Case study

Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome — a function-matched beta decompilation

Reconstructs the 17 July 1998 beta of Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome as C++ source compiled with Visual C++ 5.0. The project checks individual functions against the original empiresx.exe and uses recorded gameplay inputs to compare behavior; the author reports 5,013 byte-identical functions, with other functions still differing.

Targets: Game
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06

Stars: 2
Last commit: 2026-10-22
Language: C++
License (GitHub): CC0-1.0

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Windows, Python 3.12, Visual C++ 5.0, MASM ml.exe 14.36, and DirectPlay libraries from Visual C++ 6.0 are required.
Prerequisites: A retail Age of Empires and Rise of Rome installation supplies the game data; comparison needs the beta empiresx.exe, and research tools need its PDB.
Limits: The author reports 56 functions remain nonmatching.
License: CC0-1.0.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{age-of-empires-rise-of-rome-beta-decomp-case,
  title = {{Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome — a function-matched beta decompilation}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/dcostap/aoe1-decomp}},
  url = {https://github.com/dcostap/aoe1-decomp},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/age-of-empires-rise-of-rome-beta-decomp-case/}}
}

Plain text

Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome — a function-matched beta decompilation. https://github.com/dcostap/aoe1-decomp (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/age-of-empires-rise-of-rome-beta-decomp-case/

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · dcostap/aoe1-decomp · Revision 6d6d8b1
orig/README.md GitHub · dcostap/aoe1-decomp · Revision 6d6d8b1