In a nutshell: The first gameplay footage from an unofficial native PC port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has hit the Internet. It’s not available to download yet, but is expected to arrive by mid-February… that is, assuming Nintendo doesn’t get involved.
The project, from the duo of zel and vertigo, is said to feature widescreen and upscaling support. In the video’s description on YouTube, zel said the game is nearly fully playable although there are still some minor glitches that will be resolved soon.
This PC port is not associated with Harbour Masters or any other group. Vertigo told Video Games Chronicle that the two groups’ design philosophies and middleware were simply too different for them to work together efficiently.
Zel said support for 60 frames per second playback will eventually be added.
On Reddit, one user explained that the N64 version of Ocarina of Time runs at three different framerates: 60 fps for the pause screen, 30 fps for the title screen and 20 fps in the overworld. Select NPC routines and some of Link’s movements are based on framerates, so simply tripling it to hit 60 fps also triples things like jump distance and hookshot distance.
Once workarounds are implemented for these functions, 60 fps will no doubt be possible.
The legality of the PC port is another unknown. Some believe Nintendo would have a hard time shutting down the project if it doesn’t use any official assets, but it’s Nintendo we are talking about – a company that isn’t fond of non-official fan projects.
Interested parties can stay up to date with the project over on Discord.