A version of Super Mario 64 is now running on the Game Boy Advance, thanks to a highly talented fan.
Joshua Barretto is rewriting the code of the 1996 Nintendo 64 classic for Nintendo’s retro handheld, with a new video showcasing familiar locations such as the Castle Grounds, the interior of Peach’s Castle, Bob-Omb Battlefield, and Cool, Cool Mountain.
“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,” Barretto explains in a previous video description.
Despite the obvious technical limitations, Mario also appears to have his full arsenal of iconic maneuvers, including his Long Jump, Triple Jump, and Somersault. The coder’s latest video shows some significant improvements since he introduced the project last month, when Mario was just a running triangle.
There are many elements missing in the current build, such as enemies and obstacles, but Barretto promises more update videos every fortnight on his YouTube channel. He hopes to release the code to the public in the future.
At 28 years old, Super Mario 64 still has a large and dedicated fanbase. Earlier this month, the official version of the game was beaten with zero jump button presses for the first time on console.
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Written by Reece Heather
A lifelong Nintendo fan and a longtime editor at Zelda Universe, Reece will forever be grateful that he somehow dodged the Naughty List of Christmas 1998, when Santa delivered the life-changing gift of a Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mario Kart 64. When he's not playing games, Reece is usually reading Punisher comics, delving helplessly into the weirdest depths of anime and manga, or spending time with his cocker spaniel Gracie -- the goodest girl ever!
