Show HN: Decomp Academy – Learn to decompile GameCube games into matching C
Decomp Academy is a free, interactive site teaching users to decompile PowerPC assembly from GameCube games into matching C. It uses a live Metrowerks CodeWarrior compiler and offers 250+ lessons, some from real games like Star Fox Adventures and Metroid Prime. The open-source project aims to help beginners contribute to decompilation projects.
Background
- **Decompilation ("decomping")** means reverse-engineering a game's compiled machine code back into C source code. In the GameCube scene, the gold standard is "matching" decompilation: your C must produce *bit-for-bit identical* assembly to the original when recompiled with Metrowerks CodeWarrior (Nintendo's official dev environment for PowerPC).
- **Open-source GameCube decomp projects** (Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Metroid Prime, Star Fox Adventures) aim to perfectly reconstruct game source code, enabling preservation, mods, and ports. Contributors must write C that passes the strict binary check.
- **Decomp Academy** is a free, interactive site that teaches this skill via 250+ lessons with a live CodeWarrior compiler. It checks your C output against target assembly — even 1 wrong bit fails. The creator learned from zero and built it as the resource he wished existed.