Case study

recherno: investigating Chernobyl: The Legacy Continues in a custom virtual machine

recherno investigates Chernobyl: The Legacy Continues by running its original Fortran/Win32 engine inside a custom virtual machine. It uses Unicorn to execute the engine and Capstone for debugging. Engine API reconstruction and a Qt GUI for controlling game functions are in progress, with removal of the original binary blobs planned later.

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

Stars: 2
Last commit: 2024-11-02
Language: C++
License (GitHub): WTFPL

GitHub data as of 2026-11-10

Copy as Markdown View JSON Cite

Evidence

Observed: Code and documentation observed; no download method or demo found.
Checked: 2026-11-08

How evidence classes are assigned

Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: The user's original chrnob_32.dll and shutdown.icd files must be placed beside the executable.
Prerequisites: Qt Widgets, Unicorn and Capstone are build dependencies.
Limits: Engine API recovery and removal of original blobs remain unfinished.
License: WTFPL version 2.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{recherno-chernobyl-case,
  title = {{recherno: investigating Chernobyl: The Legacy Continues in a custom virtual machine}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/vlasta-labsky/recherno}},
  url = {https://github.com/vlasta-labsky/recherno},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/recherno-chernobyl-case/}}
}

Plain text

recherno: investigating Chernobyl: The Legacy Continues in a custom virtual machine. https://github.com/vlasta-labsky/recherno (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/recherno-chernobyl-case/

Useful? Star Awesome REA on GitHub2.4k

About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

Report an outdated entry Suggest a translation fix

Primary sources

README.md GitHub · vlasta-labsky/recherno · Revision 6d998ba
CMakeLists.txt GitHub · vlasta-labsky/recherno · Revision 6d998ba