# Noble Archimedes: recompiling Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for PC

> Noble Archimedes recompiles Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. The primary path turns the original Xbox release into native x64 code with Direct3D 12 and XAudio2. An experimental PlayStation 2 path covers the USA release SLUS-21168. The Windows beta compiles the game locally from the player's USA Xbox files on first run.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-11-07
- Added to the catalog: 2026-11-09
- Original resource: <https://github.com/sergiomanzur/noble-archimedes>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/sergiomanzur/noble-archimedes/blob/81934b840b5738468d9d043c8dd990386d5e59db/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/noble-archimedes/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/noble-archimedes/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/noble-archimedes/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- Windows x64 and a Direct3D 12 GPU. Building needs Python 3, Git, CMake 3.25 or newer, Ninja, LLVM Clang/LLD, and the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools. Put an extracted USA Xbox disc, including default.xbe, under extracted/. The documented commands are .\Build Noble Archimedes.cmd --full-game and .\Launch Noble Archimedes.cmd.
- License: GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-or-later for the project's own code. The README says the Xbox donor stays GPLv2, its SDK patch stays MIT, PS2 GPLv3-derived components stay GPLv3, and branding in assets/noble/ is CC0.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/sergiomanzur/noble-archimedes/blob/81934b840b5738468d9d043c8dd990386d5e59db/README.md>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.