AwesomeREA.org

Case study

DOAXVB Native PC Port: statically recompiling Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

Lifts the original Xbox executable of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball to C with a fork of xboxrecomp and links it with a hand-written runtime that replaces kernel imports, audio and key Direct3D 8 and DirectSound APIs. Setup builds the runner locally from the user’s USA disc image and checks generated files against hashes in an authenticated recipe; releases carry only tools and source. Rewriting game logic as readable source has so far reached only the startup thread entry.

Requirements and limitations

  • The README calls the port fully playable as of 0.4 Beta: long player sessions covered every stage, the Casino, Hotel and Shops, saving and reloading, and a vacation’s end, the last starting from an edited save. Lighting, camera and full rendering fidelity remain incomplete, three known issues are open, and the 0.6.0 RC1 prerelease has had only macOS and Steam Deck smoke runs. Hand-written game logic covers only the startup thread entry.
  • Requires the user’s own USA Xbox disc image; setup extracts it, checks the XBE and stops if any recipe input or generated file differs from the recorded hashes. Generated game C, extracted files, saves and run evidence stay in an ignored private folder, and NOTICE states that the repository distributes no game, generated game code, assets or console firmware.
  • Windows release setup bundles Python, Capstone, Git, CMake and extract-xiso and downloads a pinned llvm-mingw clang release. macOS and Linux/SteamOS builds need CMake, Ninja, SDL3, Python with Capstone 5.0.9 and a self-built extract-xiso, with Vulkan through SDL3 and shaderc on Linux. The lifter is a pinned branch of NoRain211’s fork of sp00nznet/xboxrecomp.
  • Public CI checks the recipe, setup and ISO-extraction scripts with synthetic inputs and builds and runs the runtime tests on Windows without game files. The status page states that these tests do not show the game boots or plays; playability rests on owner and contributor sessions, and PlayStation pads are unconfirmed on hardware. This collection did not build or run the port.
  • Original code is GPL-3.0-or-later, and NOTICE grants no rights to the game; xboxrecomp is MIT and other components keep their own licenses. The README and NOTICE state substantial use of LLMs and AI coding agents for code, reverse-engineering analysis, debugging, tests and documentation, with changes reviewed and tested; no REA use is stated.

About this entry

Type
Case study
Category
Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship
Independent reconstruction project
Targets
Game

Sources reviewed

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

Primary sources

  1. README.md GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  2. docs/public-status.md GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  3. docs/building.md GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  4. NOTICE GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  5. LICENSE GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  6. CONTRIBUTING.md GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  7. .gitmodules GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  8. .gitignore GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  9. .github/workflows/public-ci.yml GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  10. docs/wayfinder/research/host-shell-redistribution.md GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  11. tools/game-recipe/README.md GitHub · NoRain211/doaxvb-re · Revision e282a3f
  12. https://github.com/NoRain211/doaxvb-re/releases/tag/v0.5.3