Paper Mario on PC thanks to complete decompilation
Programmer Ethan Roseman recently announced that he has completed the full decompilation of Paper Mario. This could lead to mods and unofficial PC ports of the Nintendo 64 classic in the future. The completion of the project means that we should eventually be able to play Paper Mario on our desktops without having to resort to emulation.
Although Nintendo is known for its tough measures and lawsuits in such matters, previous projects of this kind have managed to evade the company's lawyers. Decompilation projects for Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past, and Perfect Dark are still successful.
Why previous projects haven't been stopped by Nintendo
The reason for this is likely that projects like these do not infringe on Nintendo's intellectual property rights. Programmers like Roseman do not simply copy Nintendo's resources (such as textures) from their games and transfer them to the PC, but rather create the code anew - something that Nintendo has not yet found a solution for.
However, this means that if you want to play an unofficial PC version of Paper Mario, you will need to provide these Nintendo resources through a (legally acquired!) ROM. While this may be a bit more cumbersome than simply clicking "Start," it keeps everyone involved out of jail, which is probably for the best.
Roseman's future plans and the future of Paper Mario on PC
For those interested in how Roseman accomplished his project, the decompilation process can be seen in a YouTube video. If you simply want to play a PC port of Paper Mario, you probably won't have to wait too long for someone to figure out how to do it. It could even be Roseman himself, who says he still needs to work on "documentation, support for other versions, and more asset support" for the project.
The decompilation can be found on Roseman's GitHub. Who knows, maybe the PC version of Paper Mario will someday have a modding scene as vibrant as Breath of the Wild's.
