The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake has finally arrived on Nintendo Switch 2, but within just 24 hours of its official launch, modders have already managed to get the game running on PC through emulation.
Already being hailed as thehighest-rated game of the last decade, the Ocarina of Time remake has been a huge hit with critics. This is on top of the fact that the original N64 game of 1998 is considered to be one of the best games of all time.
However, the speed at which it’s been emulated on PC raises questions about Nintendo’s ability to protect its exclusive games and whether this could become an even bigger problem for the gaming industry.
According to GitHub user A-Man-With-A-Plan-dev, the experimental Lichii Nintendo Switch 2 emulator has already made impressive progress running the Ocarina of Time remake on PC.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is already hitting 60fps on PC
Recent optimisations reportedly boosted performance from 37fps to 52fps in Kokiri Forest, with further testing reaching between 40fps and 60fps on an Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics card, as demonstrated by X (formerly Twitter) user MizoChris.
It’s worth keeping in mind that this emulation is still in experimental development and hasn’t yet been extensively tested by the wider PC emulation community. Much of the code is also AI-assisted, which may have helped speed up development so soon after the Ocarina of Time remake’s official Nintendo Switch 2 release.
If anything, this shows just how quickly the talented emulation community is progressing, potentially aided by the ever-evolving capabilities of AI technology, whether you like it or not. However, these advancements could become an increasing challenge for developers and publishers, who may struggle to keep up, let alone contain the threat of emulation.
In recent weeks alone, games including Halo: Combat Evolved and Cyberpunk 2077 have been hosted for free in PC browsers, with efforts well underway to create and improve native PC ports of the popular PlayStation exclusive Bloodborne.
PC players are already showing off Zelda’s performance
Over on X, user Jackk_Red has also shared footage reportedly showing the Ocarina of Time remake running on PC using the Lichii emulator, powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D processor and an Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti graphics card.
The footage also uses a program called Lossless Scaling, which can make gameplay appear smoother by generating additional frames. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the game is running at a native 60fps, as some of those frames may be artificially generated rather than produced by the emulator itself.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 exclusivity is already facing an early challenge
While it’s impressive how quickly modders have reportedly managed to get the Ocarina of Time remake running on PC, it could pose a significant challenge for Nintendo and the industry as a whole. After all, developing video games costs companies a lot of money, and piracy can affect sales, which may also impact developers whose bonuses are tied to commercial performance.
Understandably, Nintendo has historically taken a firm stance against piracy, unauthorised distribution of its games, and certain emulators, and has been involved in several high-profile legal cases.
Perhaps the bigger question concerns what companies like Nintendo can do to protect its games as emulation technology continues to advance, potentially with the assistance of AI. Could it be fighting a losing battle?
The legal grey area surrounding emulation has been debated for years and will likely continue to be. Emulators aren’t necessarily illegal, but downloading or distributing copyrighted games without permission can infringe copyright laws.
As a gamer, as great as it might be to play the Ocarina of Time remake on PC, there’s a good chance it won’t fully replicate the official Nintendo Switch 2 experience. After all, experimental emulators can suffer from bugs, glitches, and frame rate issues, particularly during the early stages of development.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is out now exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo
