Running console games on Android is nothing new thanks to emulators, but one savvy individual has taken things beyond emulators and figured how to install Super Mario 64 onto Android and have it run natively.
Think about that for a second. A Nintendo 64 game running natively on your Android smartphone. Not using an emulator. Rather, you can simply launch the game just like you would any other app or game on your device.
It’s a crazy concept that no doubt took a fair amount of tinkering. Luckily though the user named VDavid003, as reported by XDA, has laid out the instructions on how to get this done for yourself.
That being said, this should really only be done if you own Super Mario 64, and are just looking for a mobile way to play the game.
Installing Super Mario 64 on Android takes a few steps
The instructions on how to get this to work is seemingly straightforward. But that doesn’t mean the steps are going to be easy.
If you’re unfamiliar with any of the process, which includes installing Termux (a Linux emulator needed for the setup) from the Play Store, then you may want to take a step back and ask yourself if it’s worth the trouble.
Doing some research on how to complete each step is recommended. That shouldn’t necessarily take long. But you will probably want a general idea of what you’re doing before you start things up.
There are just 7 steps included. With the last step being to find the Super Mario 64 APK file and install it. You’ll also need to have some knowledge of Github. Not to mention downloading the files from its repositories.
If this is all a little much for you, an emulator gets the job done
It’s a little less work, but an emulator that runs Nintendo 64 games is probably going to be a little bit easier for most people.
At least those which have never used any of the required tools mentioned in the steps at XDA. Though, being able to launch the game natively does likely sound appealing.
Still, if you use an emulator, there is little more that you need to do than finding the ROM for the game, and placing it where the emulator tells you to.
After that you just need to launch the emulator app, then find and select the game to launch. It’s a pretty quick process too compared to the alternative.