I did some snooping around with everything mentioned here, and this is my 2cents. . keep in mind I have no actual experience with these emulators yet, so if anyone more informed has something to negate something i say, please do.
was stated somewere the route cen64 is taking has the potential to be the most accurate/glitch free n64 emu, true. But, it will require higher system requirement to run it than all the rest, even after its optimized. . . I believe this relates to the reason I hate MAME sometimes, because of its focus on accuracy above all else, its slower due to probably zero hardware acceleration. . All in all tho it will be great no matter to have an accurate n64 emu, but I feel a compromise between performance/accuracy is ideal but thats just my opinion. . Thats why I use ZSNES even tho higan exists, without extra filters enabled ZSNES hovers under ~10% cpu usage on an old machine, and under ~20 usually even with filters. Granted the machine could still probably run any snes emu without issue, but I like its efficency plus less heat generated lol.
last few pj64 releases come in a shady installer bundled with malware. . I cant comment on it till i actually try it on a non net enabled pc, I'm sure it works but I'll probably try the alternatives or older versions first. I can't say i agree with malware practices but malware in an Emu for games and stuff you don't own just seems kinda shady to the 2ndpower(^2x) . Don't know where i got it but the version named "Project64k_0.41.zip" also comes with a 'Glide' plugin/dll. in reference to 'Termingamer2-JD' compatability note with slow machines, tho I notice they also come with OpenGL plugins, so don't know if they would also fix the issue, that refers to most if not all of them not just pj64.
some of the misc n64 emu home pages and stuff are long dead of course, but something i liked was "mupen64plus" home page still had basic info, old-release archive still available, and I think the project might not even be dead. . I don't look that deep lol. But I like projects that can still at least provide documentation and Old Releases.
that and from some other misc stuff i saw, I maybe inclined to try them out in this order whenever i get around to it.
- mupen64plus
- 1964
- mupen64++
- mupen64
- pj64 old versions
- pj64
- ultraHLE
cen64 is a no brainer too, but i assume its not yet in a usable state for most roms