z2rs — Zelda II reconstruction (web)

Game ROM

No ROM is provided. This site does not host or distribute the game. Supply your own legally obtained Zelda II (USA) .nes dump. It is hash-gated in the tab (body CRC32 BA322865) and never leaves your browser.

Choose file…or drop it on the TV

Player

Mute

sound: off

Local co-op (2 players on this keyboard)

Status

Loading wasm…

Screen

Shape CRT scanlines

Fill left edge Fill right edge Objects in margins Enemies in the margins

With enemies in the margins on, overworld encounters, side-view enemies and townsfolk spawn out past the widescreen margins instead of popping in at the original screen edge (this changes gameplay). Off, the margins are scenery only. Projectiles still appear at the original edge, and dialogue boxes do not extend into the margins. Player 2 exists in side-view areas only.

HD graphics pack

Pack folder… Scale

no pack: original art at 1×.

About packs

Unzip the pack first, then pick the folder that contains pack.json (make one with cargo xtask hdpack template --out DIR --scale 2). The PNG sheets are decoded in wasm — nothing is uploaded. Large scales cost frame time and memory: 2× at 256 wide is about 0.56 ms per frame, 4× widescreen about 1.9 ms plus ~1 MiB of decoded sheet per CHR page. A pack that fails to load is reported here and the game keeps playing with the original art.

Saves

Slot

Import…

Snapshots and SRAM stay in this browser (IndexedDB). Export to keep a copy.

Online co-op (2 players)

Room

netplay: checking support…

Connection settings

Mode Delay

Signal

ICE

Randomizer

Seed

Flags

Leave both empty to play the original game. Seed and flags are applied when the ROM is loaded (drop it again after changing them); build a flag string with the desktop launcher's Randomizer tab. Netplay partners need the same seed and flags.

Movie replay

Load .fm2…

Plays an FCEUX movie back through the game, frame for frame.

Play on your computer

Desktop version: Windows, macOS, Linux. Fullscreen, bigger windows, HD packs.

Open the latest release and download the file for your system:

Windows: the file ending in x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip
Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer): aarch64-apple-darwin.zip
Mac with an Intel chip: x86_64-apple-darwin.zip
Linux: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz

Unzip it and open the launcher: z2rs-launcher.exe on Windows, z2rs.app on macOS, z2rs-launcher on Linux.

Press Browse… and choose your own Zelda II (USA) .nes file. No ROM comes with the download.

Pick your settings and press Play. The launcher remembers them for next time.

The first time you open it

The builds are not code signed yet, so your system asks before running them.

Windows: if SmartScreen appears, click More info, then Run anyway.

macOS: right-click z2rs.app and choose Open. On newer macOS, open System Settings, Privacy & Security, and click Open Anyway. If macOS says the app is damaged, run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine z2rs.app in Terminal.

Linux: if it will not start, run chmod +x z2rs z2rs-launcher. The Browse buttons need the xdg-desktop-portal service, which most desktops already have.

What the launcher sets up

Window size (1× to 6×) and fullscreen. While playing, F11 or Alt+Enter switches fullscreen, and Esc leaves fullscreen (in a window, Esc quits).

Widescreen: off, 16:10, 16:9 or 21:9 ultrawide, and whether enemies use the wider screen.

HD graphics pack: press Open packs folder, unzip the pack into it, then press Refresh and choose it from the list. Custom folder… uses a pack from anywhere else.

Players: single player, local co-op on one computer (player 2 uses WASD, G=A, F=B, T=Start, R=Select, or the second gamepad), or online co-op. For online play one player hosts and the other joins with the same room name, the same ROM and the same widescreen settings.

Other keys in the desktop version

Tab fast-forward, F5 save state, F7 load state, F6 or 1–0 pick a save slot, P pause. You can also drop a .nes file onto the game window, and the game remembers it. Each download includes HOW-TO-PLAY.txt with the full list.