An unofficial PC port of the Nintendo 64 classic Star Fox 64 has officially landed.
Developed by Harbour Masters, the same talented team behind the acclaimed PC ports of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, their latest project, titled Starship, offers fans a chance to experience Star Fox 64 with modern enhancements.
Players can enjoy higher frame rates, true widescreen support, and native PC compatibility, breathing new life into the beloved retro title outside of traditional emulation.
This release underscores a strategic approach for fan projects centered on Nintendo IPs: operate under the radar and quietly launch the finished product into the wild. By the time Nintendo’s legal team catches wind, the game has already spread across the internet, making takedowns more symbolic than effective.
Far too often, fan projects are prematurely halted by DMCA takedowns because their creators either seek funding or enthusiastically share their progress too early. This eagerness frequently puts a target on their back, resulting in the projects being abruptly terminated and left incomplete.
Notably, Harbour Masters seems to have learned from past fan projects that faced Nintendo’s aggressive takedown policies. Starship smartly excludes any copyrighted assets, forcing players to import their own, potentially shielding the project from Nintendo’s notorious legal clampdowns while ensuring fans can relive the iconic space adventure in a modernized format.
What does this mean in practice? To get the Starship port working, you’ll need an official ROM file.
This requirement cleverly sidesteps legal issues, as the project itself doesn’t distribute copyrighted assets. While this strategy should keep Nintendo’s lawyers at bay, it’s no guarantee they won’t still try to shut it down. If you’re interested in trying the port yourself, Harbour Masters has made the setup process fairly straightforward.
First, download and extract the Starship emulator from GitHub. You’ll need a copy of the Star Fox 64 ROM, specifically version 1.1 (Rev A) in the z64 file format. While there’s a polite emphasis on acquiring it “legally,” it’s worth noting that Nintendo’s recent behavior has left many disgruntled. From shuttering Switch emulators to aggressively targeting fan projects like PC ports and remakes alongside Palworld.
Nintendo has been cracking down on anything they perceive as infringing on their IP. Adding insult to injury, their new censorship policies have caused multiple Japanese-developed games to be canceled for Western Switch releases, or worse, censored despite previously allowing far more provocative titles on the eShop.
If the ROM file you’ve acquired happens to be in the .n64 format, you can easily convert it using an online tool. Once you have the correct file, place it in the same folder as the Starship emulator and run the generate_otr.bat file to extract the necessary assets.
After extraction is complete, launch the Starship application and press F1 to configure your controller and graphics settings. If you encounter a crash, reinstall the latest C++ redistributable and try the process again.
Starship currently supports three rendering APIs: DirectX11 for Windows, OpenGL for all platforms, and Metal for macOS. You can switch between these APIs in the Settings menu located in the menubar after pressing F1, though any changes require a restart to take effect.
It’s a bittersweet reminder that despite Star Fox being one of Nintendo’s most iconic franchises, the series has been dormant for nearly a decade. The last entry, Star Fox Zero for the ill-fated Wii U, debuted eight years ago to a lukewarm reception, leaving fans yearning for a proper revival, one that seemingly had been neglected by Nintendo who profusely refuse to give consumers opportunities in purchasing or playing their extensive library of iconic games on their modern Switch handheld system.
While Nintendo seems reluctant to revisit this beloved franchise, this “Starship” PC port provides a nostalgic and modernized way for fans to relive the magic of Star Fox 64.
