decompiled.games

About decompiled.games

Fans have been taking classic games apart and putting them back together as source code, then carrying that code to the web. Every project and every port is credited on its game page, with links to the people behind it. decompiled.games gathers the ones you can play in a browser tab, in one place, with nothing to install.

How a game comes back

Decompilation
The original binary turned back into source code, function by function.
Recompilation
The original binary translated into native code by a static recompiler.
Reimplementation
A new engine written from scratch that runs the original game's data.
Source port
The studio released the code; this port carries it to the browser.
Rewrite
A new codebase written from the game's original source.

What runs where

decompiled.games hosts no game. Every port runs on its makers' own site: some open inside this page, the others in a new tab when their host asks for it or needs it. Your favorites and your play history stay in this browser, and are never sent anywhere. A port that opens inside this page may also tell decompiled.games where you are, a picture of the game and the achievements the game itself recorded: they are kept here, in this browser too.

Some ports play your own cartridge dump, a ROM. For Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games, Play opens our own player, mGBA: you pick the file once, and it stays in this browser with your save, the moment you left and the last frame on screen, which the home page shows under Continue playing. For some games the player also reads the game's own save, as the game reads it, and keeps the achievements it shows on the game's page, in this browser too. Other ROM ports open the file in their own page. Some games need files from your own copy, a disc image or a data folder. The game page says which before you press Play. Your files are read in your browser, decompiled.games never receives them, and never links to copyrighted game files.

Credits

The cartridge player is mGBA 2.5.1, by Jeffrey Pfau (endrift) and contributors, built for the web by Nicholas VanCise (thenick775), under the MPL-2.0 license (source).

Game descriptions come from IGDB and Wikipedia, credited with their license on each game page. Cover art belongs to its publishers and is shown to identify each game.

For developers

The shelf is available as JSON at /api/games. Last updated 2026-10-09.