Someone recently stealth-released a full Mario 64 port for PC that, as Wes explained earlier this week, went way above and beyond fan-made efforts we've seen previously. It runs natively, without the need for an emulator, at high resolution—up to 4K, although the textures tend to fall apart when you crank it up that high—and with full, no-hassle Xbox controller support. "It's surreal to be playing a high resolution, high framerate Mario 64 on PC," he wrote, "but I've just done exactly that."
Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult for anyone else to do it. According to TorrentFreak, Nintendo has begun filing copyright complaints against file-hosting sites carrying the game.
"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]," the notice says. "The reported file contains an unauthorized derivative work based on Nintendo’s copyrighted work."
Gameplay videos on YouTube are also reportedly being targeted for takedown, although there are still plenty of them out there.
Unsurprisingly, the game itself is also still widely available if you're willing to dig a little for it—which is to say, go to Reddit and poke around for a few seconds. For now, that is; Nintendo is notoriously enthusiastic about protecting its properties, though, so I expect it will continue to play whack-a-mole with file sharing sites for a good while yet.
I've reached out to Nintendo for comment on the copyright notice, and will update if I receive a reply.
