Animal Crossing: 6 Open Source Clones Compared
These projects decompile different releases of the game: afe-decomp targets the Japanese GameCube 'e+' version, the animal-crossing decompilation targets the USA GameCube release, and Animal Forest targets the original Nintendo 64 game that predates the GameCube releases — none of these three produce a playable build on their own (afe-decomp and Animal Forest are marked unplayable). The PC port is a separate, semi-playable project built on top of the GameCube decompilation work, aiming to actually run the game on Windows, Linux, and macOS rather than just reconstructing its source code.
Comparison table
Availability
- Status
- —
- Platforms
- —
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 2mo ago
- Stars
- 1,468
- Contributors
- 4
- License
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- Yes
Availability
- Status
- Semi-playable
- Platforms
- GameCube
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 3mo ago
- Stars
- 1,386
- Contributors
- 21
- License
- CC0-1.0
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesAn existing copy of the Animal Crossing GameCube game is required to extract the necessary assets.
Availability
- Status
- Unplayable
- Platforms
- N64
- Play in browser
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 2mo ago
- Stars
- 297
- Contributors
- 16
- License
- CC0-1.0
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesA Nintendo 64 Animal Forest ROM is required; the project extracts assets from it to produce an identical ROM.
Availability
- Status
- Semi-playable
- Platforms
- Windows, Linux, OSX
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Sporadic
- Last updated
- 5mo ago
- Stars
- 88
- Contributors
- 20
- License
- CC0-1.0
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesWork-in-progress PC port of Animal Crossing GameCube version, requires existing copy of the game.
Availability
- Status
- —
- Platforms
- —
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 24d ago
- Stars
- 60
- Contributors
- 8
- License
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- Yes
Availability
- Status
- Unplayable
- Platforms
- GameCube
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 18d ago
- Stars
- 50
- Contributors
- 4
- License
- CC0-1.0
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesRequires an existing copy of どうぶつの森 e+ (Animal Crossing e+) for the Nintendo GameCube.
| Title | Animal Crossing Port | Animal Crossing | Animal Forest | PC port of Animal Crossing | Animal Crossing Port | afe-decomp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | — | Semi-playable | Unplayable | Semi-playable | — | Unplayable |
| Platforms | — | GameCube | N64 | Windows, Linux, OSX | — | GameCube |
| Play in browser | No | No | No | No | No | |
| Mobile | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Project health | ||||||
| Development status | Active | Active | Active | Sporadic | Active | Active |
| Last updated | 2mo ago | 3mo ago | 2mo ago | 5mo ago | 24d ago | 18d ago |
| Stars | 1,468 | 1,386 | 297 | 88 | 60 | 50 |
| Contributors | 4 | 21 | 16 | 20 | 8 | 4 |
| License | — | CC0-1.0 | CC0-1.0 | CC0-1.0 | — | CC0-1.0 |
| Compatibility | ||||||
| Requires original assets | Yes | YesAn existing copy of the Animal Crossing GameCube game is required to extract the necessary assets. | YesA Nintendo 64 Animal Forest ROM is required; the project extracts assets from it to produce an identical ROM. | YesWork-in-progress PC port of Animal Crossing GameCube version, requires existing copy of the game. | Yes | YesRequires an existing copy of どうぶつの森 e+ (Animal Crossing e+) for the Nintendo GameCube. |
| Preview | | |
Known limitations
- compatibility: The project is work-in-progress and some parts of the ROM may not be 'shiftable' yet, making modifying them currently difficult.
Frequently asked questions
Are the Animal Crossing clones on this page open source?
Yes — every clone catalogued here is an open-source project. Availability, license, and development-status details for each one are listed in the comparison table above.
What license do these Animal Crossing clones use?
Animal Crossing, Animal Forest, PC port of Animal Crossing, and afe-decomp (CC0-1.0).
Do I need to own the original Animal Crossing to play these clones?
Animal Crossing Port, Animal Crossing, Animal Forest, PC port of Animal Crossing, and 2 more require original game assets to play.
Can I play any of these Animal Crossing clones directly in a browser?
Yes — Animal Forest has a browser-playable build linked in the comparison table above, no install required.
Which Animal Crossing clone is the most actively maintained?
Animal Crossing Port, Animal Crossing, Animal Forest, Animal Crossing Port, and 1 more are currently under active development, based on recent commit activity. See the "Development status" row above for every clone's current status.
See the full write-up for each clone, or go back to Animal Crossing.