Drew T d443cdf433 docs(phase-12): T5 (static start) — save/memcard format: saveHeaderTemplate + handler table (Q#5)
formats.md §6: SaveLoadRoutine @0x8002B154 = multi-entry save/load blob driving the linked
PsyQ libmcrd primitives; saveHeaderTemplate @0x80072DF0 decoded — memcard filename
"BASLUS-00726MUSASHI", SJIS title "BRAVE FENCER MUSASHI", and a @+0x54 handler DISPATCH
TABLE of 0x8002Bxxx pointers (the "multi-entry blob" IS this table of save/load sub-handlers).
Static layout VERIFIED. TBD (needs Ghidra-on-EXE + a Drew-operated PCSX-Redux save trace +
PsyQ-memcard CRC research): the save-DATA serialization (player/progress state 0x80078Exx +
checksum) + matching the tractable handlers. ram_savescreen.bin holds the live header.
2026-06-16 14:18:47 -06:00
2026-06-10 22:02:07 -06:00
2026-06-10 22:02:07 -06:00

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

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 now rebuilds byte-for-byte from source (SHA1 8e17e02f…) — the second binary reconstructed exactly, after the EXE.
  • 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.

S
Description
No description provided
Readme AGPL-3.0 492 MiB
Languages
C 96.6%
Python 3%
Makefile 0.2%
Shell 0.1%