This page contains all the details you need to know to get started with playing Dinosaur Planet, including where to find the ROM, how to play on an emulator, and how to play on a real Nintendo 64 console with a flash cart.
Downloading the ROM
The ROM for Dinosaur Planet can be found by doing a web search for "Dinosaur Planet ROM," most reliably found from the Internet Archive. Download the zip file on the right side listed under Download Options and extract it. Inside, you will find several files:
- rom
- rom_crack.z64
- normpnt.rom
- normslp.rom
- readme.txt
Check out readme.txt for more information on these files and the origin of the ROM. In short, the rom file is the unmodified dump, but contains numerous security protections that make it unplayable. The rom_crack.z64 file is a modified version of the ROM that allows it to work on emulators as well as flash carts on a real Nintendo 64. It needs to have a SHA1 of 7bf9b36c44609396cb7d5b45d85561dbbe239116.
Updating the ROM
Even with cheats, the game on its own is nigh unplayable. Fortunately, the community has been working together to bring performance and stability patches to the game, as well as restoring content that was in the game but unable to be accessed by normal means. You can find the latest xdelta patches in the #patches-and-fixes channel at the Dinosaur Planet Community Discord. There are a few methods of updating your game found below, sorted by ease of use.
DinoLauncher
If you like things to be easy...
- DinoLauncher was created by the community specifically for the purpose of keeping your local copy of Dinosaur Planet updated.
- Download DinoLauncher from the releases page on GitHub and place it in a safe location
- Open DinoLauncher.exe
- Select your update branch based on your preferences
- Nightly gets updates on the regular, while Stable isn't updated as regularly but should have less issues all around.
- Note: As of this May 5th, 2023, Nightly and Stable share the same files, there's virtually no difference.
- Click "Browse..." to look for your "rom_crack.z64" file
- Click Check for Updates to check for the latest patch
- You can also enable HQ player models at the cost of performance
- Once the patch is complete, the folder with the patched game will open and the launcher will give you the option to launch the game with your system's default application for handling Z64 files
xdelta UI
If you like things easy but prefer doing things your own way...
- Download xdelta UI from romhacking.net or your choice of file host
- Make sure you have the "Apply Patch" tab selected
- Click "Open..." next to the Patch input field to browse for the latest xdelta patch you've downloaded
- Click "Open..." next to the Source File input field to browse for your "rom_crazk.z64"
- Click "..." next to the Output File input field to browse for a directory for your patched rom to be placed
- Click "Patch" and xdelta UI will patch your file for you, placing it in the directory you assigned in the previous step
- Run it in your favorite N64 emulator and enjoy!
Xdelta3
If you prefer doing things your own way...
- Download xdelta3.exe either from one of the many mirrors online, or build it yourself from its GitHub page.
- Place the xdelta executable and the rom_crack.z64 in the same directory
- Open a command prompt window in this location and run the following command
- xdelta3.exe -d fs rom_crack.z64 name-of-dinoplanet-patch.xdelta dinosaurplanet.z64
- Keep in mind, you may need to change the name of "xdelta3.exe" in the command to match your own copy
- A new file should appear in the directory that says "dinosaurplanet.z64"
- Run it in your favorite N64 emulator and enjoy!
Using Flash Carts
In order for a patched Dinosaur Planet ROM to work on an N64 with an Everdrive 64, you'll need to copy and paste "DP=5" into save_db.txt under ID detection. Save_db.txt is located inside the ED64 folder on your Micro SD Card.
