# 3SX: a native Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike port continuing the PS2 decompilation

> Builds Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike as native C for Windows, macOS and Linux, continuing the 3s-decomp PS2 decompilation, with SDL3 for video, input and audio and GekkoNet for rollback netplay. README stresses that it is neither a recompilation nor emulation. The port needs the player’s own PS2 game files and works toward arcade-accurate balance, which an optional Statcheck build tests against CPS3 RAM states recorded from Fightcade replays.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-10-19
- Added to the catalog: 2026-10-28
- Original resource: <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/3sx-third-strike-native-port-case/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/3sx-third-strike-native-port-case/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/3sx-third-strike-native-port-case/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- README calls 3SX a native port and a continuation of 3s-decomp, explicitly neither a recompilation nor emulation. At the reviewed commit the game code under src/sf33rd has no remaining INCLUDE_ASM stubs, and src/port supplies SDL3 platform, input and sound layers, including its own ADX decoder. This is a modified port: its goals include fixing balance regressions the PS2 version introduced, and the arcade-balance option is marked work in progress. The only release is a rolling pre-release rebuilt from main, and goals such as stable PC play and the arcade ROM as sole dependency remain on the 1.0 milestone.
- Play requires a legally obtained PS2 copy of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike or Street Fighter Anniversary Collection: a startup wizard reads the user’s disc image, or SF33RD.AFS from it is placed in the resources folder, and release builds compare that file with a SHA-256 in resources.c. The arcade-balance option also needs the user’s sfiii3nr1.zip CPS3 ROM set. The tree ships no game archives, but src/bin2obj carries large C data tables from the decompilation.
- Prebuilt rolling releases cover Windows, macOS, and x86_64 and arm64 Linux. Source builds use CMake 3.24+ with Clang, after MSYS2 MinGW64 packages on Windows, the listed Ubuntu packages or Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS; build-deps.sh fetches and builds SDL3, SDL_net, GekkoNet, libcdio, minizip-ng and TF-PSA-Crypto. CMake and CI also carry a PSP branch built with Docker tooling.
- Pull-request CI only builds the Windows, macOS, Linux and PSP targets. Arcade accuracy is checked with the optional Statcheck build: tools/fcade-replays, described as a reverse-engineering helper for Fightcade’s replay stream, downloads replays; a custom FBNeo fork records per-frame CPS3 RAM dumps; and Statcheck stops at the first mismatch in health, positions, stun, super-art meter, timer or round phase. The reviewed tree publishes no Statcheck results.
- The repository carries an agent skill with a Codex interface file. It directs a coding agent to compare local functions with a CPS3 program through a read-only Ghidra MCP server, mark each function’s parity and add CPS3 behaviour behind the arcade-balance flag. LICENSE is AGPL-3.0. THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES lists GPLv3+ libcdio with zlib, BSD-2-Clause, MIT and Apache-2.0 components, the game and its assets keep their own rights, and README says the project does not condone piracy.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/README.md>
2. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/docs/building.md>
3. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/docs/statcheck.md>
4. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/docs/config.md>
5. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/docs/resources.md>
6. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/CMakeLists.txt>
7. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/build-deps.sh>
8. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/src/port/resources.c>
9. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/src/arcade/rom/rom.c>
10. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/tree/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/src/port>
11. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/tree/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/src/bin2obj>
12. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/tools/fcade-replays/README.md>
13. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/.agents/skills/compare-cps3-code/SKILL.md>
14. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/.agents/skills/compare-cps3-code/agents/openai.yaml>
15. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/.github/workflows/build_linux.yml>
16. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/.github/workflows/build_psp.yml>
17. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/.github/workflows/release.yml>
18. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt>
19. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/blob/bdc2cd351aad35d7e251a5a6d63a3368bd31cbaa/LICENSE>
20. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/releases/tag/rolling-pre-release>
21. <https://github.com/crowded-street/3sx/milestone/1>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.