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60fps and mod support to come
A fan-made PC port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is in the works, and it’s apparently almost done — and could be out as soon as next month.
In an exclusive interview with VGC, the developers — a group calling themselves «Harbour Masters» — spoke about their efforts to re-release the game on PC in February:
«We actually started putting down code in the middle of December last year. Currently all of the game logic runs pretty much flawlessly. We have a few assets that aren’t packed correctly in the archive, most specifically skyboxes, and there are still a few graphical errors we are working through. Audio is also not yet decompiled.
I’d give it approximately 90%. We’ve been hoping to be complete by the middle of February and use a month or so until April 1st to refine the game before release. We’re hoping to have a public repository available in late February.”
The N64 game was decompiled in November 2021 by the Zelda Reverse Engineering Team, which allowed Harbour Masters to almost immediately set to work on their port, using new code that reproduces the entire game while also allowing them to stay on the right side of the law.
As VGC’s Andy Robinson puts it, «This kind of reverse engineering is made legal because the fans involved did not use any leaked content, nor use any of Nintendo’s original copyrighted assets.»
Harbour Masters’ version uses technology that was created to bring Super Mario 64 to PC, which allows it to support widescreen «out of the box». And boy, does widescreen Ocarina of Time look good:
The team is also working to ensure that mods are supported, so you can expect us to start covering all the weiiird things people add to the game in a couple of months.
Harbour Masters are dedicated to their craft, too — they’ve begun to code a library alongside the Ocarina of Time port, called «librultraship», which will make the N64-to-PC pipeline much easier for future developers, including themselves: “We expect this and our processes to result in a port of Majora’s Mask shortly after it reaches 100%,” they told VGC.
About Kate Gray
Formerly of Official Nintendo Magazine, GameSpot, and Xbox UK, you can now find Kate’s writing all over the internet. She moved to Canada a few years ago, but gets tea imported from England, because she has good priorities.
Comments (71)
Hmm. Hmm. I really don’t understand stuff like this. It only starts fights between the commenters.
The interesting thing is that it’s seemingly legal. In layman’s terms, it’s equivalent to me sitting and painting a Degas myself with my own paints. It won’t look 100% at all but as long as you’ve done everything yourself, it’s not illegal. This should be a good step forwards in terms of the randomizer scene though. Season 5’s already underway with a 64 person bracket so if you’re interested just watch a race on YouTube!
@liljmoore Clicks, my friend!
Also, this is quite a ton of effort, passion projects like this are cool although it probably won’t end well.
Only they think it’s legal, just calling the game, the Legend of Zelda and/or Ocarina of Time is already copyright infringed. If they smart they could just call it Project ZOT, turn Link into a bunny, and turn all the inhabitants of Hyrules into animals, and Ganondorf into a black guy. Then maybe they’ll get away with it. Maybe mirror the whole adventure too so certain locations don’t fall in place with the original but still had that familiar feeling, I’m sure Nintendo wouldn’t catch that.
@nessisonett It is provided it is completely reversed engineered and they do not provide any copywritten code or assets. So basically if this was built with the «giga leak» they’d have major issues. But if they are just providing a decompiler and recompiler for a PC port… then the copywritten assets are on the player to provide the legal ROM to be interacted with through their software.
This is how projects like Skywind and Skyblivion stay in the clear from Bethesda’s legal teams despite using parts of the original game’s assets. They will be packaging a decompiler to remove the audio files from the original games to be injected into their original work. But, the audio files will be provided via you’re own purchased copy of Morrowind and Oblivion.
I wonder when people will put Majoras Mask or Ocarina of Time on the gameboy
@nessisonett There is one hole in the argument: it’s still essentially an unlicensed copy. They’re also using characters without Nintendo’s permission.
I can type an entire book in Microsoft Word, but if I distribute it, I’m still breaking the law. It shouldn’t matter whether I photocopied it or typed it by hand.
@nessisonett only if they re drew all art, 3d assets in their own signature style recomposed the music with their own arrangements etc. The images don’t look promising in that regard. Actually they say they don’t use any assets… which is a bit weird… did they actually redraw all pixel art pixel by pixel? Because then it’s still copying…
Can’t wait for this to get taken down and people to start freaking out over if it is fair use or not. It is really just funny at this point.
Look at this point it would just be easier to emulate ocarina 3D if you want to play on pc. Plus it is a better game than this will be.
So when is Nintendo going to take this down
It’s legal as long as they do it like SM64 PC port – you HAVE to do it yourself, with a Rom that’s not provided by themselves.
@anoyonmus They can’t. It’s a clean room creation. The only copyrighted contents are contained in the original ROM file, of which you must provide separately.
Can’t wait to play this.
@KateGray Is this like when Super Mario 64 became playable in a web browser about a year ago or is this something different?
Nintendo cease and desist order incoming.
I hope it gets banned
@nessisonett Not really, because painitngs from Degas and other classic painters are not protected by copyright, Ocarina of Time only loses its copyright in the year 2094.
We need shorter copyrights, because the point of copyright is flourish creativity, make sure artists can live from their work and companies can get back the money they invested, but it needs to expire to allow improved versions like this one.
@victordamazio Copyright doesn’t matter here. It’s a clean room. You provide the ROM yourself.
@nessisonett I don’t understand how people cannot comprehend that this is more similar to how emulators work rather than a traditional port in regards to copyright? The team is not providing the copywritten assets you will be via your own ROM. They are just providing the software to decompile and then recompile it into a native port.
If it’s anything like the Super Mario 64 PC port, this’ll be a huge deal! They can make plenty of quality of life improvements, change the game’s visuals, or just make cool mods in general
This has the potential to be the best way to play the game. Even just replacing the game’s 64 visuals with their 3DS equivalent would be a huge step up. Wouldn’t run into the same issues as playing OoT3D in an emulator while still having to put up with the second screen
@ferryb001 @LzWinky
I am using a Retrode2, so i am providing the original Game
The Game provides the copyrighted Stuff, the original Code on the PC is not copyrighted, as they wrote it themselfs.
I wish they would just sell the Roms as for Example Sega does.
If you buy the Megadrive Collection on Steam, you get all the Roms and you can use them on every Device you desire.
Can’t wait to play this with 60fps and all the fancy pants mods. Dream come true for a OOT fan.
@Azuris That would require Nintendo to release their software on PC. And we know Nintendo has zero intention to do that for as long as they can. Though it would be nice someday for them to release a Super Collection and give us a bone on the PC side. 
It seems to me that if they where really that talented, they could come up with their own original game.
Leave it to the PC community to do it right!
PC MASTER RACE APPROVED PC DOES WHAT NINTENDON’T (for the love of God, please see this is a joke, and not a bait for console wars)
@Kejomo Amen.
@Ravenmaster I’m not sure they can, since the creator wrote the code himself from scratch. It’s technically his code, and since he’s not providing any of the assets from the game, there’s no leg for Nintendo to stand on. Viva la reverse engineering! lol
@nessisonett Only much easier. A brush stoke is bloody difficult to undo.
@Kejomo That’s a poor way to look at fan projects like this. This is them showing love to the original work and to the community surrounding it. By that logic, fans making art with pre-existing characters are untalented, and should strictly make original work, rather than doing what they like.
@Kejomo Who’s to say they haven’t or will not, yet? And it take TONS of talent and skill to reverse engineer a video game, written with your own code to match it perfectly.
Everyone saying "THIS IS DEFINITELY ILLEGAL" – this is super well established already. There are lots of reverse engineered software products out there like this.
If they ship the original art along with the reverse engineered "software that is illegal. But the article makes that clear the team "did not use any leaked content, nor use any of Nintendo’s original copyrighted assets."
I know this is a Nintendo community, but it’s really funny to see people want free restoration projects like this to be taken down, while Nintendo themselves put out the N64 version of OoT on their online service looking the way it did (I know they fixed the water now, but the fog still isn’t there)
@BloodNinja except his using their IP’s and their level designs
@Ravenmaster He’s not. If you bothered reading the article, you will learn that a player has to provide a rom to enable such assets. Reverse Engineered Code =/= IP or level design.
@ShoryukenLink I noticed that trend, as well! It’s such a strange phenomena from the "my team is winning or must always be winning," mindset.
Hope the hud elements adjusts seamlessly to the screen size like mario 64
@GrailUK Embrace the mistakes! The best art comes from creating something beautiful out of your stray brushstrokes or spilled paints. And trust me, it can be bloody difficult to undo certain code too if you’ve written several other modules dependent on it!
During all that decompiling… Did they find the Triforce?
Not when trying to replicate something lol. It’s a dead giveaway!
(But yes, I know what you mean mate lol)
@BloodNinja Just you wait, they’ll shut him down one way or another
I spent a quality 5 minutes trying to understand how this was legal or even if it was, then I realized I didn’t really care. And I guess it doesn’t matter. Nintendo’s lawyers could send out a cease and desist and the prospect of expensive legal fees would force compliance whether the law does or not.
@Ravenmaster The Super Mario 64 PC builder is still up, so if this is similar, I doubt they can do anything about it. And even if they could, it’d be too late to matter, people will find a way to share it anyway lol
@Kejomo
Not really.
I, for example, am a software developer.
Right now I wouldn’t know where to start when it comes to working with roms like this, but considering I have experience in the overall field I could probably learn to do that as well if I sit down and do my research.
That however does not mean I am able to produce a new good game.
I am not a graphics designer, so I couldn’t produce all the models and textures I may need depending of the type of game.
I also don’t know anything about sound design or music production of any kind.
But OK, I could buy ressources like this from someone who knows what he is doing.
But I still may or may not be talented in actually designing a game that is fun.
Can I write a good story (if the game is supposed to have that)?
Can I design a good combat system?
Can I design a great world that people want to explore?
Whatever my game would require, can I provide a good experience?
None of this matters when I want to port a game from one system to another. That is not saying a port like this is easy, in fact I could see this being very very hard in it’s own way.
But the point is that the skill set required for a project like this is different from the skillset you need to make your own game.
I hope Somebody do a render96 for Ocarina of time.
@Ravenmaster Whatever!
@BloodNinja Joke received and Wexter approved!
All joking aside this is a really cool project and something I love supporting! This is clearly people who know their limitations in what they can do, but are doing a monumental feat! Anyone who has tried to reverse engineer software can tell you that is NOT EASY AT ALL! Bravo to them to get this far!
@Kirgo you are totally right! For something like fan games I wish they poured that creativity to an original IP or maybe to a platform/IP that allows mods. But, for something like this, it is a completely different skill set. This is clearly a group of devs dedicated to figuring out how OoT worked and ticked and basically worked backwards to make the source code. It’s a real feat considering companies like Konami struggled with even a partial build of a game. Or how Sega refuses to rebuild Panzer Dragoon Saga because of the time and resource commitment. The only company I know that did it and it was super close to the original was the Kingdom Hearts team when they did the PS3 version of Kingdom Hearts 1 some 10 years ago. This is not easy so it is very impressive that they did this and are developing software to build the game with assets from a ROM and their own reverse-engineered source code to run natively on PC. This is beyond impressive!
Honestly, the thing I find most interesting here is that future source ports are going to be quicker. Right now, I’m just sitting back, waiting for the PC port and, later on, a Smash 64 decomp. Especially if it works closer to how this decomp works (as compared to SM64) I wouldn’t be surprised if a potential SSB64 source port had the entire series stage set within 6 months, and the full SSBU roster within a year. Plus, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it also come with some kind of Hyper Street Fighter 2 style game style selector, where you could choose the game feel from any of the games. Plus, even aside from Smash, there are so many other games that could benefit from this. Overall, so excited for the future.
@Wexter I mean, replicating the physics engine must be a nightmare in and of itself. Imagine doing something wrong and trying to figure out why the fall speed is faster than usual or something. These reverse-engineered feats are just stunning. I still use Doom 64’s "port" to this day!
@BloodNinja Indeed! I’ve tried to do this with reverse-engineering Final Fantasy VII (PSOne) to get it run on Project 64 via a hacked ROM and lost my mind! Gave up after a week This is dedication and something I wish I had more patience to do!
EDIT: For those curious why I tried it is because the size limitation was less of an issue than on original hardware. But still developing for the N64 is nightmare fuel.
@Wexter @nessisonett The question is, does Nintendo agree with that assessment?
Let’s say that I had the frame and chassis of an older model of car (let’s say a DeLorean), but all the internal components (engine, transmission, etc.) are all modern. Is it still a DeLorean? Most likely, the answer is yes.
Likewise, the computer I’m typing this comment on is an HP Omen Obelisk Gaming Desktop. The casing, motherboard, RAM, storage, and CPU are all the same ones as when I bought it, but the GPU and PSU are switched out. Once I switch out the motherboard, RAM, CPU, and storage, but still keep the data and casing, will it still be an HP Omen Obelisk? Again, most likely, the answer is yes.
Ultimately, I think Nintendo would argue that even though this version of Ocarina of Time uses completely original and modern code and assets, the end result is that it is still Ocarina of Time, with the story, characters, and music all copyright of Nintendo, and thus subject to takedown notices.
And you have to remember that Bethesda has always been friendly with the mod community compared to Japanese companies like Nintendo, which are far stricter with copyright and trademarks than Western companies like Bethesda are, so it’s not really a fair comparison.
@Wexter The N64 is indeed nightmare fuel. Probably why I’m not as angry at Nintendo for their emulator’s issues as other people.
@AstroTheGamosian But they are not providing copy-written assets. Reverse-engineering software is completely legal! Nintendo would be battling a losing battle as the Mario 64 Builder is still available so clearly Nintendo cannot really do anything. Anything copywritten is being provided on the user end, not the developer. This is how emulators have remained legal despite how the user can get the ROMs/ISOs can be legally dubious.
If Nintendo provided a PC version of Mario 64 or OoT they could have an argument. But this has precedence of being completely a-okay.
@Wexter I can only imagine. I’ve made basic calculators and other such things on C++….reverse engineering an entire game just sounds herculean.
Lots of lawyers in this thread
No. 1 priority with running Zelda games is being stable, especially OoT witch features Epona. Once that is in order this might be nice for modding the game.
@Wexter I personally believe that people who study and practice copyright law know better than people like you and me, just random Joe Shmoes on the Internet with an armchair opinion. If they say it’s legal or illegal, then it’s legal or illegal, and no hemming or hawing about it on Internet forums will change that.
But regardless of the actual legality, one thing we also have to remember is that Nintendo has the money to hire decent lawyers, whereas these groups of people reverse-engineering their games do not have access to the money, and therefore, the lawyers.
So even if the people decompiling Ocarina of Time are legally in the right, they would have no way of proving it in court without a decent lawyer representing them, so they are essentially left with no choice but to take it down or risk hefty lawsuits or even jail time if Nintendo comes after them.
The code itself is perfectly legal, but how about intellectual property? I would definitely see this being perfectly legal if they changed up the names and assets of every character, location, and item.
@nessisonett Degas paintings do not have copyright protection, though. Also, “decompiling” is equivalent to translation ( covered under copyright law) which would mean even the code is being copied. I don’t know intellectual property laws that well but this definitely seems to be a clear case of being on the wrong side of it both in terms of copyright and trademark laws if they distribute the game.
@AstroTheGamosian It doesn’t matter what Nintendo thinks about it or how many lawyers they have. They can’t shut down a legal project.
It’s not up to the devs to prove their legality in court, it’s Nintendo’s lawyers that have to prove that they are doing something illegal.
The ignorance is strong in these comments.
The code in this project is reverse-engineered from the original, meaning none of it uses what Nintendo created. Therefore, Nintendo has no legal ground to C&D this project. And that’s all this project is providing: the code. It’s up to the players to provide assets for the code to use, which the project creators can’t legally provide since Nintendo owns those assets, but once you have the assets yourself, you can recompile the game into a native PC version of Ocarina of Time.
@nessisonett Actually still not legal. Cease and desist in coming.
For the people who are still saying that Nintendo are still going to send a C&D. The only way for them to do that is if the code they are providing contains any code that belongs to Nintendo.
Back on the NES. Tengen reversed engineered the lockout chip and were able to sell games themself on the NES without having to go through Nintendo.
Now how they did was they illegal obtained the lockout chip code and reversed engineered that way. By doing it this way they had unused Nintendo code in their RE code so that is how Nintendo were able to get them in court.
If these guys are able to do this without using any shenanigans above and is 100% their code then there is nothing Nintendo co do about it. If Tengen RE the lockout chip themself and was 100% their code then Nintendo wouldn’t be able to sue them.
@Shepdawg1 Reverse Engineering is prohibited by copyright laws both in the US and EU, unless for some rather specific use cases.
If this kind of project is legal, is not 100% clear. Nintendo successfully took down the original GitHub repository for the SM64 port.
Anyway. Most people interested in this port probably do not own a legal copy of this game, nor will they decompile and recompile it themselves. In the end, most people will fetch the port as an EXE file from a shady website. And that‘s definitely illegal.
@Piyo In the Reverse Engineering section of the Atari v. Nintendo case, the Supreme Court disagreed with the district court that reverse-engineering was not considered fair use. I quote:
“Section 107 [of the Copyright Act] also requires examination of the nature of the work when determining if a reproduction is a fair use. 17 U.S.C. § 107(2). When the nature of a work requires intermediate copying to understand the ideas and processes in a copyrighted work, that nature supports a fair use for intermediate copying. Thus, reverse engineering object code to discern the unprotectable ideas in a computer program is a fair use.”
From what I can tell as well, the original repository is still up. I may be wrong in that regard, but Nintendo so far hasn’t taken it down.
And yeah, you are right that most people are simply going to download pre-compiled versions of this port once it has been finished. That is illegal, no doubt, and Nintendo will likely actively target places hosting this versions.
Just wanted to say there were 64 comments before I posted.
Ironically, the Steam Deck is going to be the best way to play old Nintendo games.
@Shepdawg1
„Reverse engineering object code to discern the unprotectable ideas in a computer program is a fair use“
This sentence is important, because the goal here is not to discern unprotectable ideas, but the I make make a game run on a different system, bypassing the fees for Nintendo hardware and services.
Ocarina looks best in 480i on Gamecube with 25" consumer CRT – much better than any emulation. Can’t argue with that.
@AstroTheGamosian actually, the end result uses nothing from Ocarina of Time. It will more than likely just be a builder à la the SM64 PC port, requiring the user to provide their own ROM. It’s on the user to provide all those copyrighted assets, and whether they obtain them legally or not is irrelevant. A few people in the comments already expressed this point.
I assume this is the reason SM64 PC port has remained untouched by Nintendo, and I expect OoT PC to fare similarly.
@ElStormo Still, I have a feeling Nintendo is going to try to shut it down regardless. Knowing them, it’s almost inevitable at this point.
@AstroTheGamosian maybe, I’m just going off of the fact SM64 PC port is still around. nothing really seems different about this situation
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Game Profile
Title:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
System:
Nintendo 64
Publisher:
Nintendo
Developer:
Nintendo EAD
Genre:
Adventure
Players:
1
Wii Shop Release Date:
26th Feb 2007 (USA), 1,000 points
23rd Feb 2007 (UK/EU), 1,000 points
27th Feb 2007 (JPN), 1,200 points
Release Date:
11th Dec 1998 (UK/EU)
21st Nov 1998 (JPN)
23rd Nov 1998 (USA)
Wii U eShop Release Date:
2nd Jul 2015 (UK/EU), £8.99
2nd Jul 2015 (USA), $9.99
Series:
Legend Of Zelda
Reviews:
Review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Wii U eShop / N64)
Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org
Where to buy:
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