It would be cool if there was a law mandating that companies release the source code of a product after they stop distributing it, or maybe something like 15 years after its initial release.
Decompilation is definitely the path forward. Not only does it preserve games and allow you to play enhanced native versions, they're totally legal and won't get you into hot water. I played Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time at 60fps and it was glorious.
Wait, what? Distributing decompiled code from a proprietary source is completely legal? Is that actually correct?
I was under the impression that the source code is copyrighted, as is the compiled build of the game, and that decompiling the game is a violation of the Terms of Service, which would make distributing it still illegal. I’d love to be wrong about this though.
The ORIGINAL source code is copyrighted, but decompiling does not give you the original source code. Decomp tools give you generic variable names like unsigned_int_4 and then it’s up to you to decipher what the purpose of the variable even is and give it a relevant name. So it’s virtually impossible you’ll get a character-for-character match to the original.
Also, decomps have different levels of accuracy. You may get something that is a perfect behavioral match, even though there’s differences in the instructions being run. You may get an instruction-perfect match but not a byte-perfect match between the binaries.
IANAL but this is what I’ve learned from following decomp projects on YouTube
I believe that’s to get the assets (i.e. the textures, character models, etc) which are still covered by copyright and so can’t be included in the decomp projects
Yes, reverse engineering is totally legal. The big asterisk here is that you can't distribute any assets the company owns, so you need the original game files regardless to play the decompiled version.
A better statement would be that there hasn’t really been a major court case regarding decompiling source for hobby use and most cases where it is used for profit or piracy are no nos for existing reasons. But for education purposes or to develop and interface, it is a grey area. In large part because said education makes you toxic as hell in industry and said interfaces are usually for things that violate the license agreement and TOS because the software didn’t provide an interface for a reason.
And then you run into cases where the act of bypassing protections to get the binaries in the first place put you in further hot water. Sort of like how the (way over simplified) argument that you are legally allowed to have a backup of your video games but the act of making said backup gets REALLY sketchy in a lot of cases.
I would probably phrase it more as “decompiling source code is not illegal. How you use it might be”
Its also always worth remembering that law comes from precedent. And it is rarely in anyone’s interest for stuff like this to go to trial. So there will be a few landmark cases that cover VERY specific use cases and a LOT of cases of big lawyers saying “Do you really wanna fuck with us?” and getting a C&D and a settlement.
Always appreciate updated and current videos on the process, even if I can’t mimic on Linux.
Something that has always frustrated me about the editing process is that every program has its own unique features
Some you get wavlets
Some you get stacking and aligning
Some you get level adjustments and curves
All while most of the programs are deprecated and/or abandonware
I think currently I have Registax, Auto Stakkar, Siril, PiPP, and Gimp installed for processing just because some programs perform features better than others.
Look. If most “productivity trackers” are only tracking active window and mouse clicks / cpm … it more than counts - it should be granted extra points.
Fuck me look at how how hard Johnson is working. Been typing like a madman all day.
As cool as this is, to me this just screams security issues. If scripting in PDF can run doom, it can be (and is) used for nefarious purposes. Wasn’t eg. LTT’s channel compromized because of a PDF with some nasty stuff in it?
Just because you can render a game using scripting doesn’t mean your script can escape the PDF reader.
You can build a fully working Turing machine inside PowerPoint, but without an exploit you are still not going to run code outside the PowerPoint environment
A shame that all the really early 3D games use their own software rendering engines, and aren’t so amenable to being “cranked up” like later games when accelerators became common.
Get some of the early freescape games like Total Eclipse or Castle Master, early cyberpunk games like Interphase, or even Frontier: Elite II running in big resolutions with silky framerates and insane draw distances, I’d be so pleased.
I would expect hackaday to go into more detail. Ironic.
It looks like all they did was uncap the render distance, to let the game render the high detail level at ranges that would have crippled the original hardware. They didn’t actually hack higher quality resources into the game. Same resources, just all on screen at once.
hackaday.com
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