Unofficial native PC and Mac ports of both Zelda games arrive: static recompilation plus AI-written code

As of November 2026, Nintendo hasn't released The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom on PC. Since October 16, though, both games have picked up several unofficial native versions that don't use an emulator. On PC they use static recompilation to translate the Switch program into a Windows program ahead of time. On Mac, the game's ARM64 code runs directly, and Android versions followed in late October. TotK Recomp, released October 29, comes with a graphical installer and reached 0.3.7 by November 3. None of them include game files, you have to build them yourself from a copy of the game, and AI played a big part in making most of them.

Three different approaches

Notebookcheck puts it simply: an emulator imitates the console's hardware in real time, while recompilation translates the game's original machine code into a program that runs directly on a PC processor. This year's unofficial PC ports of Link's Awakening and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate took the same route.

Timeline

Notebookcheck notes that SkyboundTOTK supported only version 1.0.0 at launch (a pull request merged on October 30 adds 1.2.1), ships without any game files, keys or saves, and has to be built on Windows 10 or 11, which takes a while. Frame interpolation raises the displayed frame rate without speeding up the game itself and can add input lag.

Late-October and early-November updates

TotK Recomp: a Tears of the Kingdom port with an installer

TotK Recomp, released October 29, is another static recompilation of Tears of the Kingdom. Unlike the source-only projects above, it has a graphical installer: pick your game files, a language and an install folder, and it builds the game once on your machine.

• Versions: 0.1.1 on Oct 29; 0.2.8 on Oct 31 (fixes lost saves, the Depths camera quest that couldn't be finished, and equipment locking after Fuse); 0.3.1 on Nov 1, which loads mods made for emulators (RomFS mods and code patches for your game version, managed in a new Mods tab; code plugins such as UltraCam don't work yet); 0.3.4 on Nov 2 with audio fixes; and 0.3.7 on Nov 3 with new performance defaults, optional 5.1 surround and an opt-in Discord status. Updating means running the new installer over the old folder; saves are kept.
• Game versions: base game plus the 1.2.1 or 1.4.3 update; 0.2.8 also accepts the 1.1.0 update (labeled 1.1.1 in that release).
• Graphics and controls: 60 fps by default, up to 144 fps or the monitor's refresh rate (experimental); custom resolutions, supersampling, FSR 1; 16:10, 21:9 and 32:9; remappable keyboard, mouse and gamepad with rumble and gyro; shaders compiled during install.
• Requirements: Windows 10+, an AVX2 CPU, a Vulkan 1.3 GPU and about 36 GB during setup. A Linux build exists since 0.2.1; the author says it is barely tested.
• AI: the project says most of its code and documentation is written by Claude Code under the maintainer's direction.

A SourceForge copy with rewritten instructions tells you to run "Launcher.exe" and click past SmartScreen. It has nothing to do with the project; stay away from it.

Other projects

• UltraTears: still version 1.4.3 only, but no longer Windows only. 0.2.0 on Nov 1 replaced the console with a launcher, added an experimental native Steam Deck and Linux build, runs at 60 fps at the proper game speed, compiles every shader while the game is prepared, and fixed the black screen on AMD under Windows. 0.3.0 on Nov 2 fixed the Depths on Steam Deck and AMD, and 0.3.1 on Nov 3 cut GPU time per frame by roughly 35-40% with far fewer hitches, though updating rebuilds the game for about 30-40 minutes.
• Savage Wind: Alpha 4 (0.4.0) arrived on Nov 1, with a 0.4.1 hotfix the same day. It adds both DLC packs and keeps geometry in video memory, which the project says gives about 45-55% more fps on an RTX 3060. It runs on Windows, Linux and Steam Deck, with a highly experimental ARM64 Linux build. As of Nov 4 there's no newer release.

Android: native ports of both games

• BOTWRecompAndroid (Oct 24): Breath of the Wild on Android, and the first Switch recompilation on Android phones. Built on LAS Recomp's Android branch; needs Android 11+, arm64 and Vulkan. It is mainly tested on a POCO F7 Ultra (Adreno 830, Turnip driver), where 1.8.2 runs at about 40-47 fps in the open world, and new test builds land almost daily. Beta 27 (0.3.0, Nov 4) fixes crashes after half an hour on Mali GPUs, brings back fast travel and adds 40 and 45 fps options for 120 Hz and 90 Hz screens.
• TOTKDroid (Oct 29, formerly TOTKRecompAndroid): a very early Android port of Tears of the Kingdom 1.4.3. The first alpha loaded a save in the prologue cave at about 30 fps on a POCO F7 Ultra with Turnip. The 0.2.0 beta on Nov 1 runs the game's code natively instead of compiling on the phone, fixes the cave lighting, dark water and black squares on grass, and adds a 60 fps option: on a cool POCO F7 Ultra the prologue holds 60 fps and the Great Sky Island woods 54-57. 0.2.1 on Nov 2 fixes cutscenes running at 0.5-1 fps on Mali GPUs.

It's not just Zelda. The same month, Link's Awakening, Pokémon Let's Go, Smash Ultimate, Metroid Dread and Animal Crossing also got unofficial native ports; see our Switch recompilation roundup.

AI is the common thread

• Savage Wind: the project description says nearly all of the code, tooling, reverse engineering and documentation was written by Anthropic's Claude through Claude Code, with a human directing, testing and reviewing. LAS Recomp, which it builds on, was made the same way.
• UltraTears: notes AI assistance.
• SkyboundTOTK: widely suspected of heavy AI use, but its author hasn't confirmed it.

It's part of the same wave as the Codex-assisted Switch 2 jailbreak and Eden dropping its AI contribution rule this month. At Nintendo's June 2026 shareholder meeting, president Shuntaro Furukawa said the company will respond to IP infringement whether or not generative AI is involved.

In late October, Anthropic added guidance to Claude Code's prompt against recreating specific existing games. In XDA's test, Claude refused to remake Pokémon Diamond but still agreed to help with decompilation and static recompilation, so the effect on ports like these is unclear. More in our Switch recompilation roundup.

Nintendo's stance

Notebookcheck reports that Nintendo hadn't taken action against NotRexed when the mid-October preview spread. As of November 4, none of these projects appears in Nintendo's DMCA notices published on GitHub (the archive is published with a delay of a few days). Nintendo does keep cleaning up related work on GitHub, though: on October 23 it filed a DMCA notice against a Rhythm Tengoku decompilation project.

What this means for players

These ports show Switch games can run very well on PC, Mac and even Android phones without an emulator. Installers like TotK Recomp's lower the bar, but each one is still a single-game community project that needs specific game versions and your own game files, not a "PC version" you can download. For compatibility on every platform, see the Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild pages. "Tears of the Kingdom PC downloads" bundled with the game are a common malware vector (see how to spot fake emulator sites). For a general way to play your own Switch games on a computer, see the Windows setup guide, hardware requirements and performance settings. For the native route on Mac, see nxnative and the Mac setup guide. Unfamiliar terms are in the glossary.