Super Mario 64 on Apple Vision Pro
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
A developer ported Super Mario 64 to Apple Vision Pro, placing each level on your real table.
The unofficial build leans on community decompilation code, the kind Nintendo has targeted before.
Background
Michael Steil, author of the pagetable.com article "The Best Way to Play Super Mario 64: on Apple Vision Pro," built the port on the Super Mario 64 decompilation project and sm64coopdx, the game code it runs, with HD textures and 3D models from community projects. In the port, each level sits on your real table and you walk around it while playing with a game controller — Steil's summary is "You are the camera." It is drawing notice now partly because the article contrasts Microsoft's stated stance on decompilation with Nintendo's past responses to it.
How it unfolded
- 2020Nintendo responded to games being decompiled and rebuilt with DMCA takedowns for the Super Mario 64 PC port.
- 2024Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Yuzu.
- Oct 13, 2026Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wrote that games are being "rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support," calling it "unmistakably good outcomes for players."
- Oct 18, 2026pagetable.com published Michael Steil's article "The Best Way to Play Super Mario 64: on Apple Vision Pro."
- Oct 21, 2026A ResetEra thread, a Reddit r/VisionPro post and a Hacker News submission of the article all appeared, with the ResetEra thread describing the release as "unofficial."
Who’s saying what
- Author
- Michael Steil says Super Mario 64 becomes a living diorama on Apple Vision Pro, with each level on your real table and "You are the camera."
- Analysts
- Xbox CEO Asha Sharma frames decompiling and rebuilding games for unsupported hardware as "unmistakably good outcomes for players."
- Caution
- Hacker News commenter iugtmkbdfil834 said they were under the impression Apple is not big on emulators on its hardware and is "mildly worried that a big hammer is gonna come down on it all pretty soon."
Still unverified
The ResetEra thread describes the release as "unofficial"; Hacker News commenter iugtmkbdfil834's worry that Apple may crack down on emulators on its hardware is a personal concern, not a confirmed event.