It isn’t clear when the project originally began, but over the past few days, a unique port of one the greatest games ever made – Super Mario 64 – has been making the rounds on news sites and social media. This rendition of the Nintendo 64 classic is truly special, in that it runs natively on the PC via DirectX 12 (no emulation here!), which opens up the potential for higher resolutions and framerates, as well as widescreen support.
“Unlike PC emulators which imitate the conditions of the original N64 hardware, the DirectX 12-powered port allows players to run Mario 64 at far higher resolutions without compromise, such as native 4K or in ultra-widescreen mode,” explained Video Games Chronicle. “Players can also use modern peripherals to play the game such as Microsoft‘s Xbox One controller.”
Unfortunately, the Super Mario 64 PC port’s newfound fame has drawn the ire of Nintendo’s lawyers, who have begun filing copyright complaints with Google and YouTube in an attempt to get its links taken down. “The action, at least in part, was taken by US-based law firm Wildwood Law Group LLC, a company known to work with Nintendo in its efforts to suppress the availability of modding tools and products,” reported TorrentFreak.
“The copyrighted work is Nintendo’s Super Mario 64 video game, including the audio-visual work, software, and fictional character depictions covered by U.S. Copyright Reg. No. PA[REDACTED],” reads one of the complaints filed by Google. “The reported file contains an unauthorized derivative work based on Nintendo’s copyrighted work.”
Naturally, links to the executable have already begun disappearing from file hosts and social media sites. Videos of the Super Mario 64 PC port are also being scrubbed from YouTube.