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How to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026

phoboslab.org

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Re: How to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026

#81

Post by phoboslab »

cubefox wrote: post #49
101008 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be counterintuitive at first, but why wouldn't be possible? It's one of the perks of "offline" hardware without subscriptions or DRM. You build a piece of hardware (cartridge) that attaches to another one (console) and it works. As long as the console works, there shouldn't be a problem.

> It may be counterintuitive at first, but why wouldn't be possible? For the same reason it wasn't possible at the time for a third-party to make N64 cartridges themselves to avoid Nintendo's fees. But I assume these lockout chips are replicated or circumvented by now.

Related to this, every ROM needs a "boot loader" that has to be signed and is verified by the lockout chip.

Nintendo's boot code is under copyright and thus cannot be used. So the boot code distributed with Libdragon is signed by finding a hash collision with a brute force tool running on the GPU[1]. Fun stuff!

[1] https://github.com/DragonMinded/libdragon/tree/trunk/boot#bu...

Re: How to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026

#82

Post by officeplant »

pizza234 wrote: post #60
shoobiedoo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something so charming about the N64/PS1 era. They were so unique in their own right and you could tell at a passing glance which system was displaying on the screen even if you didn't know what game it was. Two radically different systems at the dawning of 3D console games. I bought a MiSTer for me and my son and we played the heck out of Mario Kart 64 and Mario Golf. I think he picked up my "gaming is dead…

> "gaming is dead now" One gets the impression that gaming is dead when one's only contact with modern gaming consists of reading headlines about a handful of AAA games. In reality, the gaming landscape has never been better, as game production has expanded in several directions: - The barrier to entry into game development has been lowered; People who are talented in design but not programming now have the opportuni…

it should instead say "AAA gaming is dead now"

All we see out of mainstream AAA gaming is abused devs, private equity scalping, and mindless remaster regurgitation. Basically going through the same problems as Hollywood is with major films. You get a massive banger of a production every few years, and the rest is just endless money burning and developer harm.

Meanwhile the good indie devs are a dice roll on if they are gonna get recognized by the world at large and find success, just like small budget films.

My game library gets older by the day and I prefer it that way, but love it when an indie game bubbles to the surface and gets beloved by enough fans to break into the news cycle. Itch.io is the only place I look for games anymore unless something I need for the collection hits GoG finally.

Re: How to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026

#85

Post by dabluecaboose »

coryadams wrote: post #45

"Modretro customer service address and, to my surprise, heard back from the head of publishing within a day." This makes me want to jump in. But also, I wonder how many people will ever buy and play your game. Does Modretro's target market buy this type of stuff? Or are they the type to just download and emulator and ROM.

> Does Modretro's target market buy this type of stuff? Or are they the type to just download and emulator and ROM.

Speaking as someone who spent all weekend playing his new M64: Yes, the target market often does buy the cartridge. I've got a brand new copy of Xeno Crisis sitting on my shelf, although Xibalba was a close 2nd. (Tied with Buck Bumble ;) )

That said, there's definitely a crowd that would rather buy a summercart and pirate all their roms. Personally, I'm interested in more thoughtful and intentional electronics, so I'm attracted to the idea of old school "buy the game on a cartridge" mentality.

Re: How to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026

#86

Post by LarsDu88 »

officeplant wrote: post #82
pizza234 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "gaming is dead now" One gets the impression that gaming is dead when one's only contact with modern gaming consists of reading headlines about a handful of AAA games. In reality, the gaming landscape has never been better, as game production has expanded in several directions: - The barrier to entry into game development has been lowered; People who are talented in design but not programming now have the opportuni…

it should instead say "AAA gaming is dead now" All we see out of mainstream AAA gaming is abused devs, private equity scalping, and mindless remaster regurgitation. Basically going through the same problems as Hollywood is with major films. You get a massive banger of a production every few years, and the rest is just endless money burning and developer harm. Meanwhile the good indie devs are a dice roll on if they a…

This is a very rose tinted take. AAA game development was far more brutal in the 90s.

Go look up the development of Sonic Xtreme in the 90s. A brutal development process in the 90s that led to more thsn half the development team camping out in Redwood City Sega office building for months until they all got so sick half the team went on medical leave. Or Quake, where the game development process literally broke the team.

Re: How to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026

#89

Post by bluedino »

shoobiedoo wrote: post #21
boricj wrote: post #3

I'm tinkering with a PlayStation homebrew (voxel space renderer) and development for fifth generation consoles has never been easier. Modern toolchains, programming languages, dev cartridges and libraries from the community makes all the difference. Outside of some niceties like ICE (gotta write that GDB stub for target hardware at some point), it's not that different from what you'd experience with modern embedded w…

There is something so charming about the N64/PS1 era. They were so unique in their own right and you could tell at a passing glance which system was displaying on the screen even if you didn't know what game it was. Two radically different systems at the dawning of 3D console games. I bought a MiSTer for me and my son and we played the heck out of Mario Kart 64 and Mario Golf. I think he picked up my "gaming is dead…

> you could tell at a passing glance which system was displaying on the screen even if you didn't know what game it was

I always felt the same about the look of PS2 games

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