Stepdad Ultra

Stepdad Ultra is a homebrew port of the DS Pokéwalker by Celerizer released on 3 August 2025. It’s not very functional, but it shows that you can emulate just about anything on the Nintendo 64.

You can get the ROM from its download page by using the password takeastepforward, or from its releases page on Github. You can also find the source code there.

About Stepdad Ultra

The Pokéwalker is an accessory that came with the Nintendo DS games Pokémon Heartgold and Soulsilver. It’s basically a mix between a Tamagotchi and a pedometer. The idea is that you can transfer your Pokémons to the Pokéwalker and every step you take in real life will grant it experience like the daycare does in the DS game itself. It also has some minigames where you can find items and rare Pokémons.

Stepdad Ultra is a port of this accessory for the Nintendo 64. It’s the Japanese version, so you’ll have to either be able to read Japanaese or be familiar with the English version.

Being an emulated Hitachi H8/300, you naturally can’t connect to a Nintendo DS or to other Pokéwalkers. The minigames are also bugged in that they crash the game and force a restart, so all you can really do is navigate the menus.

Review and conclusion

Stepdad Ultra is really a small emulation project that stands as a testament to the attempts of humanity to emulate anything. It’s kind of like “Can it run Doom?” but in reverse.

The ROM itself is barely playable. The input has a massive delay, the text is in Japanese, there is no connectivity and the minigames are bugged. You can’t even emulate steps with the Z trigger like the instructions say.

That said, this is the kind of emulator that tests the hubris of mankind and makes you ask “why?”

Why? No conceivable reason.

Celerizer

We were so concerned about whether or not we could to think about whether or not we should.