decomp.dev shuts down its leaderboard: decompilations versus AI

decomp.dev, which tracked the progress of game decompilations, is closing its index. Its author blames AI-“finished” forks and the race for PC ports.


The end of a dashboard

Created in 2024, decomp.dev tracked the progress of matching decompilation projects, the ones that rewrite a game's source code until they get back exactly the same program. Its author, encounter, announced in mid-October 2026 that the site is going dormant: the main index and the addition of new projects are disabled. The pages of existing projects and their history remain online, and they are still tracked.


Why

The author is not targeting AI itself, and acknowledges that with good prompts, review and humans in charge, recent models clearly speed up decompilation. What he does denounce is:

• the forks of existing projects “finished” by AI, with no real contribution, against the wishes of some teams;
• the race for ports: barely working PC ports, built from decompilations their authors did not take part in;
• the confusion between “decompilation” and “PC port”, when decompilation is first and foremost a way to understand games.

In the author’s view, the public leaderboard turned decompilation into a percentage race, and it now does more harm than good. He also refuses to let anyone host a copy of the site: its code was never released under a free license.


The context

Recent months have seen many ports built from decompilations, such as the Super Mario Galaxy one or the Smash Bros. Melee one, but also some friction, such as the AI-written Banjo-Tooie port.


Sources: decomp.dev · Time Extension (18 October roundup)