Just wondering if anyone knows why N64 rom file sizes are so small compared with the same games for other emulators.
Well, I'd assume it's because NDS ROMs have to contain both arm7 and arm9 architectures, whereas the N64 only has the one processor. That, and because N64 cartridges had less storage space than DS carts.
Cost of the carts essentially. Higher capacity carts cost more to produce, so in the case of cartridge based systems the developers tried to squeeze it all into the smallest possible cartridge size to reduce production costs. Added on to that, in the N64 days it wasn't possible/economical to produce some of the larger cartridge sizes we have today, so as the suis said, they were working with less space available in total. Playstation, for example was the first major CD based console (ignoring the sega CD), so the developers suddenly had all this extra space that they didn't have on previous consoles, so they made use of it.
