Case study

Ape Escape: matching PlayStation executable decompilation

apes-escaped reconstructs the USA PlayStation Ape Escape executable as C compiled with a PsyQ-era GCC 2.8.1 toolchain. Unfinished functions and 48 overlays remain in assembly so the build can reproduce the original executable. The author reports 1,257 matching C functions, covering 58.3% of game-code bytes.

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

Stars: 0
Last commit: 2026-11-07
Language: C

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Provide your own USA Ape Escape disc.
Prerequisites: The setup uses Docker, Python 3 and Git Bash with the project's PsyQ-era GCC toolchain.
Limits: The author reports 48 overlays still in assembly and two minigame executables not started.
License: No licence file in the repository.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{ape-escape-matching-decomp-case,
  title = {{Ape Escape: matching PlayStation executable decompilation}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/SSZero88/apes-escaped}},
  url = {https://github.com/SSZero88/apes-escaped},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/ape-escape-matching-decomp-case/}}
}

Plain text

Ape Escape: matching PlayStation executable decompilation. https://github.com/SSZero88/apes-escaped (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/ape-escape-matching-decomp-case/

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About this entry

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · SSZero88/apes-escaped · Revision 78a9100
docs/findings.md GitHub · SSZero88/apes-escaped · Revision 78a9100