"I'm aware of devices like the EverDrive, but that would be unethical as it
is another device to allow non-free games illegally downloaded from ROM
sites."
just about any computer can play illegally downloaded ROMS
by your logic the computer your posting this on is unethical for this reason.
"I just don't understand how someone would benefit from trying to shoehorn
functionality on an N64 considering it has no hard drive, network access, USB
ports, and the cartridges the games it came on weren't off the shelf."
its definitely not the most practical computer for modern uses and so apart
from the fun of making it do stuff someone will probably not benefit too much
from the n64 unless there rely good at programming it.
but with its 8MB of ram you should be able too run a modern operating system
on it(and maby even with a basic window manager)
