About
Mega Man 3 is a 1990 platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the third entry in the original series, in which Mega Man and a returning Dr. Wily collect parts for a peacekeeping robot by defeating rogue Robot Masters. Megaman3NESRecomp is a static recompilation of Mega Man 3 (NES) into a native PC executable, built using the author's own NESRecomp framework. It is explicitly an in-development preview: the title screen, robot master select, and basic stage gameplay work, but boss fights, passwords, and special weapons are untested and may softlock, and audio mixing is still a work in progress.
How it differs from the original
Unlike an emulator, this translates the original 6502 machine code into C at build time and compiles it to native x64, running the NES's PPU/APU/mapper through a simulated runner library rather than interpreting the original code at runtime. It also adds PC-native conveniences the original NES release didn't have, like save states (F6/F7) and a turbo/fast-forward toggle (F5), and requires the player's own Mega Man 3 (USA) ROM rather than shipping any original assets.
Getting started
Download the latest release, extract it, and run MegaMan3Recomp.exe, selecting your own Mega Man 3 (USA) ROM when prompted (the path is remembered for future launches). Default keyboard controls map the D-Pad to arrow keys, A/B to Z/X, Start to Enter, and Select to Tab, with F5/F6/F7 as hotkeys for turbo, save state, and load state.
History
The author describes this recompilation as a byproduct of developing the underlying NESRecomp framework itself — the games serve as a proving ground, with the framework as the actual goal — so depth is expected to land gradually over months rather than being finished up front.
Known limitations
- gameplay: Boss fights, passwords, and special weapons are untested and may softlock.
- audio: Audio is basic with APU register writes captured but full audio mixing is work-in-progress.
- graphics: Visual elements may have minor glitches or missing sprites in some areas.
Additional notes
- License
- Released under the PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 license rather than a standard open-source license.