Goodbye, emulators: Native GameCube fan ports are now a reality, starting with Mario Party 4
The golden age of game decompilation continues.
- Mario Party 4 for the Nintendo GameCube has been completely decompiled.
- The process took a year and a half, resulting in nearly perfect source code replication.
- A PC port is in the works, and more Mario Party decompilations are currently underway.
We are entering a golden age of game decompilations, with hard-to-emulate consoles like the N64 and even the Xbox 360 getting tools to make recreating source code easier than ever. Now, the Nintendo GameCube has joined the ranks, with a Mario Party 4 decompilation project reaching full compatibility (via MattKC Bytes).
This is the first GameCube game to be decompiled, and one of the very few 6th-gen console games to get the full treatment. Previously, Metroid Prime received a pseudo-decompilation called Metaforce, but the code was heavily altered. The initial goal was not to recreate the original game’s source code faithfully, but rather to create a working game. A full decomp is underway, but it still sits at 16% after years of work.
