Glover gets a native PC recompilation, the same developer's second N64 port in ten days

Glover-R turns the 1998 N64 platformer into a Windows, Linux and Steam Deck build with widescreen, higher frame rates, a right-stick camera and mods. It needs your own cartridge dump; Linux is stil...

AI-drafted from 6 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

Glover, the Nintendo 64 platformer from 1998 in which you steer a rubber ball through thirty levels as a magic glove, has a native PC port. Glover-R was published on GitHub by a developer called ThatGuyMcd on 6 October, with a 1.0.0 release at midday UTC, a mods bundle three minutes later and a 1.0.1 fix that afternoon for a first boot that could take up to a minute. It now starts, the notes say, in under half a second.

It is the same developer's second N64 recompilation in ten days. Rocket-R, a port of Sucker Punch's Rocket: Robot on Wheels, had its first public release on 26 September and has since reached 1.0.2 with an Android build. Glover-R is built on the Rocket-R code, which supplies the launcher, controls and build system, and the README credits layout research from Rainchus's Glover repository, plus the usual chain of N64Recomp, RSPRecomp, N64ModernRuntime and the RT64 renderer.

What static recompilation means here

N64Recomp, by Wiseguy, takes the game's binary and the layout of its functions and turns the MIPS machine code into C, one instruction at a time, which is then compiled for a PC like any other program. Nobody has to understand what the code does, which is why a port can appear in days rather than the years a full decompilation takes. The trade-off is that the result is only as readable as the original binary, so the enhancements live in patches around it rather than in the game's own logic.

In Glover-R those patches give you widescreen, a choice of resolution and frame rate, with the game keeping its original speed at higher rates, interpolation, texture filtering, an adjustable field of view and draw distance. Press F1 or Escape in play for the settings. A Controller Studio maps any N64 control to keyboard, mouse or pad, with a guided setup and an input tester. The Modern Analogue Camera mod, included and switched on through the Mods tab, adds right-stick and mouse look in third and first person while keeping the original camera modes. Mods and texture packs install from the same tab, and each modded profile gets its own saves.

What you need, and what is untested

The game is not included. The launcher asks for an unmodified USA cartridge dump, revision 0, 8 MiB, in .z64, .n64 or .v64 byte order, and checks it against a published SHA-1. Builds are offered for Windows x64, Linux as an AppImage or portable archive, and a Steam Deck package that uses the same x86_64 Linux build.

The README is straightforward about how much of that has been exercised. Windows "has been tested through the intro, menus and gameplay", including the camera mod, and both platforms pass the automated checks. The developer writes: "I still need gameplay testing on Linux and Steam Deck hardware, and longer play sessions on all platforms." Bug reports are asked to leave ROMs and saves out.

Glover is an unusual choice in one way. Most recompilation targets have no official modern release, but Piko Interactive put a PC version on Steam in April 2022, described on its page as "completely ported from the original source code" of the N64 game. Glover-R starts from the shipped cartridge instead, and its code is under the GPL, so the mods and camera work can be picked over by anyone. It was added to the community's recomp board the day it appeared, through an issue filed by a third party.

Sources

Image: ThatGuyMcd

More news from Gaming World