Finding a fan-made PC port, decompilation, or recompilation can be a little like opening a mystery cartridge: the label may promise treasure, but the contents are not always clear. A community document assembled by Funky90sLion is attempting to make one part of that search easier by collecting projects presented as human-led decomps and recomps in one place.
The effort is framed as a response to the growing volume of projects described as AI-made or AI-assisted. The curator’s concern is not merely who made the code; it is whether a project has been carefully built, tested, maintained and documented rather than pushed out under a familiar game’s name with uncertain quality. The list is intended to direct curious players and modders toward projects with identifiable human development behind them.
That is an ambitious promise for a living community resource, and it comes with an important limitation: the document is not a permanent certification system. Funky90sLion says they plan to contact creators for more precise information on how individual projects were made, and welcomes corrections if an AI project is included by mistake. In other words, its value is in transparent curation that can be challenged and improved, not in pretending that a label alone settles every technical or authorship question.
Why decomps and recomps matter
These terms are often grouped together, but they describe different routes to a similar goal: getting older software to run more naturally on current hardware, often while opening room for fixes, mods, quality-of-life options and expanded technical features.
Decompilation, in practical terms
A decompilation seeks to reconstruct a program’s higher-level source code from an existing compiled game. A matching decompilation aims to reproduce the original program’s behavior very closely. Once code is understood and rebuilt, developers can use it as a basis for ports, bug fixes, technical research or modifications.
The document highlights the Super Mario 64 decompilation as a foundational example. From that work came a PC port, the 16-player online co-op project sm64coopdx, and Sm64Plus, a fork focused on quality-of-life improvements and customisation. That family tree illustrates why a decomp can be much more than an archival curiosity: it can become a platform for further community development.
Other listed decompilations include Mario Kart 64, Pokémon Emerald, Perfect Dark, Battle for Bikini Bottom, Digimon Digital Card Battle, Digimon World, Chain of Memories, and Legend of Mana. The latter is listed as complete for the NTSC-U version, with NTSC-J work still in progress.
Recompilation and static recompilation
A recompilation, often shortened to “recomp,” takes a different approach. Broadly, it translates or rebuilds game code so that it can run natively on a newer target platform. “Native” in this context means the software is built to execute on the operating system and hardware at hand rather than relying on the original console hardware itself.
Related coverage includes Human-Led Decomp and Recomp Projects Gathered in New Community List.
Static recompilation is specifically named for projects such as Goemon64Recomp, an unofficial PC port of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, and Doaxbv-re, a native Windows port of the original Xbox version of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. The point for players is usually practical: a native port can create a basis for smoother operation, modern controls, display options or further maintenance. What any individual project offers still depends on its own implementation.
That distinction is worth preserving. A recomp is not automatically a decomp, and a PC port can arise from different technical methods. The new directory is useful precisely because it separates its catalogue into decomp ports, decompilations, recomp ports and recompilations that remain in progress instead of treating all fan compatibility work as one thing.
What is currently on the list
The catalogue’s decomp-port section ranges from classic platformers to later console games. It includes SMW, described as a reimplementation of Super Mario World; SA2 for Sonic Advance 2; Cut-the-Rope-DX; and Zelda3, a reimplementation of A Link to the Past.
Several entries are billed as PC ports. These include AstroCore, a PC port of SMG by LumaWorkshop; DuskLight, a PC port of Twilight Princess; and OpenGOAL, an all-in-one launcher covering the first three Jak games. A Perfect Dark PC port is also listed as a work in progress.
The decompilation section is especially substantial around Sonic technology. It contains decompilations of Retro Engine versions 2, 3, 4 and 5, plus script decompilations for Sonic CD, Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. The entries distinguish engine work from game-script work and note particular version or branch compatibility in places. That granularity matters: an engine decompilation and a script decompilation may be related, but they are not interchangeable components.
The list also includes a Sonic Mania decompilation with versions spanning pre-Plus and Plus, plus RSonic3D-Decompilation for Retro-Sonic 3D: Sky Worlds. For people investigating Sonic-related fan development, the directory’s categorisation may be more useful than a broad search that mixes engines, scripts, ports and unrelated modifications together.
On the recomp side, the names are a quick cross-section of the preservation and modding communities’ interests. The catalogue includes MarathonRecomp for the Xbox 360 version of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic Unleashed, DK64 Rekongpiled, BanjoRecomp, Zelda64Recomp for Majora’s Mask, BM64Recomp, and BMHeroRecomp.
It also names ReBlue, a PC port of Blue Dragon. Still-in-development recompilation projects cover MediEvil, Symphony of the Night, and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land. “Work in progress” deserves to be read literally: it identifies active or unfinished technical work, not a promise that a finished version is available or that it will arrive on a particular schedule.
A useful filter, not a guarantee of quality
The phrase “human-led” can be helpful as a discovery filter, but it should not be mistaken for a universal scorecard. The list is designed around the stated development provenance of projects, rather than a claim that every listed project has identical polish, support, compatibility or feature sets. A human-made project can be unfinished; a listed project can change over time; and a project’s technical merits are separate from whether its code history has been fully documented.
For a player, a sensible use of the directory is as a starting point. Identify the project, read its own documentation, check whether it is designated a port, decompilation, recompilation or unfinished work, and look for explicit setup requirements. For a modder, the project’s relationship to an engine, script layer or earlier fork may be more important than the headline name. For preservation-minded users, the stated maintenance and creator information may be just as valuable as any graphical or performance benefit.
There is another boundary worth keeping in view: community projects connected to commercial games can face rights-holder issues, and a technical achievement does not itself settle those questions. The fragility of fan projects is illustrated by a separate case in which a browser-based fan game vanished following an apparent legal notice, covered in this report on Fallout: New York. The new decomp and recomp list is a directory, not an assurance of a project’s continuing availability or legal status.
The case for visible maintenance
The strongest idea behind this catalogue may be its emphasis on accountability. A project has more context when users can see who is maintaining it, what it is built from, whether its work is complete, and how its creators describe the method behind it. That information helps distinguish a long-running technical effort from something whose provenance is unclear.
The curator describes the early-2020s decompilation wave as opening the door to native PC play, modifications, uncapped frame rates, co-op and new game modes, while warning that poorly tested AI-related ports can crowd out more careful work.
That is the curator’s assessment, not a measurement of every project in either category. Still, it explains why a maintained human-led list has appeal. In a crowded search environment, a project’s lineage, maintainers and documentation can be practical signals for users deciding where to spend their time.
Funky90sLion intends to update the document as additional projects are found or released and to revise entries when community feedback uncovers an error. That ongoing correction process is essential. The directory is most credible when uncertainty is acknowledged, projects are categorised carefully, and the community can point out mistakes rather than allowing a static list to become outdated.
For now, the collection offers a focused map of human-led work across Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Sonic’s Retro Engine ecosystem and more. It does not replace reading a project’s own material, but it gives players, tinkerers and preservation followers a more legible route into an often technical corner of game culture.
