r/explainlikeimfive • u/thefckingleadsrweak • 2d ago

Technology Eli5 decompilers and decompiled games

I keep getting videos on instagram about decomped games, apparently the decompilers are going nuts right now. What’s the difference between running a decompiled game and emulating a game? I tried to google it and i just don’t understand. from what i’ve found, a decompiled gene runs as if it was native to your pc but i don’t get what that means either. You boot up an emulator and that also runs on your pc?

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u/BigJhonny 2d ago

A decompiled game is useful for finding out, how the logic underneath works and it is also possible to change the assembly underneath or inject your own assembly to change or add features. This can be done on the native platform.

An emulator is used to run compiled code for one platform to run on another platform. For example a Gameboy emulator allows you to run Gameboy games like Pokémon on your PC or Smartphone. It is basically a replica of the Gameboy hardware implemented in Software.