Case study

Black & White: decompiling the Windows and Classic Mac OS game builds

Black & White is being reconstructed as C and C++ source for multiple Windows PE/COFF and Classic Mac OS PEF releases. The workflow splits user-supplied game binaries into objects, builds reconstructed source with period toolchains, and compares objects with objdiff.

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

Stars: 127
Last commit: 2026-11-09
Language: C++
License (GitHub): CC0-1.0

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: An existing game copy and the original binaries for the selected version are required; Windows builds also need the game's DLLs.
Prerequisites: The documented Windows builds require decrypted executables and period MSVC libraries; Python and Ninja drive configuration and builds.
Limits: The decompilation is in progress across multiple versions.
License: CC0-1.0 license.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{black-and-white-1-decomp-case,
  title = {{Black \& White: decompiling the Windows and Classic Mac OS game builds}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/openblack/bw1-decomp}},
  url = {https://github.com/openblack/bw1-decomp},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/black-and-white-1-decomp-case/}}
}

Plain text

Black & White: decompiling the Windows and Classic Mac OS game builds. https://github.com/openblack/bw1-decomp (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/black-and-white-1-decomp-case/

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About this entry

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · openblack/bw1-decomp · Revision fd018f4
docs/getting_started.md GitHub · openblack/bw1-decomp · Revision fd018f4