Benefactor — native PC and Android port

This repository is an in-progress native/interpreter port of Benefactor (1994, Digital Illusions/Psygnosis). The intended product keeps its established native disk, hardware, renderer, audio, input, UI, and enhancement owners while executing every remaining 68000 instruction on demand through shared/amigaport.

The retired offline 68000-to-C product and its generated corpus have been deleted. The adapter now builds against shared/amigaport; representative gameplay conformance and hosted release evidence remain open. See docs/project-state.md and docs/migration.md.

No original game disk, Kickstart ROM, WHDLoad file, generated guest code, or reconstructable game asset belongs in the repository or release packages.

These captures document the pre-migration native host and its user-visible features. They are not evidence that the interpreter product is complete.

Current feature state

The canonical inventory is docs/project-state.md. In summary:

Capability	State
Native pause/options and persistent settings	partial
Keyboard, controllers, touch, hot-plug, and rebinding	partial
60-level selector, progress, locks, and restored difficulty	partial
Classic/optional platformer physics and interaction reach	partial
Turbo/Hyper/5x fast-forward with normal-speed audio	partial
Faithful/native software/Vulkan renderers and effects	partial
True 16:9, 21:9, and live-window widescreen	partial
Native disk loading, instant boot, and no floppy waits	partial
Free camera, cheats, accessibility, savestate diagnostics	partial
Player save-slot UI and rewind	missing
amigaport maintained 68000 interpreter integration	partial; adapter builds, gameplay evidence remains
Static translator, generated corpus, and dispatcher removed	verified
Single-owner native/interpreter gameplay composition	partial; link boundary is in place, runtime audit remains
Representative cross-host gameplay conformance and performance	missing
Windows, macOS .app, Linux AppImage, Android APK, and WASM Pages releases	verified hosted asset-free matrix; Android publication signing and runtime gates remain open
Android, browser, and source-launcher disk browse/setup	partial; extensionless disk files and one bounded disk ZIP are accepted, packaged desktop persistence and runtime handoff remain open
One version identity shown in-game and used for the package and the release tag	verified; version.txt is the source, the pause panel shows it, and the publisher refuses a mismatched tag
Release check with an in-game answer	partial; asks the release service once per launch with the host's own HTTP client and reports a newer release, this build current, or the exact failure — desktop and Android verified, browser run open

Player-supplied files

The intended product consumes the original three disk images directly. The known SHA-256 identities are:

Disk.1  25416a6e390cbe94e4b2375c9513a2adf3411072fc5b6069ea34a0f3ff697916  1003520 bytes
Disk.2  f3649c8db4adfce3c7da5e21cb018be098404771eceeec44741c2528e9071b73  1003520 bytes
Disk.3  8dd262d02174a6706d5214b25f7bd9fc4bffe94761e16c209b880bc1dd8e7a42  1003520 bytes

PUAE development comparisons additionally use player-supplied files under harness/:

Benefactor.slave       7ee0edba0e0f3eb8da38fb3aaccead4324e7aa12a6d99ad81a9c15ecf33d4670  1084 bytes
kick40068.A1200        6d43840d4099a74170ea0f0425b6257c3891ebcaa39c4d1840075a9ab22b5707  524288 bytes

The intended standalone product does not require Kickstart, WHDLoad, PUAE, or Ghidra.

In the browser version, choose all three disk files together or one ZIP containing them. Validation errors can be corrected in the same page; reload the page to choose different disks after the game starts or startup fails.

Build and run status

./run.sh is the fresh-clone interface and delegates to a locked Python initializer. It checks out the shared trees the build consumes — the 68000 runtime, the logging and control library, the setup screen and its renderer — at the revisions the release workflow pins, validates the player's three disks, builds the native product, and launches it; ./run.sh --browse opens a desktop file picker for selecting the disk set. Tests and oracle runs remain separate commands.

Intended runtime

Benefactor loads four executable image generations that reuse guest addresses: main/intro, title/menu, gameplay, and credits. The product therefore keys active execution and native overrides by image generation plus address. A native override can make a scoped original call through the interpreter owner. For this Amiga-class title, that interpreter may be the default shipping CPU. Only representative interactive gameplay can prove it: x86-64 desktop, Apple Silicon macOS, and Android arm64-v8a each need correctness and sustained performance evidence; boot, menus, and FMV-like output are insufficient.

The existing native owners remain valuable:

• disk reads, ATN decompression, overlay relocation, and instant loading;
• chip RAM, OCS/CIA service boundaries, blitter, and Paula audio;
• faithful/native/Vulkan rendering and deterministic widescreen;
• logical input, controller/touch policies, pause/options, and level selection;
• native game-flow, interaction, physics, camera, effects, cheats, and accessibility behavior; and
• PUAE differential driving, state/frame inspection, and runtime probes.

Architecture and responsibility placement are in docs/codemap.md. Recovered gameplay and audio facts remain in instructions/gameplay-engine-map.md and instructions/audio-engine.md.

Credits

Benefactor was developed by Digital Illusions and published by Psygnosis. This unofficial project distributes only original port/runtime code and documentation. SDL, Lucent, and libretro-uae/PUAE retain their respective licenses; PUAE is a development oracle, not part of the gameplay product. The port's own code is released under the MIT licence (LICENSE).

Built with AI assistance (Claude and other LLMs).