Case study

Eidolon in Rust: byte-exact Rust port of the Eidolon 64k intro

Ports Eidolon, Poo-Brain’s winning PC 64k intro from Revision 2017, from its packed 60,928-byte Windows executable to Rust, with chapters on how the original binary works and a separate size-optimized build. The author reports that coordinated OpenCode and Claude Code agents, using Ghidra through the REA MCP server among other tools, captured a controlled-clock reference of the original and matched all 27,000 frame hashes and the full PCM. Exactness rests on the project’s own GPU-specific captures, and the port embeds the original’s data.

Targets: Binary
Category: Community REA investigations
Relationship: Author-reported mixed workflow
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-19

Stars: 0
Last commit: 2026-10-18
Language: Python
License (GitHub): Apache-2.0

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

The Rust port targets i686-pc-windows-gnu. The documented Linux build uses Rust 1.97, MinGW-w64, Clang, Python, Wine and headless gamescope; the size build also needs NASM. Reference capture and size builds run on Linux, while macOS cannot run the intro.
A new reference capture needs the original scene.org release archive and gm.dls from a Microsoft DirectX redistributable, both checked by SHA-256. The port embeds original tables, curves, shaders and music plus 15 Roland GM/GS samples; the size build reads system gm.dls.
Under a controlled clock, the project reports matching 27,000 frame hashes and the full PCM. Shipped frame hashes fit its RTX 3070 Ti, driver and Wine setup; other GPUs need a local reference capture. Most fault-injection tests need 5.8 GB of unpublished raw reference data; 57 tests run without it. Native Windows playback and frame checks remain untested.
The size build is 44,139 bytes versus the original 60,928 bytes; it did not reach the 32 KiB target. The author reports agent-led work with human goal setting and decisions.
Rust code, tools and documentation are MIT or Apache-2.0. Bundled kkrunchy source is public domain. Original shaders, music, animation data and Roland samples retain their owners’ rights and are outside those licenses.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{eidolon-64k-rust-port-case,
  title = {{Eidolon in Rust: byte-exact Rust port of the Eidolon 64k intro}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs}},
  url = {https://github.com/RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs},
  urldate = {2026-10-19},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/eidolon-64k-rust-port-case/}}
}

Plain text

Eidolon in Rust: byte-exact Rust port of the Eidolon 64k intro. https://github.com/RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs (accessed 2026-10-19). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/eidolon-64k-rust-port-case/

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27
docs/rust/README.md GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27
docs/rust/verification.md GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27
docs/en/README.md GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27
size/README.md GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27
LICENSE-MIT GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27
LICENSE-APACHE GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27
size/packer/LICENSE GitHub · RovshanMuradov/eidolon-64k-rs · Revision 5850c27