Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

This repository contains a work-in-progress decompilation effort for Kirby 64.

This repository does not contain game assets. The original game is required to build this project.

REPO GOALS

• I intend for this to be moddable over a complete decomp. Percentage is a number that can go up any time, but what's the point if nobody can read the codebase?
• Therefore I value things like
  • Correct Names
    • In most cases jargon is preferred because it will refer to something you can easily look up
  • Explicit Emulator/Console Testing to see what various variables and structures do

Installation

• First, get Linux, or Windows Subsystem for Linux if you use Windows
• Next, grab dependencies by running sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3 git gcc-mips-linux-gnu
  • ALERT: Ubuntu 26 seems to no longer have gcc-mips-linux-gnu. Install the libdragon toolchain .deb file from their releases page instead
• Grab the qemu-irix deb from here and install it with sudo dpkg -i path/to/qemu(press tab here to autocomplete the name) (Use alien on Fedora or debtap on Arch to convert)
• Next, clone the repo by running git clone https://github.com/Kirby64Ret/kirby64 --recursive
• Get uv (the Python Everything App) with python3 -m pip install uv
  • Or use the relevant instructions for your distribution/package manager at the installation page. Running the standalone installer is not recommended.
• Grab the rest of the dependencies for your distro by using this wiki page.
• Put your copy of the game into this folder, with the name baserom.us.z64
• Run make setup to get assets extracted, then make to build

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Want to contribute? 😳

Pull requests are welcome! Everything is fair game to work on, as long as it aligns with the goals!

I work on this decomp in a very sporadic way, so the best (and easiest!!) way to contribute is to essentially clean up after me. This involves:

• Fixing warnings
• Helping with documentation
• Finding interesting functions in the codebase to work on
• Writing modding tools for this repo or to be maintained separately

Progress! Everybody loves progress!

• ~7% by the Kirby 64 Contributors
• Claude added additional 50% in This PR
• Claude added additional 100% in a private fork (60% unmatched)
• Total: 157% decompiled (97% matched)