alt Hacker NewsHow to Make a Nintendo 64 Game in 2026
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Libdragon has been improved massively in the past year or so, there are now simple demo games that show capabilities far beyond the original N64 games (bump mapping textures, HDR, seamless loading of massive overworld maps, etc.) Really talented core team, fun to give them a follow.
I’ve been building quite an ambitious flash cart menu system for the N64 recently, and it’s been an absolute joy! Would really recommend anyone with a curious, hacker mindset that grew up with these consoles to explore this platform - it’s fascinating!
Here’s what I’m working on - it contains a comprehensive retail game metadata library & cheats database, can screenshot running games and execute frame-perfect tool-assisted speedruns: https://youtu.be/UyqtU0hgGRA?si=_YisdNOrQrSpdpNT
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 work.
"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.
Wow the ModRetro units are really polished... Look great with more than a nod to the original system designs.
Anyone know what Nintendo's stance is on the companies making these kind of "brand inspired" retro products?
Great work! I didn't even know it was still possible to publish new games for old consoles like the N64.
I consider all homebrew stuff very cool but the number of games emulating PS1 / N64 aesthetics is so massively oversaturated at this point that I'm kind of burned out on it.
But in general, the thing that really impresses me is what people come up with working within these various constraints. Less is more.
Megadrive / genesis homebrew is where it's at for me. But tbh I am honestly kind of clueless when it comes to this stuff. Still trying to get parallax scrolling and foreground occlusion figured out for my "game."
Obligatory link to an interview with three of the Goldeneye developers about the development of the game. I found it very fascinating.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bNN9XhGZ3Yw
(Also The Centre for Computing History YouTube channel is seriously underrated)
Super interesting article - thanks for sharing your journey. As AI slop takes over the internet, well written and original technical content like these will be important.
Also,
2026 web dev: 4MB of JavaScript to render a button. 2026 N64 dev: entire FPS in 1MB
Tried to see if it was possible to buy the Rom itself. But it seems like you would need to buy a physical copy at this point:
At some point I reallly gotta sit down and play around with Pyrite64, it looks super cool
if I am not wrong, the game described in this article, is presented in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gOJUEcKYRk, from Palmer Luckey[1]. Wild this guy find time and energy for this side quest. That's passion.
References: [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Luckey
Great writeup. Thanks author!
wowowowowow
Anyone know a vendor that might sell SummerCart in amateur quantities? Doesn't need to do that specifically, but maybe there's custom low volume board makers, like with 3D printer economics.
Strange choice to go for a raycaster with sprites on the N64. The hardware is basically begging to be fed textured polygons.
what about a playstation/sega saturn game in 2026 ?
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I'm disappointed that he chose to use ModRetro as a publisher. They're largely funded by money from Anduril, Palmer Luckey's other company that makes autonomous military attack drones. Most of the staff at ModRetro formerly worked at Anduril, and one of ModRetro's other products includes a Game Boy clone made of drone parts: https://retrododo.com/modretro-reveals-limited-edition-handh... It looks like a neat game but I would prefer the toys I buy to not be subsidized by war criminals.
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So is Nintendo Online a popular service? I'm curious if I should get it.
I am in the process of using Claude Opus 5 to build an N64 game, and it really works. I've written no code and it is able to build a fully functional game.
I got it to write a skill for driving the Ares emulator via GDB Remote Serial Protocol and it uses that for its feedback loop.
ModRetro is owned by the same war profiteer who runs Anduril Industries which makes human-killing robots.
Their previous console had an edition made of the same metal as Anduril's lethal drones.
[1]: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/12/site-news-why-we-... [2]: https://kotaku.com/modretro-anduril-chromatic-attack-drone-m...