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.
- Targets
- Game
- Category
- Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship
- Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed
Requirements & limits
- Prerequisites: 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.
- Prerequisites: 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.
- Attribution: 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.
- Testing evidence: 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.
- License: 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.
About this entry
The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Primary sources
- README.md GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
- docs/building.md GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
- CMakeLists.txt GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
- .gitmodules GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
- LICENSE.md GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
- src GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
- .github/workflows GitHub · HarbourMasters/Ghostship · Revision 40eef13
- https://github.com/HarbourMasters/Ghostship/releases/tag/3.0.0
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