Nintendo's cult hit creator is excited about unofficial game's port to PC, even though he knows publisher won't like it
Star Fox 64 on PC doesn't bother the developer of this iconic installment of Nintendo's forgotten series.
Nintendo isn't fond of either emulators or fan projects based on their games for other platforms (personal computers). However, the developer of one of the cult games from the "Big N" catalog doesn't hold it against the fans for converting his title to PC.
Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero
Takaya Imamura was employed by Nintendo for more than 32 years until he began his own ventures in 2021 (as an independent artist and a professor at Osaka University). It is thanks to him that we owe the designs of many bosses from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, as well as the memorable atmosphere from the cult Majora's Mask.
However, many fans associate him with two forgotten Nintendo series: F-Zero and Star Fox. The former at least got a special online edition on Switch this year, but Fox and the rest of the space company only appeared as part of exclusive missions in Starlink: Battle for Atlas and the classic (though previously unreleased) Star Fox 2, which came to the retro console Super NES Classic Edition (and in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, along with Captain Falcon from F-Zero and characters from the Mother series). Both series were under the care of Imamura for many years.
(Il)legal port of Star Fox 64 delighted the game's creator
However, as is often the case, fans don't wait idly for Nintendo to remember the existence of these series, as was the case with Metroid. The Harbour Masters team prepared the Starship project—a PC conversion of Star Fox 64—which did not escape the attention of the delighted Imamura.
The developer stated that although Nintendo would probably not approve of this project, he himself was very pleased with the fact that he saw his game on an ultra-wide screen.
Interestingly, this port is supposed to be "legal" in theory. At least that's what the creators claim, because the developers did not use any assets or content covered by copyright, but recreated it using reverse engineering. Additionally, the project requires the player to have a legally obtained game image (ROM).
At least that's what internet users theorize, but there can be considerable doubts about this. Either way, the developer of the cult space shooter doesn't blame Harbour Masters for making his game playable on PCs. By the way, Imamura apologized for an error, which in truth only became visible on modern screens.
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