Super Mario 64 just got a stark Vectrex makeover, and it may be the strangest Mario port yet
A new fan project puts Super Mario 64 on the Vectrex in wireframe form, powered by UVMC2 and possibly unfinished.
Super Mario 64 has turned up in an unlikely new form: a stripped-back Vectrex fan build that reduces Nintendo's 1996 classic to glowing vector wireframes. It is not a finished release, but the project is already drawing attention for showing just how far retro hardware enthusiasts are willing to push a 1982 console.
The big change is simple. Super Mario 64 is now being shown in a fan-made Vectrex version, with a video from ArcadeJason presenting the game in a much more minimal style than the original Nintendo 64 release.
In the clip below, Mario still emerges from a warp pipe and heads into Princess Peach's Castle, but the bright textures and fuller geometry of the 1996 game have been reduced to the vector lines associated with the Vectrex. Characters including Mario, Toad and Lakitu appear in that same pared-down look, and the opening sequence with Princess Peach inviting Mario to a party at the palace is also recreated.
How it is running, and why that matters
This is not Super Mario 64 running natively on unmodified Vectrex hardware. The project is being made possible through ArcadeJason's UVMC2, or Ultimate Vectrex MultiCart 2, a device that plugs into the cartridge slot and effectively acts like a miniature PC. According to the details shared around the build, that hardware handles rendering and other computing work, sends the image to the Vectrex's built-in screen, and uses a 3.5mm jack for audio.
The build itself was coded using the SDK of modder Daniel Ferrer Guerrero, with ArcadeJason adding sound. That makes it a joint effort, and also explains how a game first released on the Nintendo 64 can appear, in any form, on a machine dating back to 1982.
Who this affects
For Vectrex fans and retro homebrew followers, the project is another sign that the console still has an active community interested in stretching its limits. The same names were also linked to a recent Vectrex version of Doom, adding to the sense that this is part of a broader push to see what the platform can do.
There is a catch, though. ArcadeJason has said the team is already moving on to other projects, so this demo may be all fans get unless somebody else steps in. He has also said that anyone who wants to continue the work should get in touch directly.
So, for now, what exists is a proof of concept rather than a confirmed full port. Even in that unfinished state, it is still recognisably Super Mario 64, only reimagined as a sparse, wireframe curiosity on one of gaming's more unusual old systems.
