/SpaceCadetPinball-NX

Decompilation of 3D Pinball for Switch – Space Cadet

Primary LanguageC++MIT LicenseMIT

SpaceCadetPinball

Summary

Reverse engineering of 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet, a game bundled with Windows.

How to play

Place compiled executable into a folder containing original game resources (not included).
Supports data files from Windows and Full Tilt versions of the game.

Switch controls:

  • A for launcher,
  • L and R for left/right bumpers,
  • Dpad left/right/up for bumps,
  • X for new game, Y for pausing,
  • + for quitting.

The controls as well as audio (music/effects) can be configured from imgui_pb.ini, which is created in the same directory as the executable upon first launch. Refer to https://github.com/devkitPro/SDL/blob/switch-sdl2/src/joystick/switch/SDL_sysjoystick.c#L47-L55.

Known source ports

Platform Author URL
PS Vita Axiom https://github.com/suicvne/SpaceCadetPinball_Vita
Emscripten alula https://github.com/alula/SpaceCadetPinball
Play online: https://alula.github.io/SpaceCadetPinball
Nintendo Switch averne https://github.com/averne/SpaceCadetPinball-NX
webOS TV mariotaku https://github.com/webosbrew/SpaceCadetPinball
Android (WIP) Iscle https://github.com/Iscle/SpaceCadetPinball
Nintendo Wii MaikelChan https://github.com/MaikelChan/SpaceCadetPinball
Nintendo 3DS MaikelChan https://github.com/MaikelChan/SpaceCadetPinball/tree/3ds
Nintendo Wii U IntriguingTiles https://github.com/IntriguingTiles/SpaceCadetPinball-WiiU

Platforms covered by this project: desktop Windows, Linux and macOS.







Source

  • pinball.exe from Windows XP (SHA-1 2A5B525E0F631BB6107639E2A69DF15986FB0D05) and its public PDB
  • CADET.EXE 32bit version from Full Tilt! Pinball (SHA-1 3F7B5699074B83FD713657CD94671F2156DBEDC4)

Tools used

Ghidra, Ida, Visual Studio

What was done

  • All structures were populated, globals and locals named.
  • All subs were decompiled, C pseudo code was converted to compilable C++. Loose (namespace?) subs were assigned to classes.

Compiling

Project uses C++11 and depends on SDL2 libs.

On Windows

Download and unpack devel packages for SDL2 and SDL2_mixer.
Set paths to them in CMakeLists.txt, see suggested placement in /Libs.
Compile with Visual Studio; tested with 2019.

On Linux

Install devel packages for SDL2 and SDL2_mixer.
Compile with CMake; tested with GCC 10, Clang 11.
To cross-compile for Windows, install a 64-bit version of mingw and its SDL2 and SDL2_mixer distributions, then use the mingwcc.cmake toolchain.

On macOS

  • Homebrew: Install the SDL2, SDL2_mixer homebrew packages.
  • MacPorts: Install the libSDL2, libSDL2_mixer macports packages.

Compile with CMake. Ensure that CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES variable is set for either x86_64 Apple Intel or arm64 for Apple Silicon.

Tested with: macOS Big Sur (Intel) with Xcode 13 & macOS Montery Beta (Apple Silicon) with Xcode 13.

On Switch

Install switch-sdl2, switch-sdl2_mixer, switch-cmake. Place extracted game assets in res/, then run:

$ source $DEVKITPRO/switchvars.sh
$ aarch64-none-elf-cmake -B build
$ make -C build -j$(nproc)

Plans

  • Decompile original game
  • Resizable window, scaled graphics
  • Loader for high-res sprites from CADET.DAT
  • Cross-platform port using SDL2, SDL2_mixer, ImGui
  • Misc features of Full Tilt: 3 music tracks, multiball, centered textboxes, etc.
  • Maybe: Text translations
  • Maybe: Android port
  • Maybe x2: support for other two tables
    • Table specific BL (control interactions and missions) is hardcoded, othere parts might be also patched

On 64-bit bug that killed the game

I did not find it, decompiled game worked in x64 mode on the first try.
It was either lost in decompilation or introduced in x64 port/not present in x86 build.
Based on public description of the bug (no ball collision), I guess that the bug was in TEdgeManager::TestGridBox