Whether due to nostalgia or an enduring love for all things retro, classic video game consoles have never lost their appeal for gamers, collectors, and even developers. Fans regularly hope and clamor for remakes of their favorite classic games, as evidenced by the current petition with nearly 22,000 signatures asking forWarner Bros. to greenlight an Unreal Engine 5 revamp ofMortal Kombat Trilogy,originally released in 1996 for theNintendo 64.
The success of Nintendo Switch Online — which offers a library of Nintendo titles for the NES, SNES, N64, and even Sega Genesis — is testament that gamers still appreciate old-school games, graphics, and hardware. When Nintendo announced that the N64 and Genesis would be added to the subscription service’s console lineup in October 2021, despite the backlash for the accompanying price hike, the wirelessSwitch compatible N64 controller sold outalmost immediately. Many people grabbed it not necessarily to use with Nintendo Switch Online, but rather as a collector’s item.
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This wistfulenthusiasm for retro games and hardwarehas led some people to find particularly creative ways to express themselves. German musician Remute will be releasingR64,an entire album of 15 songs, on a Nintendo 64 cartridge on Jul 17, 2025. The game cartridge will be region free and can be used with all models of the N64 console, whether it be coded for NTSC-U, NTSC-J, or PAL. This will be the first release of a trilogy, with the albumsUnityandGenerationsto be released on Game Boy Advance and Sega Dreamcast later this year.
Remute has already released music albums for the Sega Genesis, Gameboy, SNES, and PC Engine, as well as a ROM file of music for the Nintendo DS. The artist emphasizes that the electro pop album for theN64will not be an MP3 player embedded on the cartridge with compressed WAV files. The music forR64will be entirely generated and played in real time by the console in 93.75 MHz. The feat of creating what Remute believes to be the first album ever released on an N64 cartridge was accomplished with the help of developer Rasky, who created the sound engine, the player GUI, and the “amazingly trippy 3D experience” that will accompany the music.
A sample ofR64’smusic can be heard by visiting Remute’s Bandcamp page, and the depth of sound achieved with only 8 MB of storage space is impressive. The album will be sold for €39.99, and a limited edition ofR64,featuring a 7-inchvinyl recordwith high-res versions of three select songs, will also be available for purchase for €49.99.
R64will be released digitally and on a Nintendo 64 cartridge on July 26, 2025.
