decomp.dev, a website that aggregated game decompilation progress in one place, is shutting down its main directory and new project registrations. The administrator stated that AI has broken the "community aspect" of decompilation.
Launched in 2024, decomp.dev tracked progress for "matching decompilation," which restores source code to produce machine code identical to the original game. In an announcement on the website on the 15th, administrator @encounter explained that decompiling even a moderately sized game used to take years, and the site's purpose was to help contributors stay motivated by watching their progress go up. The shutdown is not a complete offline wipe; existing project pages and historical data will remain accessible, but the main directory and new project registrations will be blocked. Because the site's code is not open source, clone sites are also not permitted.
The administrator did not take issue with AI or porting itself, acknowledging that porting is also enjoyable work. Regarding AI, @encounter noted that starting earlier this year with models like Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.4, AI began handling matching decompilation tools without needing separate explanations, and recent models like GPT-6-Astra can follow complex instructions, cross-reference symbol and debug information, and find matching code structures on their own. With proper guidance and human code review, AI can significantly accelerate the work.
Nevertheless, the reasons given for the shutdown were problems surrounding individual decompilation projects. Projects traditionally open-sourced their code to encourage contributions, but this led to hostile forks that used AI to "finish" ongoing projects, a rush to release half-baked ports built on others' decompilation work, and confusion from conflating decompilation with PC ports. The primary goal of decompilation is research aimed at understanding how a game works, but using "decompilation" as a synonym for "PC port" diluted that intent. Furthermore, while decomp.dev was designed to aggregate progress, the administrator concluded that public listings and leaderboards encouraged a "hollow numbers game" driven by people burning tokens just to make numbers go up.
The reason AI projects were not banned outright is that "slop" is difficult to both define and moderate, and a single hobbyist administrator lacks the capacity to apply consistent standards across hundreds of projects.
Cases of using AI coding agents to create decompilations and PC ports have increased rapidly in recent months. Developer JRickey stated that BattleShip, a PC port of Super Smash Bros. for the N64, was 100% created with AI in a little over 25 days. The creator of an unofficial PC port of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening also explained that it was built almost entirely by Claude Code. However, what the administrator took a stand against was not this trend itself, but the practice of hijacking human-built projects or diluting the true purpose of decompilation.
The conflicts highlighted in the announcement have flared up in various places over recent months. On October 1, DarioSamo, developer of Banjo: Recompiled, drew a clear line stating that the newly revealed Banjo-Tooie Recompiled was completely unrelated to their team and entirely generated by AI. They added that it was the result of applying AI to tools created by their team, criticizing the AI porting race as a "race to the bottom". Criticism was also directed at a YouTube channel that showcased the project without initially disclosing the use of AI or its lack of relation to the original team. DarioSamo added that they do not use AI in any of their projects, including Zelda: Recompiled.
Meanwhile, in early September, Super Smash Bros. Melee for the GameCube reached 100% matching decompilation after roughly six years. When it was revealed that AI was used in the final stages, some fans pushed back, while defenders countered that six years of human effort preceded the AI involvement. In July, the developer of Mario Kart Wiicompiled faced criticism over "AI slop" after a FAQ revealed that AI was used for coding assistance. The developer stated that AI was not used for assets.
