Case study
Skyward Sword: Wii decompilation with hash-checked relinking
Reconstructs C++ source for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’s Wii main.dol and REL modules, starting from the user’s NTSC-U 1.0 (SOUE01) disc files. Objects marked matching are compiled from source and linked with objects split from the original, and the result is checked against SHA-1 hashes; the repository ships no assets or assembly and is not a port.
- Targets
- Game
- Category
- Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship
- Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed
Requirements & limits
- Prerequisites: Building needs the user’s own SOUE01 game: README names sys/main.dol and files/rels.arc from its data partition as the only required files. The repository contains no game assets or assembly; decomp-toolkit splits the user’s files into objects locally, using the input hash and split tables in config/SOUE01.
- Prerequisites: Builds run natively on Windows with Python and ninja, or on Linux/macOS with ninja and the automatically downloaded wibo wrapper. configure.py pins decomp-toolkit v1.7.1, objdiff v3.4.1, binutils 2.42-1 and a 20250812 compiler bundle, selecting Metrowerks Wii/1.5 for most code and Wii/1.3 for most NW4R code; objdiff compares individual objects during development.
- Scope: README describes a work-in-progress Wii decompilation whose only supported version is SOUE01 (NTSC-U 1.0); configure.py also lists SOUP01, but the pinned tree has configuration only for SOUE01. The output is a rebuilt main.dol and REL set for the Wii, not a PC executable or port.
- Testing evidence: The default ninja target links source-built objects only for units marked Matching (493 in configure.py; 536 remain NonMatching) and uses the original extracted object for the rest, then checks main.dol and 636 RELs against build.sha1. A passing check shows output identity. decomp.dev’s report for the pinned commit lists 27.89% of code bytes and 33,940 of 76,968 functions matched; CI uses a private container holding game files.
- License: The repository carries CC0-1.0; that dedication does not cover Nintendo’s game, its files or the downloaded compilers.
About this entry
The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Primary sources
- README.md GitHub · zeldaret/ss · Revision d3d8e3c
- configure.py GitHub · zeldaret/ss · Revision d3d8e3c
- tools/project.py GitHub · zeldaret/ss · Revision d3d8e3c
- config/SOUE01/config.yml GitHub · zeldaret/ss · Revision d3d8e3c
- config/SOUE01/build.sha1 GitHub · zeldaret/ss · Revision d3d8e3c
- LICENSE GitHub · zeldaret/ss · Revision d3d8e3c
- .github/workflows/build.yml GitHub · zeldaret/ss · Revision d3d8e3c
- https://decomp.dev/zeldaret/ss
- https://web.archive.org/web/20261020041301/https://decomp.dev/zeldaret/ss/SOUE01/d3d8e3cbf3d353b2231f06690965cac5366e28a1.json
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