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Case study

Ghostship: a libultraship native port of Super Mario 64

Builds Super Mario 64 as a native PC, Switch and Android program by compiling decompilation-style game source against the libultraship platform library. A bundled extractor converts the user’s US or Japanese ROM into an O2R archive at first launch or build time. The project ships modern renderers, configuration menus and mod-archive loading, not a matching ROM.

Requirements and limitations

  • The reviewed develop branch declares version 3.0.0, matching the latest “Alfa” release. Its src tree keeps the audio, engine, game, goddard and menu layout of the n64decomp/sm64 reconstruction, with port code under src/port, and two sampled source files closely follow their n64decomp counterparts with port changes. The README itself does not name an upstream decompilation, so that lineage is a review observation.
  • Supply your own Super Mario 64 ROM in .z64 byte order: the README accepts only the US and Japanese releases and lists their SHA-1 values. PC releases convert it to sm64.o2r; the Switch build reuses an O2R generated on PC, and the Android app checks the ROM hash and converts it on the device. No game data is bundled.
  • Source builds use CMake with the libultraship and Torch submodules: Visual Studio 2022 with the v143 toolset, Python 3 and CMake on Windows, or GCC/Clang, Ninja, SDL2, libzip and the listed libraries on Linux. Renderers are DirectX 11, OpenGL, Metal and Vulkan where drivers allow. The building guide still names sf64.o2r and 2s2h.elf from other Harbour Masters ports, so its file names need checking against the current targets.
  • GitHub Actions workflows build Windows, macOS, Linux, Switch and web packages. The README calls CI builds playtest-only and warns of bugs and crashes. No matching, regression or original-hardware comparison result is published, and this collection did not build or run the port.
  • The root LICENSE.md is MIT (2026, Lywx) for the project’s own code. Submodules keep their own terms, and Nintendo’s code-derived content and ROM assets are not licensed by it; the README says it does not condone piracy. The reviewed sources establish no REA or coding-agent involvement.

About this entry

Type
Case study
Category
Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship
Independent reconstruction project
Targets
Game

Sources reviewed

The description was reviewed against primary sources. This does not establish runtime testing, security auditing or verified compatibility.

Primary sources

  1. README.md GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
  2. docs/building.md GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
  3. CMakeLists.txt GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
  4. .gitmodules GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
  5. LICENSE.md GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
  6. src GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
  7. .github/workflows GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
  8. https://github.com/HarbourMasters/Ghostship/releases/tag/3.0.0