Case study

Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles: a byte-identical source reconstruction fork

A source reconstruction fork rebuilds three regional Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ROMs, Sonic & Knuckles and the Sonic 3 & Knuckles lock-on composition byte for byte from user-provided images. Beyond the inherited disassembly, it organizes 68000 and Z80 source by subsystem and adds ROM identity checks, MAME runtime comparisons and bounded content round trips and edits.

Targets: Game
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-08
Evidence class: C2 code & docs, no demo or download

Stars: 0
Last commit: 2026-11-06
Language: Assembly

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: Initialization requires legally obtained reference images for all five supported profiles.
Prerequisites: The supported host is Windows x64 with Python 3.11+, Git, GNU Make and pinned Retrolarium Kit and Core dependencies; runtime comparisons use a pinned MAME build.
Scope: Expanded ROMs, variable allocation, engine merging and a general edited-ROM composer are outside the stated scope.
License: No licence file in the repository.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{sonic3k-source-reconstruction-case,
  title = {{Sonic 3 and Sonic \& Knuckles: a byte-identical source reconstruction fork}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/sonic3k_src}},
  url = {https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/sonic3k_src},
  urldate = {2026-11-08},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/sonic3k-source-reconstruction-case/}}
}

Plain text

Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles: a byte-identical source reconstruction fork. https://github.com/RetrolariumLab/sonic3k_src (accessed 2026-11-08). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/sonic3k-source-reconstruction-case/

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · RetrolariumLab/sonic3k_src · Revision c5bd309
docs/architecture_decisions.md GitHub · RetrolariumLab/sonic3k_src · Revision c5bd309