Nintendo 64 – Yes, That N64 – Now Has an Open World Game as Big as Skyrim |
Get unlimited access to everything VICE has to offer.
Turn off all ads on VICE.com
Exclusive New VICE Documentaries
Member Exclusive Features & Columns
Turn off all ads on VICE.com
Exclusive New VICE Documentaries
Member Exclusive Features & Columns
Turn off all ads on VICE.com
Exclusive New VICE Documentaries
Member Exclusive Features & Columns
4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door
Nintendo 64 – Yes, That N64 – Now Has an Open World Game as Big as Skyrim
Portal 64 creator James Lambert is back with a groundbreaking open-world engine for the Nintendo 64 as part of his Junk Runner 64 project.
Share on X (Opens in new window)X
Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook
Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard
The Nintendo 64 may be nearly 30 years old, but that hasn’t stopped dedicated fans and tinkerers from still finding new ways to push the hardware’s limits.
James Lambert’s Open-World N64 Experiment
Gamers who are old enough to have lived through the N64 era remember how groundbreaking and exciting things felt when Nintendo made the leap from the Super Nintendo to the Nintendo 64. The launch lineup, the colorful controllers, and a stable of titles that would go on to become classics.
Recently, a popular YouTuber named James Lambert who specializes in coding games and retro consoles decided to toy around with the idea of an open-world game optimized for the N64 as part of a game jam project. The experiment started by trying to push the limits of the N64’s draw distance restrictions. Some gaming fans may recognize Lambert’s name as the creator of the Portal 64 project that was shut down in 2024 due to copyright concerns involving Valve and Nintendo.
While exploring the best coding solutions to allow a Nintendo 64 game to draw further into the distance, Lambert found himself developing a custom open-world engine for the N64. The impressive creation allowed Lambert to build out a demo of a massive open world game as big as Skyrim (in terms of spatial size, not in terms of things to do in the world), where players can stand at one edge of the world and look off in the distance and actually see the distant mountain peaks at the other end.
The video is very technical and Lambert walks through the various problems he encountered and the coding solutions he and his team used to tackle them and get the world to render in the way he hoped it would.
Lambert wasn’t alone on this project and also credits the rest of his team for their help on the open-world engine:
Pyroxene: https://x.com/pyrox3ne
Caitlin G Cooke: https://cgcooke.itch.io/
Kælin: https://betadynast.bandcamp.com/
Interested fans can check out the custom open-world engine for the N64 at Lambert’s GitHub. Take note that to actually play the game that Lambert created, Junk Runner 64, gamers will need to run it on real hardware or a highly accurate emulator.
Lambert plans to use the lessons learned from this game jam experiment to develop his next project, which will be a full game that runs on the original N64, Analogue 3D, and ModRetro.
Share on X (Opens in new window)X
Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook
Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard
Nintendo 64 – Yes, That N64 – Now Has an Open World Game as Big as Skyrim 14 minutes ago By Denny Connolly
Nintendo 64 – Yes, That N64 – Now Has an Open World Game as Big as Skyrim
Tijana87/Getty Images Gen Z Women Are Obsessed With Becoming Trad Wives 14 minutes ago By Sammi Caramela
Gen Z Women Are Obsessed With Becoming Trad Wives
4 Zodiac Signs Facing Major Relationship Tests With the Coming Full Moon 28 minutes ago By Sammi Caramela
4 Zodiac Signs Facing Major Relationship Tests With the Coming Full Moon
Dzika Mrowka/Elifesra/Getty Images There’s a Full Pink Moon in April and a Blue Moon in May: How to See Both 39 minutes ago By Ashley Fike
There’s a Full Pink Moon in April and a Blue Moon in May: How to See Both
Screenshot: Blizzard Entertainment, WEBTOON Blizzard Drops New Overwatch: Undivided WEBTOON With Major Story Lore Expansion 46 minutes ago By Brent Koepp
Blizzard Drops New Overwatch: Undivided WEBTOON With Major Story Lore Expansion
Keychron Q11 – Credit: Keychron Ergonomic Keyboards That Aren’t a Pain in Your You-Know-What (Wrists) 48 minutes ago By Matt Jancer | Reviewed by Ysolt Usigan
Ergonomic Keyboards That Aren’t a Pain in Your You-Know-What (Wrists)
By Matt Jancer | Reviewed by Ysolt Usigan
Bobcat Goldthwait with Jay Leno on 'The Tonight Show' (Photo by Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images) The Fiery ‘Tonight Show’ Stunt That Fans Still Don’t Understand & Got an A-List Comedian Arrested 57 minutes ago By Tony Alpsen
The Fiery ‘Tonight Show’ Stunt That Fans Still Don’t Understand & Got an A-List Comedian Arrested
Screenshot: Embark Studios ARC Raiders – How To Complete Week 22 Trials (March 30-April 5) 1 hour ago By Denny Connolly
ARC Raiders – How To Complete Week 22 Trials (March 30-April 5)
Mitch Hedberg (Photo by Cy Cyr/FilmMagic) Mitch Hedberg Eerily Predicted Exactly How He Would Die (& That’s Not Even The Weirdest Thing About His Death) 2 hours ago By Tony Alpsen
Mitch Hedberg Eerily Predicted Exactly How He Would Die (& That’s Not Even The Weirdest Thing About His Death)
DJ Dan (Photo by C Flanigan/Getty Images) DJ Dan, West Coast House Music Icon, Dead at 57 2 hours ago By Stephen Andrew Galiher
DJ Dan, West Coast House Music Icon, Dead at 57
By Stephen Andrew Galiher
Kill the ads for just $2 a month
VICE membership also gives you access to our very best writing and exclusive new documentaries.
Add your account details