Videogame preservation and research are very important parts of the game’s community and that's why some enthusiasts in the field have had great advances, lately, they have used reverse engineering processes to port classic games to PC. This time according to a report from DSO Gaming, the preservation community has struck again after the release of the PC port of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the 1991 SNES / Super Famicom game considered one of the best in history.
How does it work?
The reverse engineering process worked once again and they managed to obtain the code of the game, featuring around 70-80kLOC of C/C++ code, and reimplementing all parts of the original game, making it playable from start to end. It also includes some extras such as screenshots of the dungeons and maps to make the experience easier.
On the other hand, this unofficial PC port is far from the clutches of Nintendo's lawyers since this project does not feature any pre-existing code and to run it you’ll need a copy of the ROM to allow it to correctly boot and extract game resources.
This process was previously used with Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ports. Thanks to these efforts we not only have the chance to preserve the code of classic games but also open the door for the PC community to do their own improvements, changes, implementations and mods.
If you happen to own a copy of the ROM you can download this unofficial PC version of this classic Zelda game here.
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