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Reverse engineering is (luckily) OK, but reproducing (or, well, releasing) the actual original code with the help of decompilation isn't really allowed, is it?
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Libraries purchase books. One for every book they loan out at a time, digitally or physically. The most recent noteworthy counter-example is archive.org breaching their "one purchase = one concurrent loan" limit during COVID, and they lost that court battle . If you're equating libraries to LLMs, then every leading-model company would have purchased ~every book, newspaper, movie, and song in existence at least once.…
I understand the technical appeal of this effort, but wouldn't it be easier to try to obtain the original source code? Or has that been lost and all that's left is a blob? Fundamentally, decompilation is not solving a technical problem most of the time (because the source already exists somewhere ) but a social one (that the owner doesn't want to release it).
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I'm the author of ghidra-delinker-extension and these are not full lists of these projects. Here are some public projects that I'm aware of which aren't listed: - Moon Lights 2: https://github.com/Armonte/ml2decomp - F-15 Strike Eagle II: https://github.com/neuviemeporte/f15se2-re I've also been in discussion with people working on decompilation projects which are private. I won't share details, but it includes both…
Sorry to ask this, but are there any discord links you can share?
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I'm the author of ghidra-delinker-extension and these are not full lists of these projects. Here are some public projects that I'm aware of which aren't listed: - Moon Lights 2: https://github.com/Armonte/ml2decomp - F-15 Strike Eagle II: https://github.com/neuviemeporte/f15se2-re I've also been in discussion with people working on decompilation projects which are private. I won't share details, but it includes both…
Sorry to ask this, but are there any discord links you can share?
The decomp.me Discord server invite link can be readily found on that website and in the README of its GitHub repository. It's the closest thing to a central hub of the decompilation community. You can find some invite links in its chat history by searching for "discord.gg" (including the servers listed below).
Some of these Discord servers have a #other-servers or #related-servers channel with tons of invite links to other similar Discord servers. In particular, these servers have those channels:
- PS1/PS2 Decompilation
- GC/Wii Decompilation
That way, you should be able to find dozens and dozens of Discord servers on that topic. There are still many more out there (I've joined at least six others that aren't directly reachable from the invite links inside the servers I've mentioned).
There are also other Discord servers about reverse-engineering that can contain discussions about decompilation techniques or projects.
I understand the technical appeal of this effort, but wouldn't it be easier to try to obtain the original source code? Or has that been lost and all that's left is a blob? Fundamentally, decompilation is not solving a technical problem most of the time (because the source already exists somewhere ) but a social one (that the owner doesn't want to release it).
I wouldn't be surprised if the original source code is probably lost and forgotten in a ZIP drive stored in a basement somewhere in Tokyo. I've made a similar point in an earlier comment, but consider the following: Even if the original sources leaked in a human-readable format, the original game was probably written in a mixture of the device-specific dialect of the Mips R3000 assembly used by the Nintendo 64, whate…
> We can safely assume that the final decompiled code is way more readable/usable than the original.
Have you looked at any rediscovered repositories lately?
It's a pretty daft assumption that the original source code wouldn't carry more value than the decompiled machine-generated "source code". And much more so.
Certainly from the game historian's perspective. Just think about it. Inline comments, logs, scraps of documents/notes, variable/function naming, scrapped files and artwork, engine code, etc. These things are essentially a time capsule treasure and a peek into the history of the game, no matter their state.
If you've seen any rediscovered source code releases of old software, e.g. 86-DOS, Prince of Persia, Command & Conquer, Little Big Adventure, even Apollo or any of the "the making of"-style game releases built around it (Karateka, Ninja Turles) you'd probably think differently. These are super interesting to dive into because they capture the thoughts and decisions of the developers at the time.
Here are also some interesting articles to showcase what that means: https://gamehistory.org/category/source-code/
>n64s greatest game. HEY, it was a GREAT game, but GREATEST? COME ON, this ain't no goldeneye
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Sorry to ask this, but are there any discord links you can share?
I'd rather not post invite links here directly out of concern for spamming, but I can leave some easy-to-follow breadcrumbs. The decomp.me Discord server invite link can be readily found on that website and in the README of its GitHub repository. It's the closest thing to a central hub of the decompilation community. You can find some invite links in its chat history by searching for "discord.gg" (including the serve…
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I've been experimenting with AI in this space myself. Don't believe any of my projects are listed there but I posted an article some days back where I showcased static recompilers all playing at least one commercial game for the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Virtual Boy and Playstation. I actually just announced a playable build of Megaman X today that eliminates all its slowdowns. Whether the broader communities will acc…
given the heavy correlation to those communities and anti AI sentiment. I've noticed the anti-AI sentiment is starting to die down. People are slowly realising that, along with the voluminous amounts of slop, there are others who have been able to leverage AI with much success.
For example, when a Paper Mario decomp/port used AI, the subreddit for the series pretty much tore it to shreds for that. Mario fan communities in general tend to be really heavily against it, with Mario Fan Games Galaxy, SMW Central, and SMBX having rules which are basically "no AI allowed for submissions ever".
Meanwhile my experience on sites like ROM Hacking.net is that AI is more accepted/tolerated there.
So, it's very much a series by series thing. Best to check what the Mega Man community thinks of LLMs before you post it.