Phazer 64

About the Game

One forbidden button. One blown-up satellite. Zero time before Mom gets home!

When a kid presses the forbidden button, Terra's main satellite gets blown-up by a powerful laser.

UH-OH! (Yes, it was you.)

Good thing you've got a homemade UFO in the garage. You have to repair the damage - before your parents come home and find out.

LET'S GO!

Embark on an adventure through space. Meet new alien friends and explore strange planets - both above and underground.

• Fly through open space and race tracks
• Land on planets, switch from flight to on-foot
• Explore surface and underground areas
• Collect Star Nuggets to fund upgrades
• Unlock weapon systems to blast asteroids
• Use your space map to find the satellite pieces
• Rebuild the satellite with a tractor beam

Will you convince Crankhorn, the galaxy's best mechanic, to install his new tractor beam?

Can you piece the satellite back together - or are you about to get grounded for life?

N64 Features

• Runs on real Nintendo 64 hardware (PAL, NTSC)
• Fully compatible with the Ares emulator
• Stable 60 FPS on original hardware, including PAL60
• EEPROM save, overscan settings, and stick calibration
• Immersive stereo sound
• I recommend a SummerCart64 to play on hardware
• Made using libdragon for the #N64BrewJam 6

Note: this game is unofficial homebrew and in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo.

Why I made this game

This game is a love letter to Commander Keen and other games that inspired me as a kid to become a game developer. People have described it as "Commander Keen meets No Man's Sky" in spirit.

When playing the original Keen games, I remember being so frustrated that I couldn't enter the spaceship and fly to new planets. When Commander Keen 4 fully showed the ship for the first time, I probably spent hours trying to make it fly.

When I worked on Phazer 64, at first it was supposed to be only a UFO in space with a nice-looking starfield simulation. But when my son played the prototype, he echoed that same sense of wonder. "Why can't I land on this planet? Why can't I leave my UFO? Why can't I jump around?" My brain said: this is out of scope, this is too much, don't do it. Yet, my heart remembered how I felt when I was a kid, and my gut finally decided: it's a game jam, what could go wrong? Let's go!

So I built it. And now you can: travel, land, get out, explore, jump. The technology is there, and the game jam release feels like the beginning of something bigger.

The N64 is my favorite console. Its library of family-friendly games is colorful and full of wonder, while still taking players seriously. That feels like a great fit, and building on real hardware is magical.

If you want to play more Phazer 64 in the future or are interested in my personal projects, you can sign up for my newsletter on https://www.phazer64.com 

The journey will continue.