It's time to put down your AYN Thor and pick up your Nintendo 3DS again, because the legendary GBA game The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap now has a native 3DS port with dual-screen and widescreen support.
Right off the bat, I'll let you know that this has been developed in conjunction with the OpenAI programme 'Codex', so if you're against the use of AI in ports or in the retro gaming scene in general, we'll see you in the next article. I'm not a fan, but it seems like every port at the minute is using AI in some respect. The project is also based on open-source original decomp of the game 'zeldaret/tmc', the native Minish Cap engine and port infrastructure 'Project Picori', and the dual-screen Android source base 'samyost1/tmc-android.' There are 46 human contributors listed as working on the project which does make me feel better about the project - it hasn't been fully vibe-coded, which is a plus!
Here is a list of features you can find in the new port:
- You can use a legally acquired ROM from either Europe or the US to get this up and running.
- The port utilises true widescreen gameplay on the 3DS' top screen, with Original and Stretch display modes available.
- It's fully dual-screen compatible, with a live map, dungeon information, quest status, touch item controls, and settings appearing on the bottom screen, giving fans a new way to play.
- There's no 3D mode, but there are visual enhancements including 804 MHz mode, L2 cache, multi-core rendering, and optional 2x–5x turbo using the C-Stick.
- Play around with the display settings and change parameters for Blur, Bilinear, Ultra Sharp, and Pixel Perfect.
- The port has the Project Picori Randomizer built-in with separate normal and randomized save data.
- Lastly, you can enjoy native stereo audio, reliable save handling, persistent settings, FPS tools, and diagnostic dumps when it comes to bug reports.
As with all recomps like the recent gen1recomp we covered, you'll need to provide your own legally acquired ROM to get this working, and no Minish Cap GBA game files are included on the GitHub page. Head over to GitHub to download the 3DS port!
