Visualize the scenario, somewhere deep off the coast of Japan. In the year 2024, something is emerging from the depths. Something that humans are powerless to stop, regardless of the strength of their military. Could it be Godzilla? Nope, just Nintendo’s legal department frantically preparing cease and desist letters for a new wave of homebrew PC ports of its Nintendo 64 games from the 90s.
Why, you ask? A new tool has been unveiled after being developed in secret for over a year. This tool can convert the majority of classic N64 games into a playable PC format, with high frame rates, ultrawide support, and even ray tracing.
Oh Goldeneye, come to papa. N64: Recompiled is a tool that recompiles N64 binaries into C code, which can then be compiled for any platform and used for ports.
The process may require some technical knowledge, but fear not, many Nintendo fans have the expertise needed to export incredible ports, like the Super Mario 64 port released last year, without the need for personal involvement.
My friend Wiseguy has been secretly working on a tool for a year to create PC ports of N64 games without complete decompilation. The result excludes assets and only requires a ROM to play.
He has successfully run games like Banjo-Kazooie, Rocket Robot, and even Superman 64. pic.twitter.com/sKGuViEsJZ
— Darío (@dariosamo) May 10, 2024
Predicting the outcome is straightforward, as Nintendo still occasionally releases N64 games on Nintendo Online. However, with the revelation of this tool, enthusiasts are recompiling classics like Perfect Dark and possibly Gex into magnificent ray-traced PC versions.
The project is currently on GitHub, allowing anyone to explore it. It will be intriguing to see how Nintendo, known for being protective of its content, will react to this development.
Featured Image: AI-Generated in Ideogram
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