If you own a copy of the game and wish to try the port, the general process is as follows:
Once you have the port, the real magic begins. The PC port has a thriving modding scene.
Because manually compiling code is daunting for most users, the community created "builder" scripts. super mario 64 download pc port
It is impossible to discuss the PC port without addressing the copyright elephant in the room: Nintendo is notoriously litigious regarding their intellectual property.
The decompilation project itself exists in a hazy legal area. While reverse-engineering code is generally considered legal in many jurisdictions (provided no proprietary assets are stolen), distributing a compiled executable of a copyrighted game is not. The PC port requires a legally obtained ROM of the original game to extract assets (textures, sounds, models), but the compiled executables shared online usually included those assets, making them illegal distribution of copyrighted material. If you own a copy of the game
Nintendo has aggressively issued DMCA takedowns for repositories hosting the port or its source code. Hosting sites frequently remove links, forcing the community underground to private Discord servers and obscure file-sharing sites. It is a constant game of whack-a-mole between the community's passion and Nintendo’s legal team.
In 2019, a group of modders and programmers completed the "Super Mario 64 PC Port," technically titled SM64EX (Super Mario 64 EX). This was not a traditional emulation (like using Project64). Instead, the team: The project was made open-source on GitHub in
The project was made open-source on GitHub in 2020 after a Nintendo DMCA takedown, but the code had already spread widely.