The iQue Player was a sort of plug and play version of the Nintendo 64 system sold in China with its main aim to stop the rampant piracy in the market.
It is a mystery how someone managed to leak the iQue SDK as no 3rd party software was ever released for the platform, so it is quite impressive that someone managed to obtain and leak this Software Development Kit.
This post covers the contents from version 1.5 SDK which is available from ultra64.ca thanks to someone who managed to obtain and backup the CD. The SDK was built on top of the N64 SDK but ported to build for version 8/9 of Red Hat Linux instead of SGI workstations.
The target development environment for the iQue SDK was a Red Hat Linux machine so the official SDk comes bundled with the following installers:
These are all standard dependencies for cross-compiling to the MIPS architecture which was used for both the N64 and iQue player.
These is also an install.sh bash script which can be run to install the dependencioes along with running make in the models directory and setting up per_user folder.
This folder only contains a few new documents that are exclusive to the iQue player, the rest are just copied directly from the Nintendo 64 Official SDK.
When Animal Forest (Animal Crossing) was to be ported to the platform the development team had a problem. One of the cool features of Animal Forest was that if you had a friend that also played the game you could visit their town if you had their save data on a Controller Pak (Memory Card).
The problem with porting this to the iQue is that Controller Pak’s didn’t exist on the system, so how would this feature be implemented for the iQue? The answer to this problem was added to the API in version 1.3 of the SDK, Auxiliary data or AuxData for short was an API that allowed storing this Controller Pak data on the iQue cartridge.
First added in version 1.2 of the iQue SDK, the iQue Player Debugger allows proper source level debugging to be performed through the USB interface.
It is a fork of the very well known GNU Debugger (GDB) and consists of 3 main parts:
libultra_dNote that the debugger only supports code compiled for the R4300 CPU and so does not help debug issues with the Reality Co-Processor code such as RSP microcode.
Also note that in order to debug a game, not only does it have to be compiled with the debug version of libultra but also needs to call the function gdbInit to initialise the GDB stub on the iQue.
This is the same documentation as could be found in version 5.2 of the Nintendo 64 SDK, as far as we know there has been no changes to it for iQue but someone should do a Folder Diff on this to make sure.
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Official Nintendo 64 SDK
For the contents of the 5.2 Nintendo 64 SDK Documentation check out this post.
The modules folder contains source code for the Reality Debug Bridge (RDB) which is a Linux driver used to communicate with the iQue Player, mainly for debugging.
A humorous reference to the 1933 movie Duck soup appears in the source code in the following line:
#define DRIVER_AUTHOR "Rufus T. Firefly, rtf@freedonia.gov"
The per_user folder is exactly what it sounds like, these are installed on a user basis instead of globally on the system, so each user on the system can modify their installation to suit their own needs.
Like pretty much all C/C++ Software development kits, the interface to the SDKs functions and structures are located in the Header files. The includes for the iQue SDK includes all the previous header files from the N64 SDK plus some added extras.
| Header File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ansi.h | Standard Minix include: www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~svb/oslab/Minix/usr/include/ansi.h |
| asm.h | Just includes sys/asm.h |
| assert.h | Defined the assert preprocessor macro for making sure values are correct |
| dl-machine.h | Machine-dependent ELF dynamic relocation inline functions (GNU C Library) |
| fpregdef.h | GNU C Library |
| fpu_control.h | Floating Point control Unit (GNU C Library) |
| gzip.h | Zlib wrapper for function expand_gzip to uncompress |
| libfb.h | FrameBuffer Nintendo Library header, defines functions such as fbInit |
| libmus_data.h | Music library data definition header file (Software Creations Ltd) |
| libmus.h | Nintendo 64 Music Tools Programmers Library (Software Creations Ltd) |
| machine-gmon.h | Machine-specific calling sequence for `mcount’ profiling function (GNU C Library) |
| regdef.h | Part of the GNU C Library |
| sgidefs.h | Part of the GNU C Library |
| stdlib.h | Standard functions such as abort |
| string.h | Standard string handling functions such as strcmp |
| tinymon.h | Constants for TinyMon (SGI) |
| ultra64.h | Includes all the N64 headers from the ./Pr folder |
| ultrahost.h | Functions for the N64 Development kit board for SGI Indy |
Initially we thought this would be related to an Integrated development environment, but alas its an acronym for what they called the Interactive Diagnostic Environment.
| Header File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ide/dbg_comm.h | Common debug functions such as dgDmaReadMem (SGI) |
| ide/diag.h | Common structure definitions and global variables for BOSTON diags |
| ide/ide.h | Data structures used by the Interactive Diagnostic Environment interpreter. |
| Header File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| sys/asm.h | MIPS Assembly preprocessor macros (GNU C Library) |
| sys/fpregdef.h | MIPS Register preprocessor defines (GNU C Library) |
| sys/fpu.h | Floating Point control functions (SGI) |
| sys/inst.h | MIPS Instruction Format defines (MIPS) |
| sys/regdef.h | Symbolic register names for 32 bit ABI (GNU C Library) |
| sys/u64driver.h | N64 development kit driver for SGI Indy |
| sys/u64gio.h | N64 development kit Global IO defines (SGI) |
| sys/ucontext.h | System V/mips ABI compliant context switching support (GNU C Library) |
Makefiles are used to build all the source code in the SDK and so instead of duplicating the same logic in many Makefiles, common logic is placed into a file in this directory.
| Header File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| make/commondefs | Common definition such as where to find the compilers (SGI) |
| make/commonrules | Common Makefile Rules (SGI) |
| make/ismcommondefs | Common definitions for building ism idb’s and images |
| make/ismcommonrules | Commonrules to build idb’s and images for an ism |
| make/kcommondefs | contains basic common flags/locations for kernel builds (SGI) |
| make/kcommonrules | common rules for kernel makefiles (SGI) |
| make/PRdefs | Just links to PRdefs in the PR directory (SGI) |
| make/releasedefs | Version information for the current release |
| make/startversion | generate version number (and alpha number) in a standard fashion |
Currently unsure what an ISM IDB is or what gendist does (Generated Probability Distribution Models?).
Unlike previous header files, this library is written by Nintendo themselves and thus has comments in Japanese.
| Header File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| nustd/ctype.h | Common type functions such as isdigit |
| nustd/malloc.h | Standard Memory Allocation |
| nustd/math.h | Maths functions such as floor |
| nustd/mathdef.h | Maths definitions such as PI: DVAL_PI |
| nustd/setjmp.h | Defined two jump functions setjmp and longjmp |
This folder is part of the Official Nintendo 64 SDK and seems to be a fairly unmodified version of it. The main difference is the addition of files that start with the prefix bb.
Note that files with the prefix Leo refer to the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD) as Leo was its codename while in development.
| Header File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| PR/abi.h | Audio Binary Interface (SGI) |
| PR/audiotools.h | defines used by the audiotools programs (SGI) |
| PR/bbfs_export.h | iQue Filesystem defines (BroadOn) |
| PR/bbfs.h | This file is blank (BroadOn) |
| PR/bbskapi_export.h | iQue SK Api (BroadOn) |
| PR/bbskapi.h | This file is blank (BroadOn) |
| PR/dbgdefs.h | Debug defines, just defined a few data types such as TVid (SGI) |
| PR/dbgproto.h | |
| PR/driverd.h | Driver Daemon startup utility for Indy (SGI) |
| PR/em.h | Emulator definitions (SGI) |
| PR/gbi.h | Graphics Binary Interface (SGI) |
| PR/gs2dex.h | Header file for S2DEX microcode (Nintendo) |
| PR/gt.h | Header for the TURBO 3D graphics microcode (SGI) |
| PR/gtoff.h | TURBO 3D State defines (Automatically generated) (SGI) |
| PR/gu.h | Graphics API functions such as guLoadTextureBlockMipMap |
| PR/gzsort.h | Header for ZSort microcode(Nintendo) |
| PR/leo.h | Standard 64DD functions (Nintendo) |
| PR/leoappli.h | Low level 64DD defines (ALPS Electric Co) |
| PR/leosp.h | A few extra 64DD defines |
| PR/libaudio.h | Audio Library defines (SGI) |
| PR/mbi.h | Media Binary Interface, basically include that GBI and ABI (SGI) |
| PR/n_libaudio_s_to_n.h | Audio macro functions such as alSynAddPlayer |
| PR/n_libaudio.h | |
| PR/os_ai.h | |
| PR/os_bb_export.h | |
| PR/os_bb.h | |
| PR/os_bbcard.h | |
| PR/os_bbexec_export.h | |
| PR/os_bbexec.h | |
| PR/os_bbfs_export.h | |
| PR/os_bbfs.h | |
| PR/os_cache.h | |
| PR/os_cont.h | |
| PR/os_convert.h | |
| PR/os_debug.h | |
| PR/os_eeprom.h | |
| PR/os_error.h | |
| PR/os_exception.h | |
| PR/os_flash.h | |
| PR/os_gbpak.h | |
| PR/os_gio.h | |
| PR/os_host.h | |
| PR/os_internal_debug.h | |
| PR/os_internal_error.h | |
| PR/os_internal_exception.h | |
| PR/os_internal_gio.h | |
| PR/os_internal_host.h | |
| PR/os_internal_reg.h | |
| PR/os_internal_rsp.h | |
| PR/os_internal_si.h | |
| PR/os_internal_thread.h | |
| PR/os_internal_tlb.h | |
| PR/os_internal.h | |
| PR/os_libc.h | |
| PR/os_message.h | |
| PR/os_motor.h | |
| PR/os_pfs.h | |
| PR/os_pi.h | |
| PR/os_rdp.h | |
| PR/os_reg.h | |
| PR/os_rsp.h | |
| PR/os_si.h | |
| PR/os_system.h | |
| PR/os_thread.h | |
| PR/os_time.h | |
| PR/os_tlb.h | |
| PR/os_usb.h | |
| PR/os_version.h | |
| PR/os_vi.h | |
| PR/os_voice.h | |
| PR/os.h | |
| PR/PRimage.h | |
| PR/R4300.h | |
| PR/ramrom.h | |
| PR/rcp.h | |
| PR/rdb.h | |
| PR/region.h | |
| PR/rmon.h | |
| PR/rsp_ipc.h | |
| PR/rsp.h | |
| PR/sched.h | |
| PR/sp.h | |
| PR/sptask.h | |
| PR/sptaskoff.h | |
| PR/trace.h | |
| PR/ucode_debug.h | |
| PR/ucode.h | |
| PR/ultraerror.h | |
| PR/ultralog.h | |
| PR/ultratypes.h | |
| PR/uportals.h | |
| PR/verify.h |
The SK API for iQue was used to allow games and software to interact with the Secure Kernel of the iQue, the website iQueBrew has an excellent page with all the known Secure Kernel calls SKC - iQueBrew.
The lib folder unsurprisingly contains static libraries that can be linked with iQue applications.
Not sure why there is 2 versions of the Music libraries, some have the prefix libn_ and the others are just lib.
| Library File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| libcrypto.a | Encryption library for iQue Player content |
| libfb.a | Framebuffer library by Nintendo with functions such as fbPixel |
| libgcc.a | Standard GNU GCC library |
| libmus_d.a | Music library data definition library |
| libmus.a | Nintendo 64 Music Tools Programmers Library |
| libn_audio.a | Nintendo Audio Library |
| libn_mus_d.a | Music library data definition library |
| libn_mus.a | Nintendo 64 Music Tools Programmers Library |
| libnustd.a | Nintendo Ultra Standard library (Source for this is available in the N64 SDK) |
| libultra_d.a | Debug version of the Ultra64 Library |
| libultra_rom.a | Retail version of the Ultra64 Library |
| libultra.a | Standard version of Ultra64 Library |
| libz.a | Zlib compression library |
This folder contains the standard pre-compiled libraries that were distributed as part of the official Nintendo 64 SDK.
| Library File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| PR/aspMain.o | |
| PR/Boot | |
| PR/convert.o | |
| PR/error.fmt | |
| PR/font | |
| PR/gspF3DEX.dram.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2.NoN.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2.Rej.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2d.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2d.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2d.NoN.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2d.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2d.Rej.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DEX2d.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLP.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX.FlatFog.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX2.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX2.Rej.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX2d.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DLX2d.Rej.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspF3DNCom.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DNCom.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DNoN.dram.o | |
| PR/gspF3DNoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DNoN.o | |
| PR/gspF3DPEX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DPEX.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DPLP.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DPLX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DPLX.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DPLX.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DZEX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DZEX.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DZLP.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DZLX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DZLX.NoN.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspF3DZLX.Rej.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspFast3D.dram.o | |
| PR/gspFast3D.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspFast3D.o | |
| PR/gspL3DEX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspL3DEX2.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspL3DEX2.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspL3DEX2d.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspL3DEX2d.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspL3DPEX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspL3DZEX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspLine3D.dram.o | |
| PR/gspLine3D.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspLine3D.o | |
| PR/gspS2DEX.fifo_d.o | |
| PR/gspS2DEX.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspS2DEX2.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspS2DEX2.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspS2DEX2d.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspS2DEX2d.xbus.o | |
| PR/gspSprite2D.dram.o | |
| PR/gspSprite2D.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspSprite2D.o | |
| PR/gspTurbo3D.dram.o | |
| PR/gspTurbo3D.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspTurbo3D.o | |
| PR/gspZSort.fifo.o | |
| PR/gspZSort.pl.fifo.o | |
| PR/ipl4prom | |
| PR/ipl4purom | |
| PR/ipl4rom | |
| PR/libdg.a | |
| PR/libpli.a | |
| PR/librcppli.a | |
| PR/n_aspMain.o | |
| PR/pif2Boot | |
| PR/rcppli.tab | |
| PR/romheader | |
| PR/rspboot.o | |
| PR/table.o | |
| PR/tspManTest1.dram.o | |
| PR/tspManTest1.o |
The sbin directory contains pre-build command line tools that are useful for developers when writing iQue applications. Many of these are based on the N64 version of the same name.
Note that if you are interest in the source code for any of these tools then you can find it in “BroadOn Leak”.
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BroadOn Archive - Nintendo May 2020 Leak (4Chan)
For more information about the BroadOn N64 Leak.
| Tool name | Description |
|---|---|
| a2b | Simple program to convert 64-bit words in ASCII to binary |
| aes_encode | Encrypt binary content with AES encryption |
| aesrom | Encrypts a N64 rom into romname.aes |
| asccode | Kanji Ascii Code converter |
| b2a | Opposite of a2b, converts from binary to ASCII |
| b2mem | Converts binary file into ASCII verilog memory file |
| bincode | Kanji Binary Code converter |
| bincut | Cuts out X number of bytes from a binary file at a certain offset |
| blink | This program changes the color of a specified primitive to magenta in order to make it stand out in the display. |
| buildtask | simple linker for RSP tasks. It concatenates objects compiled by rspasm, as well as their data segments, and builds an object table in DMEM |
| bump | Bump map generator |
| byte2lba | Convert Bytes to Leo (64DD) |
| calcncc | Calculate Nintendo Check Code |
| cglue | Glue together 3 images into a color image |
| checkaudio | extracts and verifies audio from Verilog log file |
| checkhex | |
| checkimage | extracts and verifies image from Verilog log file |
| checkvideo | extracts image from vi.tab and compare to rgb file |
| copySimResultsToArchive | Archives the resulting simulator files |
| copyToArchive | copies each file (from the list of .rdp files specified as incoming arguments) to similarly named (mem,rdram,rdp) files with a .archive suffix tacked on. |
| cpp | GNU C++ compiler for MIPS |
| cscale | Multiply or divide the colors in an image by a color vector |
| ctrldesc | |
| d2elf | Create a debug ELF file |
| dat2bin | Convert hex data file into binary file |
| data2rdram | tool to expand .data scripts into .rdram files |
| devsh | send commands to remote monitor and receive responses |
| do_wave | Bash script for converting Wave tabular files to Qsim scripts |
| dump2mem | |
| ecs_gen | |
| filter | RDP filter simulator |
| flat_shade_dl | |
| flt2c | MultiGen .flt database to Ultra 64 graphics data-structure |
| fp | |
| gbi2mem | |
| gen_rdram | |
| iclr | clear the “incore” area of image file so cmp on 2 images works |
| idf | |
| imgsize | |
| imscale | RGB image scale tool |
| iplload | |
| iplpload | |
| iplpuload | |
| ique_gdb | GDb Debugger for iQue Player |
| irix-install | |
| irix-ipcrm | |
| lba2byte | |
| lst2imem | |
| main2image | |
| main2rdp | |
| make_movie | |
| makemask | |
| makerom | |
| mdump | |
| merrg | |
| mips332 | inplace rewrite the elf header of a 32-bit MSB mips binary (Linux) |
| mkisprite | |
| mksprite | |
| mksprite32 | |
| mksprite8 | |
| mkspriteia | |
| mkspriteyuv | |
| monitor | |
| mux | Middle man between GDB client and server |
| oneband | Extract a single band of a color image |
| plog | Multigen database conversion tool |
| plotstt | |
| ppmquant | reduce colours in pixmap |
| printvec | |
| publish | |
| ramstart | |
| raw2image | |
| rdp2read | |
| rdram2data | |
| rdram2image | |
| rdram2new | |
| rdram2rdp | |
| rdramg | |
| rdramgclr | |
| rdramPatch | |
| remove_comments | |
| rgb2c | Convert RGB image to C code |
| romaddress | |
| romalign | |
| romdump | |
| romfill | |
| rommap | Perl script to get a symbol map of the rom |
| rommd | Sets the MetaData for the ROM such as how many Controller Paks |
| rsp | RSP Simulator |
| rsp_ops | program that dumps the disassembly table |
| rsp2elf | Converts RSP compiled objects to ELF executables |
| rspasm | RSP microcode assembler |
| setup | a short test program to test the polygon setup algorithm for the RSP |
| subimg | Extract a region from an image (Paul Haeberli - 1984) |
| symedit | Edit debug symbols in ELF executable |
| tab2sim | convert tabular file to Compass Qsim script |
| tab2vmem | convert tabular file to Verilog memory driver |
| tab2wvs | convert tabular file to Compass Wave driver |
| vparse | Parse verilog tab files |
| vsig | Print vertical signals names as comments in tab file |
| whohas | Bash script to tell you who may have a file in modify state (Version control) |
| xnet | Translates netlist information, along with a configuration file into an executive main function (either C or Verilog) |
