Bringing Super Mario 64 to the GBA: A Technical Demonstration of GBA’s Capabilities

Someone is trying to bring the classic Super Mario 64 from the Nintendo 64 to the Game Boy Advance (GBA), and it looks incredibly impressive given the hardware constraints.

The Project and Its Progress

The modder, Joshua Barretto, explains that the GBA is significantly slower than the N64 and lacks native support for floating-point numbers, which makes his task even more challenging. However, he has managed to implement a basic physics and collision system along with a fully 3D camera, texture-mapping, and transparency support.

In a recent update, Barretto introduced Mario models into the game. You can now switch between characters such as Yoshi, Luigi, and Larry using pause and select on the GBA. The environments have also seen a significant upgrade with additional graphical details and new mechanics from the N64 original like swimming, sliding, enemies, and stars.

What do you think about this project? How do you think it will compare with Nintendo’s official port on the DS?