A developer has a recognisable version of Super Mario 64 running on original SNES hardware, using the console’s Super FX chip, Dexerto reported. The project, from Game of Tobi and dubbed Super Mario FX, was shown running on an original SNES in a new video.
Despite its appearance, the project is not a direct port or a recompilation of Super Mario 64, which Nintendo released for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. Tobi instead built a custom engine that uses assets from the original N64 game. Several areas are already running, including Peach’s Castle and Bob-omb Battlefield, with Mario’s original animations and other assets reused along the way.
Getting the game onto the older hardware came with substantial limits. Tobi said levels had to be shrunk to fit within 2MB, describing storage as a “big bottleneck” for the project. Textures have been a second hurdle, with different levels of detail used to help performance. Bob-omb Battlefield has proven particularly difficult; Tobi said he had previously spent hundreds of hours getting the same stage running on Game Boy Advance, and that he is already happy with how the SNES version performs.
The project runs on original SNES hardware by way of a flash cartridge that supports the Super FX chip. Super FX was a graphics-enhancing chip included inside some SNES cartridges to supplement the console’s own hardware, allowing it to handle effects including polygon-based 3D graphics. Star Fox was the first game released using the technology.
The Super Mario FX name references a long-running rumour that Nintendo once planned a 3D Mario game for the SNES using the same chip, ahead of Super Mario 64. That has never been confirmed.
Tobi plans to release the project, once it is ready, in a form that lets players build it themselves using assets from their own copy of Super Mario 64. He is also working on a Game Boy Advance project that recompiles the original N64 game, and says that version is now “very playable”, has sound and a higher render distance, and is close to release.
