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UltraHLE (N64 emulator on PCs) came out in 1999 [1] Banjo-Tooie - came out in 2000 [2] And yes, there had already been Internet at that time too.

N64 game cracks were desirable even without emulation though. There had been "universal" carts (e.g. Doctor V64) that would enable running a game image on a retail console.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraHLE [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo_Tooie

It was a much smaller scene though, nothing like game carts for the GBA or DS.

It was. Yet not that much smaller to dismiss this is as a good counter example to the claims that every DRM will be cracked immediately and if something is not cracked then it just means there is zero interest in crack.

Dumped games doesnt need cracking in order to run on emulators, it was only required for use with n64 backup units. @rpledge: This game was a gem.

Uhm. It was? I remember running an N64 emulator on a 300mhz PII back in the 90's. A bunch of us were standing around and our jaws dropped when zelda ran for the first time.

I was one of those people picking up my jaw and elated about it.