I bought a PS2 style controler for 18€, it's very comfortable to play with on any emulator, although setting N64's C-buttons to the right stick can be a bit annoying... if that bugs you, you can simply buy another type of controller for whenever you emulate N64, it will still be a lot cheaper than buying the actual system. The controller I bought was plug and play, I only had to configure the keys, no instalation was required.
About the N64 graphics, most of the games run well on Project 64 emulator (best N64 emulator imo), and most of the ones that don't can be fixed by installing plugins (there are a few good ones, I think Rice plugin for Project 64 is the most popular). There will still be, however, a few games that are virtually unplayable (like Gauntlet Legends).
This post was edited by zarkadon on May 9 2011 12:30pm