# Beyond Emulation: the Massive Effort To Reverse-Engineer N64 Source Code

**URL:** <https://onehack.st/t/beyond-emulation-the-massive-effort-to-reverse-engineer-n64-source-code/85096>\
**Category:** News & Articles\
**Tags:** programming, hacking, technology\
**Created:** [May 7, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/beyond-emulation-the-massive-effort-to-reverse-engineer-n64-source-code/85096 "2020-05-07T15:27:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aina](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aina/32/167469_2.png) [@Aina](https://onehack.st/u/Aina)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/beyond-emulation-the-massive-effort-to-reverse-engineer-n64-source-code/85096/1 "2020-05-07T15:27:36Z")

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![image](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/0/2/02aabed32ba46f9a0176cf8ef221a8b64d09deaf.jpeg)

Slashdot reader [thereitis](https://games.slashdot.org/~thereitis) shares a report from Ars Technica that “delves into the [reversing community’s efforts to produce usable C source code from N64 game binaries](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/05/beyond-emulation-the-massive-effort-to-reverse-engineer-n64-source-code/).” Here’s an excerpt:

\*Early this week, with little warning, the Internet was graced with a Windows executable containing a fully playable PC port of Super Mario 64. Far from being just a usual emulated ROM, this self-contained program enables features like [automatic scaling to any screen resolution](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJUT1el0qFg), and players are already experimenting with [adding simple graphics-card-level reshaders](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sxwPd0hDBc), including ray-tracing, as well. The PC port – which was released with little buildup and almost no promotion – wasn’t built from scratch in a modern game engine, in the manner of [some other now-defunct Super Mario 64 porting projects](https://www.dsogaming.com/news/super-mario-64-cool-cool-mountain-fan-remake-in-unreal-engine-4-available-for-download/).

And its release has nothing to do with a recent leak of [internal Nintendo files](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-has-reportedly-suffered-a-significant-legacy-console-leak/) dating back to the Gamecube days. Instead, the port seems to be a direct result of a years-long effort to [decompile the Super Mario 64 ROM into parsable C code](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64). This kind of reverse-engineering from raw binary to easy-to-read code isn’t a simple process, but it’s an effort that [a growing community](https://github.com/n64decomp) of [hobbyist decompilers](https://www.retroreversing.com/) is undertaking to unlock the secrets behind some of their favorite games.\*