CPS-2 Recomp: static recompilation of Capcom CPS-2 and CPS-1 arcade games

Requirements & limits

• Reviewed at main (2026-10-19), eight commits after release v0.4.0-beta.3, published the same day for macOS 13+, Linux x86_64 including Steam Deck, and 64-bit Windows 10/11. README labels the collection beta: the fighting games play from start to ending, the beat-’em-ups have been run through their first stages under automated play, and few machines and controllers have been tried; Street Fighter Alpha has no training mode or widescreen yet.
• Each game needs the user’s own copy of one specific MAME-style ROM set, such as sfa2u (USA 960430) or vsavj (Japan 970519), with its key file for CPS-2 titles; each game.cfg lists the expected files and checksums. THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES states that nothing from any game or board is in the repository and that translated code is made on the machine of someone who has the ROM set; RELEASING.md adds that each released game program contains that game’s translated and compiled 68000 and Z80 code, a risk the maintainer accepted on 2026-10-12.
• Source builds use make with CMake, Ninja, Python 3 and SDL 3.4.16 or later: Apple clang on macOS, GCC 13+ or Clang 16+ with CMake 3.28+ on Linux, and MinGW-w64 cross-compilation or an MSYS2 UCRT64 shell for Windows. The first build writes the deciphered program, and an explore step of about ten minutes finds code through automated play before translating it; code it does not find keeps running on the interpreter.
• docs/VERIFYING.md documents a check build that runs each translated block beside the interpreter and stops at the first difference in registers, flags, cycles, control flow or memory writes, plus per-frame state-hash comparisons between run modes; the optional arcade timing was compared with a simulated jtcps2 model of the board. CI runs an audit for committed game files, keys and unlisted third-party code, and builds and starts each platform’s package with a stand-in game and no game code. This collection ran none of these checks.
• The project is GPL-3.0; machine/cps2crypt.cpp is MAME’s BSD-3-Clause CPS-2 cipher code, the launcher descends from wiiparty-recomp (GPL-3.0-or-later) through the author’s recomp-common, and sound/driver.cpp is a hand rewrite of Capcom’s QSound sound program that reads its tables and samples from the user’s ROMs. Capcom and the other rights holders keep their game rights. The reviewed sources establish no AI or REA use, and no runtime reproduction is claimed.

About this entry

Type

Case study

Category

Independent reconstruction cases

Relationship

Independent reconstruction project

Targets

Game

Sources reviewed 2026-10-19

The description was reviewed against primary sources. This does not establish runtime testing, security auditing or verified compatibility.

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Primary sources

1. README.md GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
2. THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
3. docs/RELEASING.md GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
4. docs/BUILDING.md GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
5. docs/VERIFYING.md GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
6. docs/TIMING.md GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
7. games/sfa2/game.cfg GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
8. tools/audit.sh GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
9. .github/workflows/ci.yml GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
10. .gitignore GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
11. LICENSE GitHub · tmcleroy/cps2recomp · Revision 74e26fb
12. https://github.com/tmcleroy/cps2recomp/releases/tag/v0.4.0-beta.3