With Claude's help, Switch games run natively on Apple TV, but Zelda overheats

What's going on

In early November 2026, a Reddit user going by u/FloatingFalafel released a project called TVPort. It lets games for Nintendo's Switch run directly on the Apple TV 4K, Apple's small streaming box for your TV. Engadget broke the story on November 4, MacRumors covered it the same day, and 9to5Mac followed a day later. The code is free on GitHub.

The project is getting attention mainly for one reason: according to the developer, TVPort was built with help from Claude Opus 5.5, Anthropic's current flagship model. Several headlines call it a “Claude Code port.” Tech Insider points out, however, that the reports only mention the model. There's no evidence that Anthropic's coding tool Claude Code was actually used.

Porting, not emulating

The key technical difference: TVPort is not an emulator. An emulator mimics the console in software and translates its instructions while you play. That eats up a lot of processing power. TVPort is a fork of nxnative, a recompilation toolkit. It rebuilds the game's code for the new hardware so it runs directly. According to GadgetReview, the original game code runs directly on the Apple chip. Graphics are converted to Metal, Apple's graphics API.

According to Engadget, the tool supports games for both the original Switch and the Switch 2. Save files can be backed up to a Mac or iCloud. You can lock the frame rate at 30 or 60 frames per second (fps).

That said, the tool isn't a magic button that makes every game work instantly. The developer writes on Reddit (as quoted by 9to5Mac and Engadget):

“Most games run essentially the same as on the Switch. But some load textures into memory differently. That has to be investigated and fixed before the game runs properly.”

Textures are the images wrapped onto 3D objects. During the current beta, the developer wants to find these edge cases and build the fixes into the tool so it eventually works “seamlessly.” For tricky games, according to Engadget, he even had to rewrite parts of the game engine. The tool applies these changes as a patch.

What runs so far

Reports on Zelda differ. Tech Insider gives no frame rate. 9to5Mac, on the other hand, quotes the developer as saying 30 fps. According to the project documentation, which GadgetReview read, the game runs in handheld mode at 75 percent of its 3D resolution. The problem is thermal throttling: the chip gets too hot and slows itself down. The warmer the device gets, the longer the loading times, according to GadgetReview. The developer has added a stopgap, namely the reduced resolution. He's also working on MetalFX upscaling, Apple's technology that scales a lower-resolution rendered image up to a higher resolution.

All performance figures come from the developer himself. There are no independent measurements over longer play sessions yet, Tech Insider stresses. That matters, because overheating often only kicks in after a few minutes under load.

The hardware's limits

GadgetReview lists technical hurdles from the documentation. tvOS, the Apple TV's operating system, gives an app at most 2 GB of RAM. TVPort therefore offloads the game's memory to a file on internal storage. The A15 chip in the third-generation Apple TV also lacks support for BC texture formats, a common format for compressed textures. Some textures therefore have to be stored uncompressed. Only 64-bit versions of games work.

The developer warns that demanding games may never run properly on the third-generation Apple TV 4K. According to 9to5Mac, some games need the fourth-generation model with 8 GB of RAM. Mario and Animal Crossing already run on the older model, though. According to iDrop News, the fourth generation launches on November 13 with an A19 chip. Whether it can handle Zelda is pure speculation for now.

What you need to try it

TVPort isn't an app you download and start playing. It's a project for tinkerers. You'll need:

• a Mac with Apple silicon, with Xcode and the developer tools in the versions specified by the project
• an Apple TV 4K with developer mode enabled, paired with Xcode, running tvOS 26 or later
• your own copies of the games (dumps) and the matching decryption keys

The project doesn't ship game files or keys. To extract them from your own game cartridges, you need a modded Switch, according to MacRumors. TVPort itself is free. According to Engadget, the developer is also working on a version for the Xbox Series X.

What role the AI played

According to GadgetReview, FloatingFalafel told Engadget that Claude Opus 5.5 mainly helped with debugging. The model figured out how the games load textures and helped with targeted fixes for the new platform. So the AI sped up the investigation. But it didn't take the per-game work off the developer's hands. How much code the model wrote itself, and how thoroughly a human reviewed it, isn't known.

TVPort is part of a bigger trend. In recent weeks, according to Engadget and 9to5Mac, people have used AI tools to recreate or recompile software. That includes open-source clones of Adobe apps and old games running in the browser or on other devices. Another Reddit user is porting Nintendo 64 games to the Apple TV with “Nativecade.” The trend is controversial. According to GadgetReview, the operators of decomp.dev, a platform for collaborative decompilation projects, have publicly stated that AI misuse has harmed their community. Anthropic then reportedly instructed Claude Code not to recreate certain existing games.

Our take

Technically, TVPort is an impressive proof of concept. A frontier model helps with tough, low-level debugging, and a small streaming box manages a major platformer at 60 fps. At the same time, the project shows the limits: every harder game needs manual work, and the Apple TV's hardware runs too hot with big titles. If you just want to play Switch games somewhere else, an emulator is usually the easier route. An emulator covers lots of games, but it's slower.

The biggest open question is legal. Nintendo hasn't commented so far, but has a track record of going after unofficial ways to play its games. In 2024, the company sued the makers of the Yuzu emulator. The dispute ended in a $2.4 million settlement, and Yuzu was shut down. TVPort doesn't ship any game files, and its documentation explicitly says to use only games you own. Whether that would hold up in court is an open question, according to all sources. It's also unproven how stable Mario's 60 fps holds up over longer sessions.