🕹️ Running Your Game in an Emulator

Once you've built your .z64 file using GoSprite64, the next step is to run it!
If you don’t own a flashcart (yet), no worries—modern N64 emulators work great for testing.

This page walks you through:

• Which emulator we recommend
• How to set it up
• How to load and run your ROM
• Common issues and tips

✅ Recommended Emulator: Ares

Ares is a modern, accurate, and actively maintained multi-system emulator that includes solid support for the Nintendo 64. It’s fast, cross-platform, and runs .z64 files generated by GoSprite64 with ease.

📦 Download Ares

• → Download Ares

Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Once downloaded, unzip or install it like any other app.

🚀 Running Your ROM

After you’ve built a GoSprite64 ROM (e.g. clearscreen.z64), launch Ares and follow these steps:

1. Open Ares
2. Click System > Nintendo 64
3. Click File > Load
4. Browse to your .z64 file and select it

That’s it! The emulator will boot your game instantly.
If the screen stays black or glitches out, don’t panic — just check the Troubleshooting section below.

📁 Where is my .z64 file?

If you've run mage Test, the output file will be located inside:

~/toolchains/nintendo64/gopath/src/gosprite64/examples/clearscreen/

Or wherever your current GoSprite64 project lives.

You can move this file somewhere easier to access or keep a “ROMs” folder for testing different builds.

Expansion Pak simulation

In case you want to simulate a Nintendo64 without the additional 4M of memory, you can configure Ares to do so:

Enabling it you will effectively use 8M of memory, meaning you would have to configure you build.cfg in your project accordingly:

GOTARGET = n64
GOMEM = 0x00000000:8M
GOTEXT = 0x00000400:8M
GOSTRIPFN = 0
GOOUT = z64