The remake of Zelda Ocarina of Time, released Thursday, November 5th exclusively on Switch 2, now boots on a PS5, but the game crashes after a few minutes. The feat, which relies on a jailbreak and a Switch 2 emulator, was made possible by recent vulnerabilities detected on Sony’s console, allowing full control of the machine.
- The Zelda Ocarina of Time remake now boots on PS5 through a jailbreak and a Switch 2 emulator.
- The game crashes after a few minutes and runs at 15 to 25 FPS, far below the Switch 2’s 60 FPS.
- The method requires a console on system version 13.60 or lower, which blocks online services.
- GTA 6 may require system version 14.10, so a console kept on 13.60 could not launch it.
The game was already playable on PC since its release. On the PS5, the work remains, according to Notebookcheck, impressive, even if the result is far from perfect. A console capable of becoming a Linux PC can, from there, host a Switch 2 emulator, software that replicates the functioning of Nintendo’s console.
A title still ‘far from playable’
On GitHub, a project contributor, Vampinity, posted two videos. The first shows Link leaving his house to enter Kokiri Forest, drowned in a thick white fog due to a display bug. The second shows the same scene with Saria and Navi. The first runs between 15 and 20 FPS, the second between 15 and 25 FPS, far from the 60 FPS of the game on Switch 2. In both cases, the emulator eventually runs out of memory and crashes after a few minutes.
Vampinity uses a modified version of EglantinePS5, a Switch 2 emulator derived from the Eden emulator. Its installation involves a jailbreak that exploits a vulnerability in the PS5’s system to access its deep layers. According to the article’s information, the vulnerability remains exploitable up to system version 13.60, but the tests were conducted on a console running version 12.40.
By his own admission, the game is ‘far from playable in its current state.’ Yet it took him a day and a night of work, through over 50 attempts and 14 test versions, to achieve this result. Vampinity, who says he is not a programmer, entrusted Claude with writing the patches and reading the error logs. ChatGPT and DeepSeek were used to verify certain points.
Constraints and a deadline
As the two consoles have different architectures, emulation remains complex. However, the progress seen on ports of Donkey Kong Bananza or Mario Kart World shows that such projects can advance quickly, according to the article.
To try the experiment, several conditions must be met. The console must not be updated beyond version 13.60, which cuts access to the PlayStation Network, thus online play and the PlayStation Store. A copy of the game is also needed: Vampinity indicates he used his own copies and keys. Downloading a ROM from the web remains illegal in France, even if you purchased the game, sold for 59.99 euros on the eShop.
The calculation could become more complicated soon. According to data from the PlayStation Store spotted by the account PlayStation Game Size, GTA 6, expected November 19th on PS5, will require system version 14.10. A console kept on 13.60 for emulation would therefore not be able to launch Rockstar’s game. Neither Sony nor Rockstar have confirmed this requirement at this stage.
