It first released in March 2022 for Windows, four months after Ocarina of Time's source code was decompiled and released. Since then, Ship of Harkinian has received ports to Linux and macOS, and homebrew ports to Wii U and Nintendo Switch.
Updates to Ship of Harkinian have attracted media attention, as they often integrate options and features which aren't present in any official release of Ocarina of Time.
In November 2021, after 21 months of development, the Zelda Reverse Engineering Team (ZRET) successfully decompiled the executable to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time into human-readable code. While the decompilation project was principally carried out for the sake of documenting the game's creation and backend functionality, it also made possible the potential creation of source ports of Ocarina of Time, which would allow the game to be recompiled and run on platforms it wasn't originally developed for. Speaking to Ars Technica, ZRET member Rozlette stated that source ports were "outside the scope of what we do".[2]
Early development and release
In June 2020, developers Jack Walker and Kenix discussed the potential of a PC port of Ocarina of Time based on the ZRET decompilation project's work; at the time, Ocarina of Time's decompilation was only 17% complete. Development on what would later become Ship of Harkinian began in November 2021, coinciding with the decompilation project reaching completion.[3]
In January 2022, a group of community developers named Harbour Masters released footage and screenshots of Ocarina of Time running natively on Microsoft Windows, in a widescreen aspect ratio not supported by the original Nintendo 64 release. The project was titled "Ship of Harkinian", a reference to Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. Speaking to Video Games Chronicle, Kenix, now part of Harbour Masters, estimated the project was "approximately 90%" complete.[4]
Prior to Ship of Harkinian's release, Harbour Masters showcased various experimental game modifications to Ocarina of Time, such as gyroscopic aiming and 4K texture support.[5]
Ship of Harkinian launched for Windows in March 2022.[6]
Additional platform support and features
In May 2022, Harbour Masters announced the release of a Linux port of Ship of Harkinian via "Ship of Harkinian Direct", an online video parody presentation of Nintendo Direct. Additional features noted in this Direct include save states, an integrated cheat menu, accessibility options, and support for running the game at 60 frames per second.[7]
Two months later, in July 2022, an additional Ship of Harkinian Direct was released, announcing the release of Ship of Harkinian for macOS and Wii U. Additional features promoted in this Direct include a graphic interface for rebinding controls, a "randomizer" which randomizes various elements of the game to enhance replayability, and the ability to set an arbitrary framerate (up to 250FPS).[8]
Ship of Harkinian received Nintendo Switch support in the September 2022 "Zhora Alfa" update.[9]
In April 2023, a new Ship of Harkinian Direct was released, announcing custom texture and model support. Multiplayer functionality was added to the port; a second player can take control of Ivan the Fairy, described as a fairy "who likes to play tricks", whose abilities can either help or hinder the main player.[10]
Future
Harbour Masters have expressed intent to create a source port for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask shortly after ZRET completes their decompilation of the game.[4][11]
In November 2023, Harbours Masters revealed that they had fully decompiled Majora's Mask, and are currently working on a PC port provisionally called 2Ship2Harkinian,[12] with its first version being released on 26 May 2024.
Reception
Reception to Ship of Harkinian has been generally positive.
Ship of Harkinian has been favorably compared against the Nintendo Switch Online version of Ocarina of Time. Nick Rodriguez of Screen Rant deemed Ship of Harkinian "significantly better than the current Switch version in almost every regard",[13] with The Verge's Derek Hill expressing similar sentiment: "As long as Nintendo is content putting out alarmingly low-quality versions of their classic games for shockingly high prices, Ship of Harkinian is proof that the unofficial option is sometimes the best option."[3]
Some outlets expressed apprehension over Ship of Harkinian, fearing that Nintendo's perceived litigiousness could jeopardize the project. In discussing Ship of Harkinian's long-term prospects, Gamespot writer Jenny Zheng remarked that that Ship of Harkinian's "odds aren't great", while characterizing Nintendo as "notoriously copyright-lawsuit-happy".[14] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku referred to Ship of Harkinian's legality as "murky", but noted that other projects built off of reverse engineering efforts were still active as of writing.[15] In a statement to GamesRadar+, Harbour Masters contributor Kenix defended the legality of Ship of Harkinian: "The [Ocarina of Time] assets will be ripped from a user's own ROM that they must provide and then be exported into an archive compatible with the Ship of Harkinian. None of Nintendo's own property is involved in the process."[16] Harbour Masters encouraged users to support official releases of Ocarina of Time, and offered a unique role on their Discord server to those who can provide proof of ownership.[17]
