Little Big Adventure 2 Classic Community

Little Big Adventure 2 (aka Twinsen's Odyssey) is the sequel to Little Big Adventure (aka Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure) in 1997.

This repository is the community fork of the classic source release — a source port maintained with preservation in mind while improving portability and long-term maintainability. Game assets aren't included; you need a legitimate copy of LBA2 to play.

Features

• The complete game — the original 1997 engine, ported to 64-bit and modern compilers; bring your own copy of LBA2
• Native builds — Linux, macOS, Windows, Android / Android TV (7.0+, API 24), and experimental Nintendo Switch homebrew
• Widescreen and HD — render resolutions up to 1080p, offered per monitor from the Display menu; the classic 640×480 4:3 mode is still there (docs/RUNTIME_RESOLUTION.md)
• Reads disc images directly — retail assets straight out of a raw ISO/BIN or .cue pair, so a GOG Original Edition install or a CD rip needs no extraction step
• Retail-compatible saves — 1997 saves load directly, and every build of this port writes the same 32-bit save bytes
• Frame-rate-independent movement — a fixed 60 Hz simulation step, so walk and jump distances no longer change with your frame rate
• Gamepad support — full controller mapping, radial deadzones, and a rebindable D-pad (docs/CONTROLLER.md)
• Third-person camera — optional follow camera in exterior scenes, orbited with the mouse or the right stick, and zoomed with the mouse wheel or the numpad (docs/CAMERA.md)
• Render smoothing — optional texture filtering and dithered shading for the software rasterizer, off by default (docs/GFX_OPTIONS.md)
• Modern audio backend — SDL3 in place of the original Miles Sound System
• FMV playback — via the bundled open-source libsmacker
• Debug console — always-on Quake-style console (docs/CONSOLE.md)

For a history of project changes, please see the CHANGELOG.md.

About this repository

The original LBA2 engine source is the lba2-classic codebase: it is mostly assembly, with C++ for game logic, and is the canonical historical release. lba2-classic-community is a community fork for evolving and modernizing the code: ports of assembly to C++, SDL3 for graphics/audio/input, libsmacker for FMV, native Linux/macOS/Windows/Android builds, and player-facing additions such as widescreen support, gamepad play, and an always-on debug console. The goal is to preserve the history and culture of the original while making the codebase easier to build and extend. See ASM_TO_CPP_REFERENCE.md for which modules have been ported from ASM to C++ in this fork.

Why this project

We want this to be the way to play LBA2 today, made with the same love and care Adeline put into the original.

Care here starts with the 1997 game as the reference. When the port drifts from the original DOS release without meaning to, that is a bug, and we check the original rather than guess. Where the original has a bug of its own, fixing it is the player's choice (Options → Advanced options → Fix retail bugs), not a silent change. What we learn about the engine goes into docs/knowledge/ with the evidence behind it, so nobody has to find it out twice.

Playing

Pre-built binaries for Linux, macOS, Windows and Android, plus an experimental Nintendo Switch homebrew build in the rolling pre-release.

Stable — the latest tagged release. A milestone build with less churn than rolling. Pre-1.0 — bugs are still being ironed out, and full-playthrough testing isn't part of the release criteria yet (see the 1.0 bar for what changes at 1.0).

Bleeding edge — the rolling latest pre-release. Rebuilt from main on every push, may contain unreleased changes, and sometimes carries artifacts not yet in the latest stable tag (newly added platforms land here first). Useful for verifying a fix landed or chasing the freshest feature; not play-tested.

All releases: Releases page.

Game data

You need a legitimate copy of LBA2 (GOG, Steam, or your retail CD) — the engine doesn't ship assets.

On desktop, a folder picker opens on first launch; point it at the directory containing LBA2.HQR (alongside music/, video/, vox/, …, or under a Common/ / CommonClassic/ subfolder for Steam/GOG re-releases). Your choice is remembered.

To skip the picker, pass an explicit path:

./lba2cc --game-dir /path/to/game
LBA2_GAME_DIR=/path/to/game ./lba2cc

To re-pick later: ./lba2cc --pick-game-dir. See docs/GAME_DATA.md for the full discovery order and override precedence.

Linux

Grab lba2cc-<version>-anylinux-<arch>.AppImage, then:

chmod +x lba2cc-*-anylinux-*.AppImage
./lba2cc-*-anylinux-*.AppImage

On distros without FUSE, or for packagers wrapping the binary, a static lba2cc-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz is published alongside the AppImage — extract and run lba2cc.

macOS

Download lba2cc-<version>-macos-universal.dmg (one app for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, built for macOS 11 or later; tested on Apple Silicon with a current macOS, while Intel Macs and older macOS versions are untested), open it, drag LBA2 Classic Community.app to Applications. First launch needs right-click → Open (macOS Gatekeeper blocks unsigned apps on double-click). The DMG ships its own README covering this — read it before the first launch.

Windows

Download lba2cc-<version>-windows-x64.zip, unzip anywhere, run lba2cc.exe. Portable build: no installer, no DLLs needed.

Android

Download the lba2cc-<version>-android-arm64-v8a.apk (or armeabi-v7a). Requires Android 7.0 (API 24) or later. You must provide your own retail game data (see Game data and docs/ANDROID.md for setup).

Nintendo Switch

Experimental homebrew build: download lba2cc-switch.zip from the rolling pre-release and extract it onto the SD-card root. The executable lands at sdmc:/switch/lba2cc/lba2cc.nro.

Copy your retail HQR files, including LBA2.HQR, directly into sdmc:/lba2/, preserving the installation's music, movie and voice subdirectories. No game assets are included. Launch through Homebrew Menu in application mode/title takeover, not the memory-constrained Album applet.

Saves, settings and logs live under sdmc:/switch/lba2cc/user/; back up this directory before upgrading. See docs/SWITCH.md for the SD-card layout, network launching and the hardware checklist.

Building from source quick start

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.23+
• Ninja (for make build and presets)
• A C/C++ compiler with C++98 support (GCC, Clang)
• SDL3 (shared library)
• GNU Make — only required for the make shortcuts; plain CMake works without it
• Optional: UASM — only required for ENABLE_ASM=ON workflows

On macOS, install with brew install ninja sdl3.

Run ./scripts/dev/check-tooling.sh to see what your machine is missing. That covers the build; the tools needed for testing, linting, packaging, Android, and releasing are indexed by tier in docs/TOOLING.md.

First clone

1. make or make help — lists convenience targets (build, run, clean, test, …).
2. make build — configures build/ (Ninja, Debug) and compiles lba2cc. Or plain CMake: cmake -B build && cmake --build build.
3. Point the engine at your game data — export LBA2_GAME_DIR=/path, ./data/ (gitignored), --game-dir, or bounded automatic discovery (the LBA2.HQR marker is the only special-cased file). See docs/GAME_DATA.md.
4. make run or ./scripts/dev/build-and-run.sh — build if needed, then run. make run sets LBA2_GAME_DIR automatically if ./data or ../LBA2 contains LBA2.HQR; otherwise pass --game-dir /path/to/classic/install to the binary.
5. make test — host-only tests (path resolution, parsers, ABI bounds, version checks); no retail files or Docker required.

Windows: Use MSYS2 (recommended; see docs/WINDOWS.md). Discovery and the game work the same (LBA2_GAME_DIR, --game-dir, paths with \ or /). The root Makefile and scripts/dev/*.sh need a Unix-like shell (MSYS2 UCRT64, Git Bash, or WSL); alternatively run cmake and build/SOURCES/lba2cc.exe from cmd.exe / PowerShell and set the env var with set LBA2_GAME_DIR=....

CMake presets

For platform-specific builds, use the presets in CMakePresets.json (all use the Ninja generator, so ninja must be on PATH):

• Linux: cmake --preset linux && cmake --build --preset linux
• macOS: cmake --preset macos_arm64 && cmake --build --preset macos_arm64 (or macos_x86_64, or macos_universal for both in one binary)
• Windows: cmake --preset windows_ucrt64 && cmake --build --preset windows_ucrt64 — see docs/WINDOWS.md
• Cross-compile Windows from Linux: cmake --preset cross_linux2win && cmake --build --preset cross_linux2win. To skip the preset, use the toolchain file directly: cmake -B build -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/mingw-w64-i686.cmake.
• Nintendo Switch homebrew: bash scripts/dev/build-switch.sh — builds an SDL2 .nro and SD-card ZIP inside a digest-pinned devkitPro Docker image. No host SDK needed. Tested on a Switch console against the hardware checklist in docs/SWITCH.md.
• PlayStation Vita homebrew: bash scripts/dev/build-vita.sh — builds an SDL2/GXM VPK using the pinned VitaSDK Docker environment. Includes FTP/companion deployment and optional early-boot/DEBUGNET diagnostics. Basic boot is confirmed on hardware; broader acceptance checks remain pending. See docs/VITA.md.

Build options

Option	Values	Default	Description
PLATFORM_BACKEND	sdl3, sdl2, null	sdl3	Window, presentation, input, clocks and host services. SDL3 is the default; SDL2 supports desktop and Switch homebrew with audio, but no native folder picker. Android requires SDL3. null presents offscreen without an SDK and requires SOUND_BACKEND=null. See docs/PLATFORM_ABSTRACTION.md.
SOUND_BACKEND	null, miles, sdl	sdl	Sound backend. sdl uses the selected SDL2/SDL3 platform's SDK. miles requires the proprietary Miles Sound System SDK. See docs/AUDIO.md.
MVIDEO_BACKEND	null, smacker	smacker	Motion video backend. Use smacker for FMV playback via the bundled open-source libsmacker.
DEBUG_TOOLS	ON, OFF	OFF	Enable original Adeline developer debug tools: overlay, FPS counter, screenshots, collision visualization, benchmarks, cheat codes, bug save/load, command-line scene selection. See docs/DEBUG.md.
LBA2_BUILD_TESTS	ON, OFF	OFF	Build CTest targets (ASM equivalence + host tests such as test_res_discovery).
LBA2_BUILD_ASM_EQUIV_TESTS	ON, OFF	ON	ASM↔CPP equivalence suite (needs objcopy). Set OFF for host-only tests (e.g. macOS CI, make test).

Minimal build (no audio/video): -DSOUND_BACKEND=null -DMVIDEO_BACKEND=null. When MVIDEO_BACKEND=smacker, video audio routes through the active sound backend (SDL: real audio; NULL/MILES: silent). See LIB386/SMACKER/README.md and LIB386/AIL/MILES/README.md for details on the proprietary SDKs and their open-source replacements.

Debug console

This source port includes a Quake-style drop-down debug console. It is always available (no build flag), designed to be minimally invasive — normal gameplay is unchanged unless you open and use it. See docs/CONSOLE.md for commands, usage, and integration details.

Project structure

lba2-classic-community/
├── CMakeLists.txt            # Root build configuration
├── CMakePresets.json         # Cross-platform preset builds (linux/macos/windows/...)
├── Makefile                  # Convenience targets (build/run/test/format)
├── cmake/                    # Toolchains and CMake helpers
├── scripts/                  # Dev and CI helper scripts
├── SOURCES/                  # Main game logic and app entrypoints
│   ├── CONSOLE/              # Always-on debug console module (core + state)
│   ├── 3DEXT/                # 3D extensions (terrain, sky, rain, decor)
│   ├── CONFIG/               # Input/config UI and bindings
│   └── *.CPP, *.H, *.ASM     # Gameplay systems (AI, physics, save/load, etc.)
├── LIB386/                   # Engine libraries
│   ├── 3D/                   # Projection, rotation, matrices
│   ├── AIL/                  # Audio abstraction (SDL/Miles/null)
│   ├── ANIM/                 # Animation system
│   ├── OBJECT/               # 3D object rendering
│   ├── pol_work/             # Polygon fillers/rasterization
│   ├── SVGA/                 # Text/sprite/dirty-box rendering paths
│   ├── SYSTEM/               # Platform/system/input/timer abstractions
│   ├── H/                    # Shared legacy headers/types
│   └── libsmacker/           # Open-source Smacker decoder (LGPL 2.1)
├── tests/                    # Host tests + ASM↔CPP equivalence test wiring
├── docs/                     # Project documentation index and subsystem docs
└── run_tests_docker.sh       # Docker wrapper for ASM↔CPP test workflows

Documentation

Engine reference (terms, lifecycles, scene index): GLOSSARY, LIFECYCLES, SCENES.

Build, debug, preservation, and porting docs are in docs/.

Preservation notes

This codebase is a window into 1990s game development at Adeline Software International in Lyon, France. Beyond the technical content, the source files contain original developer artifacts worth exploring. The ASCII art and French comments documented below are from the original Adeline / lba2-classic codebase (same files or content preserved when porting ASM to C++ in this fork).

• ASCII art banners -- The developers decorated their source files with elaborate text banners in two distinct styles. See ASCII_ART.md for a full catalog.
• French comments -- The code is written with French comments throughout, many of which are informal, humorous, or expressive in ways that reflect the personality of the team. See FRENCH_COMMENTS.md for a curated selection with English translations.

License

This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

Please note this license only applies to Little Big Adventure 2 engine source code. Little Big Adventure 2 game assets (art, models, textures, audio, etc.) are not open-source and therefore aren't redistributable.

How can I contribute?

Read our Contribution Guidelines and the Code Style reference.

Use whatever tools help you, AI assistants included. What makes a change good is not who or what typed it, but whether someone cared enough to play it, check it against the original and explain why it is right.

Links

• Official Website: https://twinsenslittlebigadventure.com/
• Discord: https://discord.gg/jsTPWYXHsh
• Docs: https://lba-classic-doc.readthedocs.io/

Buy the game

• GOG
• Steam

Original development team

• Direction: Frédérick Raynal
• Programmers: Sébastien Viannay / Laurent Salmeron / Cédric Bermond / Frantz Cournil / Marc Bureau du Colombier
• 3D Artists & Animations: Paul-Henri Michaud / Arnaud Lhomme
• Artists: Yaeël Barroz, Sabine Morlat, Didier Quentin
• Story & Design: Frédérick Raynal / Didier Chanfray / Yaël Barroz / Laurent Salmeron / Marc Albinet
• Dialogs: Marc Albinet
• Story coding: Frantz Cournil / Lionel Chaze / Pascal Dubois
• Video Sequences: Frédéric Taquet / Benoît Boucher / Ludovic Rubin / Merlin Pardot
• Music & Sound FX: Philippe Vachey
• Testing: Bruno Marion / Thomas Ferraz / Alexis Madinier / Christopher Horwood / Bertrand Fillardet
• Quality Control: Emmanuel Oualid

Use the credits command in the console to see the full original credits.

Copyright

The intellectual property is currently owned by [2.21]. Copyright [2.21] Originally developed by Adeline Software International in 1994