And more games are coming.
There are plenty of ways to play Nintendo 64 games in 2024. You can dig up an original console. You can subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. You can download an unofficial emulator. And now, you can potentially play a recompiled PC port, starting with The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
For the technically-minded, this is a big deal. For everyone else, it can be a little confusing.
If you’ve already played a Nintendo 64 game on your PC, or even your phone or tablet, you were probably using an emulator. In essence, these programs work by using software to mimic the processes of the Nintendo 64 console itself, tricking games into thinking they’re running on real hardware. It’s a legally protected workaround—thanks to an old court case between Sony and a company called Bleem!—but it’s not without its faults.
Emulated games can take a hit to accuracy in areas like music and input lag, and because they expect to be running on their home console, they’re limited in their ability to take advantage of more powerful hardware on modern devices, meaning it’s difficult to add features like ray tracing or ultrawide support.
Enter decompliation, the holy grail of retro game preservation. Rather than running older games in software that mimics an older console, decompilation takes the original game’s source code, breaks it down, and remakes it from the ground up to run on home computers.
Decompliation drastically improves compatibility with anything from ray tracing to mods to higher frame rates, and just generally makes play feel smoother and less laggy. The process has previously been applied to a few N64 games, including Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, with a catch—you needed the game’s original source code (and a lot of development time) to make it work.
While the source code behind certain high profile games has already been leaked, that’s not the case for the majority of titles. But with the new Nintendo 64: Recompiled tool by Wiseguy, the entire Nintendo 64 library could potentially make the leap to PC via another route—and one high profile game already has.
Wiseguy’s tool doesn’t technically decompile games, in that none of the data is readable. Instead, it takes an original game ROM and “recompiles” it, meaning it translates the code to C (the programming language) and runs graphics through modern APIs like Vulkan on launch. Think of it like Steam’s Proton translation layer, which allows games built for Windows to be played on Linux.
Certain things still need to be manually cleaned up afterwards—games designed in the ‘90s weren’t made to played at modern hardware speeds—but the process of going from recompilation to port is much faster than decompilation, and could be applied to the entire Nintendo 64 library in short term.
In a statement to YouTuber Nerrel, Wiseguy said that they started out with a recompiled port of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (other games were tested first, but Zelda is the first to release). The port was completed in just two days, as opposed to the two years that past decompilation projects had taken. And because code is translated directly rather than tweaked to work on modern devices, the results are more accurate to the original game.
This isn't to suggest that decompilation is obsolete—it is still helpful in allowing programmers to understand the original game’s code, aiding in mods, patches, and fixes. But in cases where decompilation is not possible, recompilation could present an improvement on either original hardware or emulation, as it does not require emulation and is more free to take advantage of modern upgrades like high frame rates.
Wiseguy’s Majora’s Mask port is now available for download via Github, paving the way for future projects. To protect the project’s legal status, the port doesn't include any assets (that is, the game's code, graphics, sound effects—basically anything owned by Nintendo), which must be provided by the user through a ROM file.
But once provided, the port will take those assets, turn them into a translated PC build, apply Wiseguy’s fixes, and then play the game on your computer as if it was built for them. You simply need to provide the ROM. The port will also enable support for higher frame rates, faster load times, gyroscopic aiming input, and ultrawide displays.
Additionally, advanced features including ray tracing are in the works, using the RT64 tool developed by fellow modder Dario.
It’s unlikely that we’ll ever get full decompilations for the entire Nintendo 64 library, but fans of more obscure games like Iggy’s Reckin’ Balls or Blast Corps may soon have a better way to play their favorites than emulation. Wiseguy’s porting process isn’t fully automatic, but with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time next on their docket, it’s clear we can expect more games from them soon. They also plan to provide the Nintendo 64: Recompiled tool to other modders, which means the future looks bright for the Nintendo 64 library.
