So I started decompiling LEGO Island...

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  • Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
  • ▶SUPPORT on Patreon and watch videos like this early and ad-free: / mattkc
    ▶LEGO Island Decompilation Repository: github.com/isledecomp/isle
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    ▶Music by DDRKirby(ISQ) used with permission: ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com/
    00:00 Introduction
    01:06 Why decompile LEGO Island?
    02:48 What is a decompilation?
    06:06 How does decompilation work?
    13:11 A technical analysis of ISLE.EXE
  • Ігри

КОМЕНТАРІ • 2,1 тис.

  • @suavebob
    @suavebob 11 місяців тому +5479

    Lego Island.... Yeah, I think i'll pass on this video.

    • @PGold3
      @PGold3 11 місяців тому +360

      fr this man is too obsessed with it, ima unsubscribe cuz of that

    • @m3nmin
      @m3nmin 11 місяців тому +67

      w comment

    • @bb_bb_
      @bb_bb_ 11 місяців тому +227

      never heard of it till he made videos of it. But love the videos.

    • @m3nmin
      @m3nmin 11 місяців тому +38

      @@bb_bb_ Same

    • @ProjectSh4dow
      @ProjectSh4dow 11 місяців тому +183

      @@PGold3 Oh grow up. 🙄

  • @CasualCodeChannel
    @CasualCodeChannel 11 місяців тому +3883

    Oh sweet, a new upload from the Lego Island guy

    • @KeeGamer310
      @KeeGamer310 11 місяців тому +2

      How

    • @Sir_veillance
      @Sir_veillance 11 місяців тому +25

      Don’t question, just nod and agree

    • @notbrooke
      @notbrooke 11 місяців тому +12

      Wait, that guy who's obsessed with Lego island? Fr?

    • @nebunet
      @nebunet 11 місяців тому +16

      @@lemondogeyt i think the video was unlisted and he commented when it still wasn't fully public

    • @TheoButKindaNot
      @TheoButKindaNot 11 місяців тому +16

      @@lemondogeyt patrons get early access to videos

  • @IanZamojc
    @IanZamojc 11 місяців тому +2233

    A legitimate use case for the decompiled source code (when it's done) is to recompile it to WASM so that Lego Island could be played in a browser.

    • @ShinyQuagsire
      @ShinyQuagsire 11 місяців тому +227

      I did this with OpenJKDF2 and it was... more straightforward than I anticipated? but it's a great way to find all of your undefined behavior, WASM really hates undefined behavior

    • @ashleybyrd2015
      @ashleybyrd2015 11 місяців тому +78

      Today I learned WebAssembly exists, nice.

    • @v0xl
      @v0xl 11 місяців тому +38

      ​​@@ShinyQuagsire -imagine using a language that allows undefined behavior-

    • @RockDog-vc2bj
      @RockDog-vc2bj 11 місяців тому +22

      ​@@v0xl nothing is wrong with that

    • @v0xl
      @v0xl 11 місяців тому +29

      @@RockDog-vc2bj yeah but silent ub is terrible. cases where it's allowed must be documented and the user should explicitly opt in into potentially unsafe and ub operations/optimizations, instead of avoiding them like on a minefield

  • @spongegar
    @spongegar 11 місяців тому +1285

    This is exactly the kind of stuff I want to exist on youtube, high quality edited videos about unbelievably niche stuff that nobody would have ever talked about otherwise

    • @mathman0569
      @mathman0569 11 місяців тому +11

      YES

    • @The_Forge_Master
      @The_Forge_Master 11 місяців тому +29

      Technology Connections, Cathode Ray Dude, Techmoan, The8BitGuy, Dankpods, Tom Scott, all wonderful channels.

    • @altaccfrl
      @altaccfrl 11 місяців тому +10

      ​@@The_Forge_MasterI've found my people. Micheal mjd is also a good one

    • @salman_3833
      @salman_3833 11 місяців тому +4

      @@The_Forge_Master dankpods is incredibly annoying when he puts on that voice, but when he doesnt it's just nice

    • @Arnechk
      @Arnechk 10 місяців тому +3

      @@The_Forge_Master Photonicinduction comes to mind.

  • @lukecwolf
    @lukecwolf 11 місяців тому +683

    I never realized lego island had less than an hour of content. I sunk hours if not days into it just because I enjoyed walking around and interacting with stuff, now and as a kid. It was so fun and cute.
    Hopefully we can see a browser version of this or something with the decompilation.

    • @veranova5895
      @veranova5895 11 місяців тому +24

      same! I almost want to dig up the buried cd just to see if it really only takes me 30 minutes to complete the whole thing 😂

    • @Mitch-xo1rd
      @Mitch-xo1rd 10 місяців тому +24

      Don't think you even need a decomp for a browser version, old versions of Windows are light enough for the browser(with wasm), just nobody stuck those 2 pieces together yet.

    • @skipfred
      @skipfred 10 місяців тому +21

      @@Mitch-xo1rd You need the source code to compile into WASM, you can't convert a compiled binary.

    • @Mitch-xo1rd
      @Mitch-xo1rd 10 місяців тому +14

      @@skipfred what I mean is a wasm version of virtual box, combine that with a Windows XP ISO and a Lego island ISO for a browser version of Lego island.
      Edit: found a win 98 vm that runs in the browser, so the tech exists

    • @skipfred
      @skipfred 10 місяців тому +5

      @@Mitch-xo1rd Oh I thought you meant the game. That seems like it would be unbearably slow - how well does 98 run in the browser?

  • @MuchWhittering
    @MuchWhittering 11 місяців тому +4873

    The obvious thing to do is to port LEGO Island to Xbox, combining this channel's 2 big themes.

    • @ChrisRussell99
      @ChrisRussell99 11 місяців тому +132

      I think he'll do it for the I Mac G3, combining a different 2 themes of this channel.

    • @inthegrass11
      @inthegrass11 11 місяців тому +264

      port it to an Xbox emulator running on a copy of Windows 98 running on an iMac G3

    • @samuel-rodriguez_
      @samuel-rodriguez_ 11 місяців тому +34

      ​@@inthegrass11 STOP

    • @anidiotontheinternet3514
      @anidiotontheinternet3514 11 місяців тому +29

      ​@Pink Nintendo DS Lite running on a vm forwarded to a montier inside of halo

    • @luisgamercoolgaming
      @luisgamercoolgaming 11 місяців тому +7

      jesus-box + lego island, the perfect combo

  • @pvzklegs
    @pvzklegs 11 місяців тому +1212

    This could mean a truly faithful map export, which is something I am weirdly obsessed with.

    • @MicraHakkinen
      @MicraHakkinen 11 місяців тому +199

      I'm curious how long it'll be before someone then turns it into an Unreal Tournament or Counter-Strike map ;)

    • @JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2
      @JanJanJanJanJanJanJanJanJan2 11 місяців тому +70

      I want it in assetto Corsa

    • @badlydrawncars6460
      @badlydrawncars6460 11 місяців тому +63

      It would make an amazing BeamNG map

    • @irrigamii
      @irrigamii 11 місяців тому +45

      @@badlydrawncars6460 Holy shit, yes. Perfect pairing with the Lego cars mod.

    • @bradlauk1419
      @bradlauk1419 11 місяців тому +25

      Planting the bomb at pepper ronis pizzeria.

  • @aaronmicalowe
    @aaronmicalowe 11 місяців тому +213

    The Win.INI reference code was probably there because that was the method the programmer was used to and used it to test initial execution before porting over to using the registry. It would enable the proof of some concepts before implementing how the program saved settings, which wouldn't change what the program did. Once ported over they probably initially kept the Win.INI code as a backup incase something went wrong and then probably just forgot to remove it.

    • @bigfirepop
      @bigfirepop 10 місяців тому +10

      thanks dude, love these kinds of insights

  • @dannymartial7997
    @dannymartial7997 8 місяців тому +27

    Honestly, nothing is more charming than seeing the labor of love put into something that probably had no expectation of being great. It’s kind of melancholic to see, actually. So I’m glad the devs are getting the notice that they deserve now

  • @TheArcv2
    @TheArcv2 11 місяців тому +883

    “That Lego Island Fix” in Xp makes me think they were essentially using Lego Island as one of their comparability benchmarks during XP development and some quirk of Lego Island became one devs personal quest to fix

    • @CommanderWiggins
      @CommanderWiggins 11 місяців тому +112

      That makes a lot of sense and is also very funny to think about.

    • @awilliams1701
      @awilliams1701 11 місяців тому +113

      maybe it was their kid's favorite game? Therefore "we have to make it work!!!"

    • @adamsfusion
      @adamsfusion 11 місяців тому +109

      I don't know about today, but back in the day Microsoft used to run a big software compatibility lab to make sure most of the software that ran on previous versions of Windows would run on the next version. I think they've outsourced a lot of that to the "Report this app crash to Microsoft" part of Windows today, but they genuinely put a lot of effort into it.

    • @Desopolis
      @Desopolis 11 місяців тому +62

      @@adamsfusion my stepdad was on this team at Dell. It was WindowsNT then Windows2000 then finally XP.
      They used major partner teams to feedback bugs and stuff for enterprise and consumer packages. So for example all the bloatware you got on a HP or Dell had to work.
      I still have his “I ran the bug race on WindowsXP” t-shirt where all partners had a challenge and prizes on who could find the worst/biggest bugs in the 2 weeks before launch..

    • @My_Old_YT_Account
      @My_Old_YT_Account 11 місяців тому +13

      @@adamsfusion they don't since Windows 10, the whole QA department was fired if I remember correctly

  • @lukeystuff
    @lukeystuff 11 місяців тому +776

    I cannot believe that some random windows developer was like "Oh yeah lemme just write a quick fix for specifically lego Island"

    • @theskullemoji
      @theskullemoji 11 місяців тому +8

      lol

    • @startedtech
      @startedtech 11 місяців тому +101

      Maybe they had kids that played it, lol

    • @LegoLoco7
      @LegoLoco7 11 місяців тому +57

      I was completely astounded when he said that.

    • @KopperNeoman
      @KopperNeoman 11 місяців тому +67

      @startedtech Maybe he did, or maybe it was just a part of the job.
      To this day, Worms Armageddon has compatibility fixes that the latest version of the game has to specifically disable due to no longer applying.

    • @WackoMcGoose
      @WackoMcGoose 11 місяців тому +100

      They literally specifically did that a lot, apparently. One commonly shared tale was that a Windows dev was given the task of going to a computer store, take a cart to the software aisle, _run down the aisle with their arms out,_ and whatever software products got knocked into the cart, they would buy them and take them to work to test and see what dumb shit the program was doing that they'd have to put in workarounds for.

  • @WA_Stokins
    @WA_Stokins 11 місяців тому +86

    MattKC saw the "Lego Island on Wii" joke from CS188's poop of him and decided he needed to do everything in his power to make it a reality

    • @stormthunder3558
      @stormthunder3558 7 місяців тому

      you can be a butthole drive a big ass truck

  • @Erhannis
    @Erhannis 10 місяців тому +93

    7:03 I mean, funding a FOSS decompiler sounds like a better use of my tax dollars than probably half the other stuff they're spent on!

    • @robotsy
      @robotsy 9 місяців тому +7

      The decompiler is probably a bonus from the sketchier things they did, wonder why a security agency would need a program to look very deeply into the inner workings of programs...🤔

    • @SidShakal
      @SidShakal 8 місяців тому +38

      ​@@robotsy idk, reverse engineering malware seems like a pretty legit task for a security agency to me.

    • @valseedian
      @valseedian 8 місяців тому

      is ghidra not a thing anymore?

    • @tomtravis858
      @tomtravis858 8 місяців тому +1

      @@valseedian what? It's still a big active project, it's not just going to disappear.

    • @valseedian
      @valseedian 8 місяців тому +1

      @@tomtravis858 yes, sorry, was being facetious, doesn't translate over text.

  • @Demokirby
    @Demokirby 11 місяців тому +327

    I honestly think Lego Island is a perfect canidate for decompilation. Like the game is such a shotgun blast of random assets that also have a simple structure (Like character animations are simple lego pieces) That there is so much that could be modded into it and changed. Perfect template that only certain early 3d games offer.

    • @joechristo2
      @joechristo2 11 місяців тому +20

      It’s up to the community how far it will go. People have managed to decompile the SWFs for Castle Crashers and mod it with basically no limits, but it has such a small modding scene with such big potential.

    • @duncanurquhart5278
      @duncanurquhart5278 11 місяців тому +11

      exactly. i could see an entire niche modding scene springing out of this just from how broad the base is.

    • @NotPython
      @NotPython 11 місяців тому +7

      This is a good point. Honestly, with a little bit of publicity, i could see lego island becoming the next doom.

  • @partyinthecloudkingdom
    @partyinthecloudkingdom 11 місяців тому +145

    as someone with 0 experience in coding but a lot of experience in baking, the analogy of un-baking a cake with an un-oven helped me understand perfectly how decompiling works

    • @petertrypsteen
      @petertrypsteen 8 місяців тому +3

      Apparently scientists have figured out how to 'unboil' an egg IRL too!

  • @thomasstewart9752
    @thomasstewart9752 11 місяців тому +146

    Considering how useful the fast inverse square root function from quake 3 was, I really wonder how much treasure is hidden in old games like this. I have a feeling you'll find some pretty impressive optimizations in there!

  • @cgytrus
    @cgytrus 11 місяців тому +258

    as an amateur reverse engineer myself, i wanna say that this video is _great_ as an intro to RE, and you managed to describe it in an entertaining form rather than like a boring wikipedia article or smth

    • @MyScorpion42
      @MyScorpion42 10 місяців тому +5

      How does one get started on reverse-engineering file formats? Any videos you would suggest for that?

    • @windows1.0
      @windows1.0 10 місяців тому +1

      Hi, how to start reverse engineering? Like detecting similarities and general knowledge.

    • @cgytrus
      @cgytrus 10 місяців тому

      @MyScorpion42 @windows1.0 idrk how to help you i myself just kinda downloaded ghidra like 1-2 years ago and started just.. doing stuff and slowly learning it mostly by myself and some stuff with the help of other people from the geometry dash modding community

    • @RoninCatholic
      @RoninCatholic 10 місяців тому +2

      Your profile pic is cool, it looks like a pair of ghost eyes as well as the letters CG (and Zelda Rupees?)

    • @cgytrus
      @cgytrus 10 місяців тому

      @@RoninCatholic its just cg made with triangles theres no other meaning lol

  • @No-mq5lw
    @No-mq5lw 11 місяців тому +353

    Finally, I can (eventually) add raytracing to a game I literally didn't know about until this guy took an immense amount of effort importing custom music into this game.

    • @AranhaaTheSixtyninth
      @AranhaaTheSixtyninth 11 місяців тому +43

      Technically if he gets the map extracted you could try to add it to something like Unreal or Unity, which would be both horrifying and incredible

    • @No-mq5lw
      @No-mq5lw 11 місяців тому +24

      @@AranhaaTheSixtyninth Godot for a fully FOSS ray traced remake?

    • @biigsmokee
      @biigsmokee 11 місяців тому +9

      @@No-mq5lw fully fully open source software

    • @animowany111
      @animowany111 11 місяців тому +28

      @@biigsmokee fully Free and Open Source Software*

    • @SneedFeedAndSeed
      @SneedFeedAndSeed 11 місяців тому +13

      @@animowany111 FullyWare FreeSource and Openware Source-free Softsourceware**

  • @jjmfdl
    @jjmfdl 11 місяців тому +357

    the 200 frame delay may also be a form of "compression", those seconds of black screen look a lot nicer then the game just playing the default intro movie at the start, it is basically an establishing shot for almost no storage cost and reduces the total media streaming demand at start up.

    • @shadesoftime
      @shadesoftime 11 місяців тому +90

      Maybe that was because windows can draw asynchronously from the game, so on slower computers you could not see the beginning of the intro cutscene while the window draws

    • @sarowie
      @sarowie 11 місяців тому +10

      @@shadesoftime I can also imaging that some CRTs and Graphics Cards did some "glitching"/"flickering"/... when switching to full screen, before getting a proper resync. Waiting 200 frames is plenty to resync and making sure the the intro play "perfectly".

    • @eDoc2020
      @eDoc2020 11 місяців тому +5

      @@sarowie I was thinking that, too. In my experience CRT monitors _usually_ switch considerably faster than LCD ones. There are exceptions, my A90f+ sometimes likes to degauss when switching modes.. If it does it will take a few seconds for time image to be stable.

  • @gravysamich
    @gravysamich 11 місяців тому +32

    This has me excited for 2 reasons. Firstly a decomp like this will make getting this game running on basically anything a cinch. And second, once we have the source code, that opens this game up for some incredible mods. It would completely eliminate most limits and allow for absolutely massive Lego themed games. I imagine once this is done we will see someone start working on a "Lego city" expansion. You could even add loads of new mini games.

  • @anon5263
    @anon5263 11 місяців тому +33

    What's fascinating is that glitches such as the exit glitch also happened on Windows 95, I distinctly remember major glitches with the Infomaniac hub and the voice tracks happening on my new copy when I was 5.

  • @sidwirb3629
    @sidwirb3629 11 місяців тому +376

    Matt is like one of those cymbal monkeys, except instead of having 2 cymbals he has a Lego island cd and a hammer. Plz never stop this madness

    • @noxxyy
      @noxxyy 11 місяців тому +7

      Oops! You have to put the CD...in the hammer? Wait, no, don't do that.

  • @stixc
    @stixc 11 місяців тому +158

    can't wait for MattKC to be hired by Nightdive and Lego gives him permission to rewrite Lego Island in the KEX Engine and soon we will have Lego Island Remastered HD 4K Edition

    • @joieanthonyraquinio617
      @joieanthonyraquinio617 11 місяців тому +10

      why not Lego Island Super High Quality Remastered 2D 3D 8K HD RTX Mono Limited Edition?

    • @Theover4000
      @Theover4000 11 місяців тому +6

      & Knuckles? Featuring Dante from Devil May Cry?

    • @wraithcadmus
      @wraithcadmus 11 місяців тому +7

      It needs a catchy name, like Zool Redimensions or Powerslave Exhumed. Lego Island Reconstructed?

    • @lukabrasi001
      @lukabrasi001 11 місяців тому +2

      @@wraithcadmus Lego Island Rebuilt?

  • @cs188
    @cs188 11 місяців тому +11

    Oh man... don't tell me...
    This project could *possibly* lead to the eventual existence of a version that runs on the Nintendo Wii, right??
    Matt, stop entertaining my mind's inner fantasies, it's too dangerous...

  • @jasonyesmarc309
    @jasonyesmarc309 10 місяців тому +15

    Maybe this guy can finally explain why when I spammed the zero key on the number pad, I'd start seeing characters flashing in front of me and sometimes I'd be able to break free of the roads.

  • @SolidSonicTH
    @SolidSonicTH 11 місяців тому +236

    I've been really curious about decompilation. It always seemed like a black box where people take compiled code and out pops source code but no one explains how it gets there. I had my own ideas what happens in between but I constantly felt like an outsider looking in where it was a secret art only known to those with true mettle.

    • @theskullemoji
      @theskullemoji 11 місяців тому

      wait what

    • @fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220
      @fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220 11 місяців тому +23

      yeah lol, like those guys at power plants that just stare at giant blocks of machine code and go "oh yes i know exactly what is happening at all times"

    • @SolidSonicTH
      @SolidSonicTH 11 місяців тому +34

      I'm saying no one bothers to explain the nuances of decompilation to the masses, they just do it behind closed doors.
      Ya dinguses.

    • @badlydrawncars6460
      @badlydrawncars6460 11 місяців тому +5

      That's how I see programming as a whole, so I can relate

    • @maybenat
      @maybenat 11 місяців тому +16

      As someone doing a bit of decompiling sometimes, you just kinda learn it on your own. Sure, you may find tutorials on how to use Ghidra or IDA Pro, but a lot of specifics require an intuition that's hard to really explain (or maybe I just suck at explaining).
      When I first started decompiling some executables, what initially carried me was the fact that I already knew x86 assembly, some details on what compilers tend to do, various low level tricks, and how programming is typically done in general. Afterwards I painfully crawled through all the various functions and slowly picked things up. It's a very high bar to clear, and I still absolutely suck at it, despite having probably a low few hundred hours of experience with that.

  • @bigmclargehuge8219
    @bigmclargehuge8219 11 місяців тому +480

    Let's GOOOOOOO!! New Lego Island content from the dude who made a battery powered Nintendo!

    • @Neddyfram
      @Neddyfram 11 місяців тому +22

      battery powered Lego island??

    • @bacer735
      @bacer735 11 місяців тому +5

      @@Neddyfram NO PLEASE-

    • @Myriadys
      @Myriadys 11 місяців тому +8

      @@Neddyfram this is just getting a windows laptop, isn't it?

    • @CosmicNyan
      @CosmicNyan 11 місяців тому +2

      the sequel to the guy who owns sonic jam

    • @godzzwrath
      @godzzwrath 11 місяців тому +2

      @@CosmicNyan yeah, the wii u guy

  • @ripthedvd9728
    @ripthedvd9728 11 місяців тому +58

    At this point with all the attention it's gotten, I'm half surprised Lego/Mindscape doesn't just release the source code. Like what do they have to lose?

    • @halofreak1990
      @halofreak1990 11 місяців тому +32

      Does Mindscape still exist? A lot of companies, Blizzard included, have lost the source code to a lot of things in the intervening years. IIRC, Blizzard had to reach out to the community to get their hands on the original assets for StarCraft, when they wanted to start working on the remaster

    • @alehel88
      @alehel88 10 місяців тому +27

      If the game has any third party (licensed) code in it, it's probably near on impossible to acquire the necessary permission to do so so many years after.

    • @The_Grace_God
      @The_Grace_God 10 місяців тому

      Scumbags

    • @subparlario4916
      @subparlario4916 9 місяців тому

      ​@@halofreak1990no, not really. Infamously, Mindscape fired their employees the day before Lego Island's release in order to avoid paying bonuses.

    • @DanTDMJace
      @DanTDMJace 9 місяців тому +3

      @@halofreak1990Actually, yeah it does

  • @alexfield290
    @alexfield290 10 місяців тому +6

    "I'm tired of being called the LEGO Island guy, so let's decompile LEGO Island!"

  • @nordgaren2358
    @nordgaren2358 11 місяців тому +237

    In the FromSoft modding community, we refer to it as "documenting", rather than decompilation, as you're basically documenting the structs, function params and local variable names, so that the decompiler can spit out a better analysis.

    • @ogamibirdflu5152
      @ogamibirdflu5152 11 місяців тому

      Wow what a snob jeez

    • @ederbarrero5585
      @ederbarrero5585 11 місяців тому +51

      The decompilation part is actually the writing of new code that does the same as what the finished game does (functional equivalency) or in some cases, like sm64 decomp, the new code compiles to the same binary (matching binary).
      The part where you name stuff in [NAME_OF_PROGRAM] is just reverse engineering or documentation, as you said.
      The sm64 people went beyond just functional equivalency and wanted full byte-for-byte match, which is harder, but still a decompilation.

    • @nordgaren2358
      @nordgaren2358 11 місяців тому +2

      @@ederbarrero5585 nice job reading what I said...

    • @circuit10
      @circuit10 11 місяців тому +15

      @@nordgaren2358They expanded on it and provided extra information and clarification

    • @Azazelea
      @Azazelea 11 місяців тому +14

      ​@Nordgaren I mean, I think they actually did do a pretty good job at reading? They added more context and examples of what is decomp and when they reiterated what you said they literally went "as you said."
      Just because someone expands on something with additional info doesn't mean they're just repeating the original thing.

  • @blakelee4555
    @blakelee4555 11 місяців тому +104

    I think the reason you're typecast as the lego island guy is because your lego island videos showcase such a wide variety of techniques in dealing with binaries and stuff.. amazing content, and i honestly dont know of i prefer them or the hardware videos more (okay probably the hardware videos because it's just so refreshing compared to todays systems to be able to work on hardware at the component level but its very close)

  • @nolle
    @nolle 11 місяців тому +30

    I relate to the "enjoying things in a different way as I grow older" part. I still care about the same games, I'm just more interested in the technical aspects and toying around with those rather than playing the game itself. Plus you learn to appreciate the work of the people behind it a lot more.

  • @gymnasiast90
    @gymnasiast90 11 місяців тому +16

    Lovely project! Having worked on related projects myself (like OpenRCT2), I can say it’s a wonderful feeling getting to really understand what makes the game tick. All the best!

  • @1gnore_me.
    @1gnore_me. 11 місяців тому +91

    we're one step closer to lego island mods becoming a thing

    • @LegoLoco7
      @LegoLoco7 11 місяців тому +31

      There's only one mod I'm aware of, and all it does is make the bicycles blue instead of red. I know, I was amazed too.

    • @RobotronSage
      @RobotronSage 11 місяців тому +1

      I dunno why but this sounds like fun

    • @paulahull
      @paulahull 11 місяців тому

      libsm64

  • @_pixelatedsilver2a412
    @_pixelatedsilver2a412 11 місяців тому +41

    I wonder if the community could one day create the expansion packs the original devs had envisioned. Great vid about a topic I'm very much trying and failing to get into myself (reverse engineering\decompilation), it had lot's of interesting stuff. Thanks!

    • @GuentherJongeling-hu6oe
      @GuentherJongeling-hu6oe 11 місяців тому +7

      How about actual hardware rendering with some OpenGL/Vulkan/DirectX? Gotta get those 10000fps

    • @Aeduo
      @Aeduo 11 місяців тому +8

      @@GuentherJongeling-hu6oe It is using direct3d already, just very very old direct3d in a very inefficient mode. :p

  • @robproductionsgames
    @robproductionsgames 11 місяців тому +10

    Personally I’m really happy to see you undertake a project like this! Decomps are pretty much the only way to truly preserve old games and it would open up the door to fixes and optimizations which make it more accessible for modern standards. Best of luck and I’m definitely looking forward to more updates on it!

  • @purpletrauma
    @purpletrauma 10 місяців тому +4

    Ah man, I remember that game.. I remember feeling the world be so open with the island being free to explore, and I kept going to the control tower again and again and again because as a little kid, I kept expecting the right sequence of events to suddenly open up new content. Like messing with it would make new buildings appear with more characters to interact with, or an extended part of the island rise from the sea with a new minigame or two.

    • @WK-47
      @WK-47 8 місяців тому +2

      I think I know what you mean. Half the allure as a kid was my imagination running wild. I knew it was a simple "game" even at the time, but friends and I would excitedly discuss the secrets we thought there must be. The one I recall was something to do with the garage and taking a rocket into space.
      I played LI2 as well when I was a little older, and it still has charm (and actually qualifies as a game), but not to the degree the original has. I reckon that's because it's so bare bones that it's almost a blank canvas, especially to five-year-olds with wild imaginations.
      The only other thing like it in that sense that I can think of is Pokémon ("if you don't beat Team Rocket at this part, you actually join them!")

  • @nicholasdyer8988
    @nicholasdyer8988 11 місяців тому +39

    How dare you shatter the delicate and precious dream that I held close to my heart that good old St. Nicholas was the giver of joy and presents every Christmas, Mr. Lego Island guy. I will never forgive you for ruining a part of my soul and devastating me for the rest of my life.

  • @RaduUrsache
    @RaduUrsache 11 місяців тому +122

    loved the video, can’t wait for part 2!

    • @DavidIdol
      @DavidIdol 11 місяців тому +1

      Same!

    • @anonymousperson.5528
      @anonymousperson.5528 11 місяців тому

      same

    • @leeum20real
      @leeum20real 11 місяців тому

      where are all these goofy ah currency's coming from

    • @limethelime9029
      @limethelime9029 2 місяці тому

      @@leeum20realamericans when they learn that there are other countries:

  • @varikku
    @varikku 11 місяців тому +4

    I’ve got a few discs from a Mindscapes dev a few years back with some Lego Island assets on it. I’m unsure if it’s dumped but it has readable source code on it. I’ll have to find them since they’re up in storage (very secure and protected)

    • @randomcatdude
      @randomcatdude 11 місяців тому +2

      you should probably contact matt through other more reliable means than a yt comment about that

    • @MattKC
      @MattKC  11 місяців тому +2

      If you find them feel free to email me. My business email is on my channel under "About"

    • @luisgamercoolgaming
      @luisgamercoolgaming 9 місяців тому

      Nice.

  • @JohnSmith-of2gu
    @JohnSmith-of2gu 9 місяців тому +3

    I never realized how much Lego Island was a pioneer of 3D open world- doing a deep dive into this early project is cool!

  • @Zircuitz
    @Zircuitz 11 місяців тому +40

    I'm excited for the glorious moment in the decomp when we'll be able to add HDR, Raytracing Shaders to Lego Island 🙃

    • @DJKr15py
      @DJKr15py 11 місяців тому +8

      Raytraced HDR lighting with 4K upscaled textures

    • @NextLevelCode
      @NextLevelCode 11 місяців тому +3

      Can't that all be injected with RTX Remix? Might be faster then waiting for the decomp

    • @tcoder4610
      @tcoder4610 11 місяців тому +2

      @@NextLevelCode I think Matt said it does primarily CPU calls and I'm not really sure if RTX Remix can work with them. If the graphics are transferred to sth like D3D or DX, it would probably work.

    • @NextLevelCode
      @NextLevelCode 11 місяців тому

      @@tcoder4610 ah yeah if it is software only rendering you have a good point. Need that direct 3D😊

    • @Ijustusethistocommentstuff
      @Ijustusethistocommentstuff 11 місяців тому +3

      GZisland
      Chocolate Lego Island
      Zanstudnum
      Zstood
      Byeland
      HLego

  • @yakcm123
    @yakcm123 11 місяців тому +35

    I haven't even started watching yet, I just want to say I love this as a premise already; thank you for your absurd dedication to both tech and shitposting

  • @alexh1687
    @alexh1687 11 місяців тому +16

    Can't wait ! Would also seriously like a long version with all the little details you'd think are boring

    • @sarowie
      @sarowie 11 місяців тому +2

      if in doubt: live stream and put up the live stream recording on a secondary channels.
      For a creator, creating a video takes a lot of overhead.
      Setting it up as a "live stream" or "recorded presentation" fixes the mind set of having to do editing and "a good job": Flaws are flaws - it is a live stream. Putting it on a secondary channels avoids polluting the main channel.

    • @geniussnake497
      @geniussnake497 10 місяців тому

      @@sarowie Clever insight, I never thought of it that way 👍

  • @LiveOverflow
    @LiveOverflow 11 місяців тому +8

    what an amazing video! I'm looking forward to follow this journey :)
    LEGO Island is a game I have very fond memories of

  • @Ian.Smith44
    @Ian.Smith44 11 місяців тому +45

    The lego island guy is back at it again

  • @ehname1
    @ehname1 23 дні тому +1

    I grew up on Lego Island 2 but there was still something special about it. I actually fully get your fascination with this game, especially with how early on it was.

  • @twilight-sparkle
    @twilight-sparkle 11 місяців тому +18

    i've been hoping for this ever since i saw those original videos. would be neat to have as a base for, perhaps, custom mods that do entirely different things but want to have a similar look and feel

  • @Magnymbus
    @Magnymbus 11 місяців тому +6

    Okay, but no joke, your videos on investigating and improving this game are probably the biggest reason I'm still programming. I got so frustrated trying to learn how to code, but your videos made me want to dive into aomething like this. Then along came Vampire Survivors, written in javascript with only mild obfuscation. Once I realized all the variable names are still there in the form of a hexadecimal number gets messed with and gets turned into an index in a list of token/symbol names, I wrote some lua and modded the game primarily with lua's weird form of regex. I've switched to python and c# by now, but I knew enough lua from GMod to know kinda what to look up online and the rest was learning from other peoples questions. Im very happy to see more of this stuff. It scratches an itch ive been unable to reach since your last one. The music upgrade thing was just inspirational.

  • @johnrickard8512
    @johnrickard8512 11 місяців тому +9

    It would seem to me that a full decomp of this particular game would probably result in a very vibrant modding community

  • @gyucyutie8480
    @gyucyutie8480 8 місяців тому +2

    this honestly is sooo interesting and i’m really excited for the next parts!

  • @mysteriousstranger9496
    @mysteriousstranger9496 8 місяців тому +1

    This is comical to me. Lego Island was a favourite of mine as a child. Its inhabitants were like friends to me back then. I still have my big box copy, and a second back up big box I picked up at a bootsale. Great to see this niche title still getting attention.

  • @Jiga64
    @Jiga64 11 місяців тому +15

    This project seems incredibly cool, I can't wait to see more! If this ever finishes I am excited to see what crazy consoles Lego Island is ported to. I'm especially hoping that the Wii gets Lego Island ported to it.

    • @katanah3195
      @katanah3195 11 місяців тому

      The pure insanity of this strikes me as ending up as the next "it runs DOOM ". Like, beyond just porting it to every machine out there, the sheer potentials of this as a codebase for further modification are fascinating.

  • @oliverer3
    @oliverer3 11 місяців тому +18

    I don't know why but I really liked the original Lego island videos, watched them at least three times each at this point.
    Fascinating for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

  • @Veptis
    @Veptis 21 день тому +1

    I now recall a Lego game from my childhood. Or actually two.
    The second being a Gameboy Advanced game - Lego Island something. And you could shoot pizzas. I have the audio effects ingrained in my ear. I also think that the save game by step brother had was soft locked...
    The game I played, was on my mom's laptop. It wasn't an island, but it was 3D and it had some pieces of building a city too. I think you could even setup NPC routes and destructively crash into the police tower... I believe the CD is still somewhere upstairs.

  • @hl2mukkel
    @hl2mukkel 11 місяців тому +1

    I LOVE these kinds of videos! Please keep as much of the nerdy details in as possible, I love to learn about windows and its internals and its so interesting to me to see how stuff is done, please don't be shy on holding back those technical details! Love your videos

  • @FoxBlocksHere
    @FoxBlocksHere 11 місяців тому +7

    I've thought about how cool a decompilation of this game would be. I should have known you would be the one to do it! Thank you for your efforts, Matt!

  • @ccoder4953
    @ccoder4953 11 місяців тому +11

    Keep going - even if some don't really like Lego Island (and, I for one do, even though it's old and I haven't played it for years), the technical aspect of reverse engineering it and maybe even recompiling it eventually (with bug fixes, of course) and porting to other platforms is really interesting. Maybe the project could end up turning into something like OpenRCT2.

  • @ragnarockerbunny
    @ragnarockerbunny 11 місяців тому +1

    Nice work Matt, can't wait for part 2! I've always wanted to help and get involved in a decomp program and even though I have made games and know some C, I've never felt like I was anywhere good enough to try something that seems like such... Computer wizardry. Thanks for demystifying the process a little!

  • @FeelingShred
    @FeelingShred 11 місяців тому +2

    13:09 "I made the decision not to bore you with every technical detail"
    THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED FROM THE VERY START YOU FOOL 🤣🤣please give us the uncut 4 hour version

  • @ckosmic
    @ckosmic 11 місяців тому +5

    Good luck man. Success or not you'll learn a ton and provide information about the game to anyone who's also interested. Also not a lot of people document their decompilation processes so this is something I'm looking forward to following.

  • @UnitSe7en
    @UnitSe7en 11 місяців тому +9

    Be careful what you wish for. Of all the things that you could possibly be called, the Lego Island Guy isn't bad.

  • @jackb3555
    @jackb3555 5 місяців тому +2

    I feel like Lego island is one of those games where every fabric of it's creation fascinates me

  • @Vaxii
    @Vaxii 11 місяців тому

    I'm so happy to see you again Matt, i've been waiting for one of your videos to drop!

  • @r32crazy1
    @r32crazy1 11 місяців тому +6

    As a developer myself I absolutely love videos like this, please keep us posted :). When done would be cool to make it run ontop of SDL2.

  • @stripethetiger
    @stripethetiger 11 місяців тому +13

    I find this fascinating. I can't wait to find out what weird stuff is baked into this old code.

  • @DarkLord61636
    @DarkLord61636 10 місяців тому

    I sincerely hope you keep this project up! I'm so eager to see what you discover throughout all of this!

  • @Ambidextroid
    @Ambidextroid 8 місяців тому

    So interesting! Great video mate

  • @Nightmare200X
    @Nightmare200X 11 місяців тому +3

    I'm just happy there are people out there decompiling old software and fixing it in the process. Your channel is what I would do as a hobby if I didn't have video games, or a job... and by that I mean I love your lego island channel

  • @Aeduo
    @Aeduo 11 місяців тому +4

    Neat project. I was pretty nostalgic for this game. I remember poking around with the SI format too. I never properly figured it out 100% though. Only enough to pluck out data, but there were plenty of unknowns which would prevent me being able to pack everything back up. Look forward to what can be done with this game given time. It would've been neat if they were open with their tools and stuff because I would've loved modding this game as a kid, even if it would've just been like, changing the colors of things or drawing PPs on things. Definitely will be following this.

  • @Nyerguds
    @Nyerguds 8 місяців тому +1

    Kudos on taking on a project of that scale. I spent ten years digging through the binary bowels of the Win95 version of Command & Conquer 1, for the purpose of patching, but since I'm honestly better as ASM than I am at C++, I left it at that. Some friends in our community did start decompiling it, and were making quite some progress on that, until EA messed up that project in the most unexpected way possible: by releasing the source code. This both gave everyone exactly what they wanted, and threw months of hard work straight into the trash, so you can imagine some people had some very complicated feelings when that happened. Though, the released code was for the purpose of modding the remastered version, and some pieces that were irrelevant to the remaster were missing, so in the end, not _all_ the work was wasted :)
    (The missing bits were not deliberately left out, though. They were mostly I/O handling and video/audio decoding, and they were apparently not recovered when they found the source code simply because they were managed in different repositories. The I/O stuff was most likely split off because it was different between the DOS and Windows versions, and the media handling stuff was also used in other video and audio player apps, like rolling video demo discs.)

  • @user-yj6mp7vw3v
    @user-yj6mp7vw3v 11 місяців тому

    Man I just came upon this channel, and personally I've never felt so much joy and closeness to topics I've always wanted to cover or solve myself when I was a teen... this and other projects look so entertaining and fun, new sub!!

  • @Aurora12488
    @Aurora12488 11 місяців тому +5

    I for one loved Lego Island as a kid, and as a software engineer now this series is super interesting and right up my alley! Looking forward to part 2 :D

  • @real_skitt
    @real_skitt 11 місяців тому +3

    Imagine crunch-programming a lego game in 1997 and some random guy decompiles your forgotten game 26 years later and blames your programming skills

  • @HexOverride
    @HexOverride 10 місяців тому +2

    2:24 So relatable!! I download a lot of stuff from archive!

  • @escapistsmusicstuff
    @escapistsmusicstuff 11 місяців тому

    Amazing! I'm really interested in decompiling and want to get into it with many old obscure games I've played in the past (such as Vertrix), so I am definitely looking forward to seeing more videos of you on this journey and perhaps learning something on the way myself.

  • @OvermasterP
    @OvermasterP 11 місяців тому +3

    This was fantastic. The perfect blend of specific and general for programmers and non-programmers alike.

  • @HarmonyOmega
    @HarmonyOmega 11 місяців тому +5

    I've always wanted to do this with Nicktoons Racing. There's all kinds of neat things hidden away in the code of the EXE like references to Nascar Racers (developed at the same time by the same people) and an editor of some kind, even a -nocddebug launch string which is disabled somehow.. this inspires me to go back to it using Ghidra even though i know i won't get anywhere with it

  • @xob0t806
    @xob0t806 11 місяців тому

    absolutely amazing idea for a series! best of luck with reversing!

  • @TheWinjin
    @TheWinjin 9 місяців тому

    Fun fact: Sea Dogs 3 shipped in version 0.99 with a lot of developer stuff available, so I'm guessing it's easy to decompile.
    And the Risen game was shipped by translation team with developer mode turned on by default too

  • @alexlefevre8226
    @alexlefevre8226 11 місяців тому +3

    I followed the SM64 and OoT decomp projects closely. I was a comp sci major back in the day, but my career path went much away from that foundation. Those projects were teams of people working over years. I applaud your determination as one person to undergo such a task. Enjoy the over easy eggs dripping out of your ears as you work.

  • @mr.tibbles-lh6eb
    @mr.tibbles-lh6eb 11 місяців тому +4

    Matt is back!!! Love your content, whether or not it’s lego island, always looking forward to your next video

  • @shiftlessturtle5808
    @shiftlessturtle5808 11 місяців тому

    i love your intro, short and bubbly, its not like others, reminds me a bit of the frutiger aero aesthetic with that backround, and i absolutely love frutiger aero

  • @dasmikko
    @dasmikko 11 місяців тому

    Super interesting video. I love decompilation stuff.
    Looking forward to follow you on your journey!

  • @iangooner
    @iangooner 11 місяців тому +2

    Hes back and its about time , love the vids , enjoy your type of humour too , for the past 6 months have been catching up slowly with the histroy of the channel , please keep it up , you do great content 😀

  • @cononodapotato6920
    @cononodapotato6920 11 місяців тому +6

    damn, the day i decide to start rewatching a bunch of matt's videos he releases a new one, that's one hell of a miracle.

  • @simon-elrondir8621
    @simon-elrondir8621 11 місяців тому

    Really appreciate the way you go into the history of how it "used" to work and talk about of what kinds of mistakes where made.
    I'm currently studying to become a data-engineer and it just amazes me that your video is so educational, you've earned my sub :)

  • @bettermanlamia
    @bettermanlamia 11 місяців тому +1

    I'm so excited to see where you go with this. I've always thought jumping into a decomp project would be cool but never actually did it. Maybe I will after this

  • @CamperCarl
    @CamperCarl 11 місяців тому +6

    Would be super interested to hear how you decompiled the textures. Alot have some sort of encryption and breaking that is something I'm stuck on in my own projects.

    • @Just2Dimes
      @Just2Dimes 11 місяців тому +1

      Are you talking about lego island or something else? Have you tried asking for help in reverse engineering or CTF communities? They might be able to help.

    • @CamperCarl
      @CamperCarl 11 місяців тому +1

      @@Just2Dimes I've tried. Mainly interested for PS1 decompilation reasons

    • @tomtravis858
      @tomtravis858 9 місяців тому

      watch out, many times you think it's encryption it's just compression

  • @iGamezRo
    @iGamezRo 11 місяців тому +6

    This man will never stop loving LEGO Island.

  • @jordanforbes149
    @jordanforbes149 10 місяців тому +2

    It’s so weird to see Lego island running at full speed because it definitely didn’t do that on my grandpa’s computer when I was 6 years old in 1997

  • @nicomputerservices2669
    @nicomputerservices2669 11 місяців тому

    This is awesome! I'm super excited to see how this goes and learn about decompilation more!

  • @lukeplo
    @lukeplo 11 місяців тому +6

    Hi Matt, love your content! Here’s a small donation which, after inflation, should get you about 1.5 coffees in Australia. Cheers.

  • @DaFrenkNL
    @DaFrenkNL 11 місяців тому +6

    This ticks all the right boxes in my book. It's completely unnecessary but oh so fascinating to see what you might find hidden away (that teaser was begging for more!). Hope you'll keep the videos coming!

  • @El_Chompo
    @El_Chompo 5 місяців тому

    Wow the lego island footage looks so vibrant and colorful on my nice modern monitor. This was such a great game to play as a kid, I loved it, just simple fun and good silliness. I love the decompiling stuff too. I'm super interested in it because there are a lot of old games I love that could use improving if I could get down to the source code.

  • @ryanphillips4123
    @ryanphillips4123 10 місяців тому

    This is the first ive heard of you, but i was interested because a have some close friends who are very nostalgic for this game. Seems like a good opportunity to watch your other Lego Island videos to see what's so great about it. Good luck with the decompilation!

  • @jondycz
    @jondycz 11 місяців тому +3

    I wonder if its now possible to use GPT4 to decompile binaries. I used AI to optimize my code, change variable names, generate structs etc. And it handled that well.

    • @zs9652
      @zs9652 11 місяців тому

      Would be sick to have a custom built ai for decompiling programs. Even if it got only thirty percent of the way it would do so much to open up software for the common good.

  • @Macromacroxxx
    @Macromacroxxx 11 місяців тому +3

    This was really interesting, you should consider asking people for help on this project. It really really interesting for me. I would help you myself if my Java knowledge would be of any use to you : /. Anyways, really great work, looking forward to future decompilation videos

  • @the0neskater
    @the0neskater 11 місяців тому

    Quality video, will be a very interesting series! Great job

  • @sempiternal_futility
    @sempiternal_futility 11 місяців тому

    i hope you continue this project. very cool stuff