadvantages: Fiddly controls, Needs a Voodoo to work

UltraHLE caused a stir when it came out - using 3Dfx's Glide API, it emulates the core parts of an N64 console. It's not an emulator in the strict sense of the term, as it doesn't emulate everything (HLE - High Level Emulator). This means some games won't work - the authors originally wrote it to work best with Mario 64, then other popular games such as Zelda. Sadly, Nintendo kicked up a fuss and development was stopped a couple of days after release, never to be resumed.

Anyway, due to the emulator's dependence on Glide, you'll need a 3Dfx graphics card to run it. Yes, you could use a Glide wrapper to run it on anything else, but you'll get performance equivalent to molasses running through treacle - avoid. Assuming you've got the requisite hardware, games such as Mario 64 are completely playable (well, as playable as they can be with a keyboard). Graphics are smooth for the top games (even a P200 with an original Voodoo can play Mario reasonably well), although it seems Goldeneye wasn't on the developer's list of games, as that's *really* slow, even with a Vodooo 2 SLI rig on my 1.3GHz Athlon.

Assuming you've been able to find a ROM image of your game (a real grey area), and the game's supported well, you'll be amazed - although having to fiddle around with a dozen keys to do things is a bit fiddly. You can run games at any resolution your card supports - in my case, up to 1024x768, which means the games look better than they do on the real N64. I've only noticed a couple of glitches (in games like Doom 64), but I'm told that you tend to get lots of glitches with Glide wrappers.

In a way, it's sad that 3Dfx sold out - now that their cards are becoming outdated, it's unlikely that most people will bother with UltraHLE. If you *do* have a Voodoo of any sort, though, I'd highly recommend it!

Summary: