What was done
NoahVl led a Claude Opus 5.5 orchestrator and cheaper worker models to write about 47,000 lines of Rust that run Pilotwings 64 natively on Windows and Linux from the player's own ROM.
NoahVl built Birdman64, a native Windows and Linux version of Pilotwings 64, in six days from 27 September to 3 October 2026. He designed and led the work while a team of AI coding agents wrote it. The game runs from the player's own cartridge dump with widescreen, high refresh rates, rebindable controls and split-screen.
How it was done
A lead agent, Claude Opus 5.5, planned the work, delegated it and reviewed every change. A fast, low-cost model, GLM 5.3-Flash, ran routine tasks in parallel and wrote 44% of the commits. The human made product, design and legal decisions and play-tested every build. Verification came from CI on Windows and Linux with warnings as errors, 321 tests, and scripted flights whose frames are checked before a change lands. Design notes in the repository act as the agents' shared memory between sessions.
Results
The README reports about 47,000 lines of Rust in 12 crates and roughly 250 commits, including a replacement for the N64 operating system, graphics and audio engines, asset tools and a launcher. Features include widescreen up to 21:9, MSAA, a texture filter that mimics the N64, texture packs and two-player split-screen. First start builds the game from the user's ROM, so only original code ships. It is an unofficial fan project and MIT licensed.