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Console game decompilation projects

Yeah, folks have been really working on this and it's coming at a good time IMO. The current hardware shenanigans and the lack of interest in many newer games is causing people to want to return to older games that were just plain fun. Emulation (of older systems, especially) is pretty well sorted now, so this seems like the next natural step in the evolution of game preservation. I mentioned the Sonic Unleashed recomp somewhere here a while back, but so many of these are being worked on now that it's hard to keep up, so I'm glad we have a thread.

Video Game Esoterica has been covering a lot of them:
https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGameEsoterica/search?query=recomp

So many of these are cherished classics... San Francisco Rush, Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye 007, Virtua Racing, Carmageddon, Banjo Kazooie, Castlevania SOTN, Mario Kart 64, etc. To be able to play them natively on PC, with upgrades, is awesome. Emulation will continue to have its place but the addition of decomps and recomps is such an awesome development (no pun intended) for the gaming community.

Couple of intro vids for those who wish to know more:


View: https://youtu.be/lpOEhtoc3DY?si=99vKXagCVycSI9vB


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KROD7rOpKg

Now to await the return of some niche cult classics...the day I can play Eternal Darkness natively on PC will be a great day. :D Lot of X360/PS3 games too that either never got a PC port, or got a subpar one.
 
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Wouldn't xb360 to be easiest to "decompile" and run native somehow as it's so close to pc hardware to begin with? Xenia isn't doing it on my system and I don't wanna try ebay to get an original system working for the few titles I still wanna play through...
 
xnaughtyowlx said:
Wouldn't xb360 to be easiest to "decompile" and run native somehow as it's so close to pc hardware to begin with? Xenia isn't doing it on my system and I don't wanna try ebay to get an original system working for the few titles I still wanna play through...
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Compared to PS3 the Xbox 360 would be easier. But it had an IBM RISC cpu. The original Xbox essentially had PC hardware and would be even easier just like all the new consoles.

It's going to depend on the game for how difficult it is though. It's not an easy process yet regardless of what it is.

I have the source code for my Xbox 360 games and I couldn't get them to recompile when I tried a couple years ago. It was going to be more work than it was worth.
 
sharknice said:
But it had an IBM RISC cpu.
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Perfect Dark is excellent on PC. Obviously it makes the game ridiculously piss easy, though. It's really not built for mouse and keyboard and you will utterly destroy the game. Actually being able to aim efficiently is game breakingly overpowered.

I played through a few months ago and the only thing is that the objectives are really not well explained sometimes. I had to look up a few and figure out what the fuck it actually expected me to do.

I'm a little shocked GoldenEye hasn't materialized yet. I'm also hoping someone gets around to Jet Force Gemini.
 
xnaughtyowlx said:
Wouldn't xb360 to be easiest to "decompile" and run native somehow as it's so close to pc hardware to begin with? Xenia isn't doing it on my system and I don't wanna try ebay to get an original system working for the few titles I still wanna play through...
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Power PC CPU would like to have a word with you. ;).
 
pendragon1 said:
virtua racing has been decompiled AND recompiled, not sure exactly what that means though...

The 32X Version Of Virtua Racing Has Been Decompiled
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/01/the-32x-version-of-virtua-racing-has-been-decompiled
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I watched some YouTube video of a dude who made some coding fixes. Think he got it running at 30 fps and did some other coolness too. Basically proving the point that 32x had more power but as per usual, Sega rushing it out the door with the Saturn looming ahead meant developer slapped it the fuck together to get it out there.

Oh Sega. Hindsight is 20/20 but they had such an astounding nack of fucking shit up.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
I watched some YouTube video of a dude who made some coding fixes. Think he got it running at 30 fps and did some other coolness too. Basically proving the point that 32x had more power but as per usual, Sega rushing it out the door with the Saturn looming ahead meant developer slapped it the fuck together to get it out there.

Oh Sega. Hindsight is 20/20 but they had such an astounding nack of fucking shit up.
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Sega's problem is the US and JP branches had differing objectives.

In Japan, the Genesis was a massive failure, loosing out to both the SNES and PC-Engine. Sega JP wanted a platform that would primarily be able to run Sega's arcade HW, where they were making most of their money. Hence, the Saturn.

In the US, the Genesis beat out the SNES. Sega US wanted to extend the life of the Genesis to take advantage of it's install base. Hence, the 32x.

We all know what happened: The Saturn kneecapped the 32x, which in turn get kneecapped by the Playstation. Sega's lack of success scared 3rd party developers away, so by the time they got things together with the Dreamcast, most 3rd party devs (especially EA) stayed away, dooming the platform. It certainly didn't help that by the time the Dreamcast came out Sega's Arcade business was in freefall, so Sega didn't have any decent source of revenue to keep them afloat.
 
socK said:
Perfect Dark is excellent on PC. Obviously it makes the game ridiculously piss easy, though. It's really not built for mouse and keyboard and you will utterly destroy the game. Actually being able to aim efficiently is game breakingly overpowered.

I played through a few months ago and the only thing is that the objectives are really not well explained sometimes. I had to look up a few and figure out what the fuck it actually expected me to do.

I'm a little shocked GoldenEye hasn't materialized yet. I'm also hoping someone gets around to Jet Force Gemini.
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Yeah, some of Perfect Dark's objectives were a bit obtuse.

Jet Force Gemini is an underrated game. Not "good", but a collectathon done right.
 
gamerk2 said:
Sega's problem is the US and JP branches had differing objectives.

In Japan, the Genesis was a massive failure, loosing out to both the SNES and PC-Engine. Sega JP wanted a platform that would primarily be able to run Sega's arcade HW, where they were making most of their money. Hence, the Saturn.

In the US, the Genesis beat out the SNES. Sega US wanted to extend the life of the Genesis to take advantage of it's install base. Hence, the 32x.

We all know what happened: The Saturn kneecapped the 32x, which in turn get kneecapped by the Playstation. Sega's lack of success scared 3rd party developers away, so by the time they got things together with the Dreamcast, most 3rd party devs (especially EA) stayed away, dooming the platform. It certainly didn't help that by the time the Dreamcast came out Sega's Arcade business was in freefall, so Sega didn't have any decent source of revenue to keep them afloat.
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Wait wut? I always thought the 32x was Sega of Japan's brainchild and that it was forced onto Sega of America. Genesis was doing fine. Leadership at the time thought it made sense to continue it and not over encumber it with yet another add-on. Sega of Japan had its head up its ass, contracting different hardware vendors to produce prototypes (3Dfx) only to turn them down at the last minute and waste money, time, and goodwill with partners. EA skipped the Dreamcast altogether because they didn't want to play ball with Sega and their dumb shit.

I love Sega consoles as much as the next Sega fanboy but Sega of Japan was its own worst enemy.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Wait wut? I always thought the 32x was Sega of Japan's brainchild and that it was forced onto Sega of America. Genesis was doing fine. Leadership at the time thought it made sense to continue it and not over encumber it with yet another add-on. Sega of Japan had its head up its ass, contracting different hardware vendors to produce prototypes (3Dfx) only to turn them down at the last minute and waste money, time, and goodwill with partners. EA skipped the Dreamcast altogether because they didn't want to play ball with Sega and their dumb shit.

I love Sega consoles as much as the next Sega fanboy but Sega of Japan was its own worst enemy.
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Is that not what he said? I do think it was a shame that dc didn't get more games, it was a beast and ahead of it's time in more ways than one. Anyway, a bit off topic now.
 
Nobu said:
Is that not what he said? I do think it was a shame that dc didn't get more games, it was a beast and ahead of it's time in more ways than one. Anyway, a bit off topic now.
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I read it as he said Sega of America came up with 32x. I don't believe they did. Tom Kaliinske wanted to keep the Genesis (by itself) going. Subtle difference. I mostly agree with what he said but I think Sega of Japan was the driving force of all the bad decisions.
 
"Project Mars had came into existence when Hideki Sato and some other Sega of Japan engineers travelled to North America to collaborate with Sega of America's Joe Miller. Initial plans were drawn up to produce a brand new Sega Mega Drive console with double the colours and a lower cost. Miller saw this as a terrible idea and suggested instead it become an add-on to the Mega Drive[1], in so doing, earning the title of "father of the 32X".

The Mars project would instead involve a unit which could be attached to the Mega Drive similar to the Power Base Converter, allowing the system to play a new set of upgraded games (which became more advanced as more colours and 32-bit processors were introduced), while maintaining backwards compatibility with Mega Drive software and peripherals. Mars would be produced at Sega of America, independently from the Saturn and Jupiter projects."
https://segaretro.org/History_of_the_Sega_32X

it was the US' baby. japan was already working on saturn.
 
pendragon1 said:
"Project Mars had came into existence when Hideki Sato and some other Sega of Japan engineers travelled to North America to collaborate with Sega of America's Joe Miller. Initial plans were drawn up to produce a brand new Sega Mega Drive console with double the colours and a lower cost. Miller saw this as a terrible idea and suggested instead it become an add-on to the Mega Drive[1], in so doing, earning the title of "father of the 32X".

The Mars project would instead involve a unit which could be attached to the Mega Drive similar to the Power Base Converter, allowing the system to play a new set of upgraded games (which became more advanced as more colours and 32-bit processors were introduced), while maintaining backwards compatibility with Mega Drive software and peripherals. Mars would be produced at Sega of America, independently from the Saturn and Jupiter projects."
https://segaretro.org/History_of_the_Sega_32X

it was the US' baby. japan was already working on saturn.
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I stand corrected.
 
I had a genesis and almost bought a 32x... Thankfully I went with an snes instead :ROFLMAO:.
 
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