🪟 Windows Setup

Welcome, traveler of the Windows realms! đź’»

Yes, it’s true. You can build real Nintendo 64 games using Go, and you can do it on Windows too.
Thanks to some automation magic, GoSprite64 makes this painless—even in a land of .exe, PATH, and PowerShell.

Most of the work is handled by mage Setup. But if you're curious (or things go weird), read on.

🧱 Prerequisites

Here’s what you’ll need:

âś… Install Go

Download and install the official MSI package from go.dev.

During install, make sure to check the box to add Go to your PATH.

To verify it's working:

go version

âś… Install Mage

In your terminal or PowerShell:

go install github.com/magefile/mage@latest

Make sure that Go's bin directory is in your PATH. Usually it’s at:

%USERPROFILE%\go\bin

You can add it permanently to your system environment variables or temporarily:

$env:Path += ";$env:USERPROFILE\go\bin"

âś… direnv (Yes, even on Windows!)

GoSprite64 uses direnv to manage the custom Go environment.

Go to the releases page, and download the latest direnv.windows-amd64.exe asset. Place it into C:\Users\YourName\toolchains\nintendo64.

🧙‍♂️ Run the Setup

Now clone the GoSprite64 repo and run:

git clone https://github.com/drpaneas/gosprite64
cd gosprite64
mage Setup

This will:

  • Clone and build a custom version of Go for MIPS
  • Install the emgo toolchain
  • Configure your system with a new Go environment at:
    • C:\Users\YourName\toolchains\nintendo64\go
    • C:\Users\YourName\toolchains\nintendo64\gopath
  • Download a Windows-compatible direnv.exe
  • Set up .envrc to manage everything

All without touching your default Go installation. ✨

📦 How to use it

To develop N64 games using GoSprite64, always open a terminal in:

cd %USERPROFILE%\toolchains\nintendo64