The Majora’s Mask Android port just added the final missing feature

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority

Emulation on Android has come a long way, but recent advances in native ports via decompilation offer advantages that no emulator can match. Now, an update to the unofficial port of The Legends of Zelda: Majora’s Mask has added touch screen controls, the only feature missing when compared to emulators.

This update is the culmination of the efforts of several different dev teams. The Android app, called 2ship2harkinian-Android, is an unofficial port of the open-source 2Ship2Harkinian project led by Harbour Masters 64, which is a recompilation of Majora’s Mask that runs natively on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.

In addition to touch controls, the port offers higher framerates, widescreen output, and more.

While emulators have been around for decades, recreating the source code to run the game natively enables widescreen output, improved framerates, ray tracing, and other changes like randomizers. They are a huge leap forward over emulators, which have been notoriously finicky for certain consoles like the Nintendo 64.

Importantly, this is not a pirated copy of the game. It is an executable that takes all of the protected assets from a ROM of the game you presumably own and turns them into a new file that runs natively in C. It’s more similar to slotting the original cartridge into an Analogue Pocket than booting up an emulator with a pirated ROM, at least from a legal standpoint.

Additionally, Harbour Masters 64 announced it’s working on a native port of Star Fox 64 called Starship. It’s still early in development, but the team showed off the project in a recent live stream and it looks absolutely fantastic. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

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