Getting Started

Aidyn ReChronicled is Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage (Nintendo 64, 2001) rebuilt as a native PC program. The game's own code was translated into C, so it plays exactly as it did on the console. On top of that it runs at high resolution, in widescreen and at high frame rates, with redrawn menus and textures.

What you need

• Your own dump of the North American 1.0 cartridge (.z64). The game itself isn't in the download, and the port checks the dump before it will run it.
• Optionally, the same dump with the community Aidyn Patch or Aidyn Plus applied (each player applies them to their own dump; the port checks the result).
• A graphics card with Vulkan, and an Xbox-style controller (the keyboard works too).

The first start

Put your dump in the ROMs folder of the download (any file name; the patched versions too, if you have them) and start the game: on Linux from the app menu after install.sh, or game/aidyn-rechronicled.sh; on Windows, AidynReChronicled.exe. The game recognises each dump by its contents, copies it into its data folder and remembers it. With no dump there, the first start asks for one in a file dialog (or start the game with --rom /path/to/aidyn-chronicles.z64). It goes straight to the title screen. Press ≡ (Menu) or Enter to begin.

Controls

The N64 controller's buttons are spread over an Xbox controller and the keyboard. The right stick, which the N64 didn't have, turns the camera; with a keyboard, the mouse does (its middle button puts the camera back behind the party). The keys below are the defaults: Controls on the title screen's menu, or the last row of the pause menu's ReChronicled page, changes any key or mouse button.

Trek Mode

Travelling the realm, in towns and in the wild.

Combat Mode

Choosing an action

Choosing a target

Pause Menu

To cast a spell from a scroll, or to drink a potion outside combat, open the inventory page and choose the item there.

Main Menu

Continue

Carry on from your newest save, whichever kind it is: a quicksave, an autosave or one made with Save Game. Shown once there is one.

New Game

Start a new adventure.

Load Game

Carry on from a save (see Saving and Loading).

Options

Sound and graphics settings.

Display

Widescreen, textures, VSync, window, frame rate, FPS counter, HUD at the screen edges, draw distance, anti-aliasing and supersampling: the same page as the pause menu's Display, here before you start a game.

Controls

The keyboard and mouse controls, each changeable.

Achievements

Your achievements in each version of the game.

Updates

Whether a newer version is out, what's new in it, and Update: only the files that changed are downloaded, then put in when you choose Restart now (or the next time you start). Undo the last update goes back. Your saves and settings aren't touched. The game looks at every start (a line at the top of the title screen tells you); Check at start turns that off, and Test builds too also offers test builds.

Quit Game

Close the game.

B on this menu goes back to the title screen.

Options

Audio

Push the stick left or right to turn the sound effects and the music down or up.

Rename Character

Give Alaron a new name (from the pause menu's Options).

Playing the Game

Choose New Game on the main menu and name the hero. His name is Alaron unless you change it: press ≡ to keep it, or pick letters with the stick or D-pad and A (B deletes a letter). Choose OK to accept the name, or the X to go back to the main menu unchanged.

Saving and Loading

Your progress is kept on a Controller Pak, the N64's memory card. Save from the pause menu whenever you like; load from the main menu or the pause menu, during a fight too.

Save Game

• Save: choose a save with the stick left and right and press A. Saving over an old game replaces it.
• Delete: choose a save and press A to remove it from the pak.
• Exit: back to the pause menu.

Load Game

• Load: choose a save with the stick left and right and press A.
• Delete and Exit work as above.

Quicksaves and Autosaves

Press LB (Q) while walking about to quicksave; "Quicksaved" shows at the top of the screen. During a fight, a conversation or a scene there is nothing to save, and it says so. The game also saves by itself when you arrive in another area (through a door, into a town) and after every ten minutes of walking about ("Autosaved"), keeping the last two of these. Quick Load on the pause menu (during a fight too) loads the newest quicksave or autosave, and Continue on the main menu your newest save of any kind.

The Display

The game has two modes. Trek Mode is travel: walking between towns, exploring, talking. When enemies attack you switch to Combat Mode.

Alaron

Alaron stands for the whole party while it travels.

Sun dial

The sun and moon circle a twelve-hour dial as the day passes. The roads are dangerous after dark.

Compass

The direction you face is lit; the others are shaded.

The party

Press B to show everyone's portraits along the bottom.

Dialogue

Walk up to a friendly character and press A to talk. The two of you take turns until the conversation is over. When Alaron has several things he could say, pick one with the stick and press A. Once a topic is finished new questions may appear, but there is no going back to an earlier list, so choose with care.

Buying and Selling

Talk to a merchant with A to buy, sell, train or leave. Before buying, press Y to see whether the price is fair. On the trading page, move the stick left and right to switch between Buy and Sell, and up and down to choose an item. Your gold is shown at the top. Under Buy you see what an item costs; under Sell, what you would be paid for it.

Not every merchant trains. See After Combat for how characters improve.

Combat

When enemies attack, the whole party appears on a battlefield facing them. Fights are turn-based: each character moves and acts in turn, and how far they can move depends on their stats. A heavily armoured knight is slow but hits hard face to face. A thief darts around a slower enemy to strike from behind. A spellcaster with many spells can catch enemies in the open. High ground gives a bonus, and a bow strikes from a distance.

Turn-Based Attacks

On a character's turn, move them with the stick and press A to attack. Spellcasters can cast with X instead. A character who can't attack ends the turn with LT or A.

The Battlefield

The character in play

Your party is lined up along one side of the screen; the character whose turn it is stands in the middle.

Enemies

Each enemy in the fight is shown along the other side.

Health bars

Inside each portrait's frame, a bar shows hit points. It shrinks and changes colour as the character is hurt; when it is gone the character falls. A thin blue bar under it shows stamina, which spells and skills use up. Enemies have both bars too. A blue zZ on a portrait means that fighter is out of stamina: they take more damage, hit more weakly and can't cast until they rest.

Turn order

Across the top: who acts in this round, in order, then the next round.

Messages

The bottom of the screen says whose turn it is and whether an attack hit or missed. The combat log at the bottom left keeps the last few.

Spells and items

Hold X (spells and skills such as Lay On Hands) or Y (items) and move the stick up and down to choose; let go and press A to use it. While one is highlighted, what it does shows beside the list, with what it takes from the pack (an ingredient, a herb) and the stamina it costs against what is left (a spell gets cheaper as its rank rises).

After Combat

Level Up

After a victory the Level Up page lets you spend experience on stats, skills and spells: choose one and press A. Move up and down to see the XP Cost of each next step; it can't be bought when the cost is higher than your XP Remaining. More victories bring more experience. ≡ or B closes the page. See Player Stats.

Treasure

Next comes the treasure the enemies dropped. Highlight an item and press A to take it; you can also drop things you carry to make room. The gold you won is shown at the bottom. ≡ or B returns to the journey.

Magic

A character who knows spells can cast them in battle. On their turn, hold X to list their spells, choose one with the stick and let go. Then press A to start casting. Every spell uses up stamina, and most also use up an ingredient: spice , herb or gemstone .

Attack Spells

Choose a damaging spell, steer the cursor onto the enemy you want with the stick and press A.

Spells for the Party

To heal, protect or strengthen, choose the spell and, if it is for one character, highlight them and press A. A spell for several characters shows a large circle instead: everyone inside it is affected.

Schools and Aspects

Every spell belongs to a school: Elemental , Naming , Necromancy , Star or neutral. Most are also Solar or Lunar . Characters have an aspect too. An aspected spell is harder to resist when the caster's aspect differs from the target's, and easier when they are the same.

Learning a spell, and raising its rank, costs experience and needs enough skill in Wizard. Every spell in the game is in the Spell List.

Pausing the Game

Press ≡ at any time to pause. B or ≡ returns to the game. Flick the right stick right to turn the scroll to the next page: the inventory, then the calendar; left turns it back.

Pause Menu

Load Game

Load a save from the Controller Pak (during a fight too).

Quick Load

Load the newest quicksave or autosave. Shown once there is one.

Save Game

Save your progress at any time.

Options

Sound, graphics and renaming Alaron (see Options).

Theater

Watch the story scenes you have already seen.

Display

How the picture is drawn, changed while you play (see PC Settings): widescreen or the N64's 4:3, all the new textures on or off (off: as the N64 drew it), vsync, a window or borderless full screen, an FPS counter, the HUD at the screen edges, the draw distance and the anti-aliasing (Off, Low, Medium, High).

ReChronicled

This edition's own features, changed while you play: the sound (Enhanced: louder and a little clearer; or Original, as the game made it), the music's instruments (Restored or Original), the turn order, the walk speed, the combat speed and enemy turns, the controls card, the other button prompts, the combat log, the smooth walk cycles and the right-stick camera; and Report a problem (see Reporting a Problem). On both pages A or left / right changes the highlighted one, B goes back. Turning the textures back on takes a few seconds.

Credits

The people who made the game.

Help

Hints and tips, with a ReChronicled topic for what this edition adds.

Quit to Title

End the game and go back to the title screen. It asks first (choose it again to quit): anything not saved is lost.

In a fight the list is Load Game, Quick Load, Options, Flee (when the party can run), Display, ReChronicled and Quit to Title.

Inventory

The party

Everyone's portraits are at the top left. The selected character's is the largest, with their name above it. LT and RT move through the party.

Hit Points

A healthy character has plenty. One who is low needs rest and a healing potion or two. The rope shows what is left, and beside Level and Gold the three parts the hit points are made of: END (Endurance), STA (Stamina) and VIG (vigour: bonus hit points equal to the character's level), each as what is left of it and its full amount.

Level

Experience raises a character's level; the higher it is, the stronger they are.

Gold

The gold the whole party carries.

Inventory, Spells, Character

The party's items, with an icon beside anything a character is using, and a portrait beside what each wears. LB and RB change the tab (the kinds of item, the schools of magic); the D-pad left and right moves between the three lists, and the right stick turns the scroll's pages. Y changes the inventory's order and X switches Details on, which shows what the highlighted item is, with what the character wears now beside its numbers. The Character page holds the six stats and the skills together (see Player Stats).

Equipment

The figure at the bottom left shows what the character wears and carries, one slot for each place: head, neck, body, back, waist, fingers, hands and feet.

Calendar

Map

The land seen from above.

Calendar

Today is marked with a square. The phases of the moon are shown too.

Camp

Rest the party (see Camping).

Journal

Alaron's journal keeps track of side quests and what he has done.

Camping

Camping lets the party rest and win back hit points and anything else that recovers with time. Pause with ≡, turn to the calendar page with RB, choose Camp and press A.

Monsters can find a camp at night. A party member with a high Ranger skill makes an ambush much less likely.

Player Stats

Characters learn from every battle. Each defeated enemy brings experience, which buys higher stats and skills (on the Level Up page after a fight). There are six stats. Skills are learned and trained with masters and teachers in towns and villages.

Intelligence

Strengthens a mage's spells and a warrior's ranged attacks.

Willpower

Resistance to enemy magic.

Dexterity

Quickness: extra attacks, a better chance to dodge, and more ground covered in battle.

Endurance

Wounds that can kill come off Endurance: when it reaches zero, death is close. Raising it also adds to a character's hit points.

Strength

Harder blows, and a better chance to hit.

Stamina

Used up by casting spells, healing, disarming traps, picking locks and making armour and potions. Each needs enough stamina left: without it the character is too tired and nothing is spent (it never comes off Endurance). Since stamina is part of the hit points, using it lowers them, and a character with none left takes more damage and hits more weakly in a fight, so rest to keep it up.

Hit points are Endurance, Stamina and vigour (bonus points equal to the level: VIG on the inventory page) added together. A blow takes vigour first, then Stamina, then Endurance; healing gives back Endurance first, then Stamina, then vigour.

Skills

Alchemist	Diplomat	Healer
Loremaster	Mechanic	Merchant
Ranger	Stealth	Thief
Troubadour	Warrior	Wizard

A few to remember: Ranger keeps camps safe, Thief opens locks and disarms traps, and Wizard decides which spells a character can learn.

Weapons & Items

Alaron will find things to use, wear and sell everywhere he goes.

Weapons

Swords, hafted weapons, pole arms, thrown weapons and missile weapons, from shops or from the field after a battle. A fast weapon can beat a heavy one, because quick attacks hit more often. Give each character weapons that suit their skills.

Armour

Protection against enemy blows. Equip the best you can for everyone, but heavy armour slows quick characters down.

Rings

Change a character's protection, spellcasting or fighting ability.

Potions

Healing and curing potions save lives deep in the forest. Remember them in combat. Each kind of potion has its own colour (Healing red, Antidote green, Fire Flask orange...).

Scrolls

Spells written down. Equip a scroll and its spell can be cast in battle with X; use it from the inventory page to learn the spell for good. Scrolls and wands take the colour of their spell's school: Elemental amber, Naming green, Necromancy violet, Star blue, Chaos red.

Treasure Chests

Beaten enemies drop items, and chests are hidden all over the realm, usually off the beaten path. They hold anything from gold to armour and weapons. Press A to open one. If it is trapped you are asked whether to disarm the trap; fail, and the whole party is hurt when the chest opens. A locked chest needs a party member to pick the lock. Without enough Thief skill, a chest stays shut.

Send the party member with the best Thief skill to open chests.

Characters

Alaron

A young squire with a quick temper, orphaned as a baby and raised at the King's court. He is training to be a knight, if he can keep out of trouble. He has no idea that his life is about to change for good.

Brenna

Orphaned young, Brenna looked after herself until the King took her in. She is a gifted thief (never say so to her face) and Alaron's oldest friend, though the two argue all the time.

Abrecan

Captain of the King's guard and a knight through and through, sworn to honour and duty. Under the gruff manner he worries that Alaron will never live up to his promise. Nobody handles a weapon better.

Rheda

One of the youngest wizards in the kingdom and Alaron's teacher in magic. Her passion runs away with her at times; above all she wants to cure her friend Niesen of a necromancer's curse.

Godric

The castle alchemist: brilliant, scatterbrained, and dangerous to stand next to while he works. Nobody knows more about herbs and potions.

Becan

A knight who once saved the King's life in battle and then turned his back on war, to live alone as a tracker and woodsman. He wants to help Alaron, but going back to the fighting troubles him.

Arturo

A walking fortress in armour with not much going on inside. All he wants is to be a knight, and he will do anything to become one. A loyal friend, even if his idea of tactics needs work.

Keelin

A beautiful thief who gets people what they want, for a price. Now she wants something for herself: Alaron. Useful, and sometimes more trouble than she is worth.

Niesen

Rheda's friend from the Wizards' School in Talewok, cursed by a necromancer to turn slowly undead. He joins Alaron looking for a cure, and his fate turns out to be bound up with Alaron's own.

Donovan

A swaggering duelist who has never heard of surrender or caution. His sword arm may be as good as he says, but not every danger ahead can be fought with a blade.

Baird

Half poet, half barbarian, and the hero of his own epic, at least in his own mind. He bursts into verse at the worst moments, but he is very good to have around in a fight.

Dougal

A travelling troubadour who fights and casts spells as well as he sings. Friendly to everyone, and strangely quiet about where he comes from.

Sholeh

One of the Jundar, a mysterious people who look down on humans, though Sholeh finds them oddly interesting. A Star mage and seasoned warrior whose loyalty is hard to read.

Spell List

Every spell in the game, read from your copy of it. Rank is the Wizard skill needed to learn the spell; ST is the stamina each casting uses; Dmg is its base damage. Rank n of a spell costs its XP figure × n² experience. The descriptions follow the original booklet; spells it left out are marked with a dash.

Aidyn Patch

Aidyn Patch is a community patch for the 1.0 cartridge by u/halibabica (r/Aidyn). It rebalances the game: potion recipes and prices, how fast skills and weapons gain experience, and much of the item, spell and enemy data. It changes data only, not the game's code, so the PC version runs it as it is.

Installing and switching

• Apply the patch to your own 1.0 dump and put the patched file in the ROMs folder (or start the game once with --rom and the patched file). It is checked and kept beside the original. The same goes for Aidyn Plus, halibabica's bigger rebalance (new weapon skills and items, every spell learnable, elements reworked; its own FAQ explains it).
• The Action Edition mod (faster combat, a rebalanced economy and items) is a whole ROM rather than a patch: put it in the ROMs folder as it is.
• On the title screen the bottom left names the version you are playing, and under it Versions with Y (I). Y opens the list: Original, Aidyn Patch, Aidyn Plus and Action Edition. Up and Down choose, A plays the chosen one (the game restarts in that version and remembers the choice), B goes back. One you haven't added says not found. From the menu (New Game, Load Game, Options), B goes back to the title.
• --original, --patch, --plus or --action on the command line picks a version for one run. The launchers "Aidyn ReChronicled", "(Aidyn Patch)", "(Aidyn Plus)" and "(Action Edition)" do the same.
• Each version has its own Controller Pak (aidyn.mpk, aidyn-patch.mpk, aidyn-plus.mpk). The original's and Aidyn Patch's saves can be carried across by copying one pak over the other; Aidyn Plus has other spells and items, so its saves and theirs don't mix. The game remembers which version made each save it writes and won't load one from another version (it says which).

ReChronicled

What is new in this edition, compared with playing the cartridge:

Sharp at any resolution

The game is drawn at 1080 lines or more instead of the N64's 240, with anti-aliasing (supersampling and MSAA together: Off, Low, Medium or High on the Display page).

Widescreen

16:9, 21:9 or any width. The 3D view widens, and the HUD moves to the screen edges, walking and in combat. The pause menu and shops stay 4:3, the shape they were made for.

Smooth motion

The game itself runs at 60 frames a second (the N64 managed 15 to 20). Above that, frames are drawn in between, up to your display's refresh rate (at most 240 by default). Walking and running no longer stop for a moment every stride.

Newly painted art

Every portrait, an icon of its own for every item (each potion its own colour, scrolls and wands by their spell's school), 2,113 of the 2,115 world textures, the HUD, the map page's land and the pause scroll are painted anew. The text is redrawn in a clean font and the button prompts show Xbox buttons. What isn't repainted yet is upscaled from the game's own pictures. F2 shows what was there before.

Restored sound

The music and sounds as loud as other games' (the game played very softly) and a little clearer, and the music's instruments restored: their lost treble rebuilt and the 8-bit hiss gone. The same music, each switchable back to the original on the ReChronicled page.

Clearer combat

The turn order across the top, a combat log, portraits framed with their hit points and stamina, what a spell, skill or potion does shown while you choose it, and faster turns if you like (see Combat).

Further draw distance

Outdoors, more of the land around you is loaded and drawn, and trees and other objects show from further away.

A free camera

The right stick turns the camera around the party and tilts it, both at the same speed; either direction can be inverted.

Fast-forward

Click the left stick (or hold Tab) and everything runs three times faster: long walks, fights, scenes. Two chevrons at the top right show it is on. Enemy turns in combat run twice as fast on their own (Enemy turns on the ReChronicled page).

Quicksaves and autosaves

LB quicksaves while you walk about, the game saves by itself on arriving somewhere new and every ten minutes, and Continue on the main menu picks up where you left off (see Quicksaves and Autosaves). Load Game and Quick Load work during a fight too, and Quit to Title ends a game without closing the program.

Walk speed

The party walks and runs faster in the field: 1.5 times by default, from the original pace up to twice it, on the ReChronicled page. Only the walk is quicker: the day, the monsters and fights keep their pace.

Save backups

The last 20 states of your Controller Pak are kept (see Saving and Loading).

Problem reports

One file with what's needed to look into a problem (see Reporting a Problem).

Straight to the title

The start-up logos are skipped.

Aidyn Patch and Aidyn Plus on the title screen

See Aidyn Patch.

Reporting a Problem

If something goes wrong, a problem report helps it get fixed: one .zip with the game's logs, your settings and your saves (nothing from the game's ROM).

• If the game crashes, it writes one on its own and says where before it closes.
• If it freezes, or you have to close it by force, it writes one the next time it starts, and says so at the top of the screen. It also keeps notes on the freeze itself (what the game was doing when it stopped).
• For anything else (a glitch, a wrong picture, something stuck), pause as close as you can to it and choose Report a problem at the bottom of the ReChronicled page. "Report saved in the reports folder" shows at the top; this one also keeps a picture of the screen and a save of that moment.

Reports are in reports/ in the data folder (~/.local/share/AidynReChronicled/reports, or %APPDATA%\AidynReChronicled\reports on Windows; on a Steam Deck or an Ally, switch to Desktop Mode to reach it), the newest ten kept. Send the newest with a few words on what you were doing and what went wrong. Only your home folder's name is left out of them.

PC Settings

settings.json in the data folder holds the PC's own settings. It is written with the defaults the first time the game runs; edit it while the game is closed. The switches marked * can also be changed in the game, from the pause menu's Display and ReChronicled pages, which save them here.

About This Manual

Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage © 2001 THQ Inc., developed by H2O Entertainment Corporation. THQ, H2O and Nintendo 64 are trademarks of their owners. Aidyn ReChronicled is an unofficial fan project, not connected with or endorsed by them. The game itself isn't part of it: you supply your own copy. Only the HD upscale packs and the restored instrument samples are made from the game's own pictures and sounds.

This manual was written for the PC edition. Its chapters follow the game's original instruction booklet, in new words. The spell list, portraits, icons and screenshots are taken from your own copy of the game each time the manual is built.

Aidyn Patch is by u/halibabica. The decompilation project by blackgamma7 made this port possible.

The PC edition and this manual were made with AI assistance (Claude Code). Fonts: Uncial Antiqua and Marcellus SC (Astigmatic) and Alegreya Sans (Huerta Tipográfica), under the SIL Open Font License.