A developer has created a tool that could make it much easier to create PC ports of Nintendo 64 games.
For the past few years, numerous fan-made decompilation projects have been in the works, which attempt to reverse-engineer the code of individual N64 games and turn them into C code, which can then be compiled into playable PC versions.
However, developer Wiseguy has now created N64: Recompiled, a tool which automatically recompiles N64 binaries into C code in a fraction of the time.
As explained in a YouTube video by Nerrel, N64: Recompiled has the potential to “magically turn an N64 ROM into a runnable .exe in a matter of minutes”.
The video shows Wiseguy adding an N64 ROM to the tool, which then translates it to C code, ready for compiling, “in mere seconds”.
While emulators have allowed PC users to play N64 games for decades, the act of compiling PC ports for each game has numerous advantages, such as the ability to turn on improved frame rate, ultra-wide support, 4K resolutions and ray tracing.
As with the individual decompilation projects, players have to provide their own legally-sourced N64 ROM for these games to work – the software then takes assets from the ROM (such as character models, audio and textures) and combines them with the decompiled code to create a native PC version.
The belief is that this helps shield the projects somewhat from legal ramifications. Reverse engineering projects such as these are technically made legal because the developers involved do not use any leaked content or copyrighted assets.
As Nerrel points out, because Wiseguy’s decompiled code doesn’t use game assets either, he could supply each port pre-built, meaning players wouldn’t have to use the tool to do their own conversions and would instead just have to supply their own game ROM file.
“The automated process isn’t perfect and the recomps usually require manual fixes for things like modern hardware speeds being way faster than expected,” Nerrel says.
“But the amount of time and
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Chris Scullion