Napple
Napple app icon

Early & experimental · Apple Silicon · macOS 26+

Switch games you own,
native on your Mac.

Napple rewrites a game's own ARM64 code ahead of time, answers the console OS with a Horizon runtime and translates the GPU API to Metal. No emulator. No JIT. You get a standalone .app.

Requires an Apple Silicon Mac. You bring your own game and keys; nothing is bundled.

AOTARM64 rewrite
HorizonHLE kernel & services
NVN → MetalGPU translation
0emulators, 0 JIT

The Switch and your Mac speak the same CPU language

Both are ARM64. So Napple doesn't emulate the console, it runs the game's own machine code and rewrites, ahead of time, only what macOS forbids.

  1. 1

    Ingest

    XCI / NSP / NSZ containers, NCA decryption with your keys, updates and DLC merged in any order.

  2. 2

    Analyze & resolve

    Load the NSOs, discover functions and patch sites, look up signatures from data, never per-game code.

  3. 3

    Rewrite

    The reserved x18 register, thread pointer, svc calls and timer counters are rewritten. Everything else runs natively.

  4. 4

    Package & play

    A locally signed .app with the Horizon runtime, NVN→Metal, audio, input and saves built in.

Napple Studio: drop a game, get an app

A small SwiftUI app. Give it your keys once, drop a game on the window, watch the pipeline run, launch the result. The first launch sets up the engine and its environment variables for you.

Drop a game, pick updates and DLC
One progress bar, every stage logged
Launch it, or install to Applications

Where it stands

Napple is early and moving fast. Two titles boot to their title screen and early gameplay; neither is fully playable yet. Coverage below is an estimate of the Switch platform surface, not per-game compatibility.

CPU · AOT A64 rewrite100%
Loader · NSO / NRO / relocations100%
Kernel · svcs + scheduling100%
IPC · HLE service coverage100%
IPC · command depth46%
GPU · Maxwell shader ISA82%
GPU · NVN API surface100%
GPU · formats + pipeline82%
Audio97%
Input97%
Content · containers, crypto, DLC81%
Saves + storage98%
Library applets58%
Video / media decode72%
Overall≈ 91%

Install in one step

  1. Download the .dmg and drag Napple Studio onto Applications.
  2. Open it. Studio places the engine (napple, runtime, launcher) and sets NAPPLE_HOME / NAPPLE_CLI for you.
  3. Add your own prod.keys and firmware once, then drop a game.

Prefer the terminal? Unzip the .zip and run ./install.sh. The napple command works in new Terminal windows afterwards.

"macOS can't verify this app"?

Builds are ad-hoc signed unless the maintainers have notarization configured. Right-click the app and choose Open, or run once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NappleStudio.app

Needs Apple Silicon and macOS 26 or later. Every commit to main publishes a new release.

Legal, up front