Case study

OpenMTV: Mad TV decompiled and ported to modern systems

OpenMTV ports the 1991 DOS game Mad TV to Windows, macOS, and Linux using readable C reconstructed from its executable. A static recompiler supplies machine-level C for remaining code, while a DOS and hardware runtime supports the game and comparisons with original behavior.

Targets: Game
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06
Evidence class: C2 code & docs, no demo or download

Stars: 0
Last commit: 2026-10-23
Language: C
License (GitHub): GPL-3.0

GitHub data as of 2026-11-10

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Evidence

Observed: Code and documentation observed; no download method or demo found.
Checked: 2026-11-09

How evidence classes are assigned

Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Supply your own Mad TV files: MTV.EXE, INTRO.EXE, SOURCE1.RSC, SOURCE2.RSC, MCV.BIN, and DATAV.PCK for source builds.
Prerequisites: Source builds require a C compiler, make, SDL2, Python 3.8+ with capstone, and Go 1.25+ for the launcher.
Limits: The author reports 591 of 601 game functions in readable C; the remainder uses machine-level C.
License: GPL-3.0.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{openmtv-mad-tv-case,
  title = {{OpenMTV: Mad TV decompiled and ported to modern systems}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/openmtv/openmtv}},
  url = {https://github.com/openmtv/openmtv},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/openmtv-mad-tv-case/}}
}

Plain text

OpenMTV: Mad TV decompiled and ported to modern systems. https://github.com/openmtv/openmtv (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/openmtv-mad-tv-case/

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About this entry

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · openmtv/openmtv · Revision 413ab9c
names/FINDINGS.md GitHub · openmtv/openmtv · Revision 413ab9c
src/README.md GitHub · openmtv/openmtv · Revision 413ab9c