Magic64 Could Turn the ModRetro M64 Into a Six-System Console

There’s custom firmware coming for the ModRetro M64. It’s called Magic64, and if it pans out, it puts the M64 above the Analogue. I own a red M64 and two Analogue 3Ds, and I compared the two recently. I know Magic64 is a community thing and it isn’t an official ModRetro project. But still, this is exciting to me, and yes, I’ll try the beta.

What Magic64 is

Magic64 is a full replacement for the M64’s firmware, written from scratch for both the console’s FPGA and its microcontroller, its developer Nate told Retro Dodo. An FPGA is a chip that can be reconfigured to behave like the original hardware of an old console. Magic64 loads a separate configuration for each system from the M64’s microSD card, using cores from MiSTer, the open-source FPGA project that recreates dozens of consoles.

The plan is six systems at launch: Game Boy and Game Boy Color, NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation. Nate said he would rather launch with a smaller, quality-tested list than ship buggy cores. PlayStation games would load from the SD card, with memory cards and multi-disc games supported, though owners would need to supply the console’s BIOS. N64 cartridges keep working in the cartridge slot, and Nate said he hopes to release Magic64 “sometime in October” if all goes to plan.

What has actually been shown

Most of that list comes from the interview, so it helps to separate what Nate has shown in public. On X, he has posted a PlayStation core running on his M64 firmware, RetroAchievements, the free service that adds achievements to classic games, and a Game Boy Color video preset modelled on the Chromatic’s screen. The NES, SNES and Game Boy Advance cores have not been shown publicly yet, and there is no beta, website or source code to try. Until there is, Nate posts his progress on his X account.

The Chromatic connection

Nate already makes ChroMagic, a free, open-source firmware for ModRetro’s Chromatic handheld that backs up cartridges and their saves to an SD card, released in September. With ChroMagic on a Chromatic connected to the M64, he has shown the handheld working as a Transfer Pak in Pokémon Stadium, and as a reader that plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges on the M64. ModRetro has promised official Transfer Pak support through the Chromatic in a future update, but its M64 page gives no date.

Open source, on paper and in practice

ModRetro’s product page calls the M64 “open-source and mod-friendly” and says its FPGA core and firmware are open source. So far, ModRetro has published the console’s schematics and case files, but its firmware repository holds only a licence and a note that the software is “coming soon.” In the meantime, the community is building its own: OM64, another replacement firmware from a different developer, is in testing without an N64 core yet.

The Analogue 3D is the opposite case. Analogue designs its N64 core in house, and the 3D does not support openFPGA, the platform that lets Analogue’s Pocket run community cores, so it plays N64 cartridges and nothing else. ModRetro has not commented on Magic64 or said whether installing custom firmware affects the M64’s one-year warranty.

If it pans out

For me, it’s the fact that it’s one box running six systems, and the M64 being open to the community. You have two machines at a similar price, and one of them now becomes extensible. That’s open emulation of six systems in one console, without having to set up MiSTer, which is a pain to configure. The only MiSTer I’ve ever used is Retro Remake’s SuperStation One, which is technically a MiSTer.

If you’re paying about the same for the M64 and the Analogue, but you can do all this on the M64, then all of a sudden the M64 is simply the better machine. Assuming, you know, all of this actually comes to fruition.