Solarus

About

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a 1991 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the third entry in the Zelda series. Solarus is a free, open-source 2D game engine written in C++ that runs games scripted in Lua, designed with 16-bit classic action-RPGs like A Link to the Past in mind. It includes a launcher for playing Solarus-made games and an editor for creating them, and is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

How it differs from the original

Unlike a direct clone, Solarus is a general-purpose engine rather than a specific game — it ships with no built-in game of its own; users create their own games and assets using the provided editor and Lua scripting tools.

Getting started

Download the Solarus Launcher to play games made with the engine, or use the Solarus Editor to build your own; video and text tutorials plus documentation are available on the official website.

Media

Licensing & legal

• Engine code is licensed GPLv3; resources made for Solarus are separately licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0/4.0.