Zelda: The Wind Waker finally has the native PC port fans waited decades for, complete with 120fps support

Published Oct 1, 2026, 1:57 PM EDT Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. Summary Unofficial Wind Waker Recomp runs natively on Windows, macOS, iPhone/iPad with Direct3D12/Metal, 60/120fps. Save states, widescreen, touch/mouse/keyboard/controller support, wall climbing, and Dolphin HD texture pack support. Made with AI help, it emulates GameCube hardware (no JIT), adds 4x rendering and HD fixes; needs your GameCube copy. The world of retro video game recompilations is getting increasingly wild. The latest title to drop is a static recompilation of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker that runs natively on Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad. The very unofficial port of the Game Cube classic features Direct3D 12 and Metal rendering, 60fps/120fps, widescreen, save states, and wall climbing. There's also touch controls, and mouse and keyboard and controller support. Elliottate, the developer behind the project, says that Wind Waker Recomp is a fork of Bluewake, an iPhone and iPad Zelda: The Wind Waker static recompilation effort from Chrissotraidis (Chris Sotraidis). Like most recomps, you need your own legally obtained copy of The Wind Waker for the GameCube to play the port. As always, it's pretty easy to find disc images online if you know where to look. It's also worth noting that both BlueWake and Wind Waker Recomp have been developed with substantial AI assistance for code, testing, documentation, and debugging. On Windows, the classic Zelda titles run on x86-64, while the Mac, iPhone, and iPad versions are arm64. All of Wind Waker HD's key improvements are part of Wind Waker Recomp HD texture packs with the recompilation, too Elliottate goes on to say that the game runs with a compatibility runtime for the GameCube's hardware that includes memory, timing, disc and memory card, controllers, DSP audio, and graphics through Direct3D 12 on Windows and Metal on Apple devices. Since nothing is compiled while the game is being played, JIT isn't necessary. Additional quality-of-life upgrades include compatibility with Dolphin-format HD texture packs like GZLE01, and the ability to render the game at 4x the GameCube's 480 lines. Wind Waker HD also includes improvements like Swift Sail, faster text and climbing, and more. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD was released on the Wii U in 2013, but so far, Nintendo hasn't brought the excellent remaster to the Switch 2. As far as retro Zelda titles go, Zelda: The Wind Waker has aged remarkably well despite being 24-years-old, thanks to its beautiful-looking cartoony art style, which, believe it or not, was very controversial back when the game first released for the GameCube in 2003. If you want to try out Wind Waker Recomp for yourself, you can find the game at this link (you'll also need to get your hands on a disc image). In other recompilation-related news, a browser-based port of Halo: Combat Evolved recently dropped, featuring 128-player multiplayer.