BellPad

Animal Crossing rebuilt as a native Apple Silicon source port for macOS, iPhone, and iPad.
Native Metal rendering, touch controls, Files-based game-data import, and Dolphin-compatible saves.

BellPad is an experimental native Apple-platform source port for the original US release of Animal Crossing for Nintendo GameCube. It is not a GameCube emulator or a browser port. The project builds a 64-bit, reverse-engineered game core for Apple Silicon macOS and a Metal-backed iPhone/iPad app through Aurora, SDL3, and Dawn. Its game foundation is birabittoh/ACGC-PC-Port, based on FlyingMeta’s PC port and ACreTeam/ac-decomp. BellPad contributes the Apple integration, native import/input/save handling, and compatibility fixes.

This repository contains source, original BellPad integration, reproducible build scripts, and documentation. It does not contain Animal Crossing, a GameCube image, extracted game assets, or saves. You supply your own legally obtained, supported game data locally after building or installing BellPad. Read the scoped legal and clean-room boundary before using or contributing to the project.

Note

AI disclosure: BellPad uses substantial AI assistance for code, tests, documentation, debugging and maintenance. Some support replies and maintenance tasks are automated. There is no audited percentage of AI-generated code. Build, test and device records describe what was checked. This disclosure concerns BellPad's workflow, not the authorship of its upstream projects.

Get BellPad

Releases publish no app: BellPad is compiled from the Animal Crossing decompilation, so you make your own. On an Apple Silicon Mac with Xcode and brew install cmake ninja ripgrep sdl2, download PadMint, unzip it, double-click PadMint.command and choose BellPad. PadMint builds the app from this repository's latest release and saves an unsigned IPA for iOS or iPadOS 17.0 or later. Install it with AltStore Classic, SideStore or Sideloadly, then provide your own supported game data after launch (see First launch and game data).

Release status

Option	Status	What it means
Apple Silicon macOS	Playable baseline	The native Bellpad.app reaches a generated town, creates/reloads a Dolphin-compatible GCI save, and has desktop rendering/input evidence.
iPhone and iPad Simulator	Current development target	Files import, retained game data, Metal rendering, touch input, native name entry, save import/export, and relaunch have evidence on sequential Simulator runs.
ARM64 iPhone/iPad device build	Physical iPad validated	Local version 0.1.0 build 6 was signed and installed in place; on-device logs confirm retained-image validation and save preparation at startup. Preview 3 provides this same audited build 6. Game data, saves, controller settings, and touch preferences were byte-identical after readback. Physical controller scenarios remain acceptance gates.
Make your own with PadMint	Available (0.2.1)	See Get BellPad. Releases hold the recipe only. PadMint 0.3.5 built 0.2.1 end to end from the release on an Apple Silicon Mac. Windows and Linux build hosts are not supported yet.
App Store / TestFlight	Not available	BellPad is not store-distributed.

The source-release workflow verifies the clean-room and reproducibility gates on Apple ARM64. It is not a substitute for hands-on hardware gameplay, long-session stability, or every game activity. The player-visible defect register and outstanding device checks live in TECH_DEBT.md.

Get started

You need:

• an Apple Silicon Mac with Xcode and Command Line Tools;
• Homebrew, Git, CMake, Ninja, ripgrep, and SDL2; and
• your own legally obtained, supported GameCube data for Animal Crossing.

Clone, validate the source release, and build the iOS Simulator app:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/chrissotraidis/bellpad.git
cd bellpad
brew install cmake ninja ripgrep sdl2
./scripts/verify-release-candidate.sh
./scripts/build-aurora-game-ios-simulator.sh

The game and Aurora are maintained in pinned submodules under source/. The first build also fetches hash-pinned third-party dependencies; it does not download game data. See source maintenance for the exact fork pins, update procedure, source delivery, and rollback. Install the resulting Bellpad.app in one booted Simulator, launch it, and use Files to select your own supported raw ISO/GCM. Run iPhone and iPad Simulator sessions separately.

For the native macOS baseline, run:

./scripts/build-playable-macos-app.sh

For the unsigned ARM64 device product, use ./scripts/build-aurora-game-ios-device.sh; packaging is described in BUILDING.md. A device build is not a generally installable download without your own signing and hardware validation.

First launch and game data

BellPad never downloads, bundles, or distributes game data. The currently supported compatibility target is the original US revision:

Game ID	Region	Revision	Accepted application input
GAFE01	USA	0	Uncompressed 1:1 ISO/GCM (Redump SHA-1 2d2b1fa3883f49af779ce9ca133db3be17be8f32, 1,459,978,240 bytes) or BellPad's verified trimmed form

To check a dump before copying it to your phone, run shasum -a 1 on it (or Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA1 in PowerShell) and compare with the SHA-1 above. RVZ, CISO and NKit files must first be converted back to a plain ISO, for example with Dolphin's Convert File.

On macOS, the app asks for the image once with a native file chooser and remembers it, so later launches start straight into the game. Run it with --choose-disc to pick a different image, or --disc PATH to use one for a single run. BellPad stores only a local reference to the file you picked; it never copies the image into the app or the data directory.

On iPhone and iPad, select the file in Files. BellPad validates the header, revision, size, and streamed fingerprint; stages a private Application Support copy; validates it again; then installs it atomically for subsequent launches. An invalid selection does not replace a retained valid image. Compressed formats, including CISO/RVZ, remain unsupported in the application flow.

flowchart LR
    A["BellPad source and pinned dependencies"] --> B["Build macOS app or iOS/iPadOS app"]
    C["Your supported game data"] --> D["Files picker or native file chooser"]
    B --> E["Private app container"]
    D --> E
    E --> F["Validated local gameplay"]

Loading

The game data and generated save files stay local. Do not add them to Git, issues, pull requests, documentation, CI artifacts, app bundles, or packages.

Touch controls and input

BellPad's native mobile layout includes the left and C sticks, D-pad, A/B/X/Y, Z/L/R, and Start. It adapts between compact iPhone and larger iPad layouts and respects safe areas. Preview 3 (build 6) uses a native three-dot menu with Display, Controls, Game Data & Saves and diagnostics. These changes are included in Preview 3.

• Movement: place your thumb in empty space in the lower-left area to reveal the left stick at that spot. Drag to move; lift to hide it. Buttons take priority, and the camera stick stays fixed. Stick size and dead zone still apply.
• Controls: hide/show gameplay controls, adjust opacity and global size, move controls, resize an individual selected control, and reset the active device-class layout. Preview 3 adds a touch-stick dead zone, optional button haptics and a choice to retain touch controls with a controller attached. Existing positions/preferences and default stick response are preserved.
• Render scale: choose Native, 1×, 2×, 3×, or 4× internal rendering. This changes sharpness, not the fixed 60 Hz game simulation.
• Controllers: Aurora's SDL3 manager owns physical controllers and stable player slots; touch remains a separate virtual input for player 1. Stored handles are reconciled against current devices on events, foreground resume, and a bounded active check. Deterministic sleep/reconnect coverage passes; Bluetooth, wired, natural-sleep, mapping, and two-controller hardware tests remain open.
• Text entry: the native UIKit editor bridges typed text, Backspace, paste, and Done to the game thread. Simulator coverage exists; physical keyboard transitions still need acceptance testing.

The candidate's Report a Problem flow includes the app/source build, bounded current/previous session logs, repeated runtime warning counts, import/save/audio and lifecycle breadcrumbs, frame-loop health and current technical settings. It is also available before import. No automatic upload occurs; game images, save contents, typed game text and signing material are excluded. See diagnostics and controls for limits and tests.

The desktop baseline also supports keyboard mappings; see BUILDING.md for the complete control, signing, product-path, and package-audit workflow.

Current screenshots

Arrival Native dialogue and touch overlay during the train sequence.	Town life The Nook shop sequence running through the Metal-backed app.

These are current gameplay captures made with locally supplied game data. They are documentation only: no game image, extracted asset, save, or derived archive is included in this repository or in BellPad build products.

What works today

Area	Current evidence
Native core	64-bit Apple Silicon macOS core and the complete Aurora/SDL3/Dawn game target build from pinned sources.
Rendering	Desktop OpenGL is the behavior baseline; Aurora/Metal renders the title, train/station flow, dialogue, populated inventory item icons, and representative outdoor-town scenes.
Saves	Canonical GCI creation/reload, atomic replacement, rolling backups, isolated Dolphin GCI-folder interchange, and Simulator import/export have evidence.
Game-data flow	Raw ISO/GCM validation, private retention, reimport/removal, and retained relaunch work in the mobile app.
Input	Native touch, desktop keyboard, native mobile setup text, stabilized discrete submenu navigation, and SDL3 controller slot/reconnect reconciliation have focused test evidence.
Packaging	The unsigned ARM64 iOS package is reproducible and audited to contain no game data, save, certificate, provisioning profile, or private key.

See STATUS.md and TESTING.md for dated evidence and PLAN.md for the remaining implementation plan.

Known limitations

• This is an experimental source port, not a finished commercial product.
• Broader physical-device lifecycle, long-session stability, audio-route behavior, keyboard transitions, physical controller sleep/reconnect/mapping, and scene coverage remain acceptance gates.
• A reported repeated-action symptom is not reproduced in the corrected Simulator traces; broader short-tap coverage across doors, dialogue, and inventory actions remains useful regression testing.
• Interiors, broader outdoor comparison, complete editor coverage, compressed game-data formats, NES-furniture runtime output, and full sanitizer gameplay coverage remain open.

The full, player-visible list is maintained in TECH_DEBT.md.

Project map

Path	Purpose
scripts/verify-release-candidate.sh	Source-release audit: tracked content, maintained pins, tests, shell syntax, and whitespace.
scripts/build-playable-macos-app.sh	Native Apple Silicon macOS game baseline.
scripts/build-aurora-game-ios-simulator.sh	Native iPhone/iPad Simulator product build.
scripts/build-aurora-game-ios-device.sh	ARM64 iPhone/iPad device product build.
scripts/package-unsigned-ipa.sh	Reproducible unsigned IPA build and package audit.
docs/BUILDING.md	Detailed build, product-path, signing, install, and packaging instructions.
docs/TESTING.md	Test matrix and dated runtime evidence.
docs/TECH_DEBT.md	Player-visible defects and physical-device acceptance gates.
docs/LEGAL.md	Clean-room, data, branding, and licensing boundary.

Generated source trees, build directories, game data, extracted assets, saves, signed apps, packages, and credentials are ignored and must never be committed.

Community and support

Join the Discord for help and news. It is one community for BellPad and its sibling projects, such as KartPad, BlueWake and MeleePad: ask about setup, building with PadMint, and installing, share how it runs on your device, and hear about new releases first.

Found a bug? Open an issue with your device, its OS version, and the steps that led to it.

Research, credits, and legal

BellPad is an unofficial community compatibility project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. Animal Crossing, Nintendo, and GameCube names are used only to describe compatibility; their trademarks and copyrighted works remain their owners' property.

The project builds on the work of ACreTeam/ac-decomp, flyngmt/ACGC-PC-Port, birabittoh/ACGC-PC-Port, encounter/aurora, ACreTeam/forest, and their contributors. Exact pins, licenses, purposes, and modifications are recorded in RESEARCH.md, upstreams.lock.json, product-dependencies.lock.json, and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt.

This repository is mixed-license and source-available; it does not grant a license to retail game data, extracted assets, trademarks, or material whose rightsholders have not granted one. See LICENSE and LEGAL.md. This documentation is project policy, not legal advice.

Contributing

Contributions must have clear authorship, compatible licensing, reproducible test evidence, and preserve the clean-room boundary. Do not submit game data, extracted assets, saves, certificates, provisioning profiles, credentials, or private keys.

Before opening a change, read the project docs and run the affected checks. For a source-only release gate, run:

./scripts/verify-release-candidate.sh