We all crave that sweet hit of nostalgia, no matter what it is in life. Gaming is no exception; some of the greatest video games were released on classic gaming consoles.

If you’re a Mac OS X user and are itching to play some Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time but don’t how all you need is an N64 emulator.

In this article, we’ll show you how to download the N64 emulator for Mac. This will let you play any N64 games on your iMac – as long as you have the ROMs ready.

Best Nintendo 64 Emulator on Mac

There are three options for Mac users when it comes to an N64 emulator. We will go through the different N64 emulators, showing what makes each emulator unique.

These emulators will work whether you have macOS or Mac OS X. There are no separate instructions for Mac OS X installation – both should be able to run N64 games just fine.

OpenEmu Emulator

Key Features:

  • Complete open source
  • Free to use
  • Integrated ROM library
  • Supports USB/Bluetooth game controllers
  • Multiple Console Emulation

At our top spot, we have an OpenEmu emulator for Mac. OpenEmu is an entirely free Nintendo 64 emulator for macOS that is also open source.

We like it because of the integrated controller support. You can use both USB and Bluetooth controllers straight out of the box. Some of the controllers that OpenEmu supports include Play Station Dualshock, Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, Wiimote, and Xbox One S wireless controller.

In addition to being a Mac N64 emulator, OpenEmu can run and play games on many different consoles. Whether it’s Gameboy Advance, Sony PSP, or Sega MegaDrive, there is no shortage of emulation possibilities for OpenEmu.

You can download and install OpenEmu from here. Click here if you wish to download from the Github repository instead.

Mupen 64 Plus Emulator

Key Features:

  • Infrared remote control support
  • Rumble Pak integration
  • Cheat system for games
  • Front-end Command-line interface
  • Two High-Resolution OpenGL Plugins

Next up, we have the Mupen 64 Plus emulator for Mac.

Mupen 64 is one of the few emulators with complete cheat system support. That means that you can use GameShark cheat codes while gaming. This will surely come in handy for certain Nintendo games, where you may want to catch a legendary Pokemon or get a mythical item.

There is no shortage of controller support for Mupen 64 Plus either. This N64 emulator works with Infrared remote controls, as long as they are LIRC. It also works with the Rumble Pak system. This gives you flexibility in deciding which game you want to play with additional features.

As Mupen 64 Plus also has two dedicated high-resolution video plugins, you can play even graphically demanding ROMs. Any newer version of OpenGL will work, although we recommend using the latest version.

Click here to download and install the emulator for macOS. Mupen 64 Plus is not available for direct download, but you can install it easily by following the instructions on Github.

Sixtyforce Nintendo 64 Emulator

Key Features:

  • Limited Games Support
  • Lightweight
  • Easy UI
  • Simple Installation

Finally, we have Sixty Force N64 Emulator for Mac.

Sixtyforce only supports a few games at the moment, although some of the best N64 games are included. You can view the game you want to play from here. If there is a game that you would like to see in the future, you can click here to register with Sixtyforce and help with their development efforts.

While there aren’t many ROMs available for Sixtyforce compared to other N64 emulators, there is a great deal we still like. The UI is smooth and streamlined for Mac OS X. There is little clutter while on a game screen, and it is easy to open and run the ROMs.

We also find it easy to share Nintendo 64 Roms on this N64 emulator. It has one of the most accessible menus to share and get different ROMs from your iMac.

The developers have made the game files easy to share through zip installation files, so there is no Github repository as it is not open source. You can download Sixtyforce Nintendo 64 emulator from here.

Final Thoughts

While there were no options for Nintendo 64 gaming on Mac, the rise of N64 emulators has improved the situation significantly.

There are many game N64 game titles available to play through emulation, although some emulators may only run a few ROMs.

These emulators work well with Mac OS X and Mac OS and are suitable for both iMac Pro and Macbook Pro.

Get the N64 emulator you want today, and you can recreate the nostalgic magic on your Mac easily!