Case study

Astral Chain: statically recompiling the Switch game for macOS

This statically recompiles Astral Chain for the Nintendo Switch, version 1.0.0 with no update, to macOS. Apple silicon is the preview target and uses Vulkan through MoltenVK. The README says the opening, character creation, and the File 01 motorcycle chase run, with the chase measured at a stable 30 fps on an Apple M5 Pro. A build from a real dump translates 1,332 shaders. Linux and Windows reach that same chase and are marked early. Saving and reloading are untested.

Targets: Game
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-07
Evidence class: C1 partial scope or analysis entry

Stars: 27
Last commit: 2026-10-22
Language: Python

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

The player's Astral Chain 1.0.0 NSP and the console keys that match that dump. tools/acr_build.py runs the build.
License: MIT for the original code in this repository. The shader translator and the patched importer are MIT. Baloo 2 is SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{astral-chain-recomp,
  title = {{Astral Chain: statically recompiling the Switch game for macOS}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/swaymun/AC-Recomp}},
  url = {https://github.com/swaymun/AC-Recomp},
  urldate = {2026-11-07},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/astral-chain-recomp/}}
}

Plain text

Astral Chain: statically recompiling the Switch game for macOS. https://github.com/swaymun/AC-Recomp (accessed 2026-11-07). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/astral-chain-recomp/

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · swaymun/AC-Recomp · Revision 80c5015