The Super Mario Bros. franchise recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, which was accompanied by a series of game announcements to a new Game & Watch console. While Super Mario 64 was announced for the Switch as part of the celebration, how about playing the game on your Android device? And no, not on an emulator with performance and scalability but natively?

This is now possible thanks to the work of XDA Member VDavid003. With the effort done on rewriting the source code in the programming language C, Super Mario 64 has been ported to Android (and also as a WIP on Dreamcast). VDavid003 has created a GitHub repo that you can use to compile an APK version of the game on your PC or directly on your Android device. For it to work, you must provide your own copy of Super Mario 64. You can follow handy how-to guide from XDA developers in the source link or in the spoiler below:

Spoiler: How-to guide

1. Get Termux app from Google Play Store.
2. Install required dependencies inside Termux:
   

   pkg install git wget make python getconf zip apksigner clang

3. Clone appropriate repository with git:
   

   git clone https://github.com/VDavid003/sm64-port-android
   cd sm64-port-android

4. Copy the game's baserom with Termux. You must provide your own copy of the game.
   

   termux-setup-storage
   cp /sdcard/path/to/your/baserom.z64 ./baserom.us.z64

5. Get SDL includes:
   

   ./getSDL.sh

6. Start the build:
   

   make --jobs 4

   You can increase the value of the “jobs” parameter depending on how many CPU cores you can devote to the building process.
7. If things go well, the resulting Super Mario 64 APK should be found inside the “build” folder:
   

   ls -al build/us_pc/sm64.us.f3dex2e.apk

SOURCE
GitHub Repo

 

[Joom]

Going to be a Day or 2, but going to look at another Vita to see if it works.

Trial and error is the unspoken mantra of homebrew. Just keep that in mind and consider all possibilities.

 

[Smoker1]

Trial and error is the unspoken mantra of homebrew. Just keep that in mind and consider all possibilities.

Yeah, I thought the TitleID of PCSE64001 would be too much for it (too high a Number), so I changed it to PCSA00064 (for Table Ice Hockey which I do not have), but it still through a Error at me.

 

[Joom]

Yeah, I thought the TitleID of PCSE64001 would be too much for it (too high a Number), so I changed it to PCSA00064 (for Table Ice Hockey which I do not have), but it still through a Error at me.

Yeah, that just sounds more like a path conflict. There's some kind of artifact left over from the original install.

 

[Smoker1]

Yeah, that just sounds more like a path conflict. There's some kind of artifact left over from the original install.

Well, I am going to test another Vita Tomorrow afternoon, and see what happens. Never had SM64 on it at all, so hopefully it works.

 

[Joom]

Well, I am going to test another Vita Tomorrow afternoon, and see what happens. Never had SM64 on it at all, so hopefully it works.

That's even more ideal than starting fresh. Good luck.

 

[Smoker1]

That's even more ideal than starting fresh. Good luck.

Figured it out. I got the PCSE Build to start running with no Problems. Solution - Disable VitaCheat . Was the reason for why I wanted to test a PCSE Build

 

[Joom]

Figured it out. I got the PCSE Build to start running with no Problems. Solution - Disable VitaCheat . Was the reason for why I wanted to test a PCSE Build

Bummer. But at least you pinpointed to cause.

 

[Smoker1]

Bummer. But at least you pinpointed to cause.

Well, there is another user who can leave it Enabled, but just need to Verify a few things.

 

[Kaioh]

So the obvious question: Is there really any key-advantages to being able to run Mario 64 natively on Android vs. running it through an emulator?

 

[Axido]

So the obvious question: Is there really any key-advantages to being able to run Mario 64 natively on Android vs. running it through an emulator?

Apart from the extra minutes of battery time running it natively will give you the port is also easier to mod and enhance.

 

[FAST6191]

So the obvious question: Is there really any key-advantages to being able to run Mario 64 natively on Android vs. running it through an emulator?

Easier control manipulation, camera manipulation, higher resolution if not now then in the very near, likely draw distance tweaks, speed tweaks, more levels... basically all the same things as the PC, just maybe not to as ridiculous a degree and might take a while (or take some effort) to port across.

 

[Kaioh]

Easier control manipulation, camera manipulation, higher resolution if not now then in the very near, likely draw distance tweaks, speed tweaks, more levels... basically all the same things as the PC, just maybe not to as ridiculous a degree and might take a while (or take some effort) to port across.

Yeah those are noteworthy changes for sure. I hope people start making Mario 64 rom-hacks based on this then vs. a Mario 64 rom.

 

[Winnppl]

I know the instructions provided by github and this thread are easy enough to follow, but I made a video tutorial last night on how to do it as well. This should be helpful to people who need to see it before attempting it.

I’m following your guide and all worked up until building the .apk, then I get this error

 

[ganons]

Is it possible to compile this without on screen controls? I want to try this on my Odin Pro.