ChrisFratz

Making an Oculus Rift DK1 work on an N64

Nintendo 64 programmer James Lambert decided to try and make an Oculus Rift DK1 VR headset to work on an N64. He did this using a USB to N64 controller adapter he made, and he connected the headset to that with an Arduino so which is used to process the data and send it to the N64 at 60 samples a second instead of the 1000 samples a second that the sensors on the headset output. I don’t know too much about how the sensors on the rift DK1 work, but he goes over it in the video.

He also coded up a ROM that can take the data from the headset and display a side by side stereoscopic 3D image that then gets displayed in the headset. And the way he gets the video to the headset is with an HDMI port that was modded into his console.

While the lag between you moving your head and the data getting to the N64 is too high for comfort, this is still a really awesome proof of concept, and I love just seeing what people can do with retro systems. It honestly makes me wanna see someone make an N64 game with a stereoscopic 3D mode for 3D TVs, probably using side by side 3D. Though it would have to support widescreen because of how SBS 3D works. The environment that was used for the VR proof of concept was also made as an art style test for a new game that James Lambert is making, so I can’t wait to see an announcement about it because that map looked pretty good.