🍩 simpsonsarcade-ps3

"Mmm... native code." — Homer J. Simpson, probably

A static recompilation of The Simpsons Arcade Game (PlayStation 3 / PSN) into a native PC executable, built on ps3recomp. No emulator.

It is playable: intro, menus, saves, and the arcade game itself, with keyboard or pad. It also plays online through psnr, a stand-in for PSN's matchmaking.

Main menu → profile dialog → character select → Stage 1, captured from the native build.

Status

Boot, intro, menus, attract mode	✅
Gameplay (arcade core)	✅ Stage 1 onward
Input	✅ Keyboard; XInput pad when one is attached
Save / load	✅ Settings and progress persist across boots
Graphics	✅ RSX → D3D12 (RSX_LIVE_DRAW=1); no flash frames or garbled glyphs
Audio	✅ Music (ATRAC3plus) and effects
Frame rate	⚠️ 60 in menus, 35–57 in gameplay
Online multiplayer (psnr)	✅ Create Match / Quick Match, lobby, co-op in sync
Online leaderboards	❓ Not yet tried against psnr

Known issues

• In-stage sound thins out when the frame rate drops. The arcade core makes its sound per emulated frame, so below 60 fps its own sample stream has gaps.
• Offline, the title shows its "sign in to post scores" notice. That's expected without psnr. It doesn't block saving.

The full history, with measurements, is in PROGRESS.md.

Online play (psnr)

The title's online mode works over psnr. psnr runs the rooms; once players are matched, game traffic goes directly between them.

Tested: two players, both instances on one machine. Create Match, Quick Match, the online lobby, character select, and the host's game setup transfer all work. Stage 1 then plays in sync on both, with each player's input showing on both screens. The game allows up to four players; three and four haven't been tried, and neither has play across two machines.

Requirements. Online needs ps3recomp changes that are still in review: #200 (NP matchmaking over psnr, and P2P sockets) and #202 (a lifter fix: without it, the title's zlib corrupts the game setup it sends). Until they merge, build against a ps3recomp checkout with both applied, and re-lift (tools/relift.sh).

Two players on one machine:

psnr                      # from the psnr repo; listens on :36100

# player 1 (hosts: Online Game → Create Match)
PS3_NET_ONLINE=1 PSNR_SERVER=127.0.0.1 PS3_NP_ONLINE_ID=homer PS3_NET_P2P_PORT=3658 \
PS3_VERBOSE=0 RSX_LIVE_DRAW=1 ./build/simpsons vfs/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/EBOOT.elf

# player 2 (joins: Online Game → Quick Match)
PS3_NET_ONLINE=1 PSNR_SERVER=127.0.0.1 PS3_NP_ONLINE_ID=bart  PS3_NET_P2P_PORT=3659 \
PS3_VERBOSE=0 RSX_LIVE_DRAW=1 ./build/simpsons vfs/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/EBOOT.elf

Variable	Why
PS3_NET_ONLINE=1, PSNR_SERVER	Turn on real sockets and point at the psnr server.
PS3_NP_ONLINE_ID	The player's name. It also gives the instance its own console identity, which the game uses to tell players apart.
PS3_NET_P2P_PORT	The port other players reach this one on. Each instance on a machine needs its own. Across machines, open it to the other players.
PS3_VERBOSE=0	Required. With stderr redirected, the runtime otherwise logs every wait, which drops gameplay to about 1 fps, and the game then drops the other player as "not responding".

Without these variables the game is offline, exactly as before.

Building

Prereqs: Python 3.9+, CMake 3.20+, clang-cl + Ninja, and a sibling ps3recomp checkout.

# 1. Decrypt your own legally obtained EBOOT.BIN to an ELF and lay out the game data:
#       vfs/PS3_GAME/PARAM.SFO
#       vfs/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/EBOOT.elf
#       vfs/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/0B/SIMPSONS.SR, SIMPSONS_FW.SR

# 2. Lift the PPU image and generate the HLE NID table:
PS3RECOMP=../ps3recomp ./tools/relift.sh

# 3. Capture the SPU job binaries (the game builds them in memory, so they only exist
#    when cellSpurs dispatches them), then lift again to include them:
SPU_DUMP_MISS=spu_dump ./build/simpsons vfs/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/EBOOT.elf
PS3RECOMP=../ps3recomp ./tools/relift.sh

# 4. Build (Release is the default; a debug build runs at a third of the speed):
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-cl -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang-cl
cmake --build build

# 5. Run:
RSX_LIVE_DRAW=1 ./build/simpsons vfs/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/EBOOT.elf

Controls (keyboard). Arrows move · Z attack · X jump · A/S square/triangle · Q/W L1/R1 · Enter START · Tab SELECT. An XInput pad takes over when one is plugged in.

Scripted runs. PAD_SCRIPT="15:0x0008,30:0x4000,..." presses buttons at set frames, and LD_FRAME_DUMP=shots LD_FRAME_DUMP_EVERY=60 saves frames. Coin in with START (0x0008) once, then use only CROSS (0x4000); START again opens the pause menu.

The game

Title	The Simpsons Arcade Game (PSN)
Title ID	NPUB30563
Developer / Publisher	Backbone Entertainment / Konami
Original	Konami's 1991 four-player arcade beat-'em-up

The PSN release is an arcade emulator wrapped around the original 1991 ROM (inside SIMPSONS.SR): the EBOOT emulates the Konami 052001, Z80, YM2151 and K053260. So this project recompiles the emulator, and the game's own 6809 code is interpreted from the ROM. See docs/emulator-architecture.md.

It is the same game as the Xbox 360 release, with a byte-identical SIMPSONS.SR, and a sibling of the playable 360 port simpsonsarcade. Both CPUs are 64-bit big-endian PowerPC with VMX, so the 360 port served as a reference throughout. See docs/360-crossref.md and docs/binary-analysis.md.

Legal

This repository contains no copyrighted game code, assets, binaries, or encryption keys, only analysis notes, configuration and build tooling. You need your own legally obtained copy of the game. This project is not affiliated with Konami, Backbone, Sony or Fox.

Related projects

• ps3recomp: the PS3 runtime this links against
• psnr: the online server
• simpsonsarcade: the Xbox 360 port of the same game
• flOw · tokyojungle: sister PS3 ports
• RPCS3: the emulator whose HLE research makes this possible