Brothership Recomp

Brothership Recomp

A static recompilation of Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Nintendo Switch, version 1.0.1) into a native PC program, in the spirit of XenonRecomp and N64Recomp: the game's code is translated ahead of time into C and compiled for the PC, with the Switch's system services and its NVN graphics API provided by our own runtime (graphics on Vulkan). On Windows and on Linux / the Steam Deck.

Status

Beta (Windows, Linux and Steam Deck). The game runs on Windows (title, plaza, menus, battles; 60 fps, internal resolution up to 4K, SMAA) and on Linux as an AppImage (on the Steam Deck: 30 fps at 720p). The download is a launcher that installs the game from your own files: it unpacks your dump, translates and compiles the game's code and prepares its shaders on your computer (about 10-15 minutes on a fast PC, longer on a Steam Deck; ~25 GB free disk space while it runs).

Installing

Windows

1. Download BrothershipRecomp-Windows.zip from the releases and unzip it (not into Program Files).
2. Start BrothershipRecomp.exe.
3. Settings > Game files: the folder with your .nsp files (base game + 1.0.1 update). Settings > Keys: the folder with your prod.keys.
4. Build, then Play.

Settings, saves, the build and the caches live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\brothership-recomp. To report a problem, attach nxrt.log, build\build.log and build\unpack.log from there (they never contain your keys).

Linux and Steam Deck

1. Download BrothershipRecomp-Linux.zip from the releases and unzip it.
2. Run BrothershipRecomp-x86_64.AppImage (no install; chmod +x it if it is not executable).
3. Set Game files and Keys with Browse, then Build and Play. For Game Mode on a Steam Deck, add the AppImage to Steam as a non-Steam game.

Settings, saves and the log live in ~/.config/brothership-recomp, the build in ~/.local/share/brothership-recomp (the zip's README.txt has the details).

No game content

This repository contains no Nintendo code, assets or keys, and never will. To play you need your own copy of the game (base game and the 1.0.1 update) dumped from your own Switch, and your own keys (prod.keys) from that console. The game is translated and compiled on your machine; nothing of it is distributed. Please do not ask for game files or keys.

What is here

• lifter/ - the recompiler: AArch64 machine code to C.
• runtime/ - what the recompiled code runs on: memory, threads, the Switch's system services, the NVN graphics layer on Vulkan (shader translation, resolution scaling, anti-aliasing), sound and input.
• tools/ - build, analysis and test tools (shader seed, cross-compilation, benchmarks).
• linux/ - the Linux package's build script, AppRun and desktop files.
• tests/ - regression tests (a homebrew program run through the whole pipeline, platform tests).
• third_party/ - libraries as git submodules (see NOTICE.md).

Building the launcher itself needs a developer setup (cross-compiled from WSL with clang; tools/package_windows.sh makes the Windows download, tools/package_appimage.sh the Linux AppImage).

License

Copyright (C) 2026 The Brothership Recomp contributors.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. See LICENSE. Third-party code and its licences: NOTICE.md.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. Mario & Luigi and Nintendo Switch are trademarks of Nintendo.