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A fully functioning Zelda 64 PC port is ‘90% complete’

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

‘Harbour Masters’ are a group of community developers who are currently working on the PC port of the Nintendo 64 classic, which they estimate is already 90% complete and could release as soon as mid-February.

Just like a fan-made PC version of Super Mario 64 released in 2019, the Zelda port will feature support for multiple resolutions and modding of assets, the group told VGC.

Harbour Masters’ work, although totally separate from the Zelda Reverse Engineering Team (ZRET), follows the completion of the two-year fan project last year which successfully reverse-engineered a version of Ocarina of Time into compilable C code.

A similar decompilation project eventually led to the Super Mario 64 PC port.

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.

Speaking to VGC, Harbour Masters developer ‘Kenix’ said that the group started work on its PC port virtually as soon as Ocarina of Time’s code was fully reverse-engineered.

The group is calling its port ‘Ship of Harkinian’, which is a reference to a line of dialogue in the infamous Zelda CDI spin-offs.

“We actually started putting down code in the middle of December last year,” they said. “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.”

Kenix said the Harbour Masters team plans to go above and beyond what the Super Mario 64 fan port delivered back in 2019, with a number of enhancements over the original N64 version of Ocarina. You can see the first images of Harbour Masters’ port below.

“Widescreen is supported out of the box by the rendering backend we are using, Fast3D,” they explained. Fast3D is the same renderer that was written for the Mario 64 port.

“We have a roadmap for other things like 60fps. We already did the research to figure out what needs to be changed to make this work.”

The Ocarina PC team also plans to make mod support easier with the addition of features such as a scripting system similar to modern game engines. Super Mario 64’s own PC port was quickly modded with new graphics and modern effects such as ray-tracing, and it’s likely Ocarina will receive similar treatment.

“Our game has an asset loading pipeline much more similar to modern games,” Kenix claimed. “We have a resource manager that runs on a separate thread that loads assets from our archives.

“All of our assets are tagged by a string location within that archive, rather than what the game did on N64: pointers. Most of our work has gone into the process of importing/exporting different game asset types.

“Our archives also support ‘patches.’ These patches can replace an asset from the original archive. If you want to for example do a texture pack, all you have to do is create an archive that has the same texture path as the original and the system will figure out the newest one to use for you.

“This is the first step in our plan to support modding. Our archive format is the .MPQ file which is used in Blizzard games, but we are giving it the .OTR extension”

“Finally, we packed assets into an external archive. No assets are linked into the exe. Our belief is that this will prevent a DMCA takedown from Nintendo as SM64 linked all of the assets into the exe file.”

Harbour Masters’ work on the Legend of Zelda PC port can be followed on its Discord server.

Finally, the group told VGC it’s coding a library along with the Ocarina port called libultraship (LUS), that handles all required aspects of an N64 to PC conversion.

“We expect this and our processes to result in a port of Majora’s Mask shortly after it reaches 100%,” it said. Work on decompiling Majora’s Mask is currently estimated to be at 37%.

Harbour Masters are not the only fans working on porting Zelda to PC. Another project is being worked on by a single engineer who was previously active in the SM64 PC modding scene.

Engineer ‘Vertigo’, told VGC they expect to have their own fully playable PC version of Ocarina working “with minimal glitches and no sound” by mid-February.

Vertigo is porting the Nintendo 64 game using GlideN64, an open-source renderer typically used by popular N64 emulators.

“I was about 13 when Super Mario 64 came out, so that and Ocarina of Time are staples of my childhood,” they told VGC. “I got involved in the SM64 port to share that experience with my son because Nintendo’s offerings had always been terrible. He really enjoyed SM64, and I look forward to playing OOT with him :)

Asked why the two groups weren’t collaborating on the PC project, Vertigo suggested that their design philosophies and middleware used was so different that they wouldn’t be able to work together efficiently.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Ocarina of Time has it all what else is there to prove with the game.
legend of zelda nintendo GIF
 

00_Zer0

Member
Nintendo can't shut this down as no original game code or rom is ever included in this process. If someone distributed this with stolen code or the rom itself it would be illegal. So my advice to people is go buy a Retrode 2, dump your original OOT cartridge, and enjoy the benefits of what comes of this. I can't wait to play this game at 60fps and better textures on my PC.
 
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TransTrender

Gold Member
I'm pretty excited for this when it is 100% complete with audio. At this point the only way I'll replay OoT is with true 30 or 60 fps, higher resolution, and better textures. Since it will be a complete PC port then I can't wait to see what other cool stuff people make for this.
 

Beelzebubs

Member
Nintendo can't shut this down as no original game code or rom is ever included in this process. If someone distributed this with stolen code or the rom itself it would be illegal. So my advice to people is go buy a Retrode 2, dump your original OOT cartridge, and enjoy the benefits of what comes of this. I can't wait to play this game at 60fps and better textures on my PC.
IP and copyright infringement.
 

darrylgorn

Member
Nintendo can't shut this down as no original game code or rom is ever included in this process. If someone distributed this with stolen code or the rom itself it would be illegal. So my advice to people is go buy a Retrode 2, dump your original OOT cartridge, and enjoy the benefits of what comes of this. I can't wait to play this game at 60fps and better textures on my PC.


laughing-laugh.gif
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
These people NEVER learn. Fucking SHUT UP until you're 100% done and you've put your project on the web.
I always wondered why the fuck they keep committing this same mistake. Maybe they actually want their work to be taken down so they're done with it without risking being sued later for releasing the full stuff? Maybe they just want people to get pissed at Nintendo (or whatever other company) and take the credibility for "trying" to do something good?

Think Stephen Colbert GIF by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
 
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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Yes, you read that right! This is a native port of Ocarina of Time to PC, with widescreen and upscaling support. Soon many more features will be added, such as 60fps. All of this footage is 100% real, and the project is nearly fully playable. Though there are minor glitches in this very early gameplay footage, these will soon be resolved. This project is not associated with any other group and is the work of vertigo and me.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Pretty cool, I wonder which will be the next game to get a port like this.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
I would love to see Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Those would be amazing as Native PC ports.
You probably know this, but for anyone else who might read this: those games are already playable at 60fps with m+kb controlls on the 1964 emulator.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Yes, I knew about those, but if you have noticed, native Mario 64 ports can be changed and modded in ways that the emulated rom cannot.
Now that you mention it... Yeah, a native Perfect Dark with online multiplayer could be the shit.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

According to a recent report, an unofficial version of Ocarina of Time, which brings the beloved title to the PC, is due for release next month. Along with a "Nintendo-Direct style" presentation on March 22, the mod team that has been working on the project will be launching the game on April 1. Called "OpenOcarina," this version will allegedly include widescreen support, upscaling, and the ability to run the game at 60fps.
 
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