- THE NORMALIZATION PAID: one `dedup_extend --binaries <the 134 excluded>` banked 134/400
planned -- func_8014F3E8 VERIFIED in ALL 134 -> ×138 total (+4,288 ins), no drafting at all.
A 4-overlay island became full fleet reach because the carried extern finally agreed.
- FLEET: instr-weighted 80.0% -> 80.1% (10,509,526 -> 10,525,534 = +16,008 ins, exactly the
projected 84×138 + 32×138); fn-count 89.02% -> 89.09%; distinct-code 67.7% (unchanged, as
expected -- propagation moves coverage, not distinct-RE). dedup 1884 -> 1886 validated / 0
failed, C1 coverage 239,315/239,315. 0 NON_MATCHING (G4).
- R22 clean-fleet: make clean && extract-all && check-all -> 140 passed, 0 failed of 140.
- §75a — "PROPAGATION-CAPPED" IS AT LEAST THREE CLASSES, and the classifier names which:
A minority spelling `conflicting types` + a lopsided census (1710 vs 4) -> normalize, cheap
B genuine arity split same message, TWO real populations (func_8012F14C: 1944 `(s32)` vs
968 `(s32,s32,s32)`) -> the §29 loose-typing wall; a K&R `()` MAY satisfy
both but is order-dependent -> PROBE, do not normalize on a guess
C missing extern `undefined reference to 'SHB'` -- a LINK error, unrelated to types
The discriminator is one grep (census the symbol cc1 named) and it decides the remedy.
- R14 self-correction recorded: I predicted func_80174CB0 was "the identical class". It is class
A in KIND but on DIFFERENT symbols, and different ones per overlay (func_80012ABC at
ov_SC01_000 where the minority is on the TARGET side; func_8012F14C at ov_SC01_001 = class B).
One member's error names one blocker, not the blocker set -- collect the classifier's line
across the whole sweep before scoping a fix.
- func_80174CB0 (×3) and func_80165CA0 stay capped, each now with a named cause and a named next
probe -- not a wall verdict.
BFM-decomp
A matching decompilation of Brave Fencer Musashi (PlayStation, SLUS-00726, USA 1998) — the first public decompilation effort for this game.
What "matching" means
The goal is C source code that, compiled with the original-era toolchain (PsyQ 4.x / GCC 2.7.2-family + ASPSX via maspsx), produces a byte-for-byte identical SLUS_007.26 and, eventually, byte-identical overlay binaries. SHA1 checksums are the ground truth; "functionally equivalent" does not count.
No ROM content
This repository contains no game assets, no disassembly output, and no ROM-derived data — only source code, build configuration, symbol names/addresses, hashes, and documentation. To build or contribute you must provide your own dump of the game disc (4-track BIN/CUE, redump layout). See .gitignore for the firewall.
Project status
Latest (Phase 19, 2026-06-20): the project builds 136 binaries byte-identical from a clean tree (the EXE + the resident engine + all 134 location overlays);
make check-all→ 136/136. Fleet byte-identical-from-source is 58.0% (function-instance-weighted; see the PhaseEnds for the byte-weighted ~30% figure and what it includes). Shared engine functions are matched once inov_SC01_077and propagated ×134 viatools/dedup_propagate.py. (The narrative below is Phase-11/12-era; a full refresh is part of the public-flip prep.)
Gen1 (foundation) complete — the matching pipeline is proven end-to-end. make extract && make build && make check rebuilds SLUS_007.26 byte-for-byte identical (SHA1 143dbb89…) from C + assembly, reproducibly across many sessions.
- Compiler pinned by evidence:
gcc-2.7.2-psx -O2 -G0 -mips1 -mcpu=3000+maspsx --aspsx-version=2.56 --expand-div. - 52 functions hand-matched to byte-identical machine code — including the LZSS streaming decompressor — with a decomp-permuter + matching-cookbook "flywheel" to accelerate the next.
- 959 PsyQ SDK functions linked byte-identical (libcd, libgs, libgte, libspu/libsnd, libgpu, libc2, libmcrd, libapi/libcard, libetc) straight from the real PsyQ 4.0 libraries instead of re-decompiling them — bringing byte-identical-from-source coverage of the EXE to ~50%.
- File-loader / overlay system reverse-engineered, with the resident engine blob + location overlays' load addresses proven byte-identical against a live PCSX-Redux RAM dump.
About half the EXE is still INCLUDE_ASM stubs (correct bytes, not yet C), and the bulk of the game lives in compressed overlays inside the .CD archives — Gen2 (overlays & engine at scale) is underway:
- The build toolchain is binary-agnostic (one parameterized pipeline builds any binary), and the always-resident engine blob rebuilds byte-for-byte from source (SHA1
8e17e02f…) — the second binary reconstructed exactly, after the EXE — and is now 86% hand-matched C (123 / 146 functions, up from 0): its scripting turned out to be compiled-MIPS state/mode dispatch, not a bytecode VM, and the save-file + sound (SQV) formats are documented. The harvest used a reusable swarm-of-agents + bit-for-bit byte-gate method (a wrong match can't be accepted) —tools/harvest_verify.py+tools/match_one.py, which carry straight into the overlay phase. - A cross-binary deduplication pipeline is live: a Ghidra-free signer fingerprints all 134 location overlays, and the report finds ~9,000 byte-identical function groups shared across binaries (~28 MB of collapsible code) — a single engine function is byte-identical in all 134 overlays. This is "one match unlocks many": each engine match will be auto-credited across the overlay fleet.
Current phase and detailed progress live in phase-ends/ (newest PhaseEnd_*.md = current state); methodology, rules, and the full roadmap are in PROJECT_CONTEXT.md; environment setup in docs/SETUP.md.
This project is developed primarily by Claude Code driving Ghidra through an MCP server; see CLAUDE.md.
License
Private repository for now. AGPL-3.0 is planned at public release, modeled on sotn-decomp. tools/brave-CUE/ is CUE's BRAVE extractor (GPL, source included) and retains its own license.