ZRET HAS REVERSE-ENGINEERED ZELDA 64 SUCCESSFULLY
The fan community leads the ZRET ( Zelda REverse-Engineering Team). The ZRET team has been working hard for nearly two years to convert the game’s source code into C code that a PC can read. ZRET has now successfully reverse-engineered Zelda64 source code. The Gamecube’s Master Quest version was the basis of the project. It has a handy debug option that helps them in their work. They do plan to continue decompiling other versions.
What does this all mean for The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time? The same happened to Super Mario 64 in 2019, which VGC took approximately two years to complete. This opens up new possibilities for mods, hacks and more. In this case, Super Mario 64 fans added support for higher resolution and ray-tracing.
ZRET’s work, which does not involve leaked assets nor the use of Nintendo’s original assets, is legal. ZRET has reverse-engineered all Zelda64 source codes, but it still needs to be reviewed. Other tasks include creating documentation and cleaning up the code.
As you probably know, Ocarina of Time has recently joined the Switch Online Library. A partial beta version of The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time was discovered by preservationists earlier this year and made available to the public for video game preservation. An ex-developer also revealed earlier this summer that the Zelda64 Portal tech demo was available.
ZRET claims it will not participate in any future projects that attempt to adapt the code for new platforms. Super Mario 64 received a PC port nine months after the code was decompiled. However, that was not done by the same team who decompiled it. It is quite remarkable that ZRET reverse-engineered all Zelda64 source codes. This opens up new possibilities for modding communities.
