The Nintendo 64 just got a Pokémon Mini emulator

Homebrew developers N64GameBuilder and M.A.D. have ported the Pokémon Mini handheld emulator to the Nintendo 64. The project is called 64Minis. It runs on actual N64 hardware and scales the tiny handheld's games up to a full television screen.

The Pokémon Mini was a bizarre little device released in late 2001. Nintendo built it as the smallest console to ever use interchangeable cartridges. It weighed practically nothing and had a microscopic black-and-white LCD screen. Nintendo released the system in North America, Japan, and Europe, but it faded into obscurity almost immediately. The system only received ten official games during its short lifespan. Playing its library on a CRT through a Nintendo 64 is exactly the kind of overkill the homebrew scene does best.

Scaling up the screen

The emulator includes a few modern conveniences. You can switch color palettes instantly, similar to playing a Game Boy game on a Super Game Boy. The software scales the native resolution at 1x, 2x, or 3x sizes to fit your display.

The developers built 64Minis using the open-source PokeMini core originally created by JustBurn and the Libretro team. Emulating foreign hardware on the Nintendo 64 is usually a headache. The console has a complex memory architecture and relies heavily on its Reality Coprocessor for audio and video tasks. Getting a Libretro core running smoothly requires careful optimization of the N64's limited RAM. The N64 homebrew community has seen a resurgence in recent years thanks to better open-source toolchains, making projects like this much more feasible.

Despite those hardware constraints, 64Minis handles both homebrew puzzle games like SokoMini and commercial releases with full native sound reproduction. The developers also tested homebrew titles like Galactix, Mini Zelda, and Elite.

Commercial software like Pichu Bros. Mini runs smoothly with custom colors applied, and navigating the ROM selection menu is handled entirely via the standard N64 controller. The original handheld only had a D-pad, an A button, a B button, and a shock detector. Mapping those basic inputs to the N64 trident is straightforward, though reproducing the shock sensor inputs usually requires mapping a dedicated button.

Open source release and what is next

64Minis isn't available to download just yet. The developers plan to release the polished code on GitHub under the GNU GPL v3 license once they finish cleaning up the backend. They haven't provided a specific release date.

The team is already working on another target. They are building a Neo Geo Pocket Color emulator for the N64. SNK's portable system is a fascinating piece of hardware with a library heavy on fighting games and RPGs. It has a much larger library and more demanding hardware specifications than the Pokémon Mini.

I want to see how the N64 handles the strict timing required for SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium. If they can get a Neo Geo Pocket Color running at full speed on a stock Nintendo 64, that will be an impressive technical achievement.