You Can Officially Play Ocarina Of Time On PC
The sound of Saria's Song is blowing in across Hyrule Field, as the long-awaited PC version for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is finally riding in on Epona. Although the lauded game was released in 1998, it's largely been locked to the Nintendo 64. Yes, we've had the 3DS remake and the recent port over to the Switch Online service, but anyone outside the absolute die-hards has been unable to play.
Nintendo is also one of the worst for having its cake and eating it too, and while Sony and Microsoft have sometimes learned to share over the years, the House that Mario built will make you stump up for its hardware - which might explain why the Switch continues to be the best-selling console year-on-year. Now, you can play a new and improved Zelda like never before.
How Is Ocarina Of Time On PC?
Ocarina of Time is regarded by many as one of the greatest games of all time, and while we're still waiting for Nintendo to get off its backside to remaster it with modern capabilities, someone has (unofficially) done a lot of the work for Nintendo. Following Sony allowing 2018's God of War to hit PC hard drives for the first time ever, a crack team has given us another gaming icon on PC.
That team is called the Zelda Reverse Engineering Team (ZRET), and they have now confirmed that the project is complete. However, it isn't all plain sailing as their Discord channel says you'll need to download a "legally sourced" ROM if you want to play. To avoid another sticky legal situation, the game is called Ship of Harkinian and is the work of Harbour Masters.
Showing off what the build includes, Harbour Masters' showcase looks like something Nintendo itself could've released. Ship of Harkinian features HD visuals, alongside widescreen and controller support, as well as mouse-and-keyboard, rumble features, and even gyroscope capabilities. That's not all though, with the devs promising future updates for 60 FPS, HD models, and text-to-speech.
Will Nintendo Pull The PC Port?
Clearly, Harbour Masters has put a lot of work into this labour of love, which is something we've been keeping an eye on. If you're already sold, you might be interested to know Ship of Harkinian supports modding. Even though it's only just come out, fans have already suggested mods to improve graphics and even to remove the divisive Navi.
Although the PC Ocarina port is technically legal because it built its own assets from the ground up, we doubt it'll be long before it lands on Nintendo's radar. Already, Harbour Masters has generated a lot of buzz - likely prompting Mario's lawyers to get on the case. Although we can't wait for someone to swap Epona for Thomas the Tank Engine, we'd start playing while you can... before Nintendo pulls the plug.
