About
Dinosaur Planet was a Nintendo 64 action-adventure game in development at Rare circa 1999-2001, starring original characters Sabre and Krystal. Shortly before completion, Nintendo and Rare retooled it into a Star Fox title — Krystal and the setting were retained and the game was rebuilt for GameCube as Star Fox Adventures (2002). A near-complete but unfinished December 2000 prototype of the game (as it existed before the Star Fox conversion) was published by the preservation group Forest of Illusion on 2021-02-20.
This recipe uses the community N64Recomp-based port (DinosaurPlanetRecomp/dino-recomp, v0.3.0, 2026-05-31) that runs the prototype as a native PC build without emulation, using the RT64 renderer. You must supply the Dec 2000 prototype ROM. The source game was itself unfinished when cancelled, so expect rough edges.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- DinosaurPlanetRecompiled
- Needs files
-
- Dinosaur Planet N64 Dec 2000 prototype ROM (the build released by Forest of Illusion on 2021-02-20 — a cancelled Rare N64 game that became Star Fox Adventures on GameCube)
Runtime
- Runs as
- Native Linux
- Proton
- not needed
⚙ Setup notes
Recomp: Static recompilation of the N64 prototype of Dinosaur Planet, a cancelled Rare N64 game, using the N64Recomp framework (the same toolchain as Zelda 64: Recompiled, etc.) with RT64 as the renderer. Official project: DinosaurPlanetRecomp/dino-recomp.
Build: v0.3.0 (released 2026-05-31) is the latest. Ships official native Linux builds (AppImage, Flatpak, and .tar.gz) that run on the Steam Deck without Proton — no Wine/Proton needed.
ROM: The recomp targets the December 2000 prototype ROM, the build released publicly by Forest of Illusion on 2021-02-20. Dinosaur Planet was never commercially released — the original N64 game was retooled into Star Fox Adventures for GameCube in 2002. The repo ships no game assets; you supply the prototype ROM.
GPU: RT64 needs Vulkan 1.2 (or D3D12); the Steam Deck's GPU meets this.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: This requires the December 2000 Dinosaur Planet prototype ROM (the build published by Forest of Illusion on 2021-02-20) — a cancelled game that was never commercially released. The recomp ships NO assets; you provide the ROM yourself.
Quality: The source game was itself unfinished at cancellation, so expect bugs and incomplete sections. v0.3.0 (2026-05-31) is the current build and adds widescreen, control remapping, resolution options and a debug/cheats UI.
Binary: The Linux build's executable is DinosaurPlanetRecompiled (CMake target). Use the official *-Linux-x64.AppImage, .flatpak, or .tar.gz from GitHub Releases — these run natively, no Proton.
GPU: RT64 renderer requires Vulkan 1.2 (or D3D12) and an SSE4.1 CPU; the Steam Deck satisfies both.
Framework: Uses the N64Recomp framework — same toolchain as Zelda 64: Recompiled and other recomp ports.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.