You guys see this? https://www.gamespot.com/articles/n64-clone-console-coming-see-first-video-here/1100-6467419/
How do you suppose this will be handled in terms of speedruns (particularly as many sacred cows of speedrunning are on the N64)? Blanket-allow, blanket-ban, or strictly game-by-game? Different categories or variables? It uses original software, it's not like the mini-NES and mini-SNES as I had first thought. But it's made to work with modern TV's.
Regardless, my interest is definitely piqued.
It's emulation, so probably per game. But considering Hyperkin's track record, it probably won't be accurate enough to be an allowed emulator on most games.
There are tons of third party consoles that play NES and SNES games off their real cartridges (like the Retron 2), and they are considered emulation because it's not first party hardware/software. Additionally, they are almost always slower as they couldn't match the frame rate of the regular consoles.
It's just similar to dumping a ROM off an N64 cart but using something like Mupen to play it - it's technically playing an official game (just without the plastic cartridge), but it's still emulation since it's not official stuff being using to play it. But this is why something like an N64 Everdrive isn't considered emulation, because you're still using the original, first party hardware/software to play the games.
The cartridge has nothing to do with whether or not it's emulation. All the cartridge does is store the game data. The console is what actually runs the game, and emulation is specifically emulating the console. With that in mind, this isn't really any different than the NES Classic or the SNES Classic (or any other classic/clone console, for that matter). It's still just a software emulator (possibly Mupen64) in a vaguely N64-shaped box.
As for speedrunning, if it is in fact Mupen64 then a ton of N64 games won't allow it on that basis alone (most of the big N64 games I checked either don't allow emulators at all or explicitly ban that). If it's something else, then game-by-game, largely depending on how much the emulator sucks.
Concerning Hyperkin, I recommend reading up on how that company operates and treats licenses - or at least used to in the past: https://www.libretro.com/index.php/category/hyperkin/
And on-topic: yes, it's emulation, that has always been Hyperkin's approach. And with how they used to obfuscate what they were using specifically, I'd at least have my doubts how you would reliably categorize a platform like that and compare it to others.
TL;DR version of @Oh_DeeR 's linked article: Hyperkin steals non-commercially licensed code from emulation projects it knows don't have the money to fight a court battle and profits from the developer's work in excess. When called out for not following the license, they did the bare minimum, and they still don't properly attribute where all the code they use comes from or follow many of the licenses.
Don't buy Hyperkin's emulation boxes. Don't buy any of these cheap third party emulation boxes. Support the developers of emulation projects and run this stuff on your computer instead.