The Nintendo Can Do VR? Sure, Why Not!

I’m all for a bit of fusion, be that in my food or my tech, but now and then, someone comes up with a combo nobody saw coming. Take a Nintendo 64 and an Oculus DK1, and you can create a low-res VR system that is pouring with retro charm.

Nintendo 64 VR

YouTuber James Lambert says he’s always been interested in VR, and clearly, he has some passion for retro gaming too. The Nintendo 64 now 28 years old (yes, it really is THAT old now, sorry folks), and the DK1 itself is just over a decade old now too, making that a bit of modern-retro tech of its own. Of course, there is a bit of hardware modification needed here, so he’s using a modern N64 that now has a HDMI output, as well as some USB connectivity. The DK1 is now also open-source, allowing for further customization to be achieved on that side of things.

An additional Arduino control board was required too, as a translation layer between the Oculus sensors, which uses an Accelerometer, and Magnetometer, and a Gyroscope. However, the Nintendo 64 doesn’t really know what to do with this information, so the Arduino would send inputs to the Nintendo instead.

Lambert worked with his colleague Pyroxena, who is an expert in 3D modelling, and together they created an environment that could be explored in VR while running on the Nintendo 64. Sure, it’s not a native N64 game right now, but he is working on a game (not a VR game), but it’s a bloody cool proof of concept, and I’m curious if we’ll see more from this project!

Check out the video below!