Bomberman 64: Recompiled — Nintendo Switch

English | Português

Nintendo Switch port developed by Paulo Dias. If you enjoy it, leave a ⭐ on the repository!

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/photos/switch-1.jpg" width="360" alt="Bomberman 64 running on a Nintendo Switch OLED"> <img src="docs/photos/switch-2.jpg" width="360" alt="Bomberman 64 Adventure mode on a Nintendo Switch OLED"> <br><em>Running on a real Nintendo Switch OLED.</em> </p>

A Nintendo Switch homebrew port (.nro) of Bomberman 64: Recompiled. The game code is statically recompiled from the original ROM with N64Recomp and runs on N64ModernRuntime. The PC version renders with RT64 (Vulkan/D3D12/Metal), which isn't available on the Switch. This port renders with the Fast3D renderer from libultraship over OpenGL, and its settings menu uses ImGui.

Screenshots from the port's renderer (the same one used on the Switch).

This repository contains no game assets. You need your own Bomberman 64 (USA) ROM to build and to play.

Installing on the Switch

You need a Switch running Atmosphère and your own Bomberman 64 (USA) ROM. Download the game from the Releases page. There are two ways to install it:

Option 1: NSP (recommended): icon on the HOME menu

1. Install BM64Recompiled.nsp with a title installer (DBI, Tinfoil, Goldleaf...). Installing NSPs requires sigpatches in Atmosphère.
2. Put your ROM on the SD card (see Where to put the ROM).
3. Open Bomberman 64: Recompiled from the HOME menu, like any other game.

Option 2: NRO (no installation)

1. Copy BM64Recompiled.nro to sdmc:/switch/ on the SD card.
2. Put your ROM on the SD card (see below).
3. Launch it from the Homebrew Menu in title override mode: hold R while opening any game. The album (applet mode) doesn't have enough memory.

Where to put the ROM

Any of these places works:

• sdmc:/switch/bm64recomp/ (created by the game on first launch),
• sdmc:/switch/,
• the root of the SD card (sdmc:/).

Any format (.z64, .n64 or .v64) and any file name. On first launch the ROM is validated and copied to sdmc:/switch/bm64recomp/, so you can delete the original afterwards. That folder also holds settings, saves, the shader cache and the logs (bm64.log, bm64-err.log). The NSP and the NRO share it.

Settings menu: press − (Minus) to open or close it. It has these tabs:

• General: language (English or Portuguese).
• Graphics: internal resolution, anti-aliasing, texture filtering, VSync, FPS and the Switch CPU clock.
• Sound.
• Controls: rumble, deadzone and remapping.
• Cheats.

Settings are saved when the menu closes.

Portuguese translation

Choose Português (Brasil) in General → Language / Idioma. It translates:

• the game's text: menus, file select, options, results, stage names, Custom parts, Controller Pak messages and credits (accented letters are added to the game's font);
• all 33 conversations of Adventure mode. They're images in the game, so their text is redrawn in Portuguese when they load, keeping portraits, icons and the tutorial diagrams.

Graphic titles ("Stage Select", "Single Battle", world names...) stay in English. The translation lives in plain text files that are easy to review: translations/pt-BR.txt (game text) and translations/pt-BR-dialogue.txt (conversations). Text that already appears on screen changes on the next screen.

Custom icon (e.g. the box art)

The repository ships a generic icon. To use another one (for example the game's box art) on your own console, put a 256×256 JPEG at icons/custom-icon.jpg and build again (.\build.ps1 switch or .\build.ps1 nsp ...): the .nro and the .nsp use it instead. That file is ignored by git, so artwork you don't own stays out of the repository.

Building

Everything runs in Docker, so on Windows you only need Docker Desktop and PowerShell. Clone with submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/paulodiasred/BM64Switch.git
cd BM64Switch

Command	What it does
.\build.ps1 generate C:\path\bomberman64.z64	Once: decompresses the ROM and recompiles the game (RecompiledFuncs/), the audio microcode (rsp/aspMain.cpp) and the patches (RecompiledPatches/).
.\build.ps1 switch	Builds dist\BM64Recompiled.nro, plus the .elf for reading crash reports.
.\build.ps1 all C:\path\bomberman64.z64	generate + switch.
.\build.ps1 nsp C:\path\prod.keys	Builds dist\BM64Recompiled.nsp. Needs your console's prod.keys (Lockpick_RCM). Only the packing step reads them, with just the two keys it needs, in a container without network access, and they never go into the repository.
.\build.ps1 override <title ID>	Without keys: an Atmosphère LayeredFS folder in dist\sd that runs the game in place of an installed title, to test the NSP build.
.\build.ps1 patches	Recompiles only the patches, after editing patches\*.c.
.\build.ps1 linux	Linux test build (same code and renderer) in build-linux\.
.\build.ps1 test run.sh SHOTS="10 20 30"	Linux build + headless run of a tools\test\ script, which takes screenshots in run\. The ROM must be in run\.
.\build.ps1 shell	Opens a shell in the tools Docker image.
.\build.ps1 clean	Deletes build-linux\, build-switch\ and dist\.

The first run creates two Docker images:

• bm64switch-host: Ubuntu with clang, N64Recomp, Xvfb and Mesa.
• bm64switch-nx: devkitA64 with libnx.

It also downloads and builds tools into build-tools\: N64Recomp, and bm64decompress from the decompilation project.

Nothing generated from the ROM may be committed. The .gitignore already covers ROMs, RecompiledFuncs/, RecompiledPatches/, rsp/ and the patch binaries.

Layout

• src/lus/: the renderer.
  • dl_translator.cpp translates F3DEX display lists and RT64's extended GBI for libultraship. It also emulates the motion blur framebuffer and the fog-based fades.
  • lus_render_context.cpp is the render context.
  • lus_menu.cpp is the ImGui menu.
  • The other files replace the PC version's RmlUi UI.
• src/switch/: Switch glue.
  • 2 MB stacks and cleared TLS for threads created through pthread_create.
  • sljit configured without executable memory.
• lib-patches/: changes to the submodules (N64ModernRuntime, N64Recomp and libultraship). tools/setup.sh applies them, and build.ps1 runs it automatically.
• patches/: game patches (C for MIPS), recompiled along with the game.
• third_party/rt64/: the extended GBI header and the file_to_c tool, copied from RT64 (MIT).
• tools/test/: headless test scripts.
  • run.sh: screenshots at fixed times.
  • play.sh: a sequence of key presses and screenshots.
  • audio.sh: audio levels.
  • gdbrun.sh: backtrace.

Debugging

• Logs: sdmc:/switch/bm64recomp/bm64.log and bm64-err.log.
• Atmosphère crash reports: they're in sdmc:/atmosphere/crash_reports/. To read them, use aarch64-none-elf-addr2line -e dist/BM64Recompiled.elf <offset> in the bm64switch-nx image, with the offsets inside the game module.
• Display list dumps: BM64_DL_DUMP=N (Linux build) writes every Nth frame's display list to dl_<frame>.txt.

Known limitations

• Code mods don't work: homebrew can't create executable memory.
• The NRO in applet mode (album) doesn't have enough memory. Use the NSP or title override.
• The first time an effect appears it can still hitch briefly while its shader compiles. Shaders are saved to shaders.bin and precompiled on later launches.

Credits

• Paulo Dias: Nintendo Switch port (libultraship renderer, display list translator, ImGui menu, Switch runtime adaptations and build).
• BM64Recomp (RevoSucks and contributors): the base of this port.
• N64Recomp / N64ModernRuntime (Wiseguy and contributors).
• libultraship and the Switch fork by YoshiCrystal9.
• RT64: extended GBI and file_to_c.
• Liberation Fonts (SIL Open Font License 1.1): the font of the translated conversations (translations/FONT-LICENSE.txt).
• Bomberhackers/bm64: decompilation and bm64decompress.

The original project's license is in LICENSE.txt.