Gopher64 netplay on PC (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Gopher64 is an actively developed N64 emulator from loganmc10, the developer of Simple64 (Simple64 is now archived). Netplay is built in and peer-to-peer: the Gopher64 server only runs the lobby and NAT traversal, so no port forwarding is needed. Up to 4 players. It is delay-based, not rollback.

Requirements

• Everyone on the latest Gopher64 release (your version is sent to the lobby, so update together).
• The exact same ROM file for every player (the ROM is hashed).
• A GPU with Vulkan 1.1+, a CPU with AVX2 (x86-64-v3) or ARMv8.2, and Windows 10+, macOS 15+ (Apple silicon) or Linux.

Install

1. Download Gopher64 from the latest release:
2. Windows: gopher64-windows-x86_64.exe
3. macOS: gopher64-macos-aarch64.zip, or brew install --cask gopher64
4. Linux: flatpak install flathub io.github.gopher64.gopher64, or gopher64-linux-x86_64
5. Set up your controller in Controller Config and test the game in Local Game first.

Host a session

1. Open Netplay > Create Session.
2. Enter a session name, an optional password and your player name, then click Select ROM.
3. Click Create Session and share the session name (and password) with your friends.
4. In the waiting room, pick a Local Input Delay (a recommended value is shown).
5. When the button changes from Waiting for P2P mesh to Start Game, click it.

Join a session

1. Open Netplay > Join Session.
2. Enter your player name (and the password, if there is one), then click Select ROM and pick the same ROM.
3. Click Refresh Session List, click the session, then Join Session.
4. Wait in the waiting room until player 1 starts the game.

Player 1's save files, cheats and settings are copied to everyone.

Troubleshooting

• Freezes or stutter: player 1 raises the input delay with Alt+] (lowers it with Alt+[). Only player 1 can change it.
• Still connecting to netplay peers...: NAT traversal is still running, so wait. If a direct connection fails, Gopher64 falls back to a TURN relay.
• Choppy for everyone: one player can't run the game at full speed. Lower the upscaling (it applies after a restart).
• Can't see or join a session: check that everyone has the same Gopher64 version and the same ROM.
• Help: #netplay on Discord and the official netplay guide.

Video guides

• New Way To Play Nintendo 64 Games Online (Gopher64) by AdzyIn3D. Recorded before the June 2026 netplay rewrite, so the lobby looks different (no server regions now), but the flow is the same.