With the recent flux of decompiled and recompiled projects for retro games to play them natively on PC, which game do you want see tackled on? And why? Or do you rather want Mods and Romhacks for the actual Rom for emulation?
Do note the recent flux is mostly ai slop decompilations. Unlike decompilations made by hand, the output code is not intended to be human workable and nobody really knows what’s going on in that codebase.
Windows games for versions of Windows from Windows 95 to Windows 2000/NT.
For PC games before Win95, pretty much everything can be emulated properly with DOS PC emulators. And from Win7 on, the software and hardware standards had mostly restabilized and WINE/Proton usually works well. But in between, there was a real Wild West of third-party libraries and official patches that were constantly being updated with compatibility-breaking changes. You can go through the hassle of setting up a whole virtual machine that really taxes your computer and still not get some games to work.
Most recomps seem to be of popular console games that already run quite well through easy-to-use emulators. It’d be nice to see more recomp efforts for less-well-known games that are harder to play at all on modern hardware. I know it’s unlikely to happen, though; who wants to spend their efforts on niche games that most people haven’t heard of, much less care about? Only someone who has a personal interest in that game.
There is one I would suggest immadiately: Software Manager, Screenshots, manager game with origin and only released in Germany.
Most recomps seem to be of popular console games that already run quite well through easy-to-use emulators.
True, but it’s not just to run the games; the games run much better, as they are no longer tied to the CPU and power of the console output. There are things which cannot be achieved by just modding the games or to change the emulators. In example I was dreaming of to play Wave Race 64 to play at 120 fps. Now with PC port it is 120 fps, higher resolution and wide-screen without any technical problems. Native support for all PC inputs, without emulation quirks and trying to map the controls to gamepad (as the consoles understand them). The possibilities to mod those PC versions is basically endless.
It’d be nice to see more recomp efforts for less-well-known games that are harder to play at all on modern hardware.
I agree, it would be nice to have less-well-known games too, but not in cost of popular games. Because popular games are popular for a reason and it makes sense to deliver what most want to have. But I don’t mind a mixture, because just playing popular games that are well emulated already is also a bit of missed opportunity.
Reminds me of the Hogs of War game on PC, which apparently only works if you run on Win98 or Win2000? There is a game breaking bug that made every AI enemy unable to move. Gotta play the PSX version instead
Phantom Crash. That will never happen, though…
Basically every Nintendo DS and 3DS game, to make them playable on a single screen with a regular controller.
I have a DS Lite and New 3DS XL (the Metroid edition), and I am over the touch screen. It gets scratched up, is discolored, and makes using the device annoying and uncomfortable because of its weight. Would much rather be able to play the games on a single screen without those elements. Yes, that would mean some heavy changes for some games, but I would consider it worthwhile.
Oh yes! Most DS games would be perfectly fine without the touch screen.
I don’t know much of its library, but most games I played can be perfectly ported to a system with regular gamepads. I could see an RTS benefitting from a touch screen, but those are rare and can perfectly be a virtual pointer like in e.g. Warcraft 2 for the PSX.
Edit: if ported to PC, a mouse is the superior choice for real time strategy
Good call out! The touch screen is generally pretty unpleasant to me now as well.
Wii and some Wii U stuff too, there’s a whole era of games on Nintendo platforms where devs felt it was necessary to use input or display gimmicks. Once in a while it was essential to a game, but frequently it was shoehorned into an otherwise pretty traditional game.
Some of that could be fixed by smaller scale mods or cheat codes, but you’re right that some might take big changes that need a decomp.
Gladius from Xbox or PS2. It emulates OK, but the heavy reliance on button input prompts makes it hard for my brain to map PS controls to letters.
I used to think the decomp projects were really cool, even tho I didn’t really play them. But lately, the influx of AI-driven decomp projects, the whole concept has lost its luster to me.
On the flip side, there are still projects out there that don’t (or at least claim not to) use AI approaches. Here’s a list I saw the other day: https://backloggd.com/u/WumpaGem/list/game-decompsrecomps-that-arent-vibe-coded/
They are still cool. Even with AI help the good decomps will rise to the top but it will take time to filter them out from the slop.
Yeah, it definitely leaves some sour in the mouth feeling with Ai involved. Especially if its vibe coded without the code fully documented and understood by humans. Those efforts aren’t going away and people still do the time consuming and well thought out decompilation projects. I see the new flux of Ai driven recompilation as a bonus. At least it works, I mean i was waiting decades to play Wave Race 64 with 120 fps. Without these Ai tools, it could probably take another decade if anyone else than me was interested into it at all.
So I understand your point and I’m not the biggest fan of Ai too (but I’m not the biggest hater as well). But at least this is used to give it to us for free, its not a commercial project we pay for (the ports).
For sure, I get that. I started off very much in the “it’s just a tool” and “AI as normal technology” camps, and over time I’ve become more and more jaded.
Ultimately what I appreciated about decomps was moreso the effort that went into it, rather than the result. But it totally makes sense if sometimes people care more about the result.
Those efforts aren’t going anywhere. It’s only a problem if everything is replaced. What I mean is, figuratively speaking: In the past we had 5 decomps done by human hand. Now with Ai we have 5 decomps done by humans, plus 25 done by Ai agents (with human oversight). So we do not lose much actually. This is my thinking.
On the other hand, I can see a lot of people no longer finding the decomp projects enticing when most of what they see are vibecoded projects. The people that may have been interested in those projects in the future could be totally put off by it now.
I can see a lot of people no longer finding the decomp projects enticing when most of what they see are vibecoded projects
I agree with you here. In fact I wanted to express this issue first. But it made my previous reply complicated to understand, so I left it out. So yes, that’s one of the issues. Also if a game is already vibe coded into a recomp, then someone else might find it less interesting to tackle that project, because most people probably wouldn’t find it interesting anymore (as there is already a port). Which would be a shame to be honest. So yeah it’s not all good only.
Black and White 1 and 2. Not quite the same thing, but might be worth a shot, all in all.
I was gonna list Jak and Daxter, but apparently OpenGoal already managed to do that.
Tekken 5 and Soul Calibur 3 would be nice to have, as they’re currently PS2 exclusives. I wonder if Dreamcast version of games could be easier to decompile, being kinda-sorta Windows games?
Also a useful link for this thread. Might not be fully up-to-date with existing projects, but it’s a good starting point - https://decompbuddy.com/games
Black and White 1 has one in progress https://github.com/openblack/openblack
Hardly anyone talks about Black and White, surprised to see the mention.
I just got into the decomp scene and the tool I chose is Quiver Launcher: https://quiverlauncher.com/ I don’t know how it compares to Decomp Buddy. It looks good too. I’ll definitely bookmark it for now, thanks.
Kings field 1 and 2 on PlayStation.
King’s Field Sword of Moonlight includes a full remake of King’s Field 1, and a fan has been working on a remake of King’s Field 2 for it.
Ah, I see, a man of culture as well.
The socom series. It would be great to be able to revamp the controls and add QoL changes
Super Mario Kart.
Huh?! None such project is listed on https://decomp.dev/projects . I thought there was already one. All the later Mario Kart games have such projects, and on SNES even F-Zero got it (amazing).
BTW there are lot of Romhacks like just recently a fullscreen mode for single player, without half the screen covered by the map. I still need to test it out: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/10083/ Imagine what people could do with a PC port and without limitations of the SNES.
I can imagine a PC port with online multiplayer 😍
And 8 players at the same time!
KOTOR: the game is fantastic but it’s a technical nightmare. I spent weeks vibe-coding patches to get it running properly on a modern PC
Is it? The game does actually work with modern PCs, at least the Steam version: https://store.steampowered.com/app/32370/STAR_WARS_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic
I assure you, it does not work on modern hardware, at least not correctly. It has issues with high core count CPUs, high refresh rate displays, uses several proprietary obsolete opengl extensions that are not supported by modern drivers, has several stability issues especially around cutscenes and area transitions, and the list of problems goes on. It kinda runs if you’re willing to disable half of its graphical settings and are willing to deal with the frequent crashes. The KOTOR community, including myself, have been vibe-coding patches to keep it alive but it’s not ideal.
Crazy Taxi. I feel like it could be really fun to have mods and custom maps, I’m a bit disappointed nobody’s really tried to do a decomp yet.
I’m sure someone will attempt it. Currently the scene is going crazy, even doing weird crossovers. Super early experimental phase! Soon a new Crazy Taxi comes out, so there will be interest to port the original, I’m sure.
I would love:
- a custom level editor/mods for Krusty’s Fun House (NES) and the Adventures of Lolo trilogy (NES)
- Adventure Island 4 (NES) remake with support for multiple items in extra buttons like in Ocarina of Time
- Gargoyle’s Quest 2 (NES) without the horrid slowdowns
- Megaman Legends (PSX) and Syphon Filter trilogy (PSX) with better controls and bugfixes (SF grenade logic is horrible: may kill you from a kilometer away or ignore you if you’re hiding behind a paper-thin object)
I love level editors. Every game (where it makes sense) should have a level editor and possibly a randomizer / roguelike mode. I wish someone did a simple level editor for Wave Race 64, just to place the buoy (not sure if that is the right word BTW).
I have seen level editors for Adventures of Lolo games. One example is for 3: https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/759/ The Syphen Filter games would definitely profit a lot from such enhancements, generally speaking the 32-bit and N64 era of gaming.
Blast Corps
Found this project, maybe it already works? - https://github.com/retroplastic/blastcorps
Such a gem. What would you want to be improved and changed, other than performance?
Literally nothing. I just want to play one of the most unique gaming experiences ever in HD/60 fps
That alone would be worth it. Not even the re-release on XBOX consoles through Rare Replay collection has it (it’s emulated there too).
Twilight Insanity. Dunno if it’s good or not, life getting in the way and all that, but a version that doesn’t require hardware acceleration for 20+ y.o. systems would be fantastic.
