Case study

Golden Sun: a matching GBA decompilation with overlay comparisons

Golden Sun reconstructs source for the USA GBA game from an earlier disassembly and checks a rebuilt ROM against the original. Its patched GCC 2.96 build also compares all 96 code overlays, while C source, assembly fragments, linker scripts, and symbol maps track the ongoing recovery.

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

Stars: 31
Last commit: 2026-11-08
Language: Assembly

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Ubuntu x86-64 Linux or WSL2, GNU Make, Bash, Python 3, ARM binutils, and the camelot-gcc compilers.
Prerequisites: A legally obtained USA Golden Sun ROM with SHA1 5c4695205413df7db52b9a184815a07783999971.
Limits: Matching decompilation remains in progress.
Attribution: Preserve component credits and file-level notices; there is no project-wide licence file.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{golden-sun-gba-decomp-case,
  title = {{Golden Sun: a matching GBA decompilation with overlay comparisons}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/Coaltergeist/goldensun-decomp}},
  url = {https://github.com/Coaltergeist/goldensun-decomp},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/golden-sun-gba-decomp-case/}}
}

Plain text

Golden Sun: a matching GBA decompilation with overlay comparisons. https://github.com/Coaltergeist/goldensun-decomp (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/golden-sun-gba-decomp-case/

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About this entry

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · Coaltergeist/goldensun-decomp · Revision d8f140a
INSTALL.md GitHub · Coaltergeist/goldensun-decomp · Revision d8f140a
ATTRIBUTION.md GitHub · Coaltergeist/goldensun-decomp · Revision d8f140a