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Snowboard Kids 2 is 100% Decompiled

blog.chrislewis.au

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Re: Snowboard Kids 2 is 100% Decompiled

#91

Post by boricj »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #89
boricj wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I mostly don't use Discord, but I'm intrigued how this system works. If the invite link is already posted on the project website and the readme of a Github repository, why would putting it in a Hacker News comment risk spammers?

First, because personally I think it's bad etiquette to post an invite link publicly on large, open-access forums like Hacker News.

Second, because while the biggest decompilation Discord servers have effective moderation team and processes, the vast majority are just a server for a project from one or a couple of persons with Third, because I regularly see phishing crypto spam posted in the smaller servers. Spreading invite links publicly carelessly increases the odds that these scammers find them and spam them.

Re: Snowboard Kids 2 is 100% Decompiled

#92

Post by easyThrowaway »

aldrich wrote: post #87
easyThrowaway wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You're probably right that it's forgotten and all, but.. > 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.…

I was lucky enough to speak with one of the guys who ported Final Fantasy VIII to Windows (A crazy talented guy from Naples and one of the earliest members of the OG playstation emulation scene) and the porting team of several IREM arcade shootemups to the Game boy advance (incidentally they were also from south Italy) and both of them told me the same story:

The source code they were given for the job was so specific to the assembler, compiler, build stack and internal company libraries and SDKs (which often they had no access to) that reverse engineering the final game was usually the quickest route.

> Certainly from the game historian's perspective.

That's a completely different topic, and I mean, sure - from an historical perspective it's absolutely essential, even simple changelogs become of enormous importance.

Re: Snowboard Kids 2 is 100% Decompiled

#93

Post by Wowfunhappy »

boricj wrote: post #91
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly don't use Discord, but I'm intrigued how this system works. If the invite link is already posted on the project website and the readme of a Github repository, why would putting it in a Hacker News comment risk spammers?

First, because personally I think it's bad etiquette to post an invite link publicly on large, open-access forums like Hacker News. Second, because while the biggest decompilation Discord servers have effective moderation team and processes, the vast majority are just a server for a project from one or a couple of persons with Third, because I regularly see phishing crypto spam posted in the smaller servers. Spreadin…

The part I don't understand is how posting the link on HN is different from posting it on Github. I'm wondering for example if Github has some sort of extra bot protection HN does not, or if there's some cultural difference I'm not aware of or seeing.

Re: Snowboard Kids 2 is 100% Decompiled

#95

Post by adonese »

boricj wrote: post #86
adonese wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thanks a lot!

Re: Snowboard Kids 2 is 100% Decompiled

#96

Post by freeqaz »

I've been working on porting Rock Band 3 and Dance Central 3 to PC via AI assisted decompilation. The repos are on my GitHub (https://github.com/freeqaz/rb3 and https://github.com/freeqaz/dc3-decomp)

Like OP, I've learned at lot in this process. I have versions running in the browser now with a custom WebGPU rendering engine. Still lots of jank and vibes, but it's wild to see what models are capable of with the right tooling. (I've had Claude add extensions into Ghidra for Xbox/Wii specific instruction support)

Wild times we're living in. It's great for software preservation though!

Re: Snowboard Kids 2 is 100% Decompiled

#98

Post by boricj »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #93
boricj wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, because personally I think it's bad etiquette to post an invite link publicly on large, open-access forums like Hacker News. Second, because while the biggest decompilation Discord servers have effective moderation team and processes, the vast majority are just a server for a project from one or a couple of persons with Third, because I regularly see phishing crypto spam posted in the smaller servers. Spreadin…

The part I don't understand is how posting the link on HN is different from posting it on Github. I'm wondering for example if Github has some sort of extra bot protection HN does not, or if there's some cultural difference I'm not aware of or seeing.

Discord servers are more like a hangout place than a public forum and public invite links are like putting a key under a mat. Just because the owners of a Discord server put it on their public webpage or GitHub repository doesn't mean it's cool to spread it around willy-nilly.

There are also practical concerns. An invite link that needs to be deleted (for example due to spam abuse) means that it will no longer work. Updating all the places where that old link appeared to the new one can be impractical or impossible.

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