Case study

A Link to the Past 3DS: a dual-screen Zelda3 port

A Link to the Past 3DS adapts the reverse-engineered Zelda3 engine for Nintendo 3DS with gameplay on the upper screen and maps, inventory and settings on the lower screen. It extracts assets locally from the user's USA ROM and adds 3DS rendering, controls and per-ROM settings.

Targets: Game
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06
Evidence class: C1 partial scope or analysis entry

Stars: 785
Last commit: 2026-11-05
Language: C

GitHub data as of 2026-11-10

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Evidence

Demo screenshot from the project's public documentation

Observed: Download and demo observed; the case covers part of the target software.
Scope: Partial
Checked: 2026-11-09

How evidence classes are assigned

Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: A Nintendo 3DS and a legally obtained USA, unheadered ROM are required; audio also needs dspfirm.cdc.
Prerequisites: Building requires devkitARM, libctru, 3ds-cmake, makerom and bannertool.
Limits: Gameplay hacks are not guaranteed to be compatible.
License: The Zelda3 engine retains the MIT licence; other components retain their own licences.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{a-link-to-the-past-3ds-case,
  title = {{A Link to the Past 3DS: a dual-screen Zelda3 port}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/EstebanPdN/zelda-alttp-3ds}},
  url = {https://github.com/EstebanPdN/zelda-alttp-3ds},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/a-link-to-the-past-3ds-case/}}
}

Plain text

A Link to the Past 3DS: a dual-screen Zelda3 port. https://github.com/EstebanPdN/zelda-alttp-3ds (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/a-link-to-the-past-3ds-case/

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About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · EstebanPdN/zelda-alttp-3ds · Revision c85d243
platform/3ds/README.md GitHub · EstebanPdN/zelda-alttp-3ds · Revision c85d243