About Cart64
Cart64 is a free tool that puts Game Boy Color and Game Boy games on the Nintendo 64. You drop in a .gbc or .gb file and get a .z64 cartridge for an N64 flash cart. Inside it is our own Game Boy Color player, written for the N64, and your game, unchanged.
What it is
- A player: a Game Boy Color emulator that runs on the N64 itself, on original hardware and on the M64.
- A cartridge maker: the page on cart64.com that joins the player and your game into one .z64 file, in your browser.
- Free: no account, no ads, no payment.
How it works, in plain words
On the console
The Game Boy Color and the N64 have very different processors. The Cart64 player runs on the N64's main processor (the VR4300) and translates the Game Boy's processor code (SM83) into the N64's own code (MIPS) as the game runs. This is called a recompiler, and it is what makes the games fast enough. The N64's second processor, the RSP, draws the picture and makes the sound.
The cartridge boots with libdragon's open-source, clean-room boot code (IPL3). There is no Nintendo code and no BIOS anywhere in a Cart64 cartridge.
In your browser
The cartridge maker is a small program compiled to WebAssembly. It reads your game's header to find its cartridge type and save size, refuses games it cannot run, then joins the player and the unchanged game into one .z64 and sets the save type (SRAM or FlashRAM) for the flash cart. All of this happens on your device; the file is never uploaded.
Saves and clock
Battery saves go to the flash cart's save memory and survive power-off. Clock games keep time while you play; a version that uses the flash cart's own clock is coming.
Your files stay with you
Nothing about any file you use ever leaves your device: not its contents, its name or its title. The site keeps only anonymous daily counts by event, country and traffic source, uses Cloudflare Web Analytics (no cookies), and keeps your email only if you sign up for updates. The privacy page lists everything.
Games
Cart64 packages files you bring and does not host, list or link to games it does not own. It comes with three free games made with Shiny Gen: Shiny Monsters Color, Shiny Crosser and Spark Garden, on the home page.
Made by Shiny Gen
Cart64 is made by Shiny Gen, an AI game maker. Describe a game and Shiny Gen makes it, including real Game Boy Color games you can download as ROMs. Those games work with Cart64 too, so you can make your own GBC game and play it on your 64.
Contact
Questions or problems: [email protected]. Please do not send game files.
Cart64 is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo or ModRetro. Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64 and N64 are named only to describe what Cart64 works with.