Skip to content

Native Console 0.1.1

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@RedReaper1515 RedReaper1515 released this 13 Oct 19:55
· 4 commits to main since this release
0.1.1
e5dff21

The hub and the recompilers, built for Windows x64, so that you can turn your own games into native executables without building this project first.

New since 0.1

  • Nothing to set up but a compiler. SDL2's development files are in the archive and the hub finds them beside itself. In 0.1 every build stopped with "SDL2 CMake directory not found" until you had downloaded SDL2 and pointed Settings at it.
  • Nintendo 64 is in the archive: n64recomp and its runtime, which 0.1 left out.
  • The README says how far each console has come.

How far each console has come

  • Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance have had the most testing, and are the ones to start with.
  • Super Nintendo, NES, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 64 are in progress, with one commercial game each checked so far.
  • GameCube is in progress and has been tested with one game only, Shrek 2, which is playable but still needs work.
  • Wii is not supported yet, and is off until you turn it on.

Native Console is experimental: a game that builds may still not run correctly everywhere.

What you need

  1. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
  2. Visual Studio Build Tools (or Visual Studio) with the Desktop development with C++ workload. Every game is compiled on your computer, and the hub finds the compiler, CMake and Ninja that come with it by itself.
  3. Your own games, dumped from cartridges and discs you own. Nothing of any game is in this release. Please read ROMs, piracy and preservation.

Getting started

  1. Unzip native-console-0.1.1-windows-x64.zip and run native_console_hub.exe. Windows may say the program is from an unknown publisher, because it is not signed: choose More info, then Run anyway.
  2. Drop a ROM, or a folder of them, onto the window. Each game is recompiled, compiled and added to your library; click it to play.

The hub keeps its library and its settings in %LOCALAPPDATA%\NativeConsole\Hub. If you used 0.1 and set the SDL2 folder by hand, that setting is kept and still works.

In the archive

  • native_console_hub.exe, the hub
  • the recompilers: gbrecomp (Game Boy, Game Boy Color), gbarecomp, snesrecomp, nesrecomp, ndsrecomp, n64recomp, gcrecomp (GameCube and Wii)
  • each console's runtime as source, which every game you build is compiled with
  • SDL2/: SDL 2.32.10's headers, import libraries and CMake files, with SDL2.dll
  • the licenses of what is included

Not in this release

  • Linux, SteamOS and macOS builds of the hub. Build from source (LINUX.md, MACOS.md); the hub on Windows can also export a game for them.

How this was checked

Built with MSVC from commit e5dff21, with the C runtime linked in, so no redistributable is needed. The archive passed the project's release test on Windows: unpacked somewhere else, it recompiled, built and ran a test program for every console in it, each built against the archive's own SDL2. It was then unzipped on its own, with the folders it was built from out of the way, and the hub imported, built and ran a Game Boy and a Nintendo 64 test ROM with nothing set up.

native-console-0.1.1-windows-x64.zip SHA-256: 4fd46ac1194da984f6546cd85ea40f3a2fbcba81ddd2d84963bc4ef16735816d

Assets 3
Loading