{"id":9231,"date":"2026-10-23T12:06:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T12:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9231"},"modified":"2026-10-23T12:06:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T12:06:31","slug":"ai-retro-games-decomp-recomp-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9231","title":{"rendered":"Retro gaming is being overrun with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Retro video games are everywhere lately \u2014 especially in places where they aren\u2019t supposed to be. Halo<\/em> in a web browser<\/a>, Wind Waker<\/em> on the iPhone<\/a>, Super Smash Bros.<\/em> in mixed reality<\/a>. Over the past month or so, these kinds of unexpected projects have gone viral with incredible frequency thanks to new AI tools, as hobbyists take apart games and then rebuild them for new platforms. But while AI has supercharged the pace of these ports, it\u2019s also tearing apart tight-knit communities dedicated to preserving games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Decomps and recomps \u2014 shorthand for decomposition and recomposition \u2014 are a form of reverse engineering<\/a> that involves breaking a game down to its building blocks and then rebuilding it so it can run on hardware it was never intended for. When done manually, it\u2019s a slow, painstaking process. A group spent years decompiling the original Animal Crossing<\/em> on the GameCube<\/a>, for instance. But AI coding tools have cut that timeline down significantly, and the sheer number of ports has grown dramatically in recent months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This summer, Chris Sotraidis, an AI consultant who works on game ports as a hobby, saw a port of Command & Conquer: Generals Zero<\/em> Hour<\/em> \u2014 which EA made open source last year<\/a> \u2014 for the iPhone and iPad<\/a>. The \u201ctechnical challenges\u201d inspired him to try making a handful of similar ports, including a mobile port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time<\/em><\/a> using an existing community-built decomp of the game<\/a>. Within just a few weeks, he was working on a dozen projects. He says that kind of productivity wouldn\u2019t happen without the use of AI.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Some of those ports \u201cwould have been possible with minimal AI assistance if I\u2019d had significantly more time,\u201d Sotraidis says. \u201cBut I\u2019m honest enough to say that the pace and volume would not have been possible for me without it. It would have been extremely slow by comparison. The tools allow you to move much faster if you know what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That speed has drawn many people to try out these AI tools, either for fun, the technical challenge, or for preervation reasons. It\u2019s also a reason why there\u2019s been what seems like a deluge of new projects popping up on platforms like Reddit, X, and GitHub. But these ports can be problematic from a preservationist perspective. One of the reasons why decomp projects exist in the first place is that users can pull a game apart and understand how it works, but that kind of understanding and knowledge is lost when AI does the work. Sure, you can put Spider-Man in a Batman game<\/a>, but you probably won\u2019t discover how certain programming decisions came to be, which can hurt the ability to restore games faithfully.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe tools allow you to move much faster if you know what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The rapid pace of AI-driven decomps has overwhelmed the DIY scene. Last week, a community-focused website that tracks decomp projects and provides various resources abruptly shut down due to AI\u2019s impact. \u201cIt is now clear that, with the right guidance, human input, and code reviews, AI can expedite the decompilation process in a significant way,\u201d the site\u2019s owner, writing under the pseudonym Encounter, said when announcing the shutdown<\/a>. \u201cWhat is also now clear is that the community aspect of decompilation has been broken. Our projects have always been open source to encourage contributions and to benefit the community as a whole. Bad actors have been abusing this in increasingly troublesome ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Those ways include taking existing decompilation projects and \u201cfinishing\u201d them with AI, as well as racing to quickly port decomps that the user never actually contributed to in the first place. In essence, one of the big problems is people who are using AI to rush through the process while building on the work of others. This is especially an issue given the community-centric nature of the existing decomp scene. \u201cThe bottom line is that these kinds of hostile forks put little to no effort into meaningfully contributing to existing projects, tearing apart our community fabric,\u201d Encounter wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Given the ongoing challenges with video game preservation, in which it\u2019s estimated that more than 90 percent of classic games are \u201ccritically endangered<\/a>,\u201d the rise of AI in the decomp scene can be seen as something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it has created a surge of interest, turning words like decomp and recomp from niche terminology to headline material, while allowing non-programmers the opportunity to experiment and test ideas. On the other hand, the speed and lack of attention to detail in many of these projects run counter to the aims of most preservationists, who try to not only keep games alive for modern audiences but also understand the way they were built. AI is a quick fix that could have long-term drawbacks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This has created a divide, with those on the preservation side feeling disillusioned by the prevalence of slop<\/a>, and those on the AI side excited by the possibilities, particularly as the tools continue to evolve. As Sotraidis explains, \u201cI think a lot of what gets dismissed as slop today can improve as the tools get better and people learn to use them well. That doesn\u2019t make the current criticisms invalid. Better tools aren\u2019t automatically going to make people give proper credit or treat each other well. But I do think thoughtful creators and builders will be able to make even more amazing things, faster.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For those vehemently against the use of AI in ports and decomps of classic games, they might be fighting a losing battle. AI tools seem to be infiltrating every aspect of game development, not just in the realm of hobbyist retro fans. Fortnite<\/em> developer Epic Games recently launched a vibe-coded version of its PC games store<\/a>, and it has reportedly shifted to \u201cAI-accelerated development\u201d for an upcoming collaboration with Disney<\/a>. On X, Epic\u2019s CEO Tim Sweeney wrote<\/a> that he believes AI tools will lead to \u201ca new golden age of gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Meanwhile, at least one major name has embraced the decomp scene. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma set up an internal division called Xbox Labs<\/a> to explore the space and \u201cturn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.\u201d She noted, \u201cWhile it is hard to predict the future of gaming, it is easy to see the possibilities in making great games easier to access, giving old games new life, and allowing more players to become creators and co-creators.\u201d (Currently, the only thing the division has teased is an experimental dashboard<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Xbox embracing decomps is particularly notable at a time when old games are serious business. Some of the biggest releases this year are remakes of Halo: Combat Evolved<\/em><\/a> and Ocarina of Time<\/em><\/a>, while Resident Evil<\/em> has been rejuvenated<\/a> in part due to a stream of strong remakes. The question for the future is whether audiences would rather play a lavish remake of Halo<\/em> or a vibe-coded port that they can take anywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n