AI ports The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to iPhone and iPad

One of the biggest advances in the AI space over the past year has come from its ability to speed up development and programming, to the point where "vibe coding" means people can create apps and software without any formal coding experience or background. This is why we've got a story like this, where a developer (Kahris) was able to port the Nintendo 64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to iOS and iPadOS.

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And it's a native port, too, which means support for touch controls, high-resolution widescreen display, and a smooth 60FPS. Compared to the N64 original's 240p resolution and 20FPS or so gameplay, it's a massive improvement. With porting duties handled by Codex 5.6 Sol, OpenAI's flagship GPT-5.6 model, it's an impressive feat, but also one that sits on the shoulders of existing work by talented human coders.

Although Codex 5.6 Sol impressively rebuilt the game for iOS as a native ARM64 app, rendered by Metal, it's based on the decompiled Ship of Harkinian source port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, written in the programming language C.

Kahris has made this full Ship of Harkinian source port available as a native iOS/iPadOS app on GitHub, but like all decompiled native N64 game ports, a ROM of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is required to play the game for all of the copyrighted art, music, and other assets that aren't code.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Question #1

How did the developer Kahris create the native iOS/iPadOS port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time?

Kahris used OpenAI Codex 5.6 Sol to handle the porting, rebuilding the game as a native ARM64 iOS/iPadOS app rendered with Metal and adding touch controls, widescreen support, and 60FPS performance. The port is based on the decompiled Ship of Harkinian C source port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Kahris has published the full source as a native app on GitHub, though a ROM is still required for the copyrighted game assets.

Answered

Question #2

Is the iOS/iPadOS port available on GitHub and what does the repository contain?

Yes. The developer Kahris has published the full Ship of Harkinian source port as a native iOS/iPadOS app on GitHub (chrissotraidis/harkinianpad). The repository contains the native ARM64 iPhone and iPad port rebuilt from the decompiled Ship of Harkinian C source, using Metal for rendering and supporting touch controls, widescreen, and 60FPS. It requires a ROM of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the copyrighted art, music, and other assets.

Answered

Question #3

What platform technologies (CPU architecture and graphics API) does the port use on iPhone and iPad?

The port is built as a native ARM64 app and uses Apple's Metal graphics API for rendering. These platform technologies apply to both the iPhone and iPad versions.

Answered

Question #4

What prior reverse‑engineering work enabled a non‑emulated native port of Ocarina of Time?

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Porting the game over to iPhone and iPad is an impressive achievement and showcase for AI. Still, it's worth noting that being able to play a non-emulated native version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is only possible thanks to the work of a small team that spent 21 months reverse engineering and decompiling the original N64 release.