Disappointed with Brawl's online? Why not take a trip back to the N64 Smash? SSB64's online experience is far far better than Brawl's. It features a lobby system, A LOT LESS LAG, chatting, and no friend codes!
Guide to playing Super Smash Bros. online! Emulators
There are two main emulators that people use for SSB64: Project64k and Mupen64k.
Here's a comprehensive guide to configuring with the Project64k emulator:
http://www.sitesled.com/members/myztek/index.html Project64k download:
http://pj64k.emulation64.com/ Another emulator, which many feel is superior to pj64k, is Mupen64k. Here's a download link for that:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E3IZW1J0 The SSB ROM I will not publicly provide the SSB64 ROM since distributing it is illegal, but it shouldn't be too hard to find. Make sure that you get the US version and its name MUST be "Super Smash Bros. (U) [!]" or else you won't be able to play with others online.
kaillera client
This is what N64 emulators use to go online. There are many versions of the kaillera client and it is easy to switch between them. Whichever one is named "kailleraclient.dll" is what your emulator will use to go online. If you want to switch to another kaillera client, put it in your emulator folder and name it "kailleraclient.dll"
Ping
On kaillera, ping measures two things: distance the player is from the server and the amount that the person lags. Ping is generally very misleading, as people with 15 ping can sometimes lag horribly while people with over 100 ping don't lag at all. However, if you see someone with over 120 ping, you can safely assume that he lags.
Connection Setting
You select this from the kaillera client before connecting to a server. Basically it controls how strong your connection is. You have six options here: LAN, Excellent, Good, Average, Low, and Bad. Most people use Good, but try to play on Excellent whenever possible. LAN is better than Excellent but unless you have a ridiculously good connection LAN will lag. Also, all players in the same game must be using the same connection type for the game to start.
Delay
Like Brawl online, SSB64 online suffers from input lag. It's nowhere near as bad as Brawl's gets though. Without manual delay controls, here's what input delay comes out to based on your connection type:
LAN: 3 frames
Excellent: 5 frames
Good: 8 frames
Average: 11 frames
Don't even bother playing with a lower setting than average.
The higher the delay the smoother it will run and the less likely it will desynch.
Desynchs
A desynch occurs when someone's game somehow gets off by a frame or two from everyone else's. The game will continue running normally until someone inputs a command that worked on one player's game but not another player's (since his was maybe a few frames off). A desynched player will eventually see all of his opponents appearing to jump around randomly, often suiciding, while the other players will view that of the desynched player. It's hard to explain but you will know it when you see it. If a player desynchs, simply restarting the game will fix it.
Some common causes of desynchs:
-unstable internet connection (wireless)
-playing on a connection setting that's too high.
-Selecting "Random" as the stage. Players will sometimes end up on different stages, which is an obvious case of a desynch.
-Since tornadoes on Hyrule and Pokemon on Saffron City are random, occasionally they will initiate a desynch (tornado might spawn in different locations for different players), but this is rare.
Mupen64k desynchs significantly less than Project64k does.
p2p
p2p is the superior way to play SSB64 online. It requires a special kaillera client:
http://kaillera.movsq.net/ That website also has a FAQ that you should read if you play p2p. p2p games have input delays of <5 frames, and seeing input delays as low as 1 or 2 frames is plausible. The p2p kaillera client offers full support for all other methods of playing so you won't have to switch between clients if you switch between p2p and regular play.
Servers
If you don't play on p2p, you will be playing on servers. Different games are popular on different servers. The server that almost everyone plays Smash on is called Galaxy 64. Its IP is 69.90.34.245:27888.
Galaxy 64 has some useful commands:
/maxusers # - sets the maximum amount of people who can be in the game. Ex: /maxusers 2
/delay # - manually sets the input delay.
/delay 1 = 3 frames
/delay 2 = 5 frames
/delay 3 = 7 frames
/delay 4 = 9 frames
/delay 5 = 11 frames
/maxping # - sets a maximum ping limit on users. The game will reject people with a higher ping than the specified limit.
/lagstat - it'll show how many lag spikes came from each player. Good for uncovering the one guy that's lagging in a FFA match.
Gameshark
Project64k has a built in Gameshark feature. Make sure that you activate the cheat that unlocks all the characters and Mushroom Kingdom before playing online. Mupen64k has no Gameshark feature but seems to automatically unlock everything for you.
Controller
A lot of people play using an adapter that allows them to connect an N64 controller to a USB port. You can also use PS2 controllers or 360 controllers with adapters. If you don't have an adapter then you must play on a keyboard. You are probably thinking, "What? How can you play Smash on a keyboard?" Well, it's doable. I play online using a keyboard and I can move nearly as fluidly as if I was using a controller.
Vista
A lot of people have trouble playing on Windows Vista. Here's a troubleshooting guide for that:
http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=96375 Here's something that's supposed to work well with Vista: Thanks goes to SiShenDao for this!
http://www.megaupload.com/en/?d=58JLTI57 That about covers the basics. If you have any questions then feel free to ask!
If you'd like to challenge me to some SSB64 matches, AIM me @ Nintendude1189. My username on kaillera is Nintendude1189.