PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (GBA, USA) running natively on Linux, the Steam Deck and Windows: the game's machine code is statically recompiled into a native program with gbarecomp, not emulated.

Preview. The game is playable, but not every code path is recompiled ahead of time yet. Code the recompiler has not reached runs through a built-in interpreter the first time, is recompiled on the fly and cached, so the game gets faster the more it is played. Steam Deck and Windows support are designed for but not yet validated on that hardware.

No game data is included or distributed. You supply your own dump of the cartridge and of the GBA BIOS; the game is compiled from them on your machine.

Play

What you need

File	Expected dump	SHA-1
ROM	Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Red Rescue Team (USA, Australia), .gba, not zipped	9f4cfc5b5f4859d17169a485462e977c7aac2b89
GBA BIOS	gba_bios.bin, 16 KB	300c20df6731a33952ded8c436f7f186d25d3492

Any other revision or region is refused: the recompiled code is tied to this exact ROM.

Install (Linux, Steam Deck)

Download PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp-linux-x86_64-<version>.flatpak from Releases and install it. On a Steam Deck, do this in Desktop Mode, from Konsole:

flatpak install --user ./PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp-linux-x86_64-*.flatpak

The first install also fetches the Freedesktop SDK (about 1 GB): it provides the compiler that builds the game on your machine.

First launch

1. Put the ROM and the BIOS where they are found automatically. File names do not matter, they are recognized by content:

   • ~/Emulation/roms/gba/ and ~/Emulation/bios/ (EmuDeck's layout, also on an SD card);
   • or anywhere in ~/Downloads or your home folder.

2. Launch PMD Red Rescue Team Recomp from the applications menu, or from a terminal:

   flatpak run io.github.spacekillerz.PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp
   

   Both files show as Verified.

3. Press Build and play. The game compiles once: about 1 minute on a desktop PC, 5 to 8 minutes on a Steam Deck.

Every later launch starts the game directly.

Windows

Download PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp-windows-x64-<version>.zip from Releases and extract the whole folder anywhere writable: it carries its own compiler (w64devkit) in toolchain\, so nothing needs to be installed. Run PMDRedRescueTeamBuilder.exe; the program is not code-signed, so SmartScreen may ask you to confirm (More info > Run anyway).

The ROM and BIOS are found in Emulation\roms\gba and Emulation\bios on any drive (EmuDeck), in Downloads, Documents or Desktop, or picked with Choose file. Builds, saves and states live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\PMDRed.

Steam Deck

After installing in Desktop Mode, open Steam > Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library, tick PMD Red Rescue Team Recomp, and add it. In Gaming Mode the first-launch screen works with the controller alone: press A on Build and play.

Launch options

Add them after the launch command:

flatpak run io.github.spacekillerz.PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp --fullscreen --widescreen

In Steam, the game's Properties > Launch Options already hold the run … io.github.spacekillerz.PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp part: add the options at the end of that line.

On Windows, the builder hands them on to the game. From PowerShell in the extracted folder:

.\PMDRedRescueTeamBuilder.exe --fullscreen --widescreen

Or create a shortcut to PMDRedRescueTeamBuilder.exe and, in its Properties, add the options to the end of Target, after the closing quote. For a non-Steam game in Steam, put them in Launch Options.

Option	Effect
--fullscreen	Start in fullscreen.
--widescreen	Adaptive widescreen: the view follows the screen's aspect, up to 16:9. Dungeon floors fill the extra width (terrain, Pokémon, status icons, items); every other scene shows the original 240×160 picture between black bars.

Controls

GBA buttons follow QWERTY key positions (B is W on an AZERTY keyboard); system shortcuts follow the printed key.

Action	Keyboard	Controller
A / B	X / Z	A / B
L / R	C / V	LB / RB
Start / Select	Enter / Right Shift	Start / Back
D-pad	Arrow keys	D-pad
Settings menu	Escape	Guide
Fullscreen	F11	R3
Pause	P	L3
Rewind / fast-forward	1 / 2 (held)	LT / RT
Load / save state	F1–F9 / Shift + F1–F9
Volume up / down	Page Up / Page Down
Window bigger / smaller	Ctrl + Page Up / Down

Where things live

Everything the app writes stays in ~/.var/app/io.github.spacekillerz.PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp/data/PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp/: the compiled game (src/), your saves and save states (saves/), and the build log (build.log). Your ROM and BIOS are only read, never copied or modified.

• Update: install the new release; the next launch recompiles once, usually in seconds.
• Uninstall: flatpak uninstall io.github.spacekillerz.PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp, then delete the folder above to remove saves too.

Troubleshooting

• ROM or BIOS not found: check it is the unzipped USA .gba, and run flatpak run io.github.spacekillerz.PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp --scan to see what the search finds.
• Choose file does nothing: the file dialog is not available inside the Flatpak sandbox yet; move the files into one of the folders above.
• Build fails: the last lines of build.log (path above) say why; attach it to an issue.

Legal

This repository contains no ROM, no BIOS, no decompiled game source and no recompiled game code: only original recompiler, runtime and build code. You must use your own legally obtained dumps. Pokemon and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon are trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK, The Pokemon Company and Spike Chunsoft; this is an unaffiliated, non-commercial project.

Development

Layout

Path	Role
gbarecomp/	Recompiler + runtime (submodule, upstream mstan)
recomp-ui/	Launcher and in-game menu (submodule)
game.toml	Per-game recompiler config: the file we iterate on
src/main.cpp	Host entry point, runtime options
tools/builder/	First-run builder app (the released artifact)
packaging/	Flatpak manifest template, icon, release notes
scripts/	bootstrap, regen, build, run, package, verify-inputs
patches/	Local gbarecomp patches, applied by bootstrap
config/config.ini	Default hotkeys, seeded next to the executable
roms/, bios/	Your own dumps (git-ignored)
generated/	Recompiled C++ (git-ignored, always regenerated)

Build and run locally

Fedora: sudo dnf install clang cmake ninja-build SDL2-devel ccache

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/Spacekillerz/PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp
scripts/bootstrap.sh       # once: apply patches, build the gba_recompile tool
scripts/verify-inputs.sh   # check roms/pmd_red.gba and bios/gba_bios.bin
scripts/regen.sh           # recompile BIOS + cartridge into C++
scripts/build.sh           # compile the native executable
scripts/run.sh             # play; writes the coverage report

scripts/package.sh makes a portable folder of your own build. It embeds code translated from your ROM: it is for your own use and must never be shared.

The coverage loop

Code the static analyzer could not find (indirect calls, jump tables, code copied to RAM) is run by the interpreter the first time it is reached, then logged:

• recomp_coverage_B24E.json: "coverage" must reach fully static;
• recomp_master_misses_B24E.toml.frag: proposed [[extra_func]], [[code_copy]] and [[jump_table]] entries.

Review each proposal against the disassembly and the pret/pmd-red decomp, copy the genuine ones into game.toml, then regen, build and run again. Bump app_version in tools/builder/builder_core.cpp so players recompile.

The builder and releases

A recompiled binary is translated ROM code, so only the builder is released: it configures with -DGBAGAME_BUILDER_ONLY=ON, which needs no ROM.

cmake -S . -B build-builder -G Ninja -DGBAGAME_BUILDER_ONLY=ON
cmake --build build-builder && build-builder/test_builder_core
scripts/package_flatpak.sh   # flatpak-build/PMDRedRescueTeamRecomp.flatpak

CI builds and tests the builder on every push, on Linux in the Flatpak's SDK container and on Windows with the toolchain the zip ships. Pushing a v* tag builds the Flatpak (Flathub SDK container) and the Windows zip (scripts/package_windows.sh: w64devkit 2.10.0 trimmed to 64-bit C/C++, SDL2 2.32.10, both pinned by SHA-256) and publishes them with one SHA256SUMS.txt; a tag with a - (v0.1.0-beta.1) is a pre-release.

License and credits

PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0, like gbarecomp. Built on gbarecomp and recomp-ui by mstan; the builder is adapted from BoktaiRecomp by Shy.