Drew T
9f61cd33c5
The two functions the roadmap has carried as PERMANENT WALLS since Phase 24 are matched in all 138
overlays. Neither needed a siege. Both matched from drafts ALREADY ON DISK.
func_80178004 165 ins x 138 = 22,770 Phase 26: Fable5, ~477k tokens, "intrinsic 3-integer
regalloc wall". THREE stored drafts report match_one
MATCH today; one banked first try, no new work.
func_801412A8 198 ins x 138 = 27,324 close=29/110 since Phase 24. Matched from 1 of 31 stored
drafts + the §37/§124 alias.
WHY func_801412A8 LOOKED INTRINSIC (worth understanding — match_one is structurally blind to it):
the TU declares `extern int func_801412A8(int,int,int,int,int,int)` and its callers USE the return
(`param_1 = func_801412A8(...)`), while the byte-true definition is
`Prim_1412A8 *(Prim_1412A8 *, int, int, int, u16, u16)`. Narrow params cannot agree with an `int`
prototype and the no-prototype escape is illegal once a param promotes, so NEITHER side can move --
and the resulting byte difference is in the CALLERS, which match_one never compiles. The §37/§124
def-side asm-label alias decouples them: the TU decl keeps governing the call sites (codegen
untouched), the definition keeps its byte-true signature.
THEN PROPAGATION RETURNED 0/137 TWICE, both times a missing TYPE, not codegen:
family_remap's `_carry_macros` carries file-scope #defines but (a) NOT typedefs, and (b) is NOT
TRANSITIVE -- it brought addPrim_1412A8 and stopped, though that macro calls setaddr/getaddr and
getaddr casts to PTag_1412A8. Lifted Env_1412A8 / PTag_1412A8 / Prim_1412A8 + OT/getaddr/setaddr
into src/shared/engine_types.h (inside the include guard) -> 137/137, 0 failed.
MY ERROR, CAUGHT BY THE GATE: I lifted the typedefs but did not STRIP them from ov_SC01_077.c, so
they were declared twice and gcc-2.7.2 rejects a repeated typedef even when identical -- the lesson
already recorded at the foot of engine_types.h. R22 came back 139/140 with [FAIL] ov_SC01_077 (the
exemplar's own overlay). Stripped, re-verified, 140/140. A proper lift strips the source;
build_engine_types --strip does both and I did it by hand.
Also a measurement error worth recording: I checked whether the draft defined Prim_1412A8 with a
plain `grep -c` -- which matches inside `addPrim_1412A8` -- and briefly concluded the carry worked.
Substring false positive; the same shape as reading a `return` as a declaration.
VERIFIED: make clean && make extract-all && make check-all -> 140 passed, 0 failed of 140.
Fleet 12432941 -> 12483035 instr (+50,094 -- EXACTLY the two giants x138); fn-count +276;
instr-weighted 94.5% -> 94.8%. audit-digest OK. 0 NON_MATCHING (G4).
THE RULE THIS BUYS: re-measure a wall before respecting it, and SCAN every stored draft rather than
sampling (my first pass checked 8 of 31 and reported "closeness 40" for a function whose MATCH was
in the 9th). Four minutes of re-measurement was worth 50,094 instructions.
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.