In recent months, we’ve seen a LOT of progress when it comes to our favorite retro games being natively ported to modern platforms. Many of these are formerly Nintendo 64 games, thanks to the N64Recomp project, and that includes Pokémon Stadium. As spotted by Video Game Esoterica, PokémonStadiumRecomp is now available for download over at GitHub.
Surprisingly enough, it would appear that this recompilation project saw its first public release back on May 4. However, it’s managed to fly under the radar until now, with v0.4.2-beta being released just a few days ago. If you’re curious, here’s everything that’s new in the latest build:
- Fixed multiplayer controller routing. Previously one controller could
end up driving several players (e.g. in Kid’s Club, Player 1’s pad
controlled Players 1–3). Each player now reads only its own assigned
device, and one physical controller maps to exactly one player.- Controller and enable choices now persist. Assigning a controller or
toggling a player’s Enabled state is saved tolauncher.cfgimmediately,
so it survives a relaunch (previously only ROM/save changes persisted).- Self-healing config. If a config assigns the same device to multiple
slots, it’s de-duplicated on load (first slot keeps it, the rest fall back
to an unused device or None).- Default supersampling (2×2 SSAA) + 4× MSAA — the models look right out of
the box, no settings needed.- In-app SS Anne launcher (works with no config), with Game Boy cart/save
pairing validation and game-colored cart dots.- GB Tower, Transfer Pak, and a self-contained build that needs no Visual
C++ redistributable.
As is the case with just about every one of these PC ports, getting up and running is pretty much as easy as it gets. All you need to do is download the Pokémon Stadium Recomp (linked below), grab a copy of your Pokémon Stadium (US v1.0) ROM, and you’ll be on your merry way.
There are a couple of other differences with the Pokémon Stadium Recomp when compared to some of the others out there. Notably, this build includes support for the actual N64 Transfer Pak, including the ability to “read a Pokémon party from your own Game Boy cartridge, the way the real Transfer Pak accessory did, and save back to it.”
Related Reading: The Legend of Zelda Port Roundup
Some also might remember that there is a Game Boy emulator that was built into the game, called GB Tower. This is fully functional in the Recomp, which is downright pretty darn incredible, if you ask me. Lastly, the v0.3.1-alpha saw the addition of “The SS Anne Launcher”, offering a quick and easy way for “choosing carts and controllers.”
If you want to try this port out for yourself, hit the button below to download the latest release. Then just follow the instructions to get everything properly set up before you begin a new (or return to an old) journey.
