Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech.
Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics.
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Summary
- LLM tools let anyone decompile and recompile games, enabling easy native ports.
- Decomp.dev shut down after a deluge of LLM-made decompilations broke community trust.
- Hostile AI forks and rushed, half-baked releases undermined cooperative projects.
AI coding has hit a tipping point where people can now perform native ports of games. Anyone can pick up an AI coding tool, ask it to decompile a game's source code, then recompile it so it can be ported anywhere they like. Unfortunately, it seems this new era of AI has taken its toll, as a major decomp community website has shut down amid the wave of LLM submissions.
Decomp.dev closes its doors after a deluge of LLM-made decomps
AI was causing issues with the initiative
As spotted by GamesRadar, the decomp.dev website has closed its doors. In a statement, the website states that the website's original goal was to "gamify decompilation." The idea was that ongoing decomp projects would have a little progress bar, which would encourage people to get excited about decomps, get involved with projects, and help people get games to more people.
However, with the recent surge in LLM-based decomps, the statement claims that the community spirit behind these projects has been "broken" for a few reasons:
Forking existing decompilation projects to "finish" them with AI.
Every project works differently: some may not want to use AI for legal or ethical reasons, and others may be okay with AI, or use AI themselves, but do not want drive-by contributions from folks who have put no effort into making sure the contributions are good. The bottom line is that these kinds of hostile forks put little to no effort into meaningfully contributing to existing projects, tearing apart our community fabric.
The statement also claims that people were using the website to 'race' human-made projects, where an AI user would grab the current work, then release it "half-baked" to take the credit for the release. Also, the site lists grievances with associating 'decomp' with specifically porting games to other platforms, as some enthusiasts just enjoy the challenge of 'cracking the code' without necessarily porting it anywhere.