Fan attempting remake of Super Mario 64 on the Game Boy Advance (UPDATES)
Eat your heart out DS!
As the years march on it’s always impressive to see how much technology improves and changes. We have computers thousands of times more powerful than the ones used on the moon landing in our pockets, journeys across the country that used to take weeks now just take a few hours, and the most important 3D platformers of all time is being remade for the Game Boy Advance.
A fan by the name of Joshua Barretto has posted a video of a work in progress remake of the acclaimed N64 title running on the Game Boy Advance. As you can see in the above video, while the game is in a rough state, it is still undoubtedly recognizable as the N64 legend. Honestly, the fact that the 3D camera is working at all is imprressive.
In the description for the YouTube upload Joshua gave some insight into the development of the project, you can read it down below.
This is not actually Super Mario 64: it’s my attempt at rewriting SM64 for the GBA.
I initially considered attempting a port, but the GBA is an order of magnitude slower than the N64 and has no GPU or native support for floating-point numbers.
So far, I’ve implemented a basic physics and collision system, along with a fully 3D camera, rasterization, texture-mapping, transparency support, etc.
Because the code is written from-scratch, I should be in a position to release the code into the public domain in the future: although I can’t distribute it with Nintendo’s assets, obviously.
While there was an attempt at a port of Mario 64 to GBA a few years back that project fell by the wayside due to technical limitations so hopefully this project will bare more fruit.
Super Mario 64 is no stranger to fan made projects but it’s always fascinating to see the lengths fans will go to reshape this classic title. It’s works like these that showcase the impact of Mario 64 and we wish Joshua all the luck in remaking the game.
UPDATE: A new look at the project has been shared, and it’s clear that things are coming along extremely well. Get an updated peek at how this fan-made port is coming together in the video below.
UPDATE 2: Another video sneak-peek of this fan project has been released, and it looks like some serious progress has been made. This time we get some insight into audio, the necessary process of simplifying geometry and polygons, and more of the game in general. Check out how things are coming along below.
UPDATE 3: The developer behind this fan project has shared another video update, and things have progressed considerable since the last check-in. Now we’re seeing multiple locations, improvements to special effects, numerous playable characters and more. Get a detailed look at how things are coming along in the video below.
About jmaldonado
A recently graduated creative writer hoping to work his way into the greater gaming sphere.
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