Drew T
a68197b32d
The largest open function in the project, carried as the §434 WALL since Phase
31 opened, is now real C. main SHA1 143dbb89... BYTE-IDENTICAL.
THE WALL WAS NOT A PROPERTY OF THE CODE. A whole-binary census of every .s for
the interior labels and raw addresses 0x8002B154..0x8002C31C found EXACTLY TWO
sources, and both are func_8002B0B4 itself: its own beq/j to .L8002C2A8 /
.L8002C2AC / .L8002BFE4, and its own jtbl_80072E44 (36 entries, entry 0 =
0x8002B154). Nothing else in the binary references the range.
So func_8002B0B4 (40 ins, prologue + dispatch) and SaveLoadRoutine (1,139 ins,
epilogue) are ONE function sharing one 0x40 frame -- entry func_8002B0B4, five
overlay callers, all s32 f(s32, s32, void *). SaveLoadRoutine is `case 0:` of
its state switch; .L8002C2A8/.L8002C2AC are the switch exit and .L8002BFE4 the
outer `case 1:` body. The "no epilogue of its own / must stay file-scope
__asm__" note that parked this for a phase was describing a SPLAT SYMBOL
BOUNDARY, not a code structure. The predicted "middle path" (decompile one while
siblings stay asm) was moot: there are no siblings.
The three "save/load handler code pointers at saveHeaderTemplate+0x54" in
docs/memory-map.md are jtbl_80072E44[0..2] -- confirmed against
dumps/ram_savescreen.bin (0x80072E44/48/4C = 0x8002B154/1AC/BEA4). The S73
correction to that row is right; no further RAM capture was needed.
Verified three ways: match_one MATCH (1179 ins) on a merged target .s; `make
extract && make build BINARY=main` -> 143dbb89...; and gate_main's own
clean_build() sequence driven from Python -> "sha1 143dbb89... == check.us.sha
(BYTE-IDENTICAL)". Independently re-checked here: tools/asm_in_c.py reports
NEITHER symbol as assembly-posing-as-C, so this is genuine C (the 94 __asm__
occurrences in the TU are §3a zero-byte cross-jump barriers, which are C).
TWO NEW TOOL DEFECTS, logged not fixed (main is busy; next session):
* gate_main.py:710 runs `git checkout -- <main TUs>` immediately BEFORE
substitute(). For a function whose current form is a hand-written __asm__
block that restores the block NEXT TO the C, the TU then carries 9 jump
tables instead of 5, and gate_main REJECTS a byte-identical bank. It cannot,
by construction, bank anything in the verbatim class.
* gate_main's error filter (error|undefined|conflict|...) does not match
jtbl_rodata_pads' sys.exit refusal, so that failure shows only warnings.
HAZARD, and why this is committed immediately (R42): any gate_main run on main
wipes this bank via that same line 710.
Ten measured levers for the body are in .run/S75/slr_c/cookbook_448.md pending a
cookbook merge, headed by: when a frame check says "no prologue / no epilogue",
build the MERGED .s and decompile the pair as one function before excluding
anything.
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.