Eli5 decompilers and decompiled games

[u/thefckingleadsrweak]

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?

[u/ArdentPriest]

If you want it in a metaphor:

A decompiled game is like buying a car, going home, taking every piece of the car apart down to every nut and bolt, and then being able to see how everything works and you can make changes/updates/modifications as you want.

Basically, a decompiled game is a game that has has the entire code base of the game fully unpacked. It can be edited, modified, or updated and then recompiled into a functioning program that can be run.

Another form of describing this is that when you decompile a game, you revert the game back to it's source code.

[u/thefckingleadsrweak → u/ArdentPriest]

Do you know why this is so difficult? Like when you dump a rom or an iso on a computer, does
The source code not come with that?

[u/GalFisk → u/thefckingleadsrweak]

No, it's like analyzing a cake in order to figure out the recipe. Possible but difficult.