DOS Game "F-15 Strike Eagle II" reversing project needs DOS test pilots

It’s ridiculously easy to port games now.

https://robin.tooclever.org took less than a day in API time

LowLevelMahn 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Playable DOS version available

First step was the full reverse to assembler, second step is to convert the assembler to binary equal compiled C code, all this still on DOS until no assembler code is left, then the porting to Linux,Windows will start

Reversing tends to bring in new bugs and its not easy to find all bugs in such old and reversed code - but so far everything seems to work

try finding open bugs if you got version 451.03 of F-15 around combined with Dosbox or a real DOS

find latest DOS release here: https://github.com/neuviemeporte/f15se2-re/releases

the f15_se2-*.zip file contains the replacement executables for the DOS game

The airforce needs YOU!

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yepyoukno 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Nice work!

I’m not sure you should beat yourself up too much for a Linix* port, emulators are so well supported and ubiquitous, if it works there (not everything does), call it a win!

I use Lutris (https://lutris.net/) for its ease of use.

I can see your a “low level mahn” and this may be more of a quest for you than playing a cool retro game.

Any which way, GREAT WORK!!!!

	▲	LowLevelMahn an hour ago \| parent [-]
		its mostly the combined work of AJenbo, neuviemeporte and others - my part is very small, fixing some compilation problems with newer compilers and spreading the news C source needs to get compiled on every platform reachable - that is a must :)

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skerit 41 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm currently reverse engineering a few games too. It's quite easy with AI now. But I'm worried about the legality of it all. Any thoughts on this?

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habagav 31 minutes ago | parent [-]

You could do “clean room engineering” approach where the reversing agent generates a specification from its findings, and then have a separate agent reimplement the code without seeing the original binaries/code.

You’d just have to make sure the specification doesn’t include actual source snippets (the AI will try this if you don’t specify). Pseudo code would be sufficient I guess where necessary.

	▲	alberto-m 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Unless you develop your AI agent from scratch or you clone a never-released game, it would be extremely easy for the rightholders to claim that both agents have most certainly ingested the binary during their training phase, since it's well known that the hyperscalers have pirated everything that could be pirated to train their LLMs. Which is why malus.sh is a parody, not a real service. One should be honest about what one builds. The F-15 project does that: the aim is the reconstruction of the original game, down to the opcodes; on the other hands it requires the user to provide the original game assets.

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Waterluvian 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Does AI fit well in trying to reason about the structure of a decompiled project when you lack symbol names?

This isn’t my wheelhouse but I was surprised just how well AI could figure out the intent of the structure of some JavaScript where I had no source maps.

	▲	AJenbo an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Yes it's very helpful

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shdh 24 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I never played this, but I did play Janes F/A-18, was a great game

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imrehg an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Oh, this was one that I played a lot as a kid! (Alongside F-19 Stealth Fighter, F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter - the two that apparently came before and after this game - TIL, and to a lesser extent F-14 Tomcat)

I think, this needs the original game files to run, if I read things correctly. So probably just gonna read the dev journals, rather than fly this particular bird again...

	▲	alberto-m 16 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The dev blog is one of the best retro-reversing journals you can find. Happy reading!
	▲	sourcegrift an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Aren't these names trademarked? I can imagine lockheed selling the rights for a side income lol

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bigmattystyles 28 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If it's the game I'm thinking of, floppy copies were going around my middle school in France at the time but this was a game that without the manual, good luck even getting the plane off the ground. I seem to recall a mode where you started out in the air. Fun times.

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smrtinsert an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Man I loved this game. My friend and I would split responsibility and share the keyboard. One did the firing other the navigating

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louwrentius an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've played this game so much on a Laser (Dutch computer brand) 286 with VGA monochrome screen, in the early '90s.

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mikerg87 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I posted this to twosopbts.com so that one more retro gaming community will know of the call

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cf100clunk 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> twosopbts.com

I'm not getting DNS NX results.

	▲	slater an hour ago \| parent [-]
		https://twostopbits.com/item?id=9081