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Another beloved classic from the 5th Generation of videogame consoles is getting a native PC port. This time, the famous on-rails shooter for the Nintendo 64, Star Fox 64 (or Lylat Wars depending on the region), is getting a proper PC port made by the same developers that brought Ocarina of TIme to PC.

"Starship" is the codename given to the PC port of the game, made by the same people behind the Ship of Harkinian, specifically Sonic Dreamcaster and Samplywx, since they were the ones who worked on this specific PC port of Star Fox 64. The developers from Ship of Harkinian are now going by the name of Harbour Masters 64, and a few days ago, speedrunner Rakanai livestreamed a complete run of the game showcasing a beta of the native PC port, and while Titania had some bugs and glitches, those issues are expected to be resolved in due time.

The pros from the Ocarina of Time PC (Ship of Harkinian) port could apply to Star Fox 64 as well, with the expected 60 fps without speedup glitches tied to animations, proper widescreen and even ultra wide support, higher resolutions, support for mods and even a fanmade remaster are within possibilities once the PC port is finally available.

While the PC port of Star Fox 64 still doesn't have a final release date, the team are expecting a proper build of the game to be available on December for users to play. Those interested in playing the PC port, remember that you will be required to provide your own dump of Star Fox 64 in order to create the PC build.

Harbour Masters 64 Discord server
Harbour Masters 64 GitHub profile

 

[ciro64]

Oh I wasn't aware that's how they were doing it. Brilliant that they're handling it how actual PC games do it, by having the engine on the EXE and all the assets being external files from the EXE. I thought the assets were being added to the EXE during compilation, but you're right.
In that case yes, not even the EXE is illegal.

Tbh I don't know if the Star Fox decomp is doing this, but it's certainly the case with the Perfect Dark one. I was able to share the .nro file here legally :3

 

[The_Chaotician]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/majoras-mask-pc-port-2ship2harkinian-gets-its-first-release.656419/

Majoras Mask (Switch Port ) when?

Tbh I don't know if the Star Fox decomp is doing this, but it's certainly the case with the Perfect Dark one. I was able to share the .nro file here legally :3

The .nro doesn’t contain any copyrighted assets. @fgsfds has built it so it reads what it needs directly from the ROM - you need a copy of it on your SD card for it to work.

SoH is similar except you need to generate asset files yourself - nro on its own again does not contain anything under copyright.

Sm64ex is the difficult one because you need to bake the assets into the nro yourself when you build it. That’s why there aren’t any publicly available nro versions only the crappy nsp version on the usual sites.

 

[ciro64]

Majoras Mask (Switch Port ) when?

Busy with work right now, but I might give it a try later

 

[smf]

Only the compiled EXE is illegal since it contains the assets.

No, any kind of de-compilation will also contain copyrighted code from Star Fox. Copyright law is very clear on the matter.

No they aren't, which is why the Mario 64 decomp / port has been up for years. You have to provide your own ROM, it's just the ones that contain assests that are illegal

People were saying Yuzu was legal because Nintendo didn't do anything, and then they did.

Being available online is not an indication of whether something is legal or not. I can find copyright Nintendo games all over the place. Or pirated movies, pirated music etc etc

https://courses.cs.duke.edu/cps182s/fall02/cscopyright/Copyrights/Copyright-Fairuse.htm

I'm not telling you whether you should care or not. I'm just stating what the legal position is. I suspect Nintendo really don't care enough just yet, you can download Star Fox 64 from loads of places that they haven't taken down.

I don't understand Nintendo's behavior, as they waited a long time to take Yuzu down.

 

[ciro64]

No, any kind of de-compilation will also contain copyrighted code from Star Fox.

Copyright law is very clear on the matter.

Reverse engineered code is not the original copyrighted code

 

[The_Chaotician]

The only illegal part of any of the decompilation process is leaking the source code in the first place surely?

 

[impeeza]

The only illegal part of any of the decompilation process is leaking the source code in the first place surely?

Decompilation is not leak the source code is inverse engineering and create a new code which Behave exactly the same as original

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2024

The illegal part is to share original assets that is why you need to provide an original legal acquired ROM in order to build the code

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2024

But why go through the effort of making a port when the N64 recompilation tool exists now? can someone explain, I thought the recompiler could port any N64 game to PC

The decompilation allows the creation of ports. without it a port is not possible, without a decompilation you only can create a simulation or in the best of the cases an emulation

 

[smf]

Reverse engineered code is not the original copyrighted code

Legally it is.

It's essentially the same as filming a movie with a video camera.

Decompilation is not leak the source code is inverse engineering and create a new code which Behave exactly the same as original

So what people get wrong is that like many things, it's not the 0's and 1's in the source code that is copyright. Not all of a source file is copyrightable. Something like "for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)" is not copyrightable at all. What is copyright is the expression of the algorithms in the code. If you decompile the source code, and recreate it (especially if it's possible to compile it back to an exact binary) then you can't help but copy that expression.

The same issue would occur if you drew every frame out of a Marvel movie and put it on the internet.

I can't say whether Nintendo care, but it's dodgy AF from a legal point of view. Especially as mostly this is automated with something like ghidra.

Throw in some trademark violation, unfair competition practices etc. Do what you like, but don't complain if you get sued and lose

 

[M7L7NK7]

No, any kind of de-compilation will also contain copyrighted code from Star Fox. Copyright law is very clear on the matter.


People were saying Yuzu was legal because Nintendo didn't do anything, and then they did.

Being available online is not an indication of whether something is legal or not. I can find copyright Nintendo games all over the place. Or pirated movies, pirated music etc etc

https://courses.cs.duke.edu/cps182s/fall02/cscopyright/Copyrights/Copyright-Fairuse.htm

I'm not telling you whether you should care or not. I'm just stating what the legal position is. I suspect Nintendo really don't care enough just yet, you can download Star Fox 64 from loads of places that they haven't taken down.

I don't understand Nintendo's behavior, as they waited a long time to take Yuzu down.

Yuzu was legal but they flew too close to the sun with hiw theyvwebt about things. Don't know how many times it has to be said but the decomps and ports that don't contain any assets or copywritten code are legal.

 

[sucrose1]

I'd love to see a port to lower end systems and portables. Star Fox 64 for PSVita, PSP, 3DS (why not), GC, PS2 and Dreamcast please. Same for Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Perfect Dark, Paper Mario 64 and so on.

Old consoles and handhelds deserve ports too.

 

[choolisfound]

I'd love to see a port to lower end systems and portables. Star Fox 64 for PSVita, PSP, 3DS (why not), GC, PS2 and Dreamcast please. Same for Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Perfect Dark, Paper Mario 64 and so on.

Old consoles and handhelds deserve ports too.

pretty sure oot and mm got a 3ds version, just not in N64 graphics

 

[sucrose1]

pretty sure oot and mm got a 3ds version, just not in N64 graphics

That's why I said "(why not)". Yes obviously SF64, OOT and MM got remakes for 3DS, but we could still have source ports anyway. Super Mario 64 got a 3DS port and yet it was also ported to DSi and also there's Super Mario 64 DS.

 

[choolisfound]

That's why I said "(why not)". Yes obviously SF64, OOT and MM got remakes for 3DS, but we could still have source ports anyway. Super Mario 64 got a 3DS port and yet it was also ported to DSi and also there's Super Mario 64 DS.

sm64 got a 3ds port?

 

[sucrose1]

sm64 got a 3ds port?

Yeah, check it out here

https://github.com/mkst/sm64-port

3DS deserves more ports, especially Paper Mario 64, we could finally have a great Paper Mario game for 3DS then.

 

[choolisfound]

Yeah, check it out here

https://github.com/mkst/sm64-port

3DS deserves more ports, especially Paper Mario 64, we could finally have a great Paper Mario game for 3DS then.

yeah I've been playing pm64, its actually good, you're right.

 

[smf]

Yuzu was legal

Yuzu broke the DMCA, EUCD & similar laws. Nintendo ignored them for a long time.

 

[DJPlace]

this is neat. i recall buying this game with the rumble pack back in the day before owning a N64.

 

[ChronoCrossfangirl2002]

Yeah, check it out here

https://github.com/mkst/sm64-port

3DS deserves more ports, especially Paper Mario 64, we could finally have a great Paper Mario game for 3DS then.

yeah, i heard it is 100% possible when the decomp reached completion, just no one has bothered to do it but one can hope that someone will.

 

[paulttt]

@everyone

# Starship Centauri Alfa is now available!

Consider it a Christmas gift, Starship is now available for everyone to play! After years of work on both the decompilation and port, we're proud to present this Star Fox 64 port.

Version Centauri Alfa 1.0.0 can be downloaded by going to the <#1310392961435177061> channel. From there, follow the instructions in the included readme.txt to get started!

# Other things to note
- Starship is currently only available on Windows.
- Please note considering this is a 1.0.0 release that there might still be issues. If your issue isn't on our [issue tracker](https://github.com/HarbourMasters/Starship/issues) yet, please make a new issue for it.
- If you need technical support setting up Starship, please refer to the <#1310393666615119882> forum.
- The Linux and Mac versions are very close but we ran into some snags and didn't want to delay the release for it. If any Linux/MacOS developers want to help the ports across the finish line, it's available to be built from source (see our GitHub Starship repository).
# Happy holidays!

Post automatically merged: Dec 23, 2024

Nice to see I got credit for posting this a good 30 minutes before it hit the news....

 

[XenoFredo]

Edit: it's OK, I misunderstood how the controls were mapped.