Today I spotted this series of articles (https://neuviemeporte.github.io/category/f15-se2.html) (oldest at the bottom) about reverse engineering the DOS game F15 Strike Eagle II — just a year older than Stunts.
Lots of interesting information in there. and the author also mentions Restunts!
My first DOS Game!
F15II will always have a special place in my heart ;D
I wonder what their aim is, and what could be achieved? Would be amazing to play a community-reengineered version.
It's all explained
QuoteSome project goals: (https://neuviemeporte.github.io/f15-se2/2022/06/05/origins.html)
- aiming at a faithful, bug-for-bug reimplementation of the original engine, then porting it to a modern platform to be further tweaked, not looking to do a remake.
- compatibility with original game assets (world maps, plane models, sprites etc.), hence requiring reverse-engineering the custom formats used.
- clean reversing project, hence I will not be releasing any copyrighted materials such as game binaries or disassembly listings, only the clean source code when it's done.
I really like articles like this - thanks for sharing.
neuviemeporte's strategy is to reverse the disassembly function by function into C code that produces the same binary code as in the original executable
using the old MSC 5.1 compiler that was originaly used to compile the game (which is the exact same compiler that was used for Stunts)
this strategy is very time consuming and will take easily years to finish - what is typical for reverse projects - for example BladeRunner in ScummVM took more then a decade to finish
the reconstructed C source will be more or less exact the same as the original (except symbol-names, comments, etc.)
based on this C source everything will be possible - porting as is over to other platforms (keeping the software renderer etc.) or replacing the 3d engine with OpenGL, Vulkan, Raytracing... stuff, Resolution changes etc. just everything someone can think of
there is an discord for technical discussion: https://discord.com/channels/819897993624682516/1155564470828007434
Let's rename this thread and collect interesting articles! While the series about F15 from the opening post continues, today I spotted this article about Winter Games and its interesting copy protection:
https://mrwint.github.io/winter/writeup/writeup.html
worklog of Railroad Tycoon reverse engineering: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=1335800&hilit=ida%20pro%20tycoon#p1335800
Inital Syndicate Wars reversing story: https://gynvael.coldwind.pl/?id=279
There goes my weekend reading time then ;D
ZZT Stories: The Reconstruction: https://blog.asie.pl/2020/08/reconstructing-zzt/
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure reconstruction
https://www.scottsmitelli.com/projects/cosmore/
and the reconstruction of Duke II: https://github.com/lethal-guitar/Duke2Reconstructed (which bases on cosmore)
Duke Nukem II reconstruct/etc. Blog: https://lethalguitar.wordpress.com/
ryiron Blog with many reversing stories: https://ryiron.wordpress.com/
Quote from: llm on April 30, 2025, 09:40:48 AMCosmo's Cosmic Adventure reconstruction
https://www.scottsmitelli.com/projects/cosmore/
The author also produced the CosmoDoc (https://cosmodoc.org/) website, which is an incredible piece of documentation 🤩
Not forgetting Alberto's project Blogs
Stunt Island 800%: https://marnetto.net/2024/11/20/tweaking-stunt-island.html
and Stunts SuperSight: https://marnetto.net/2025/02/20/broderbund-stunts-1.html
Some Scorched Earth reversing: https://zach-ennenga.medium.com/please-destroy-my-face-reverse-engineering-scorched-earths-mtn-file-format-e64a1a2c9b9f
Starflight reversing Story on GitHub: https://github.com/s-macke/starflight-reverse
DigDug reversing story: https://cfiraguston.medium.com/some-reverse-engineering-for-dig-dug-game-9ca86099f870
Night Raid reversing: https://cybersmash.github.io/night-raid/
Zombie Wars reversing: https://pratikone.github.io/gaming/2021/09/02/reverse-engineer-zombiewars.html
Might&Magic 3 Compression reversing: http://blog.rewolf.pl/blog/?p=1202
Cracking Grand Prix 2.a: http://krimsky.net/articles/gp2.html
Cracking Jurassic Park: https://umij.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/cracking-jurassic-park-dos-ocean/
Reverse engineering an dos game: https://games-hardy.com/posts/underworld-disassembly/
Quote from: dreadnaut on April 28, 2025, 08:54:38 PMLet's rename this thread and collect interesting articles! While the series about F15 from the opening post continues, today I spotted this article about Winter Games and its interesting copy protection:
https://mrwint.github.io/winter/writeup/writeup.html
Great idea with the thread, and this article is gold! It solves a mystery I didn't even know existed, but spoiled my days as kid playing Winter Challenge.
non DOS game reversing
The reversing of Lego-Island:
https://github.com/isledecomp/isle
Dev-Talks: https://www.youtube.com/@MattKC/videos
Worth reposting the article shared by
@dreadnaut in another topic.
Reverse engineering the mission generator in the Stealth Fighter games by Microprose.
https://github.com/debugcom/Hacking-F117A