Quickstart: Get Starship Running on PC or Switch

Starship is a native PC port that extracts assets from your own copy of Star Fox 64 on first launch, then runs entirely from those extracted files. This guide covers every step from ROM verification to your first barrel roll — no compilation required.

Starship does not include any copyrighted game data. You must own a legitimate copy of Star Fox 64 and dump it yourself. We do not condone piracy.

Prerequisites

A legally obtained Star Fox 64 ROM dump (US region, .z64 format)
A PC running Windows, Linux, or macOS — or a Nintendo Switch with homebrew enabled

Verify Your ROM Dump

Starship supports only the two US releases of Star Fox 64. Before going any further, confirm your dump matches one of the SHA-1 hashes below.

Version	SHA-1 Hash
US 1.0	`D8B1088520F7C5F81433292A9258C1184AFA1457`
US 1.1 Rev A	`09F0D105F476B00EFA5303A3EBC42E60A7753B7A`

Use the free online tool at romhacking.net/hash to compute the SHA-1 hash of your file without installing any software.

EU and JP versions of the ROM are not supported for asset extraction. They can only be used later for optional voice language replacement.

Convert to .z64 Format (if needed)

Starship requires the ROM in Big-Endian .z64 format. If your dump has a .n64 (Little-Endian) or .v64 (Byte-Swapped) extension, you must convert it before continuing.Use the byte-swapper tool at hack64.net/tools/swapper.php to convert your ROM to .z64 in your browser — no download required.

After converting, re-verify the SHA-1 hash to make sure the conversion produced a clean file.

Download Starship

Head to the Starship Releases page on GitHub and download the latest release archive for your platform:

Platform	Archive to download
Windows	`starship-windows.zip`
Linux	`Starship-linux.zip`
macOS	`Starship-mac.zip`
Nintendo Switch	Generate on PC first (see Step 5)

Extract the archive into a folder of your choosing. Keep all extracted files together — the executable must remain alongside the bundled .o2r and support files.

Launch Starship and Select Your ROM

On first launch, Starship will ask you to point it at your .z64 ROM. It extracts the game’s assets into a file called sf64.o2r in the same folder. This only happens once; subsequent launches start directly into the game.

Windows
Linux
macOS
Nintendo Switch

Open the folder you extracted the release into.
Double-click starship.exe.
When prompted, browse to your .z64 ROM and confirm.
Asset extraction runs automatically — this takes about 30–60 seconds.
The game launches once extraction is complete.

# Alternatively, launch from PowerShell
.\starship.exe

The default graphics backend on Windows is DirectX 11. If you experience crashes, open starship.cfg.json and change the backend entry to "id": 3, "Name": "OpenGL".

Open a terminal and navigate to the extracted folder.
Make the AppImage executable if it is not already:

chmod +x starship.appimage

Run the AppImage:

./starship.appimage

When prompted, select your .z64 ROM. Asset extraction runs automatically.
The game launches once extraction is complete.

The default graphics backend on Linux is OpenGL. No additional configuration is needed on most distributions.

Open the folder you extracted the release into.
Run the starship binary from a terminal or by double-clicking it:

./starship

When prompted, browse to your .z64 ROM and confirm.
Asset extraction runs automatically.
The game launches once extraction is complete.

The default graphics backend on macOS is Metal for best performance. You can switch to OpenGL in Settings → Graphics if needed.

The Switch release does not include an asset extractor. You must generate sf64.o2r on a PC first using any of the PC releases above, then transfer the files to your SD card.

Follow the Windows, Linux, or macOS steps above to generate sf64.o2r.
Locate sf64.o2r (and starship.o2r if present) in the same folder as your PC executable.
Copy the Switch release files and the .o2r files to your SD card in the correct homebrew directory.
Launch Starship from the Switch homebrew menu.

Your Switch must have custom firmware with homebrew enabled. Setting up homebrew on Switch is outside the scope of this guide.

(Optional) Install Voice Language Replacement

Starship can replace the default US English voice audio with clips from the EU (Lylat Wars) or JP (Japanese) releases. Only one replacement can be active at a time.Navigate to Settings → Language → Install JP Audio or Install EU Audio from the in-game menubar and point the installer at the respective regional ROM. A US ROM must already be extracted before using this feature.

Default Keyboard Layout

Starship maps the N64 controller to the keyboard out of the box. You can remap controls at any time from the in-game controller settings.

N64 Input	Keyboard Key
A Button	`X`
B Button	`C`
Z Trigger	`Z`
Start	`Space`
Analog Stick	`W` `A` `S` `D`
C-Buttons	Arrow Keys
D-Pad	`T` `F` `G` `H`

Shortcut Keys

Key	Action
`F1`	Toggle menubar
`F4`	Reset game
`F11`	Toggle fullscreen
`Tab`	Toggle alternate assets

Nightly CI Builds

If you want to test the latest unreleased changes, nightly builds are generated automatically from the main branch on every commit. These builds may contain bugs or crashes — they are intended for playtesting and feedback only.

Nightly builds are not stable releases. Save files or configuration from nightly builds may be incompatible with future versions.

Platform	Download Link
Windows	starship-windows.zip
macOS	Starship-mac.zip
Linux	Starship-linux.zip
Nintendo Switch	Starship-switch.zip

Getting Help

Join the official Discord server at discord.com/invite/shipofharkinian and ask in the #starship-support channels. Please review this guide and the Introduction page before posting.

Introduction

Building from Source

Configuration

Quickstart: Get Starship Running on PC or Switch

Prerequisites

Default Keyboard Layout

Shortcut Keys

Nightly CI Builds

Getting Help

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Introduction

Building from Source

Configuration

Documentation Index

​Prerequisites

​Default Keyboard Layout

​Shortcut Keys

​Nightly CI Builds

​Getting Help

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Prerequisites

Default Keyboard Layout

Shortcut Keys

Nightly CI Builds

Getting Help