This week, another beloved title has joined the Parthenon of decompiled titles, although this time, it's not an N64 title that made it into the decompilation milestone, but rather the first party swansong title for the Gamecube, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

In a similar instance to that of N64 titles that have previously been decompiled, once the project reaches 100% completion, all of the game assets and functions will be reproduceable in a 1:1 matching against the original game's files in their original compiled format.

Like in the case of other decompilations by the team behind the Zelda decompilation projects, ZeldaRET (Zelda Reverse Engineering Team), they are not interested in pursuing a full PC port of Twilight Princess. However, having the decompilation available as a full open source project allows other groups of people to start working on said PC port for it.

While the decompilation project is currently sitting at 99%, there is still some work to do reach the 100% completion status. Not only that, but as is always the case with decompilation projects that reach their completion, there might still be code that hasn't been properly documented, and as such, a further clean up might be needed. According to the Github page, other versions of the game (PAL and NTSC-J) can also be compiled, but the overall percetage for these is not currently known.

This advancement in the decompilation for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess certainly ignites the spark of a PC port in the upcoming months, with ideas floating around about bugfixes, Quality of Life changes, modding support, and maybe even back-porting features from the Wii U HD version to the Gamecube version, like a Hero mode, Mirror mode (like the Wii version), bigger wallets, and the Cave of Shadows for Wolf Link.

However, the decompilation has to reach 100% first, and then another group might tackle the PC port, but until then, users can already compile the project on their own and screw around with the source code to their liking.

Source
Zelda RET website

 

[granville]

What could be done to improve Twilight Princess after decompilation I wonder?

Higher framerate for starters. All versions of Twilight Princess are still locked to 30fps, no one has ever created a functional unlocker for it.

 

[VinsCool]

"100% decompilation" doesn't mean that all the variables and methods have logical names and that the code is nicely organized and commented where appropriate, right?

It just thought it means that there's some form of code, however ugly and difficult to understand, that compiles to the rom?

Pretty much, yeah.
It would be some work to make everything 100% readable and organised, but otherwise it should still be useable for the majority of the functions that were decompiled to something known to perform specific tasks.
As long as everything does compile back to the identical executable, it's good enough.

 

[Viri]

I still have my physical copy for Gamecube(it also has the Gamestop receipt still in the case, lol)! If this gets a decent PC port, I will for sure try it!

Also, the Gamecube would have sold better, if Twilight Princess and Wind Waker swapped release dates, and if Luigi's Mansion and Mario Sunshine swapped release dates.

 

[DarkKaine]

Don't hold your breath for a PC port quite yet, there are several decompiled gamecube games right now with no ports for a reason. Until someone writes a fully working translation layer for GX you won't be seeing this running on PC natively.

"100% decompilation" doesn't mean that all the variables and methods have logical names and that the code is nicely organized and commented where appropriate, right?

It just thought it means that there's some form of code, however ugly and difficult to understand, that compiles to the rom?

I guess I can look for myself.
Hopefully the code is made all nice in time, if it's not already, as then people can start working with it much more easily.

Just putting it out there that simply having "code" doesn't mean it's understandable and easy to port.

Anyway, great accomplishment of course!

A lot of it is a lot more organized than you'd think, because the shield version has a debug build with symbols. So all the function arguments names and types should be there.

 

[whitesword7]

would be hilarious if it got DMCA’s at 99.99%

these kinds of project should’ve been kept a secret on a private discord or something. Do people not learn anything from rockstar DMCAing various gta decompilation project?

 

[Deleted member 705600]

would be hilarious if it got DMCA’s at 99.99%

these kinds of project should’ve been kept a secret on a private discord or something. Do people not learn anything from rockstar DMCAing various gta decompilation project?

Because they cannot DMCA, decompilations lack any copyrighted material, they didn't get the code from Nintendo themselves or any leaks and they don't provide any assets. When this type of projects are used for native ports they always require you to provide a copy of the game for asset extraction

 

[Viri]

would be hilarious if it got DMCA’s at 99.99%

these kinds of project should’ve been kept a secret on a private discord or something. Do people not learn anything from rockstar DMCAing various gta decompilation project?

Nah, won't happen. This is entirely different than the Rockstar stuff. Rockstar was able to DMCA the GTA decompiles, because it wasn't "clean room" code. This is entirely "clean room", Nintendo cannot do a damn thing about it, if they could, they would have nuked the Mario 64 decompile. Also, no copyrighted files are in the code.

 

[SonicRings]

What the hell, I JUST beat the Wii U version lmao. I replayed the game after only having played it once back in 2008 or so. Curious if the save file can be imported so that I can find all collectibles without having to play through the game again!

 

[LokeYourLord]

I can see Nintendo's toenails curl up all the way from over here. Watch as Nintendo suddenly will drop Twilight Princess "HD" on the Switch/2 within a not so distant time from now.

 

[Robert Newbie]

would be hilarious if it got DMCA’s at 99.99%

these kinds of project should’ve been kept a secret on a private discord or something. Do people not learn anything from rockstar DMCAing various gta decompilation project?

Oy, don't remind me of RE3/GTA3, that one still makes me sad. The last builds still have physics issues at high FPS because the devs couldn't finish their work. Plus, they had some interesting plans, like creating PS2 and Xbox ports based on the decomp.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Since Nintendon't never bothered to port it to the Switch, I'm happy to see there'll be a fan PC version.

Post automatically merged: Nov 27, 2025

I can see Nintendo's toenails curl up all the way from over here. Watch as Nintendo suddenly will drop Twilight Princess "HD" on the Switch/2 within a not so distant time from now.

They had years and years if they wanted to do it, a bit late now.

 

[raxadian]

Since this game doesn't have a 3DS port, I guess if it could be possible to port it to the 3DS? Mm, maybe to the Vita? Dreamcast games barely work at 20 fps by emulation so it should be technically possible.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Since this game doesn't have a 3DS port, I guess if it could be possible to port it to the 3DS? Mm, maybe to the Vita? Dreamcast games barely work at 20 fps by emulation so it should be technically possible.

Would've been cool if it were on the New 3DS, at least. Xenoblade and Hyrule Warriors were Wii 1/2 games and they got 3DS ports (even if they didn't run or look that great, but the point is it was cool to play it on the go).

TP HD in 60fps is something I've been wanting, and I played TPHD on the Wii 2.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Would've been cool if it were on the New 3DS, at least. Xenoblade and Hyrule Warriors were Wii 1/2 games and they got 3DS ports (even if they didn't run or look that great, but the point is it was cool to play it on the go).

TP HD in 60fps is something I've been wanting, and I played TPHD on the Wii 2.

It'd be an interesting thing to consider. Devs ported GTA3 to the 3DS using the decomp, and it runs decently. GTA3 doesn't run at a high FPS on the 3DS, but it certainly works. Twilight Princess is from the same gen, so I could imagine getting similar results.

 

[SolidSonicTH]

If you decomp TP doesn't that mean you've also done quite a bit of work to decomp WW too? I think they use the same engine.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Since this game doesn't have a 3DS port, I guess if it could be possible to port it to the 3DS? Mm, maybe to the Vita? Dreamcast games barely work at 20 fps by emulation so it should be technically possible.

Now, this is a cool idea. A TP port for the Dreamcast.

 

[Wilber_Puyol]

But what about Wind Waker? I think this should be the next one.

 

[Robert Newbie]

If you decomp TP doesn't that mean you've also done quite a bit of work to decomp WW too? I think they use the same engine.

I believe that's the case, and it's supported by the fact that Wind Waker assets are present within Twilight Princess' files. At the end of the day, a modified engine is a modified engine. So, there may not be enough overlap to cause Wind Waker's progress to skyrocket. The good news is that the team's currently at 55.29%, and Wind Waker will likely become the team's fifth successful decompilation.

Slightly off-topic, but I'm really clamoring for the Silent Hill decomp. I'm looking forward to seeing what fans do to enhance a PS1 horror classic.

 

[SolidSonicTH]

I feel like Twilight Princess uses Wind Waker's model rigging internally because something about the way Link animates in the game looks wonky, like the way the model is meant to animate would work better on differently proportioned characters (which is the case with Wind Waker, the characters having shorter arms and legs).

 

[PatrickD85]

Those decomps are becoming faster and faster aren't they?