Unlike computer games, which smoothly and continuously evolved along with the hardware that powered them, console games have up until very recently been constrained by a generational style of devel…
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
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
Yeah. And all the big projects so far have required a “legally dumped” ROM as an input.
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