Banjo-Kazooie gets an unofficial PC port thanks to modders, with handy technical tweaks and Steam Deck support

A group of modders wearing the finest reverse-engineering goggles has managed to port birdly and beary platformer Banjo-Kazooie to PC, with a bunch of extra bells and whistles to make sure it won’t make for a disappointing dip back into your childhood or adulthood. Their creation’s dubbed Banjo: Recompiled, and it dropped over the weekend.

This recompiled version of the N64 classic, brought to life using N64: Recompiled, is primarily the work of modder Wiseguy. It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac, provided you bring along the game files via a legally-sourced ROM of the North American 1.0 version.

If you do, you’re in for a version of Banjo which offers a bunch of helpful features designed to ensure it’s ideal to play on today’s hardware, though it is also promised to run on more potato-shaped boxes. There’s support for high framerates if you don’t fancy leaving it at a solid 60, widescreen and ultrawide modes, and rapid loading times. A dual-analog camera steup, the ability to keep your notes if you die or exit a level, and support for playing on Steam Deck are also part of the puzzle.

Finally, there’s built-in mod support in case you want to get Doom running in the jigsaw minigame. Or just download the likes of Jiggies of Time and or a revamped texture pack.

All in all, it’s a project that looks well worth the wait of eons for Banjo to get a proper PC port, something Microsoft haven’t yet deigned worth digging back into the nostalgia toybox to whip out.

If you fancy giving Banjo: Recompiled a go, you’ll find it and its souce code on GitHub, where Wiseguy also notes they’re planning on delivering ray tracing to it at some point down the line.