CURRENT_STATE — read this before doing anything

Last updated: 2026-05-17 (Tomba OPTIONS / NEW GAME / save-load milestone)

TL;DR

The active test binary is F:\Projects\TombaRecomp\build\psx-runtime.exe --game game.toml on debug port 4470.
Tomba now boots through BIOS, Whoopee Camp FMV, intro FMV, and title.
User-confirmed working on 2026-05-17: OPTIONS, NEW GAME, SAVE, and LOAD.
NEW GAME reaches the first in-game area.
Remaining near-term work is visual correctness: fuzzy title menu glyphs, missing BIOS PS-logo glyph, and upcoming in-game rendering fixes.
The historical Windows "Not Responding" hang is mitigated but should stay under observation during longer gameplay soak tests.

What the project layout actually is

There are two repos and several binaries. Get this straight before doing anything.

F:\Projects\psxrecomp-v4\          ← THIS repo
  recompiler\
    src\strict_translator.cpp      ← BIOS-only path (psxrecomp-bios)
    src\full_function_emitter.cpp  ← shared between bios + game paths
    src\code_generator.cpp         ← PS1-EXE / game-only path (psxrecomp-game)
    src\function_analysis.cpp      ← game-only path
    src\main_bios.cpp              ← entry point for psxrecomp-bios.exe
    src\main_psx.cpp               ← entry point for psxrecomp-game.exe / PSXRecomp.exe
  runtime\                         ← the runtime library + psx-runtime.exe target
  generated\                       ← BIOS recomp output (SCPH1001_*.c)
  bios\SCPH1001.BIN                ← the ROM (and SCPH1001.toml audit config)

F:\Projects\TombaRecomp\           ← sibling repo
  generated\SCUS_942.36_*.c        ← Tomba EXE recomp output (separate from BIOS)
  build\psx-runtime.exe            ← THE BINARY THE USER ACTUALLY TESTS
  game.toml                        ← Tomba config

psx-runtime.exe --game game.toml in TombaRecomp is built from this repo's runtime/ plus TombaRecomp/generated/. It also links this repo's generated/SCPH1001_*.c for the BIOS half. The cmake macro that does this is psxrecomp_v4_add_runtime_target in this repo's runtime/CMakeLists.txt.

psx-runtime.exe is a BIOS-only build target in this repo's runtime/. It's the test runner for the discless BIOS shell (memcard / CD player screen). Nobody has been actively testing it recently; expect it to be subtly broken.

Two recompilers

Binary	Source set	Input	Output
`psxrecomp-bios.exe`	`strict_translator.cpp` + `full_function_emitter.cpp` + `function_discovery.cpp` + `bios_slice_walker.cpp` + `main_bios.cpp`	flat BIOS ROM at 0xBFC00000	`generated/SCPH1001_*.c`
`psxrecomp-game.exe` (also aliased as `PSXRecomp.exe`)	`code_generator.cpp` + `function_analysis.cpp` + `control_flow.cpp` + `ps1_exe_parser.cpp` + `main_psx.cpp`	PS-X EXE header + body	`<game>_full.c` + `<game>_dispatch.c`

They share only mips_decoder.cpp. No code path is shared between BIOS and game translation. Fixes in one don't apply to the other.

The seeds file (recompiler/seeds/phase2_ghidra_seeds.json) is the BIOS seeds, passed positionally to psxrecomp-bios.exe --emit-full. Tomba seeds live at TombaRecomp/seeds/. bios/SCPH1001.toml and TombaRecomp/game.toml exist but are currently only consumed by audit tools, not by the recompilers themselves. (This is one of the things unification fixes.)

`.happypath/` — what it contains, when to use it

.happypath/tomba-runtime.exe — copy of the May 12 11:55 working binary.
.happypath/SCPH1001_full.c.obj — May 11 23:49 BIOS recomp object file (compiled with -g debug; .text size 0x371440 = 3.6 MB; this is the reference for "the BIOS output that works").
.happypath/SCPH1001_dispatch.c.obj — same era.

Restore drill: if a future session breaks tomba-runtime, copy .happypath/tomba-runtime.exe back to F:\Projects\TombaRecomp\build\ and stop touching anything until you understand why.

Sanity check that we haven't drifted:

PATH=/c/msys64/mingw64/bin:$PATH objdump -h .happypath/SCPH1001_full.c.obj
  → .text size MUST be 0x00371440 (debug build with -g, no -O)

If a fresh BIOS regen + debug build doesn't produce a matching size, the generated/ output has changed.

What is currently in working-tree (M / ??)

These were already modified at session start (carried in from prior session):

M ISSUES.md — pre-existing Issue #1-#3; this session also added Issue #4 and Issue #5.
M recompiler/src/code_generator.cpp — pre-existing mid-function split pre-pass cap raised 3 → 16 (Tomba fix; doesn't affect BIOS regen).
M runtime/src/debug_server.c — pre-existing wtrace slot 24/25 ranges for Tomba pad-poll + gflag observation.
D tools/_codegen_audit.py — pre-existing rename to codegen_audit.py.
M tools/gte_audit.py, M tools/scan_branch_delay_hazards.py — pre-existing parameterization for audit-config.

This session also added:

New audit infrastructure: tools/audit_config.py, tools/codegen_audit.py, tools/codegen_audit_game.py, tools/verify_audit_schema.py, bios/SCPH1001.toml.
docs/audit_inventory.md.
An encoding fix to tools/gte_audit.py (Unicode ✓ → ASCII OK).
This file (CURRENT_STATE.md).
UNIFICATION_PLAN.md (next-step plan).
.happypath/ (backup of working binaries).

This session's recompiler-source changes were reverted after they caused confusion; the recompiler/src/ tree is back to clean HEAD.

Why prior sessions got lost (and how to not repeat it)

The handoff said "main menu reachable, Load Game enter/exit works." That meant Tomba's main menu, not the BIOS shell. "Load Game" is the in-game save-load menu inside Tomba, not the BIOS shell's load-from-disc action. Future handoffs should explicitly write tomba-runtime: <state> vs psx-runtime: <state> so this can't be mistaken.
Rebuilding psxrecomp-bios.exe is destructive in two ways: (a) overwrites the binary itself, (b) any subsequent --emit-full run overwrites generated/SCPH1001_*.c. There was no backup of the prior working generated/. Now there is — .happypath/ has the compiled .obj files for it.
Debug vs Release matters. The working tomba-runtime is a Debug build (-g, no -O). psx-runtime's CMakeCache had BUILD_TYPE=Release (-O3 -DNDEBUG). The same generated C may behave differently at the two optimization levels. If you build the wrong one to validate, you will mis-diagnose. For now, always test the Debug build. (The underlying generated C presumably has undefined-behavior the Release optimizer exploits — that's a real bug, but not one we're chasing yet.)
Two runtimes look symmetric but aren't. psx-runtime and tomba-runtime both link the same generated/SCPH1001_*.c, but only tomba-runtime is being actively exercised. Always check tomba-runtime first if a "boot" question comes up.
generated/ is not in git (commit 802e0fb stopped tracking it). The recompiler is the source of truth. If you regenerate, you cannot easily undo.

The actual broken thing right now

psx-runtime.exe does not boot to the BIOS shell. It hangs in the kernel exception handler / RestoreState loop, with VBlank pending in I_STAT but never ACK'd. Symptoms (captured in starvation_dump.jsonl earlier):

Tight loop between func_00000C80 (kernel exception handler), func_00000EA0 (mfc0 helper), func_00000F40 (RestoreState), func_1FC40628 (the I_STAT ACK helper for CDROM bit 3 — note: NOT bit 0 for VBlank), func_1FC40700, func_1FC42BA0 (B0 trampoline at RAM 0xB0 for B0:0x17 ReturnFromException), func_000005E0 (B0 dispatcher).
i_stat = 0x09 (bits 0 = VBlank, 3 = CDROM pending) with i_mask = 0x4D (bits 0, 2, 3, 6 enabled). CDROM gets ACK'd via 0xFFFFFFF7; VBlank never gets ACK'd.
The chain handler that should ACK VBlank apparently isn't being invoked, or returns 0 (not-handled) so the kernel doesn't ACK.

This is not the immediate problem to fix — the unification plan happens first. But note it here so it doesn't get forgotten. See ISSUES.md for the full open-issue list.

How to verify the happy path is still happy

# Kill any running runtimes first.
taskkill //F //IM psx-runtime.exe   2>/dev/null
taskkill //F //IM tomba-runtime.exe 2>/dev/null

# Launch the backed-up working binary.
"./.happypath/tomba-runtime.exe"  # debug port 4470

# In a second shell, ping it. If you get a frame number back, it booted.
python tools/_ping_tomba.py
# Expected: {"id":1,"ok":true,"frame":<some-number-going-up>}

If the SDL window shows the Tomba main menu, you are at the happy path. Do not rebuild tomba-runtime (which would re-link against whatever generated/SCPH1001_*.c currently exists) without first verifying the generated output matches .happypath/SCPH1001_full.c.obj's .text size.

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