He double-clicked.

Project 64.

The bar jumped to 87%. His ancient Pentium fan whirred like a distressed hornet. The file was small—only 3.2 megabytes. Why did it feel like he was pulling a boulder up a hill?

Then came the prompt that made his stomach clench: “Install Emulation Core Driver? (Recommended for audio sync).”

Mario’s mouth opened. A voice, garbled and low, like a radio from another dimension, whispered: “Let’s-a-go… to your house.”