PaperBoat (Paper Mario PC port)

Paper Mario (Intelligent Systems, 2000) has only been re-released on Nintendo’s own consoles. PaperBoat turns the Nintendo 64 original into a native PC program. It comes from Harbour Masters, the group behind Ship of Harkinian (Ocarina of Time) and Ghostship (Super Mario 64); the developers listed in the README are Bass3l, JeodC, KiritoDv and Caladius. GamingOnLinux and Steam Deck HQ covered the release.

What it is

• A decompilation-based port: the pmret/papermario project rebuilt the game’s code as readable C. PaperBoat is built on Paper Mario DX, a modding base on top of that decompilation, and compiles it as a PC program instead of an N64 ROM.
• libultraship stands in for the N64 hardware, the same layer used by the other Harbour Masters ports. Graphics run on DirectX 11 (Windows), OpenGL (all platforms) or Metal (macOS).
• Moddable: custom assets go in a mods folder as .o2r or .otr packs, and the game supports texture replacement.

It works like the other decompilation-based ports in our recompiled games list: instead of emulating the console, it runs the game’s own logic rebuilt as a PC program.

Current status

The 1.0.3 notes add a status-bar customiser, a free quality-of-life badges option and a beta editor for enemy and partner stats. They also fix a long list of bugs, including camera stutter above 30 fps, widescreen menu placement and crashes under Wine. Press coverage mentions higher frame rates, resolution and aspect-ratio options, rebindable controls, cheats and shader support.

The issue tracker still has open reports, such as crashes at specific points and texture seams. We couldn’t confirm that the whole game plays through without problems.

What you need

• Your own copy of the US Nintendo 64 release as a ROM file. The README gives the supported ROM’s SHA-1 hash (3837f44cda784b466c9a2d99df70d77c322b97a0), and the official compatibility checker can test your copy in the browser. Other regions are not supported yet.
• Windows, Linux or macOS. On first launch PaperBoat asks for your ROM (on Linux, put it next to the AppImage) and extracts the game’s assets into a local archive.

We don’t explain how to obtain or copy game data.

Was it made with AI?

Partly, by the project’s own account. The README has an AI disclosure: PaperBoat accepts pull requests made with AI tools, within the Harbour Masters AI policy. GamingOnLinux notes that PCGamingWiki reports heavy use of generative AI tools in Harbour Masters projects. The game logic itself comes from the community decompilation.

Other Paper Mario projects

• pmret/papermario: the community decompilation of Paper Mario that PaperBoat builds on. It is source code that rebuilds the N64 ROM, not a ready-to-play PC port.
• Paper Mario DX: a modding base built on the decompilation, credited by PaperBoat. It is for making N64 mods, not a PC port.
• Paper Mario ReCut: a separate Windows project based on the N64Recomp static recompilation tools. It only has early pre-release builds from May and June 2026, its README admits AI-assisted development and an earlier mistake that pushed a generated file derived from the game to the repository, and GamingOnLinux says it no longer seems to be actively developed. We couldn’t confirm what its prebuilt download contains, so we don’t link it.

Is it legal and safe?

• PaperBoat is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Nintendo or Intelligent Systems. It ships no game assets; they come from your own ROM.
• Use only a copy you own.
• Get builds only from the official GitHub releases page; copies on other sites are not the team’s.

Unofficial. This page is written by an independent directory. It is not made by, endorsed by or affiliated with Nintendo (developed by Intelligent Systems) or Harbour Masters (Bass3l, JeodC, KiritoDv, Caladius) (PaperBoat (Paper Mario PC port)'s author). We do not host any files, and we never link to game files, ROMs or ISOs.