SwitchWaker 0.2.0

SwitchWaker runs The Wind Waker (GameCube, GZLE01 revision 0) natively on a Switch with custom firmware: the decompiled game, on Aurora. No emulation.

Now a download: nothing to build. The program holds no game data: at every start it reads what it needs from your own disc image on the SD card, and checks that the disc is the right one. You still need your own disc of the game.

Install

1. Download SwitchWaker-v0.2.0-switch.zip below and copy its switch folder to the root of the SD card.
2. Put your disc image, an uncompressed .iso of the USA disc (revision 0), next to the program as sdmc:/switch/switchwaker/GZLE01.iso.
3. Start the Homebrew Menu in title mode (hold R while starting any game) and pick SwitchWaker.

Details and troubleshooting: INSTALL.md. Building it yourself from source still works (scripts/switch/make_sd.sh, same file).

Updating from 0.1.x

• Copy the zip's switch folder over the old one: it replaces switchwaker.nro and initial_pipeline_cache.db and adds initial_dksh_cache.bin, the shaders compiled for the Switch's GPU (without it the game compiles them while you play, and some objects appear late).
• Your disc (GZLE01.iso), saves (native/user/USA), settings and the HOME-screen forwarder stay as they are: same folder, same file names.
• There is nothing to build any more, and no shader preparation at the first start.
• Optional, to free about 75 MB: the old renderer's caches are no longer used. Delete these from sdmc:/switch/switchwaker/native/user/cache/: dawn_cache.db, dawn_cache.db-journal, mesa_shader_cache.bin, mesa_shader_cache.idx, mesa_shader_cache.use. Keep the rest of the folder.

What's new since 0.1.4

• New renderer, deko3d (the Switch's native graphics library, as in SwitchWakerHD) instead of OpenGL: same picture and frame rate, about a tenth of the CPU time per frame for drawing, and the shaders come prebuilt, so the first start takes seconds instead of 8 to 10 minutes.
• The program reads the game's data from your disc at start-up, which is what lets it be published; if the disc is missing, compressed or another version, the console shows a message (English and Spanish) and the program closes.
• Fixed: a crash after taking many Picto Box photos.
• Fixed: the controller kept rumbling if the options menu was opened during a rumble.
• Fixed: a crash in the Forbidden Woods while the boomerang was in flight; and after any crash the program now closes within seconds instead of freezing with the sound still playing. (Downloads updated on 2026-10-09; if you got 0.2.0 earlier, download it again and replace switchwaker.nro.)

The OpenGL renderer is no longer in the download; it can still be built from source (scripts/switch/build_native.sh --renderer gl) for a while.

Credits, licenses and how AI was used: see the README.