MetroidPrimePort

Metroid Prime — native port

A native build of Metroid Prime (GameCube, GM8E01_00, USA v1.00) for Linux, Windows and Android. The game is compiled natively from the PrimeDecomp decompiled source and renders through Aurora (SDL3 and WebGPU), with no emulator involved.

No game content is included. You need your own copy of the game: the port reads it from a disc image and never ships any of its assets. This repository ships no disc image, and neither does any package or release built from it.

What it adds over the console release

• Widescreen rendering — 4:3, 16:9 or following the window — with the HUD spread to the edges and the menus, pause and map screens aspect-corrected
• An uncapped presentation rate over a fixed-rate simulation, so physics and animation stay console-accurate at any frame rate
• Graphics options: first-person FOV, MSAA and anisotropic filtering, HUD scale, and toggles to hide the helmet and the visor effects
• Mouse aim and twin-stick aiming, with sensitivity, inversion and crosshair size
• A Controls page for rebinding keyboard, mouse and controller, with a second key per action, conflict warnings, controller presets (GameCube, Modern, Southpaw), deadzones and gyro aim
• Optional gameplay tweaks, all off by default: Fast Morph (quick morph and unmorph that keep momentum), Spring Ball (optionally on a gyro flick), Toggle Lock-On and Sticky Charge
• Skippable cutscenes: Start skips cutscenes the console release forces you to watch
• Save states (eight slots plus undo, F5/F9) and a reveal-whole-map option with an item, scan and room tracker
• An on-screen in-game timer and a LiveSplit Server client that starts, splits on upgrades and stops at the credits
• Hard mode, the Fusion Suit and the image galleries can be unlocked without beating the game
• Memory card import and export as .gci files or raw card images, including straight from and to Dolphin
• A mods folder that replaces loose disc files or single resources inside PAKs (or adds new ones), user texture packs, HD texture replacements, and in-game button prompts that follow the input bound to each action
• Discord Rich Presence on desktop (bring your own Discord application id)
• The common options sit in pause > Options beside the game's own; the F1 overlay holds everything, in pages for Game, Controls, Video, Remastered, Mods, Archipelago, Tracker, Save states, System and Debug (cheats sit behind a "Show cheats" box)
• A touch overlay on Android, with a virtual controller for the sticks, triggers, shoulders and face buttons

Randomizer and Archipelago

Both are supported, on all three platforms.

• Randomizer — item placement is driven by a seed file. tools/rando_seed.py generates one and docs/RANDOMIZER.md covers the format.

• Archipelago multiworld — the Metroid Prime AP world's item and location tables are built in. Open F1 > Archipelago, enter the server (host:port), your slot name and the password if any, and connect; no seed file is needed. The seed's options are applied and a new game starts at the Landing Site with the intro skipped. Each seed and slot gets its own memory card, checks made offline are sent on the next connect, Recent games resumes an earlier seed, and the Chat sub-tab shows the server log and sends messages such as !hint. DeathLink is supported.

  wss:// needs no extra setup on any platform: OpenSSL is vendored and linked statically on Android, and the trust store is enumerated by hand, so the system CA bundle is not required. See docs/ARCHIPELAGO.md.

Cutscenes are always skippable in randomizer and Archipelago games.

Downloads

Releases are published on the GitHub releases page. Every build needs your own disc image; none of them contains one.

Platform	Artefact	Notes
Linux	AppImage	Self-contained, no install. chmod +x and run.
Linux	Flatpak	io.github.odrannnn.metroidprimeport
Linux	.tar.gz	The bare binary, its textures and the licences
Windows	.zip	Unzip anywhere; needs a Visual C++ redistributable
Android	.apk	Sideload; enable install from unknown sources

Android APKs are signed with a project release key. An app signed with one key cannot be updated by one signed with another, so keep the key — see docs/RELEASING.md.

Building

Needs CMake 3.25+, Ninja and a C++20 toolchain. Aurora and MusyX are vendored, so a normal clone is enough; Aurora fetches its pinned dependencies on the first configure.

cmake -S . -B build/native -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \
  -DAURORA_ENABLE_TESTS=OFF -DMP_BUILD_TESTS=ON
cmake --build build/native -j 4
ctest --test-dir build/native -L port --output-on-failure

On Windows, run from an MSVC developer shell and add -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-cl -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang-cl. CI builds and tests Linux (GCC 14 and Clang 18) and Windows (clang-cl); see .github/workflows/.

Android

tools/make_android_keystore.sh          # once; writes android/keystore.properties
tools/android_apk.sh :app:assembleRelease

Both files it writes name a private key and are deliberately untracked. The build needs a Rust toolchain on PATH, because the disc layer is nod cross-compiled for aarch64-linux-android. Without one the build still succeeds but links a stub that cannot open a disc — see docs/ANDROID_BUILD_PROBE.md.

Running

./build/native/metroid_prime_port "/path/to/Metroid Prime (USA) (v1.00).iso"

The disc can also be set with MP_DISC, kept beside the executable, or picked through a file dialog the first time you launch without one — the choice is remembered in the settings. The image must be GM8E01, disc 0, revision 0. If a remembered disc stops opening — the file moved, or on Android the system revoked its access grant — the port asks again rather than exiting.

On Android the first pick is copied into app storage, so later launches need no permission and there is nothing to grant again.

--version prints the source revision without starting graphics; include it in bug reports. The F1 overlay holds the rest of the settings, and the same flags are available as MP_* environment variables.

Packaging

tools/make_appimage.sh builds a self-contained AppImage and tools/make_flatpak.sh a Flatpak. Neither bundles the disc. See docs/NATIVE_PORT.md for what each one expects from the host.

Credits and licensing

This is a fork of the PrimeDecomp/prime decompilation, which the game logic is built from. Aurora (extern/aurora) and MusyX (extern/musyx) are MIT-licensed vendored snapshots, and the button prompt icons come from Kenney's Input Prompts pack (CC0), vendored under tools/prompt_icons. Their licences are kept alongside them and are copied into release packages.

LICENSE covers this project's own work — the platform layer, the build and packaging scripts, and the Android and Flatpak integration. It does not cover the game code under src/ and include/, which comes from the decompilation and remains Nintendo's. See NOTICE.

Metroid Prime is a trademark of Nintendo. This project is unaffiliated with Nintendo and Retro Studios, and ships no game data.

docs/NATIVE_PORT.md is the detailed reference: build options, every setting and environment variable, the smoke-test hooks, and the platform notes.