Harbor Masters, the team of modders and developers behind one of the most popular reverse-engineered PC ports of retro games, the Ocarina of Time Ship of Harkinian port, has been accused by some of using AI-powered tools to create, code and modify their various ports of classic Nintendo games. While the team confirmed that some of its members use AI in various ways, they rejected claims that their ports are vibration or AI coded, stating that every piece of code is vetted by experienced and knowledgeable humans. But some fans weren’t happy with the responses they were hearing, leading to drama and a lot of shouting online. Online conversations between retro game fans and players about using AI tools like Claude from Harbor Masters have been floating around for at least a few days. However, on September 16, things quickly accelerated when a post on the PC Gaming Wiki claiming to show evidence that thousands of lines of code across multiple ports of the computer, including its popular Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time port, were created with the use of some sort of AI wizard or tool, went viral on social media. This post was shared on ResetEra, which led to a post by Bluesky about that thread going viral there. In the PC Gaming Wiki post, a user named “Slopiskillingretrogaming” claimed to have found multiple pieces of evidence showing that Harbor Masters ports were filled with AI-generated code and assets. “Harbour Masters has moved on to using ridiculous amounts of AI generated code and even some assets recently, and their projects arguably no longer meet the requirements of the PC gaming wiki,” the user posted. “Its runtime component called libultraship has especially broken down, but it is also used in individual ports.” This user also claimed that the team was trying to “hide” their use of AI by removing co-author credits. In the post, the user linked to many, many different code snippets that he claims show AI tools were used, including some that actually reference Claude directly. The PC Gaming Wiki post also claims that the recent code changes show signs of AI tools being used and supposedly all come from “core maintainers of individual ports” and not random coders trying to help or troll. The PC Gaming Wiki post also claims that some images the team used were also AI-generated. The PC Gaming Wiki post spread quickly among retro gaming fans and the reactions were harsh. People, many of whom have played some of the team’s ports over the years, were upset that Harbor Masters had started using AI tools without properly disclosing it. And some of these angry and frustrated people logged onto the team’s official Discord server to ask questions and yell. Harbor Masters Respond to AI Accusations Reading through the team’s official Discord server, it is immediately clear that they were overwhelmed and caught off guard by the PC Gaming Wiki post and the reaction to it. Many Harbor Masters members responded harshly to the post, calling it “total lies” and “highly false.” Strong evidence listed in the viral post claims that millions of lines of code were created using AI. However, developer Malkierian said that was not the case. Instead, a large number of functions were “converted using a script developed with the help of AI and then tested for parity.” But this and other responses from different team members made it clear that Harbor Masters does indeed use AI tools as part of its workflow and development process. And it’s clear from the developers’ responses that not only is AI being used to develop their N64 PC ports, but the team members have been using it for years. “And that’s the flip side of ‘any use of AI’ = ‘waste,'” developer Briaguya responded to a fan upset by the team’s use of AI. “People saw that Harbor Master projects were built by passionate developers in a simple way, and assumed that meant that none of the developers had talked to ChatGPT about a difficult problem or used GitHub Copilot during the free trial period or experimented with agent coding harnesses as they became available. The quality of the experience didn’t feel like a failure.” That same developer claimed that the team never verified whether any proposed code changes were created using AI tools; instead, they simply made sure to “thoroughly review” each piece of code to make sure it worked and was good enough for the project. “So even though I realize that’s not the case, there is a feeling of ‘people are suddenly tough’ because it just didn’t come up before,” Briaguya added. ©Discord / Kotaku That developer and other team members also pointed out several times the fact that Harbor Masters has had a publicly available AI policy for months, one that looks like it will expand over time. A key part of that policy is that all code is reviewed, something team member Dana the Elf reiterated numerous times in the group’s Discord: “We don’t just use generated code: our contributors have used LLM conversations to solve a technical problem, or to iterate on something and put their ideas into code that is then verified by human eyes. Nothing leaves the AI and goes into the codebase.” All members of the Harbor Masters team made it clear that they do not use or endorse AI imaging and stated that the project has never used such tools before and will not use them in the future. As for why the team allowed the use of AI tools, many argued that this is just the future. But one developer, Jeod, provided more information and explained the team’s small size and heavy workload. “One of the reasons I think we accept AI contributions is because our developers are spread out,” Jeod said on the group’s Discord server. “When Ship of Harkinian started, it was apparently a dream; now, with so many ports and a decade later, developers have come and gone; some have no interest in specific games, others have real life to deal with. We always welcome talent, and if you’re willing to learn how things work here, then the door is open.” When a fan asked which version of Ship of Harkinian was free of AI-assisted code, developer Briguya bluntly said, “I don’t know.” “I personally haven’t used GitHub Copilot,” Briguya said. “So I definitely wasn’t using it when it launched in 2021, but that was before SoH 1.0 came out, so it’s possible that Copilot-assisted PR landed back then without anyone knowing. I used ChatGPT as a Stack Overflow alternative when I worked on a few things over the years, but couldn’t give dates. So maybe 1.0 and 2.0 are completely LLM-free, but I’m not sure.” For many online, the news that Ship of Harkinian is being built and maintained with AI tools was extremely disappointing. And confirmation that Harbor Masters is using these tools in many of its ports made Thursday’s release of the team’s newest PC port, Paper Mario, a bit awkward. It’s unclear if the port used AI, but it seems likely.
