Ship of Harkinian

Lore & Background

The project began in November 2021, coinciding with the completion of the decompilation of Ocarina of Time's executable by the Zelda Reverse Engineering Team (ZRET). Developers Jack Walker and Kenix had discussed the potential of a PC port as early as June 2020, when the decompilation was only 17% complete. In January 2022, Harbour Masters released footage of Ocarina of Time running natively on Windows in widescreen, with Kenix estimating the project was approximately 90% complete. The port launched for Windows in March 2022.

Subsequent updates added support for additional platforms and features. A Linux port was announced in May 2022 via a parody video presentation called 'Ship of Harkinian Direct', alongside save states, an integrated cheat menu, accessibility options, and 60 FPS support. In July 2022, another Direct announced macOS and Wii U ports, as well as a control rebinding interface, a randomizer, and support for arbitrary framerates up to 250 FPS. Nintendo Switch support arrived in the September 2022 'Zhora Alfa' update. In April 2023, custom texture and model support were added, along with multiplayer functionality allowing a second player to control Ivan the Fairy.

The title 'Ship of Harkinian' alludes to the Ship of Theseus philosophical thought experiment and to King Harkinian from The Legend of Zelda CD-i games, who became an internet meme. Harbour Masters subsequently ported other Nintendo 64 games to PC using a custom library called libultraship (LUS), including Star Fox 64, Mario Kart 64, Super Mario 64, and Banjo-Kazooie. In June 2026, they announced plans to upgrade LUS to produce PC ports of GameCube games, beginning with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Reader's Guide

Ship of Harkinian received generally positive attention from games media for its quality-of-life improvements over the original Ocarina of Time release. It was favorably compared to the Nintendo Classics version of the game, with some critics deeming it significantly better than the official Switch version in almost every regard. The port was seen as proof that unofficial options can be superior when official releases are perceived as low-quality and high-priced.

Some outlets expressed apprehension about the project's long-term prospects due to Nintendo's reputation for litigation. The legality of Ship of Harkinian was described as 'murky' by some commentators, though other projects built on reverse engineering efforts remained active. Harbour Masters contributor Kenix defended the port's legality, stating that Ocarina of Time assets are ripped from a user's own ROM and exported into a compatible archive, with none of Nintendo's own property involved in the process. Harbour Masters encouraged users to support official releases and offered a unique Discord role to those who could provide proof of ownership.

The project's success led Harbour Masters to create similar ports for other games, including a Majora's Mask port called '2Ship2Harkinian' released in May 2024, following the full decompilation of that game. The use of the libultraship library enabled efficient porting of multiple N64 titles to PC.

Did You Know?

• Ship of Harkinian was first released for Windows in March 2022, four months after Ocarina of Time's source code was decompiled.
• The title references both the Ship of Theseus thought experiment and King Harkinian from the CD-i Zelda games.
• The port supports arbitrary framerates up to 250 FPS and includes a randomizer for enhanced replayability.
• Multiplayer mode allows a second player to control Ivan the Fairy, who can help or hinder the main player.