PRESS START Built in a day · AI Engineer Code Summit · Nov 7, 2026

Lost games,
rebuilt and
proven.

87% of classic games are endangered, and most of their source code is gone. Frankenstein's agents rebuild it from the cartridge, one piece at a time. A compiler checks every byte.

See how it works Read the source

Victor Frankenstein never checked his work. Ours checks everything.

referee fn_08000230 · thumb · 20 B code Idle

A real bench function we wrote today, replayed. The retry is illustrative.

0%

of classic video games released in the US are critically endangered.

Video Game History Foundation and Software Preservation Network, 2023

Emulators keep games playable. Source code keeps them alive.

For most classic games, only the compiled cartridge survives. It still runs, but nobody can fix it, port it or change it.

First users: preservation groups and rights holders. Only games we're allowed to rebuild.

Byte-identical, or it's out.

MATCH 100%

Bright means proved by the compiler.

update_face?

Violet with a "?" means our guess.

How it works

Dig. Check. Learn.

  1. 01 · Muse Spark, steered by SubQ Snap

    Dig.

    Agents read the compiled game and write C, one function at a time.

    fn_08000230.cDigger 4
    extern u32 data_A7868023;

u32 fn_08000230(void)
{
    data_A7868023 = data_A7868023 * 1103515245u + 12345u;
    return (data_A7868023 >> 16) & 0x7FFF;
}

  2. 02 · The referee and the Checker

    Check.

    A compiler rebuilds every piece. Byte-identical or it's out. Lies get caught.

    MATCH ✓ 100%0.1 to 0.2 s per check

  3. 03 · MongoDB Atlas

    Learn.

    Every match teaches the crew a habit, so the next game goes faster.

    idiom
    idiom

    new habit · never an answer

    Signed x / 2 is a shift trick, not a divide:

    lsrs r3, r0, #31
adds r0, r3, r0
asrs r0, r0, #1

Liar caught

Agents lie. The referee doesn't.

A claim is just a claim until a fresh compile agrees. Every lie is logged and counted.

D4Digger 4 · Muse Spark
Matched it. Pretty sure.

checker → fresh referee call

first diff+0x000A

expectedadds r0, r0, r2

gotadds r0, r2, r0

Illustration.

The first patient

Doom is our first patient.

Famous, hidden from the agents, scrambled so they can't recite it, and checkable byte for byte. Numbers only from run files.

BENCHruns/bench_r01 · not Doom
0/14

train functions matched

first try
0
wall time
0 s
Muse Spark spend
$0.00
false claims
0
idioms learned
0

Bench, not Doom: 20 small functions we wrote today, at -O2. Doom is harder.

DOOMGBADoom, private variant · no LTO
0

functions in the target

0

held out from the library

  • Functions matchedmeasured live today
  • False claims caughtmeasured live today
  • Held-out matches, library off vs onmeasured live today
  • Attempts per matchmeasured live today

Counts from lab/out/manifest.json.

Play to recover

Play it, and we rebuild it.

The emulator tells SubQ Snap what's on screen and which code is running. Snap picks what to rebuild next, so what you're looking at heals first.

  1. status bar
  2. weapon
  3. walls and floor
  4. the face?
looking at: status bar

Stylised illustration, not game footage. The face stays violet: what it does is still our guess.

Built with

Sponsors are the organs, not the logos.

Muse writes it. Snap judges it. The compiler proves it. MongoDB remembers it. ASI:One lets anyone ask for it.

  • Meta Model API · Muse Spark, Muse Wonder

    The hands

    Writes every line of recovered C.

  • Subquadratic · SubQ Snap

    The judgment

    Reads the whole game at once and decides where every attempt goes.

  • Fetch.ai · ASI:One

    The front door

    Ask for a recovery in a chat. Get proof back.

  • MongoDB Atlas

    The memory

    Remembers every trick, so the next game is faster.

  • Google Gemini

    The second opinion

    A different lab double-checks every match.

Four lanes, one contract

  • AThe Lab. Reproducible build, the split, the referee and linter, the ASI:One agents.
  • BThe Crew. Diggers, Checker, idiom library, the held-out experiment.
  • CThe Stage. The live show, driven only by the event stream.
  • DThe Creature. Doom in an emulator, healing as its code returns.

Credits

Built today. And what isn't ours.

The commit history after 10:45 PT is the record.

Built today

Nov 7, 2026 · after 10:45 PT

  • The shared contracts, schemas and fixtures in contracts/
  • The build, split, referee and fakematch linter in lab/
  • The Diggers, the Checker, the idiom library and SubQ Snap steering in crew/
  • The Stage in stage/ and the emulator overlay and phone page in creature/
  • The Frankenstein Referee agent on ASI:One
  • This site, its illustrations and the README

Not ours, with thanks

credited, never claimed

  • Doom by id Software
  • prBoom by its authors
  • GBADoom by doomhack, GPL-2.0-or-later. Used only as the hidden answer key, never committed
  • devkitARM GCC by devkitPro, and the mGBA emulator
  • Muse Spark and Muse Wonder (Meta), SubQ Snap (Subquadratic), ASI:One and Agentverse (Fetch.ai), MongoDB Atlas, Gemini (Google)
  • Fonts by their designers, via Google Fonts

Prior work we brought: the planning kit in docs/, including docs/design_system.html (a visual reference only, never shipped or pasted), and the event clock tools/hackclock.py.

NEW GAME+

Anywhere the only thing left is the compiled program, Frankenstein can bring the source back.