Ocarina of Time 3D is the First Commercial 3DS Game to be Successfully Emulated

Update: We forgot to include video proof. Keep in mind this happened back in December originally, but somehow slipped under our radar. Enjoy!

Emulated games are the bane of many companies’ existences. While Nintendo has been putting a lot of measures in place to try and prevent the pirating of games, which is a similar concept, that hasn’t stopped the hacking community nor the emulation community from coming up with viable solutions. Keep in mind that we don’t endorse pirating or emulation – both are illegal according to 99% of user agreements. We prefer anyone who cares to play the Zelda series, or any video game for that matter, to get a supported platform and purchase said game legally. Still, when a breakthrough happens and the Zelda series is involved, it’s definitely worth having a conversation about.

One important factor to note before we head in is that just because a commercial game has been emulated and can be started, it doesn’t mean the game is really in a playable state. People have been trying to successfully emulate commercial 3DS games for years, but this is the first major breakthrough to one day getting to that point. Here is the evidence of Ocarina of Time 3D running on what is dubbed Citra, a 3DS emulator:

As I said, the game being emulated is a bit different from it being playable. Will it ever reach that point? Probably. Reality is, emulation is still a fairly popular underbelly within the video game community. With many classic titles now available through many different legal methods of purchase, the justification for emulating games has been slowly shrinking. Where do you stand on emulation? Are you excited by this breakthrough, or worried about the type of community this fosters?

We won’t be providing any links to Citra, though you can easily find it for yourself if you are interested. Just keep in mind we’ll be removing any links to emulators or roms if posted in the comments below. Try to keep this conversation centered around emulation and how you feel about that, rather than trying to spread the methods of emulation more organically. We’re just here to further the conversation.

Source: Reddit