# Alien Soldier: byte-identical Mega Drive cartridge reconstruction

> Alien Soldier source reconstruction rebuilds the Japanese and European Mega Drive cartridges from shared 68000 assembly and a separate Z80 sound-program source. The author reports byte-identical builds from user-supplied ROM dumps and provides format documentation, content-editing tools and a MAME attract-sequence check.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-11-08
- Added to the catalog: 2026-11-09
- Original resource: <https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/alien_soldier_src>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/alien_soldier_src/blob/5c074f2aec87fbddff94fe52d7912d7689d81a5b/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/alien-soldier-src-case/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/alien-soldier-src-case/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/alien-soldier-src-case/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- **Prerequisites:** Users must supply their own Japanese and European Alien Soldier cartridge dumps.
- **Prerequisites:** Python and Retrolarium Kit are required for building; MAME is required for the attract-sequence check.
- **Limits:** MAME runtime coverage currently includes the Japanese attract sequence, not a full playthrough or European runtime.
- **License:** No licence file in the repository.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/alien_soldier_src/blob/5c074f2aec87fbddff94fe52d7912d7689d81a5b/README.md>
2. <https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/alien_soldier_src/blob/5c074f2aec87fbddff94fe52d7912d7689d81a5b/CONTRIBUTING.md>
3. <https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/alien_soldier_src/blob/5c074f2aec87fbddff94fe52d7912d7689d81a5b/movies/README.md>

## More in Games

- [Alien Trilogy: a byte-matched PS1 source reconstruction](https://awesomerea.org/resources/alien-trilogy-ps1-decomp-case/index.md) · Case study
- [Alien vs Predator: reconstructing the Atari Jaguar cartridge](https://awesomerea.org/resources/alien-vs-predator-jaguar-case/index.md) · Case study
- [Animal Crossing: matching GameCube decompilation](https://awesomerea.org/resources/animal-crossing-gamecube-decomp-case/index.md) · Case study
- [Animal Crossing: Wild World: matching Korean DS decompilation with differential runtime checks](https://awesomerea.org/resources/animal-crossing-wild-world-decomp-case/index.md) · Case study
- [Animal Forest: an in-progress matching N64 decompilation](https://awesomerea.org/resources/animal-forest-n64-decomp-case/index.md) · Case study
- [Another Mind: matching PlayStation source reconstruction](https://awesomerea.org/resources/another-mind-decomp-case/index.md) · Case study

## 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.