Decompilation projects continue to go on the rise day by day, and this week, a decompilation project for a Gamecube game has reached completion, becoming the very first fully completed decompilation for a Gamecube title, with the game in question being none other than Mario Party 4.

Each day, several titles from the Nintendo 64 continue to get decompilation projects finalized, as subsequently, PC ports become available shortly after, usually by another team that does the PC porting process based on the decompilation, or, in case of Recompilation being used, the PC port comes alongside the recompiled code as well. With Nintendo 64, Gameboy Advance and Xbox 360 titles (like Sonic Unleashed recently) getting more and more games decompiled, it was a matter of time before we started seeing other consoles from the 2000s getting decompiled as well, and now Gamecube is joining the frame.

While several games from the Gamecube era already have on-going decompilation projects, like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (amongst many others), Mario Party 4 is the very first Gamecube title to reach a full decompilation, and while the full code and REL completion percentages are short of the full 100% (sitting at 99.88% and 99.37% respectively), it's safe to assume that the entire game has been decompiled.

With Mario Party 4 decompiled now, it's only a matter of time before talented people start looking around at the game's code and work on developing a PC port of the game, albeit not by the same team that did the original decompilation project.

Source

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Oh boy, time to sprinkle some "Rollback netcode" and have us a online party.... before nintendo decides to do something bout this before eventually putting it on switch 2.

 

[Bladexdsl]

it's only a matter of time before talented people start looking around at the game's code and work on developing a PC port of the game

and only a matter of time before nintAPPLE dmca them (ww too). they will prob leave them alone for now...until official switch-U ports become available

 

[Wolfy]

This does indeed bring a smile to my face, half of it because its a GameCube game getting the love and being decompiled, and the other half is because Mario Party on PC without an emulator.

In other news, think N will eventually put any of their first party titles on PC? Probably not, but it would be nice....

 

[E1ite007]

Also, the Mario Kart 64 decomp is complete: https://github.com/n64decomp/mk64

 

[Kirby6417]

Okay, can somebody explain what decompiling means for me?

I think it means you have the original code, which compiles into the binary that runs on GameCube (in the case of Mario Party 4).

But doesn’t that original C/C++ code reference a bunch of libraries and software development tools that we don’t (necessarily) have? So if I take this decompiled code and try to compile it myself, it will fail because my computer lacks those tools — so does anybody even have the tools to compile Mario Party 4 into a GameCube binary from its source code?

Question 2 is this: If this original source code references a bunch of specific development libraries (targeted for GameCube), what does it mean to port it to PC and other platforms? Does it mean deleting those parts of the code and rewriting them to reference new libraries/functions?

Sorry if poor understanding of programming.

 

[console]

I love Mario Party 4. I already own Mario Party 1 to 7 (Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii). All Mario Party games must do for decomplication project to bring ports to PC and other console systems.

We need StarCraft 64 decomplication project now! Also bring port StarCraft 64 to GameCube/Wii/3DS/New 3DS XL/Wii U/Switch/etc would be great. I would love this StarCraft 64 to play again and again on N64, GameCube and PC. I had best friend and did have blast fun time together play StarCraft 64 for long years like about 8 years or more.

 

[Antidote]

It's gonna take years for aurora to be complete enough to allow running decompiled gamecube games to run on PC.
Maybe parts of dolphin could be repurposed for the more complex parts (graphics and audio) but IIRC, they are pretty tightly coupled with the gamecube/wii architectures, like the memory and interrupts.

This is just incorrect, while aurora doesn't have complete API coverage, it's definitely able to get a game running *now*

 

[Reualed]

Okay, can somebody explain what decompiling means for me?

I think it means you have the original code, which compiles into the binary that runs on GameCube (in the case of Mario Party 4).

But doesn’t that original C/C++ code reference a bunch of libraries and software development tools that we don’t (necessarily) have? So if I take this decompiled code and try to compile it myself, it will fail because my computer lacks those tools — so does anybody even have the tools to compile Mario Party 4 into a GameCube binary from its source code?

Question 2 is this: If this original source code references a bunch of specific development libraries (targeted for GameCube), what does it mean to port it to PC and other platforms? Does it mean deleting those parts of the code and rewriting them to reference new libraries/functions?

Sorry if poor understanding of programming.

To help answer your question, I'll just give you an overall an idea.

Source code (C,C++, rust) ---> compiler (treat it like a specialized program design to help target a platform, and more or less educated guess on some possible optimizations) ----> binary. (This is your N64 or gamecube game etc)


So here's the thing. If a game references a library, that's also included with the games code, and hence, part of the decomp (or at least. For stuff below and including GameCube. Once we get into dynamic libraries that's a bit different) As for the compiler, getting the specifics of it just right helps with reproducing an identical binary. But it's not always needed to make a functionally identical game. Meaning the functions do correctly spit back out into raw c from assembly.

But not enough for a byte for byte match, due to the compiler. Some things might be moved around. Or the compiler is doing effectively the same thing, but not actually the same thing.

Tl;Dr:
Question 1: no you don't have to worry about having the correct tools unless your on the team trying to make a byte for byte match if it isn't already. Otherwise you just build the source code (comes more or less included)
Question 2 : any libraries the game uses is in the game code somewhere and is decompiled as a result. However certain parts may have to be ripped out to work for a port. (Graphics for example has to be redone usually. GameCube and Wii have some really specialized video hardware.)

 

[whitesword7]

DMCA incoming… just like the decom project for gta 3 and vc closed by rockstar

 

[UltraAziz]

we've been getting a ton of recompilations recently, it's great and honestly impresssive

 

[Dark_Ansem]

If only this were MArio Party 1

 

[SDA]

Anything related to Mario Party gets my complete disapproval.

All Mario Party games are bad, but the GameCube titles are particularly horrible (not as horrible as Mario Party Advance though). Now I'm expecting someone to lead the path and decompile 5, 6 and 7 along with this one.

 

[Greninji88]

Exciting! Lots of GameCube games are getting de-compiled recently!

 

[lordelan]

Here me out, here's what I want:
Decompile all N64 and GC Mario Parties, then merge them together to have the ultimate mini game and board madness in one single port.

 

[SDA]

Decompile all N64 and GC Mario Parties, then merge them together to have the ultimate mini game and board madness in one single port.

Yeah, and good luck running all those gigabytes of data on your PC! Even more luck at burning them on a disc!

 

[Reualed]

Yeah, and good luck running all those gigabytes of data on your PC! Even more luck at burning them on a disc!

F tier trolling if I ever seen it

 

[lordelan]

Yeah, and good luck running all those gigabytes of data on your PC! Even more luck at burning them on a disc!

Gigabytes of data on a PC? Ever played any recent PC games, buddy? Having big drives is a normal thing these days.
Apart from that, why in the world would I burn that to a disc?

 

[SDA]

Gigabytes of data on a PC? Ever played any recent PC games, buddy? Having big drives is a normal thing these days.
Apart from that, why in the world would I burn that to a disc?

No, I don't even have the means to get a PC game.

And besides, the outcome of merging the first seven Mario Party games together would be utterly disastrous. The worst part is that this new game would include those minigames that cause hand damage. (Yes, I know about Paddle Battle.)

 

[Robert Newbie]

Here me out, here's what I want:
Decompile all N64 and GC Mario Parties, then merge them together to have the ultimate mini game and board madness in one single port.

That sounds like something the fanbase would genuinely do. You'll know if this is going to happen or not after the second Mario Party game gets decompiled and ported. An inspired dev will immediately attempt to combine them, and from there, just iterate as more decompilations become available.

The real question is, what do we call this amalgamation? "Mario Party Palooza?"

 

[lordelan]

That sounds like something the fanbase would genuinely do. You'll know if this is going to happen or not after the second Mario Party game gets decompiled and ported. An inspired dev will immediately attempt to combine them, and from there, just iterate as more decompilations become available.

The real question is, what do we call this amalgamation? "Mario Party Palooza?"

I'm voting for Mario "My Body is ready!" Party!