Case study

Nanolathe: a documented Total Annihilation engine reimplementation

Reimplements a Total Annihilation-compatible strategy-game engine in Go, with public file-format research and separate gameplay profiles. It distinguishes intended retail 3.1 behavior from community-patch research and deliberate modern changes, and separates synthetic checks from tests requiring original game data.

Requirements and limitations

Native use requires the user’s installed Total Annihilation HPI archives. The reference installation includes Core Contingency, Battle Tactics and patch 3.1; other combinations remain under testing.
The pinned source requires Go 1.27.1 or newer and Ebitengine 2.10.5. Native targets include Windows, macOS 13+ and Linux with graphical/audio libraries; the browser build remains experimental.
The project is beta. Modern rules intentionally change behavior, while Strict 3.1 expresses a compatibility aim rather than independent proof of full retail equivalence.
Synthetic tests run without retail assets; the separate retail tier requires an installed game. This catalog did not build, obtain game files or reproduce gameplay/rendering claims.
Original engine code is MIT; original game assets and dependency licenses are separate. The publication note describes curated integration snapshots, omitted raw research and unresolved attribution questions; those snapshots are not individually certified releases.

About this entry

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

Sources reviewed 2026-10-17

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

Requirements and limitations

About this entry

Primary sources