MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp

Public alpha - bugs are expected. This is an early Metroid Prime Hunters recompilation release built on ndsrecomp. It is not a finished port. Expect rough edges, crashes, hangs, rendering or audio issues, input quirks, networking failures, and possible desyncs. Testing, issues, and PRs are welcome.

Early access multiplayer support. Wiimmfi multiplayer is tentative, but early testing has successfully reached an in-game match between two different players. Treat online play as experimental while broader stability and desync behavior are still being tested.

MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp runs the USA revision-0 release of Metroid Prime Hunters as a native recompilation target. You provide your own legally obtained ROM. No Nintendo ROM, BIOS, firmware, save data, or generated ROM-derived source is distributed.

Gameplay Preview

Click the image to watch the gameplay preview on YouTube.

Current Release

Latest release: v0.5.0-alpha.

Downloads:

• Windows: MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp-windows-x64-v0.5.0.zip
• Linux: MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp-linux-v0.5.0-x86_64.AppImage

This is the first release line in the ndsrecomp ecosystem and it is still very early. Campaign entry, widescreen output, Prime-style controls, gamepad support, and Wiimmfi lobby connectivity have all seen active bring-up, but this should still be treated as an alpha test build rather than a polished game release.

New in v0.5.0: Widescreen has been overhauled. The launcher now exposes a Widescreen display option with Dynamic as the default plus fixed 4:3, 5:3, 2:1, and 21:9 modes. Fixed modes preserve their selected aspect ratio in fullscreen, so they pillarbox or letterbox instead of stretching to the monitor. The runner also rejects unsupported fixed widths up front rather than closing after launch.

Also new since v0.4.13: Diagnostics now writes to a visible diagnostics folder next to MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp.exe / the AppImage instead of the hidden per-user settings folder.

Also new since v0.4.12: Settings -> Display now exposes the 3D renderer choice as Auto, OpenGL, or Software. OpenGL is the default so users do not silently fall back to Software, while Software remains available for debugging older GPU or driver-specific rendering issues.

Also new since v0.4.11: the v0.4.10 player-submitted multiplayer/performance coverage is still promoted into compiled banks, and the build pins ndsrecomp's MPH adventure culling and spawn-boundary fixes. Alpha diagnostics remain default-on, so affected testers can send back coverage, performance, and dispatch-miss logs from the same build.

Also new since v0.4.9: some low-polygon map/overworld/tutorial transition views are centered to avoid showing split widened side content, while normal gameplay keeps adaptive widescreen.

Also new since v0.4.8: alpha diagnostics are controlled by a default-on Diagnostics option on the Mods page. When enabled, the launcher keeps coverage, performance, and dispatch-miss logs together in its diagnostics folder so testers can attach them to bug reports. Disable Diagnostics if you do not want those files generated.

This release also keeps the v0.4.7 Prime Controls focus fix, the v0.4.5 Linux AppImage ROM picker fallback, the v0.4.4 Steam Deck / older-glibc AppImage baseline, the v0.4.3 launcher fullscreen/layout forwarding and HD renderer fixes, the v0.4.2 public Tab turbo default-off fix, and the v0.4.1 Nintendo WFC reconnect and same-machine local Multi-Card runtime-bank fixes. The v0.4.0 HD Rendering mod is still available on the Mods page: it raises the 3D engine above one sample per DS pixel (up to 4x) and filters decoded textures, while the 2D layers stay native. It is off by default; enable it under Mods and pick the internal resolution and texture upscaling that suit your GPU.

Quick Start

Windows:

1. Download and fully extract the v0.5.0-alpha Windows ZIP.
2. Put your own Metroid Prime Hunters USA revision-0 .nds ROM next to MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp.exe.
3. Run MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp.exe and press Play.

Linux:

1. Download the v0.5.0-alpha AppImage.
2. Put your own Metroid Prime Hunters USA revision-0 .nds ROM next to the AppImage.
3. Run the AppImage.

The current release can use the built-in FreeBIOS + generated firmware path, so retail DS BIOS and firmware dumps are not required for the default no-dump startup path. If you choose to use your own BIOS/firmware dumps, they must be from hardware you own and must match the hashes listed in the release's bios/README.txt.

Required ROM

Only this ROM revision is supported:

field	value
title	MP HUNTERS
game code	AMHE
region/revision	USA revision 0
size	64 MiB
SHA-1	90164d1ac127ee5f9815ea4ae7de798c7b5fc629
SHA-256	7d0a98ff98e1b7c985d1f3d89b01730af1b2115061a4dfea847612d217a8b855

If your ROM does not match, the launcher/runner should reject it.

What Works

• Boots the supported ROM through the ndsrecomp runner.
• Reaches Metroid Prime Hunters gameplay in tested routes.
• Includes Dynamic widescreen plus fixed 4:3, 5:3, 2:1, and 21:9 upper-screen display modes.
• Includes Prime-style keyboard and mouse controls.
• Includes full remappable gamepad bindings in the launcher.
• Supports mouse-driven touchscreen input.
• Can authenticate through Wiimmfi and reach a Friends and Rivals lobby in validated flows.
• Can reconnect to Nintendo WFC more than once in one launch in the validated reconnect probe.
• Supports same-machine local Multi-Card play in validated two-instance sessions.

Known Limits

• This is an alpha. Bugs, crashes, hangs, graphical issues, audio issues, and gameplay problems are expected.
• Gameplay coverage is incomplete. Do not assume the campaign is fully validated from start to finish.
• Widescreen is still being audited. Some scenes, effects, HUD placement, movies, fades, or screen-routing behavior may be wrong.
• Online play is experimental. Early Wiimmfi testing has successfully reached an in-game match between two different players, but no match is guaranteed to connect, stay connected, or avoid desync. See "Online Play" below.
• Local wireless play is experimental and has only been validated between two instances on one machine.
• Save behavior and settings are still part of early release testing. Keep backups of anything you care about.

Controls

Prime Controls are enabled by default.

Keyboard and mouse defaults:

• WASD: move
• Mouse: aim
• Mouse 1 / Mouse 2: fire / scan-fire
• Space: jump
• Left Ctrl: morph ball
• Left Shift: boost / map zoom
• C: scan visor
• F: OK
• Q / E: scan-message arrows
• V: menu
• Mouse 4: missiles
• Mouse 5: beam
• 1 through 6: subweapons
• Tab: virtual stylus

Gamepad defaults:

• Left stick: move and menu D-pad
• Right stick: aim
• RT / LT: shoot / scan-fire
• A: jump
• B: morph ball
• X: missile
• Y: UI OK
• LB / RB: beam / boost or zoom
• R3: scan visor
• D-pad left/right: scan-message arrows
• Start: menu

Keyboard, mouse, and gamepad bindings are editable from the launcher Mods page.

Online Play

Nintendo WFC / Wiimmfi support is experimental, but it does work: the game authenticates against the live Wiimmfi servers over the real internet, and a complete online match has been played end to end — two consoles in one Friends and Rivals game, both players in the arena and visibly moving, with player state streaming between them for the duration of the match.

Also validated: the Wi-Fi connection test passes repeatedly, the connection is preconfigured out of the box (the generated firmware already carries the access point, so the Nintendo WFC setup menu is not required before playing online), and friends added to your roster persist across restarts.

What is not yet validated: playing against someone on a different machine. The match above was two instances on one computer. Because they shared a public IP address, the DS's own matchmaking took its same-network shortcut and never performed NAT negotiation — the step real internet play between two households depends on. Expect remote play to need more work.

The launcher keeps the console firmware profile in %APPDATA%\MetroidPrimeHuntersRecomp. Wi-Fi settings, console/game-card pairing, and WFC updates survive both the in-game system shutdown flow and a normal window close. Confirming the WFC settings shutdown prompt closes the application automatically.

Note that your console identity (in %APPDATA%) and your cartridge save (kept next to the ROM) form a matched pair: Nintendo WFC ties a game card to a console. If you move or delete one without the other, the game will report that the WFC ID from the Nintendo DS and the Game Card do not match. Keep them together, or back them up together.

The v0.4.9 patch keeps the v0.4.2 public Tab turbo default disabled, and also includes launcher fullscreen/layout argument forwarding plus several compute renderer HD/Intel compatibility paths from v0.4.3. The v0.4.1 reconnect fix remains included: the validated reconnect probe reaches Nintendo WFC three times in one run without error 52200. Online play remains experimental beyond that and may still disconnect or desync.

The Wi-Fi implementation is built on melonDS's Wi-Fi work in the shared ndsrecomp runner. Full credit to the melonDS team for the Wi-Fi controller, emulated access point, and network backend foundation.

Credits

• melonDS: Wi-Fi implementation foundation used by the shared ndsrecomp runner.
• melonPrimeDS: reference for the Prime-style keyboard/mouse controls and touchscreen-helper behavior.
• MphRead by NoneGiven: MIT-licensed Metroid Prime Hunters file-format, room/entity/collision, and behavior reference. See docs/MPHREAD_REFERENCE_AUDIT.md for how this project uses it as a semantic reference without treating it as a DS GPU pixel oracle.

See the ndsrecomp THIRD_PARTY_ATTRIBUTION.md for provenance and licensing details for shared runtime components.

Developers

This README is intentionally player-facing. Development notes, validation history, and bring-up details live in docs/BRINGUP.md.

The original code in this repository is MIT licensed. Metroid Prime Hunters, Nintendo DS firmware/BIOS images, ROMs, saves, and all derived game data remain the property of their respective copyright holders and are not distributed.

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