Linux for Nintendo 64 (1997)

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

flykespice

65 points

23 comments

web.archive.orgTechstory

calmmixed

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LinuxNintendo 64Retro Computing

Key topics

Linux

Nintendo 64

Retro Computing

A 1997 article about running Linux on Nintendo 64 has been unearthed, sparking nostalgia and discussion about the feasibility and history of Linux on consoles.

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84-90h

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01Story posted
Sep 15, 2025 at 8:40 PM EDT
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Discussion (23 comments)

Showing 23 comments

AdmiralAsshat

4 months ago

1 reply

So what happened to it?

hcs

4 months ago

I don't know what ever happened to Netscape's version, but various homebrew attempts have been made.

One Linux on N64 project was discussed here a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25539319

There was a version of Mosaic in the SharkWire Online device, recently there have been some efforts to make that more usable without the SharkWire, though I don't think much is public yet, some discussion about the ROM here https://www.reddit.com/r/lostmedia/comments/1i2odym/update_f...

ndiddy

4 months ago

3 replies

In case anyone can't tell from the poorly photoshopped image and the "text input via analog stick rotation" input method, this is an old April Fool's article. See https://groups.google.com/g/fr.comp.os.linux/c/4xO1IcKhRnc/m... for confirmation.

Lammy

4 months ago

3 replies

The Netscape thing isn't that far-fetched, though. Sega Saturn had PlanetWeb in 1996: https://segaretro.org/NetLink_Custom_Web_Browser

And I 'member the LinksBoks web browser on XBOX in the 2000s that had workable input via analog stick. Point the stick at one of the clusters of letters and press one of four colored face buttons: https://web.archive.org/web/20050903121908/http://ysbox.onli...

reaperducer

4 months ago

The PSP had a web browser, as well, with d-pad input.

tcdent

4 months ago

The Sega Dreamcast, from a similar era, had a modem for Internet access and web browser.

wicket

4 months ago

The N64 had the 64DD/Randnet in Japan which included a modem and web browser.

accrual

4 months ago

> each character is represented by a 3 degree angle of the analog stick

This humor is golden. Now I have even more reason to keep my stock sticks in working order.

mattnewton

4 months ago

They had me until the analog stick bit NGL

chiffre01

4 months ago

2 replies

The modern version, that's for real:

https://github.com/clbr/n64bootloader/tree/master/n64linux

accrual

4 months ago

It's got busybox, we're in!

leidenfrost

4 months ago

I found a video of a n64 port in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjG6_UY0ou4

firefax

4 months ago

1 reply

Reminds me of the Slashdot days -- "Linux on [insert device]" articles seemed to pop up every other week. Classic stuff!

abeyer

4 months ago

Immediately answered with a "what if you made a beowulf cluster of those!?" comment

pizzathyme

4 months ago

2 replies

Interestingly every Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980's shipped with modem capability. Hiroshi Yamauchi the CEO thought the Nintendo Network could be a big play. It never panned out but it was a proprietary pre-internet dial up system.

I read about this in "Game Over" by David Sheff, but here's another source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Computer_Network_System

6SixTy

4 months ago

2 replies

I was skeptical about this claim, as the NES and Famicom are pretty simple at the end of the day, and apparently the NESWiki[1] says that there's a second CPU handling modem capabilies with UART communication to a modem controller. Usually networking gear before VLSI has a second off the shelf CPU on the board.

[1] https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Family_Computer_Network_System

reaperducer

4 months ago

1 reply

I was skeptical about this claim

If the Atari 2600 could do it, pretty much anything can.

IIRC, the 2600 had one service that would do it over a dialup modem, and another that got the data from your local cable TV company.

RiverCrochet

4 months ago

Do you mean the Intellivision PlayCable?

RiverCrochet

4 months ago

Yeah, there's no way the Famicom/NES could do audio modulation/demodulation through phone lines to directly be a modem itself. It doesn't have a real audio input, and doesn't have an audio output separate from what's going to the TV.

There is a YouTube video out there of what I believe is a Russian dude copying a Dendy or Famicom cartridge through sound, though. The system is powered up with the copier cart. The copier cart copies its code to the system's 2K of RAM, and runs from there. You then remove the copier cart and insert the game you want to copy. This makes the screen garbled as you are removing the graphics data from reach of the PPU, but the code continues to run as the CPU is not reset. The copier cart will then iterate through each byte of the cart and emit FSK tones through the system's audio out which you can record and then convert to an .nes file with a utility. I suppose it has to know the mapper involved and such.

But there's no way for the NES to shove that modulation through a separate audio out (and definitely no real audio input).

Now the Famicom/NES does have a few GPIO-like lines through the expansion connector, so bit-banging a UART I guess would be possible (if appropriate converters for the voltage are present), but it couldn't be very fast as the CPU has to service the PPU every frame with OAM DMA writes if sprites are enabled.

The Commodore 64 RS-232 built-in capability was driven entirely with software and it didn't go faster than 2400 baud.

ndiddy

4 months ago

The modem was an external add-on, there wasn't any special support for it built into the consoles. I think one reason why it wasn't a big success was that a lot of its appeal was being able to easily do stock trades and check your brokerage account from home, and the Japanese stock market started its decline in the early 90s. I don't think many people were excited to subscribe to a service whose main purpose was showing them how much money they were losing.

Interestingly, the JRA (Japanese horse racing association) continued accepting remote bets from Famicom modem users until 2015. Here's a video of someone placing a bet in 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks0JeyhZsR4

wicket

4 months ago

I seem to remember that "runderwo" was working on porting Linux to the N64 back in the "Dextrose" days, when the N64 scene was still active. I can't find much information on his port, but I did find a reference to it here: http://n64.icequake.net/#projects

gjsman-1000

4 months ago

What was once a prank...

https://hackaday.com/2021/01/01/a-fresh-linux-for-the-most-u...

tcdent

4 months ago

1997 will be the year of Linux on the console.

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ID: 45256687Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 1:35:57 PM

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