Quick Links

• Command linke method (Terminal.app)
• AppleScript method
• MupenRocket method
• wxMupen64Plus method

Launch a Game

1. Command line (Terminal) method:

Launching a game using the command line (Terminal.app) really isn't as difficult as it may seem:

Here's a play-by-play of the steps in the video:

1. Start in the mupen64plus-1.99.4-osx folder (or Mupen64Plus if you renamed and moved it to your Applications folder; skip to step 3 if you did)
2. Move into the 32-bit or 64-bit folder
3. Open Terminal.app (I'm using Alfred to launch applications)
4. Type cd  and drop mupen64plus into the Terminal window to reveal get its path
5. Add Conents/MacOS to the end of the path (I'm using the tab key to autocomplete these path names)
6. Optional: Type ls and press return to view the contents of the MacOS folder (this is the list command)
7. Type ./mupen64plus 
8. Drag your N64 rom file onto the Terminal window to get its path
9. Press return
10. Enjoy!

A few notes on this method:

• It plays well with rom files and folders that contain spaces
• It will default to the Rice video plugin. To use another plugin, use one of these commands before dragging your rom into the Terminal window:
  • ./mupen64plus --gfx mupen64plus-video-glide64 
  • ./mupen64plus --gfx mupen64plus-video-arachnoid 
• It can do all kinds of nifty things, like:
  • Set the window size (resolution) using --res (width)x(height) (replacing those with the appropriate values)
  • Launch in fullscreen mode using --fullscreen or windowed mode using--you guessed it-- --windowed
  • Use cheats (--cheats)
  • And more!

2. Applescript method:

Another method that's a little more familiar for most people is the Applescript method (developed by Mike, Dav, and me in the comments of this SpeedofMac.com blog post).

This method involves using a separate application made with Applescript to launch your N64 roms using Mupen64Plus. The application we'll be using can do the following:

• Allow you to choose whether to launch a rom, configure a gamepad, or change Mupen64Plus preferences
• Allow you to choose the video plugin you want to use
• Open rom files or folders with spaces (you may need to change $1 to "$1" in the run_(plugin).sh files)

Here's the code:

display dialog "What would you like to do today?" buttons {"Open N64 ROM", "Controller Config", "Mupen64Plus Config"}
copy the result as list to the menuChoice
if the menuChoice is {"Mupen64Plus Config"} then
	do shell script "open -e ~/.config/mupen64plus/mupen64plus.cfg"
	return quit
end if

set mypath to path to me
tell application "Finder" to set myFolder to folder of mypath as alias
set myPOSIXFolder to quoted form of (POSIX path of myFolder)
if the menuChoice is {"Open N64 ROM"} then
	
	set romPath to choose file with prompt "Select a rom file to open (.n64, .v64, .z64)" default location myFolder
	set romFile to quoted form of (POSIX path of romPath)
	display dialog "Which plugin would you like to use?" buttons {"Glide", "Rice", "Arach"}
	copy the result as list to the pluginChoice
	tell application "Terminal" to activate
	tell application "System Events" to keystroke "cd " & myPOSIXFolder & return
	tell application "System Events" to keystroke "./run_" & pluginChoice & ".sh " & romFile & return
else if the menuChoice is {"Controller Config"} then
	do shell script "open -a TextEdit " & myPOSIXFolder & "mupen64plus.app/Contents/Resources/InputAutoCfg.ini"
end if
		

To use this, just follow these easy steps:

1. Open AppleScript Editor.app
2. Copy the above code into the editor window
3. Save the file as "Mupen AppleScript Launcher" and select "Application" as the file format to launch the script by double-clicking on it
   • You can save it as an AppleScript file and just run it every time you want to launch a game. This will let you change the code more easily.
4. Either double-click the application you saved or run the code, and you should be off to the races!

3. MupenRocket method

If you have Snow Leopard, you can use MupenRocket, my Mupen64Plus launcher.

4. wxMupen64Plus method

You can also use Auria's wxMupen64Plus frontend.