Although it didn’t have anything like the fancy wireless wands or web browsing capabilities of the Wii, there was always something quite enchanting about Nintendo’s N64. Ultimately it was never going to beat the PlayStation in terms of its market share, but the 64 still brings back fond memories of endless nights blasting the hell out of each other on Goldeneye, or missing dozens of lectures to concentrate on Super Mario 64. The chances are that as soon as the GameCube came along, your N64 went out with the rubbish – a decision you’ve probably lived to regret if you’re anything like us. Thankfully, Project64 helps you to transport yourself back to those halcyon days by allowing you to emulate all your old favourite N64 games on your PC.

The application is designed to play ROM files, which are essentially 'images' of the data inside an N64 cartridge. Graphically, the games are pretty good, although not quite as sharp as we remember, with a few too many jagged lines and blocky sprites for our liking. This is understandable, given that the games were originally intended to be played on a TV, which has a completely different way of perfecting pixels. Nevertheless, the overall visual experience is quite authentic, and is complemented by crisp audio reproduction.

It seems a lifetime ago now but in the days before Playstations and X-Boxes, game playing was dominated by consoles like the Nintendo NES or home computers such as the Commodore Amiga. Such machines are nothing but relics nowadays with many microwave ovens packed with more processing power. However, if you were brought up on a diet of Super Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog or Kick Off 2, these games probably hold a special place in your heart despite graphics and playability that would make a modern calculator blush. The good news is, you can roll back the years with some classic emulators on Softonic.

Emulators run the operating system of your favourite console or home computer on your PC. There's an emulator for just about any of the major old games machines but it is the Nintendo series that dominates.

The most popular emulator on Softonic is for the Ninetendo Gameboy - VisualBoyAdvance so if you were a big fan of classics such as Super Mario Brothers, Frogger or Donkey Kong, you can play them again with this program - except not in your hand obviously.