The plugins below are arranged in alphabetical order
My general recommendations are shown in red.

If any author is not happy to see his/her plugins distributed here please contact me.

Plugin General FAQ:

• What is a plugin?
• Why have plugins?
• What is "Zilmar Spec.?
• What types of plugins are there?
• Which emulators support the specification?
• Where can I download plugins?
• Where can I download the plugin specifications?
• How do I install and use a plugin?

• What is a plugin?
  The term is not unique to N64 emulation - you're probably familiar with e.g. Photoshop plugins. Essentially a plugin is executable code like any program, but rather than being run on its own it's 'called' (requested, used) by another application - in this case, an N64 emulator application, to perform a specific task. Unlike most PC software however, N64 emulator plugins are essential components of the emulator system. Many emulators have their own video, sound and input (or some combination of the three) provided as plugins so that you may use them with the cores of other emulators. Other plugins are available standalone (this means that they are not bundled with any emulator) and these plugins can be downloaded from this page.

• Why have plugins?
  The idea is to create a library of cross-compatible parts that can be put together to create an emulator that (a) suits you - that is, that runs the games you want to play on the system you have; and (b) benefits authors also, because for example, if someone writes a high quality audio plugin, it will immediately work in all all emulators - they won't even need to test it... in theory. This frees up authors to work on whichever parts of an emulator they enjoy or are good at etc., which in turn benefits users.

• What is "Zilmar Spec.?
  Apart from co-writing Project64, Zilmar wrote extra n64 emulation documention, provided coding support to other n64 emulator authors, and as you probably guesed, he designed these specifications (you can download the specifications as text files, see relevant question in this FAQ). He also wrote a simple set of example plugins to demonstrate the system to potential plugin authors (Zilmar did not invest much time in writing plugins himself). There have been several updates to the plugin specifications, they are mostly backward and forward compatible.

• What types of plugins are there?
  Definitions exist for three main types of plugin - video, audio and input, and the less common fourth type, RSP (N64 co-processor). Video plugins, as you might guess, handle all the graphics output of an emulator and are thus extremely complex projects in themselves, perhaps of comparable difficulty to writing an emulator CPU core. All currently available are HLE (high level emulators, high level emulation), and they use a variety of APIs - Direct3D, OpenGL and Glide (though only one each!). Audio plugins of course handle music and sound effects, but they may not contain an emulator - some are output only (e.g. Project64's audio plugin does not contain an emulator but rather uses Project64's RSP plugin). Input plugins are the least complex to code and hence there are more of these available than other types of plugin. In the future, we may see plugin specifications put forward for other parts of emulators, such as core and GUI extensions, cheat systems or whatever anyone thinks of...

• Which emulators support the specification?
  Emulator authors are free to choose which of the three parts of the spec. they want to use. So an author working on an N64 emulator could write just a core and rely on 3rd party plugins for video, audio and input (though in practice most authors want to provide at least some of these things themselves). Some authors want to do everything themselves, in which case they could use their own specification (e.g. Nemu) and you won't be able to use the plugin in any other emu. The ideal situation from our point of view is if the authors write thier own plugins AND makes them compatible, since then you have the freedom to use them in other emulators aswell as their 'home' emulator. And clearly, any emulator released before the actual plugin specification (uHLE, Corn) is not going to be compatible! See the emulators section for details.

• Where can I download the plugin specifications?
  They are included with Project64. (The plugins on this page are all to Zilmar/Project64 specification).

• How do I install and use a plugin?

1. First check which specifications your emulator supports (see chart above if you aren't sure). Generally, if there is a "select plugin" or similar menu somewhere, it does!
2. Download the plugin(s) you are interested in.
3. Find out where the emulator looks for plugins - usually this will be a subfolder of the main emulator installed folder named "plugins" or similar.
4. Extract the .dll file from the archive you downloaded, into this folder.
5. Load the emulator (but not a game) and select the new plugin from the menu in the GUI. Consult emulator documentation for more information on this.
6. Look for a configure button and see if the plugin author has provided any options for his plugin. If so, set them as needed (though the defaults should be the best for most poeple). Consult the plugin documentation for more information on this.
7. Press OK to close the dialogue and save your selection.
8. Try a game!

Important notes

1. You cannot change plugins whilst an emulator is running.
2. You might only be able to configure plugins whilst an emulator is running, this depends on the coding of the emulator application.
3. You can continue a saved game on a different plugin.
4. The "Basic" series of plugins (plugins with the word "Basic" in their name) are not really for end users, they are for programmers to learn from - if you are a gamer, you should ignore them.