The latest in a growing number of native PC ports, Paper Mario ReCut got its first pre-release build earlier this week. Based on the N64 recompilation toolchain, the port runs on Windows PCs and at the very least has no issues playing through the intro. With this still being a pre-release build however, bugs should be expected.
An up to date list of features can be found on the project's GitHub page:
Features List said:
PRESS F1 TO ACCESS THE MENU (Might change to ESC not sure yet lol)
First-run legal ROM setup with local validation.
Windowed RT64 renderer integration.
Graphics options menu with live-applying renderer settings.
Live Texture Replacement toggle via F2.
One-shot texture dumping with an in-window percentage and dump count.
Continuous Dump mode for capturing newly created textures while the game keeps running.
Paper Atlas Tool sidecar built for easy texture replacement and editing.
Controller and keyboard configuration windows are present and still being expanded.
NOTE: The current Gamepad Implementaion will auto bind controls to known SDL controllers and the rebind system is currently in the works.
Those interested in trying it for themselves need only bring their own Paper Mario ROM and boot the executable found on the GitHub releases page. As is common with these projects, the ROM is only required for the first launch.
Note of Caution
It seems this project has garnered a good bit of negativity that I was unaware of when writing this post, and that there's probably some stuff bundled in the repo that should be generated from the ROM. You can check the threadmarks for more information, but for now I'll just remove the link to the project from this post. Feel free to discuss regardless, and look forward to the Harbour Masters PC port that will hopefully be less dramatic.
This is just wrong, a port of something like crystal to either the GBA or 3DS would allow for many enhancements graphically and in the case of the 3DS allow it to use modern wifi to battle and trade online.
but speaking of paper mario on the wii u, just getting access to the GX2 gives you higher resolutions and shader effects or things like incorporating the gamepad for menus or just being able to play without as much input lag.
GX2 is painful to write. I've had to write it for a few of my ports, let me tell you it's horrible. That being said, once you finish it, the result is amazing.
Hence sm64 port
its only a big deal because it ignores the already established things we have for n64 recomps. its like intel with their proprietary mobo connectors, annoying
(quote from someone on reddit)
It's AI generated slop. It doesn't provide the full source to actually build the thing yourself. Issues and Pull Requests are disabled so nobody can report anything about the project and make it visible to other users in GitHub. For all we know, it could be malware as nobody has any way to actually validate what's on the executable. It completely ditches the existing front-end framework that is controller friendly and cross platform for AI generated Win32 code only. It includes some random vibecoded tool to make texture replacements when RT64 already has a fully featured texture replacement system that is even compatible with existing texture packs easily. It's also in violation of the GPLv3 software it uses as the base, as it doesn't contain a license of its own.
This was clearly done by somebody who has no idea what they're doing. Avoid it for the sake of your own safety.
Update: he did respond to it in his readme on the github, and the rsp has been removed since. Im gonna be debunking some claims he made anyway tho because i love picking at things
Clarification
There seems to be a lot of speculation about what this project is and how it came to be.
This started as a hobby project made for fun with the help of AI to get N64Recomp to work smoothly with the Paper Mario decomp. As many people who have tried generating the necessary files for N64Recomp know, the process can be tedious and, for many, not worth the time. I know a lot of people give up before getting very far. This project has existed for me a lot longer than the repo as well. I only created it when I had something to work with.
My workflow also uses AI integration for formatting and optimization as a final pass before changes are pushed to the GitHub repo. Unfortunately, even though it is supposed to avoid pushing anything in my workspace that could involve potentially illegal content, it treated the generated TOML file as safe to push. I glanced over it and missed the issue, which was not intentional. That has since been fixed.
This is just a fun project for me. I am not trying to claim that I was first, take credit from anyone else, or do anything that could hurt the scene. I apologize for anything that made it seem that way.
I have a lot of respect for HarbourMasters, and I would not mind or care if their version becomes the top-rated and most-played version while mine stays in the shadows. I do this for fun and preservation, which I believe is the real purpose behind projects like this.
I am new to this scene, and I am sorry for the mistakes I've made.
False Stuffs: This project was not fully “vibe coded” either.
Paper Atlas was created long before this project existed. I repurposed it for this project, which I have already explained.
I also do not know where the claim is coming from that the ROM check does not work. The project uses hash verification and the supplied ROM for N64Recomp. I have tried every way I can think of to recreate that claim, but I have not been able to reproduce it unless a clone was modified to behave that way. This was built in the exact manner the N64ZeldaRecomp is minus the cool fancy launcher so if there are issues in that way then there are other concerns.
N64Recomp uses the ROM provided to it during the static recompilation process. The ROM is supplied by the user, used by the tool, and then moved to the user folder after it has already been provided for later use by N64Recomp. Based on what I have tested, I suspect that some people making this claim may not have been testing in a clean-room setup.
The so called game assets included are not in any way from the ROM or assets therof. No assets from the ROM are included in the release PERIOD. They simply need to share their HASH references so they know where they need to replace said textures.
We need to stop giving so much weight to people who appear to have personal vendettas against AI and are trying to sabotage anything useful that may come from it. I chose to release this because Battleship has already proven to be an amazing port, and the possibilities these tools create for preservation are more important than people’s egos.
In the meantime I've been working on some of the stuff that doesn't work in the current release and I'm sure those who choose to play will be surprised and happy about what's been achieved. Update Soon!!
there's a few things about this that rub me the wrong way.
first off, it looks completely AI generated (as per the rest of the readme). The rule of threes is strong with this one.
second, " I chose to release this because Battleship has already proven to be an amazing port, and the possibilities these tools create for preservation are more important than people’s egos." this line comes off as incredibly... weird? he references battleship like that didn't have a shit ton of backlash as well... if not more.
third, he... doesn't include the stuff he used in the source tree as submodules? the source of the code is still just there. he also doesn't have a fork for any of those things he included with the source. (N64ModernRuntime, rt64 are just sitting in folders like we're on a disk still.) this is a telltale indicator of LLM use.
fourth, even though he doesn't directly mention my reddit post, he is still referencing it. (especially since its the most popular ragepost out of the many) This response looks like he didn't read it all the way before opening VS code and asking copilot to craft the perfect response. "We need to stop giving so much weight to people who appear to have personal vendettas against AI and are trying to sabotage anything useful that may come from it." If this is referring to me, I didn't put anywhere in the post that i "hate" ai nor did it sound like i had a vendetta against it (hopefully). AI is a tool, and it should be used that way. You cannot outsource thinking to AI.
fifth, this whole line "My workflow also uses AI integration for formatting and optimization as a final pass before changes are pushed to the GitHub repo. Unfortunately, even though it is supposed to avoid pushing anything in my workspace that could involve potentially illegal content, it treated the generated TOML file as safe to push." ai must have missed the part where the microcode was just sitting in the repo for a week. I don't know about yall, but I do like... checking my repos. Maybe something slips through, fine thats fine. Asking AI to manage git is asking for shit like this to happen. Especially since the code was literally sitting at the repo root, all it takes is 3 clicks to see where he went wrong.
sixth, the commit messages look ai generated (which further amplifies point 5)
I could pick apart so much more about this, (especially in the quality of the code that was generated) but i dont wanna make it seem like i have it out for this guy.
I stg man paper mario fans get your fucking PC port after 3 years of nobody doing anything with the decompiled source code, and you complain about "imperfections" and speculative ideological impurities. Be more kind to people.
I could pick apart so much more about this, (especially in the quality of the code that was generated) but i dont wanna make it seem like i have it out for this guy.
I stg man paper mario fans get your fucking PC port after 3 years of nobody doing anything with the decompiled source code, and you complain about "imperfections" and speculative ideological impurities. Be more kind to people.
My brother in christ you textually analyzed 600 words of PR (AI generated or not) from a solo developer.
if YOUR favorite n64 game (or just game) pc port got a port in the weirdest ai generated way you'd probably be mad too. theres no benefit to playing the recomp, if you play on emulator its the EXACT same. no new features or anything except maybe the proprietary texture replacer. and atleast on an emulator you can speed the game up.
ALSO it doesnt use the decomp, its a recompilation so by nature it doesnt use the decomp but it was likely used as a readability chart or something
The harbour masters ports for example, have randomizers and proper widescreen. theres essentially nothing here, and it uses a bunch of proprietary stuff + win32 ai generated slop code
Fun fact Paper Mario was specifically made to be hard to emulate that is why even Nintendo official ports like the Wii, Wii U and Switch versions have bugs. However it was the Switch versions that has the nastiest bug of all that thankfully was eventually fixed.
Something happened between the Wii and Wii U era that caused Nintendo emulators to get way worse. Thankfully they eventually fixed things during the Switch era.
Fun fact Paper Mario was specifically made to be hard to emulate that is why even Nintendo official ports like the Wii, Wii U and Switch versions have bugs. However it was the Switch versions that has the nastiest bug of all that thankfully was eventually fixed.
That's not even true as even the reddit source you cited stated it has more to do with specific hacks they added into the game to make it laggier than it typically is for seemingly no reason.
an example of that in a more indirect way would Be Insomniac Games' post PS1 games where they used a bunch of wierd and highly specific quirks of the hardware they were on to perform as well as they did, which is why when say using PCSX2 to emulate the Ratchet games on PS2, it drops to 30FPS when anything intensive happens, even on really good PC hardware.
Something happened between the Wii and Wii U era that caused Nintendo emulators to get way worse. Thankfully they eventually fixed things during the Switch era.
Not strictly, all of Sony's PS2 remasters are pretty poorly done, not just the Ratchet & Clank games. The Sly HD collection also has a fair share of issues as well. Hell, some of Sly 3's multiplayer modes just revert to 4:3 because they couldn't bother to redraw the frames for widescreen
I stg man paper mario fans get your fucking PC port after 3 years of nobody doing anything with the decompiled source code, and you complain about "imperfections" and speculative ideological impurities. Be more kind to people.
Yeah eat the slop, don't ever think for yourself, just consume, even if it's full of bugs, it's fine as long as you have access to it.
Standards ? What are those ?
its only a big deal because it ignores the already established things we have for n64 recomps. its like intel with their proprietary mobo connectors, annoying
(quote from someone on reddit)
It's AI generated slop. It doesn't provide the full source to actually build the thing yourself. Issues and Pull Requests are disabled so nobody can report anything about the project and make it visible to other users in GitHub. For all we know, it could be malware as nobody has any way to actually validate what's on the executable. It completely ditches the existing front-end framework that is controller friendly and cross platform for AI generated Win32 code only. It includes some random vibecoded tool to make texture replacements when RT64 already has a fully featured texture replacement system that is even compatible with existing texture packs easily. It's also in violation of the GPLv3 software it uses as the base, as it doesn't contain a license of its own.
This was clearly done by somebody who has no idea what they're doing. Avoid it for the sake of your own safety.
Update: he did respond to it in his readme on the github, and the rsp has been removed since. Im gonna be debunking some claims he made anyway tho because i love picking at things
That one is specifically way better on the Vita for some reason while the Ratchet & Clank one is buggy in both PS3 and Vita but it is more understanding in the Vita since it was kind of rushed.
I love the Vita but is like loving the Saturn you have to add a few asterisks when you talk about how "cool" it is.
Probably not. I'm hoping for a Vita port of the Twilight Princess decomp too. My modded Switch one is basically falling apart (refurb from GameStop, had a lot of issues, I'll repair it eventually), so having older console game ports on a more portable console would be really cool.
My OG Switch 1 looks good but that's basically due to lack of use. After I replaced the Joycons one time and got bored of playing Sonic Mania Plus I mostly play on my Tablet, Vita or 3DS.
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