Last week, YouTuber Carl Does Tech Things uploaded a video highlighting a rather fascinating mod he created: a Super Mario 64 co-op mod that works cross-platform between the N64 and a PlayStation 2. First off, when the hell did the PS2 ever get a port of Mario 64? Second, who exactly was asking for this? Both questions don’t really get answered, and that’s fine. This is still one of the coolest things you’re likely to see this week.
I will not even attempt to summarize the step taken by Carl to make this mod happen. It involves a lot of reverse engineering, custom code recompilation, and bespoke circuit boards that interpret controller inputs across a server. At one point in the video, you can see the games desync between one another because Carl didn’t account for camera positioning yet. It really opened my eyes to how difficult online gaming can be to program for, making it all the more miraculous that anyone co-op games exist.
Still, watching Mario 64 running with no issue on a PS2 is a sight that would have made 12-year-old me’s brain explode. We’re long past the days of console manufacturers not playing well with each other, but Nintendo is the sole holdout when it comes to keeping its games exclusive to Nintendo hardware. I imagine if Mario 64 were officially released on the PS2 years ago, it would have sold an extra 10 or so million copies.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
