Zelda: ALttP
Image: Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, one of the most beloved entries in Nintendo's storied franchise, has been successfully reverse-engineered, adding key enhancements to the experience and potentially opening the door to some unofficial ports.

As reported by NeoWin (thanks, Time Extension!) the project has been completed by GitHub user snesrev with the assistance of 19 other contributors, reverse-engineering the SNES title to completion over an incredible 80,000 lines of code.

This endeavour means it could eventually open the door for some unofficial ports across a multitude of consoles, including the likes of Sony's PlayStation and Sega's 32X. Not only that, but key enhancements have been added, such as faster transition times, speedier text, widescreen support, pixel shaders, and a more detailed overworld map. Perhaps most significantly, a secondary item slot has been added, allowing users to quickly switch between two items on the fly without having to go into the inventory screen to pick them out one by one.

It's a remarkable achievement, but it really needs to be seen to be believed. The video below showcases how the PC port of the title compares to standard emulation. While the visual enhancements aren't quite so noticable, the transition speed between scenes is frankly staggering. Check it out:

Would you play an enhanced, albeit unofficial port of A Link to the Past? Let us know your thoughts with a comment below!

[source neowin.net, via timeextension.com]