Time Traveler 3D

Reverse engineering of Time Traveler (Sega / Virtual Image Productions, 1991, laserdisc "hologram" arcade) and a stereoscopic Nintendo 3DS port driven by the recovered scene data.

No ROM, laserdisc or DVD content is distributed in this repository. You need your own program ROM tt061891.bin and laserdisc image timetrv.chd (MAME set timetrv).

Play it: bring the ingredients, the patcher builds the game

The reverse engineering is done. Every scene, input window, rule and laserdisc frame offset is already decoded and ships with the patcher. You only supply the arcade files; the patcher turns them into a 3DS game on your machine.

You can't build the game unless you have all of these:

Ingredient	Why	Get it
timetrv.zip (program ROM tt061891.bin) and timetrv.chd (laserdisc)	the game itself	your own MAME set timetrv; never included here
chdman	reads the laserdisc image	MAME's tools (brew install mame, the MAME Windows package, mame-tools on Linux)
ffmpeg with libx264	encodes the footage for the 3DS	ffmpeg.org, Homebrew, your Linux package manager
makerom	only for the .cia	github.com/3DSGuy/Project_CTR releases

Steps

1. Download the patcher for your computer from the Releases page: windows-x64, linux-x64, macos-arm64 (Apple silicon) or macos-x64 (Intel Mac).
2. Install chdman, ffmpeg and (for the .cia) makerom, or put them in the same folder as the patcher.
3. Open the patcher, choose timetrv.zip, timetrv.chd and an output folder, and press Build the game. It checks your files and tools first and says plainly what is missing. A full build takes a few minutes; stop it any time and press Build again to carry on.
4. Copy timetrv3ds.3dsx to /3ds/ on the SD card (Homebrew Launcher), or install timetrv3ds.cia with FBI.

First run on each system:

• macOS: the app is not notarized. Right-click it and choose Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine timetrv-patcher.app once.
• Windows: SmartScreen may warn about an unknown publisher: More info, then Run anyway.
• Linux: chmod +x timetrv-patcher, then run it from your desktop or a terminal.

The same program also runs without a window: timetrv-patcher --rom timetrv.zip --chd timetrv.chd --out out.

The splash and menu screens are made on your machine from your own laserdisc's pictures plus our lettering; the icon and banner are our lettering only. No Sega artwork is included.

Work on it: developer setup

Python 3.13 with requirements.txt and devkitPro 3ds-dev, plus the ingredients above. Ghidra only if you dig into the ROM itself. make doctor checks all of it and names what is missing.

Quick start

python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
make rom        # rom/tt061891.bin from ../timetrv.zip, SHA-1 checked
make test       # every check that needs no 3DS
make doctor     # what make game still needs (devkitPro, chdman, ffmpeg, rom/timetrv.chd)
make game       # the whole game as one .3dsx in build/release/

make help lists every target. Which targets need what is in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Read next

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md: how the pieces fit, from ROM to 3DS.
• CONTRIBUTING.md: setup, the checks to run, the rules.
• docs/ROM_FINDINGS.md, docs/TASKS.md: the ROM facts and the backlog.

License

BSD 3-Clause, see LICENSE. It covers this repository's code and data only.

• reference/mame/: files from MAME, under their own headers (BSD-3-Clause; timetrv.lay CC0-1.0). port/3ds/source/led.c uses the LED glyph table from MAME's timetrv.cpp (BSD-3-Clause).
• tools/fonts/: Mr Dafoe (Alejandro Paul) for the title and Michroma (Vernon Adams) for the tagline, both SIL Open Font License 1.1 (tools/fonts/OFL-*.txt).
• Time Traveler, Sega and Hologram are trademarks of their owners. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by them, and it contains none of their ROM, laserdisc, DVD or artwork.