adam-01

adam

A static recompilation of Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン) for the N64 (1999, Japan only) into a native Windows program, built with N64Recomp. The game's MIPS code is translated to C ahead of time and compiled for the PC; graphics are drawn by RT64, and the launcher, settings menus and controller support come from RecompFrontend.

This is a hobby and learning project, shared so others can learn from it.

No game data is included. Neither this repository nor the download contains a ROM or any game code. You need your own copy of the game; your ROM is recognised by its hash.

Download and play

1. Download the zip (adam-<version>.zip) from the Releases page and unzip it into a folder you can write to. It holds just adam.exe, three DLLs, HOW_TO_PLAY.txt and LICENSE.txt: the menus' fonts and icons are built into adam.exe, which unpacks them into a data folder next to itself on the first start.
2. Run adam.exe, choose Load ROM and pick your ROM (Japanese release, .z64, 32 MB). It is checked and copied into the data folder next to adam.exe (saves and settings go there too), so you only do this once.
3. Choose Start Game.

The downloaded adam.exe contains no game code: when the game starts, it translates the game's code from your ROM into PC code (N64Recomp's live recompiler, well under a second) and runs the audio microcode with a small built-in interpreter. In our tests the intro, the menus and the second mission look and run the same as with the ahead-of-time build described below. HOW_TO_PLAY.txt in the zip lists the controls.

Requirements: Windows 10/11 x64, a GPU with Direct3D 12 or Vulkan. Nothing to install (the Visual C++ runtime is built in).

Status

• Boots and runs the intro, the menus, the first mission and the start of the second at a steady 30 fps (as on hardware), with sound.
• Saves (EEPROM) work. A Project64 .eep save copied to the start of runtime\build\data\saves\adam.bin loads (the other direction is untested).
• Launcher (Load ROM / Start Game, Controls, Settings, Exit), settings menu, remappable keyboard and gamepad input. Esc (or the gamepad's Back button) opens the settings in game and pauses the game.
• Fast-forward: hold Tab or the right trigger (2x, on/off in Settings → General; sound is muted meanwhile).
• Rewind: hold Backspace or click the left stick during a mission to run the game backwards (up to 10 s; on/off in Settings → General).
• Bezels: artwork from the game in the black bars beside the 4:3 picture (Settings → Bezels: picture, brightness, black & white, position and size). The launcher's background is chosen the same way (Background in the launcher). All pictures are read from your ROM.
• Widescreen (a wide aspect ratio in Settings → Graphics) is used only in mission battles; everything else stays 4:3.
• Reset Game in Settings → General restarts the game.
• What changed in each version: CHANGELOG.md.
• Later parts of the game have not been played through yet. Some overlays (code the game loads on demand) have never run; expect problems there. Reports are welcome.

Building from source

What you need

• Windows 10/11, x64
• Your own ROM of the game (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Japanese release): big-endian .z64, 32 MB. XXH3-64 hash 0x43A8E44E8287EB13 (adam.exe --hash <rom.z64> prints it).
• Visual Studio with "Desktop development with C++" (for CMake, Ninja and the Windows SDK). runtime\build.ps1 expects Visual Studio 18 (2026) Community in its default folder; change $vsRoot there for another edition.
• LLVM (clang-cl) installed in C:\Program Files\LLVM
• Python 3.12 with pip install splat64[mips] (splat and rabbitizer)
• Git

Folder layout

The dependencies live next to this folder (the build scripts and CMake find them there):

<any folder>\
  adam\                (this repository)
  N64Recomp\           https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64Recomp         commit ffb39cd
  N64ModernRuntime\    https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64ModernRuntime  commit cdf5abb
  rt64\                https://github.com/rt64/rt64                    commit 8bd2cf1
  RecompFrontend\      https://github.com/N64Recomp/RecompFrontend    commit b1a1477

These are the commits adam was built and tested with. runtime\build.ps1 applies small patches from runtime\patches\ to RT64, RecompFrontend and N64ModernRuntime; at other commits they may not apply.

Building

Run these in PowerShell from the parent folder (<any folder>).

1. Get the dependencies at the tested commits:

   foreach ($d in @(@("N64Recomp","https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64Recomp","ffb39cd"),
                    @("N64ModernRuntime","https://github.com/N64Recomp/N64ModernRuntime","cdf5abb"),
                    @("rt64","https://github.com/rt64/rt64","8bd2cf1"),
                    @("RecompFrontend","https://github.com/N64Recomp/RecompFrontend","b1a1477"))) {
       git clone $d[1] $d[0]
       git -C $d[0] checkout $d[2]
       git -C $d[0] submodule update --init --recursive
   }
   

2. Build N64Recomp (it also builds RSPRecomp) and copy N64Recomp.exe into adam\:

   cmake -S N64Recomp -B N64Recomp\build
   cmake --build N64Recomp\build --config Release
   Copy-Item N64Recomp\build\Release\N64Recomp.exe adam\
   

3. Put your ROM at adam\rom\game.z64.

4. Disassemble the ROM and recompile it to C (splat, then N64Recomp; writes adam\RecompiledFuncs\):

   cd adam
   powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\rebuild.ps1 *> rebuild_log.txt
   

   The last line of rebuild_log.txt should be exit code: 0.

5. Recompile the game's audio microcode (writes rsp\aspMain.cpp):

   ..\N64Recomp\build\Release\RSPRecomp.exe rsp\aspMain.toml
   

6. Build the program (downloads SDL 2.30.3 on the first run):

   powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File runtime\build.ps1 *> runtime_build_log.txt
   

7. Run runtime\build\adam.exe, choose Load ROM and pick your ROM. It's copied to runtime\build\data\ (with your saves and settings), so you only do this once.

Everything generated from the ROM (rom\, RecompiledFuncs\, rsp\*.cpp, splat\asm\, the exe) is listed in .gitignore. Please keep it that way and don't share those files: the adam.exe built this way contains the game's code and must not be shared.

Building the download (live build)

The shareable build recompiles the game code at startup instead. Steps 1 and 2 above are still needed; steps 4 and 5 are not (it uses symbols.toml and config.toml from this repository):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File runtime\build.ps1 -Live *> runtime_build_live_log.txt
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\package_live.ps1

The first command builds runtime\build-live\adam.exe; the second copies it with its DLLs, HOW_TO_PLAY.txt and the license into packages\adam-<version>\ (version from runtime\package\VERSION) plus a zip (no folders: symbols.toml, config.toml and runtime\assets\ are built into the exe), and refuses to include ROMs, saves or debug files. runtime\build-live\adam.exe --live-test <rom.z64> recompiles everything in the console and reports problems.

Playing

Default controls (change them in Settings → Controls):

N64	Keyboard	Xbox-style gamepad
Stick	arrow keys	left stick
A / B	X / C	A / X
Z	Z	left trigger
Start	Enter	Start
L / R	A / S	LB / RB
C buttons	I J K L	right stick
D-pad	T F G H	D-pad
Menu	Esc	Back
Fast-forward (hold)	Tab	right trigger
Rewind (hold, in missions)	Backspace	left stick click

Debug keys in game: P pauses and resumes, F9 writes a 4 MB RAM dump (big-endian, comparable with Project64's) to dumps\inbox\ if that folder exists, otherwise next to the exe.

Graphics default to the original N64 picture (4:3, the game's own frame rate, no anti-aliasing) at 2x resolution. Higher resolutions ("Auto" in a large window) currently show thin lines across some scaled backgrounds.

Repository overview

Path	What
splat\adam.yaml, splat\symbol_addrs.txt	how the ROM is split into code sections; function names
scripts\	the pipeline (rebuild.ps1, splat_to_toml.py, update_stubs.py) and analysis tools (disasm.py, who_calls.py, dl_dump.py, ...)
scripts\extra_hooks.txt, extra_stubs.txt, ...	hand-written inputs for N64Recomp (hooks, stubs, renames)
symbols.toml, config.toml	N64Recomp input, generated by the pipeline (don't edit by hand)
rsp\aspMain.toml	RSPRecomp settings for the audio microcode
runtime\src\	the PC program: game registration, overlays, audio, input, settings
runtime\src\live.cpp, rsp_interp.cpp	the live build: recompiles the game code from the ROM at startup; audio microcode interpreter
runtime\src\launcher_art.cpp	decodes the game's pictures from the stored ROM
runtime\src\bezels.cpp, bezel_layout.h	bezels and launcher background (picker tabs, layout math)
runtime\src\rewind.cpp	rewind (RAM history, what is kept live)
runtime\patches\	fixes to RT64 (S2DEX2 2D graphics), RecompFrontend (menus) and N64ModernRuntime / N64Recomp (fast-forward, rewind, live build)
runtime\package\	HOW_TO_PLAY.txt and VERSION for the download (scripts\package_live.ps1)
CHANGELOG.md	what changed in each version
runtime\assets\	fonts and icons for the menus (built into adam.exe, unpacked into data\ at startup)
runtime\src\embedded_files_unpack.cpp	unpacks the files built into the exe (list generated by runtime\CMakeLists.txt)

scripts\verify_setup.py still checks the layout from before the overlays were mapped and reports outdated "problems"; the other tools are current.

Credits

• N64Recomp (MIT) and N64ModernRuntime (GPLv3) by Wiseguy and contributors
• RT64 (MIT) by Dario and contributors
• RecompFrontend, the launcher/menu/input library (not included here; runtime\patches\ contains small changes to it)
• Zelda64Recomp and Banjo: Recompiled (GPLv3): reference integrations; parts of the audio output and the menu integration are adapted from them, and the menu icons come from Banjo: Recompiled
• sljit (BSD), the code generator inside N64Recomp's live recompiler
• splat and rabbitizer (MIT), n64sym for identifying library functions
• Fonts: Inter and Noto Emoji (SIL Open Font License), promptfont (see runtime\assets\promptfont\LICENSE.txt)
• Project64, used to compare RAM dumps and saves

License

GPLv3, see LICENSE, because adam links with N64ModernRuntime (GPLv3) and contains code and assets adapted from GPLv3 projects. The assets in runtime\assets\ keep their own licenses (see its README).

RecompFrontend currently has no license file. adam uses it the same way other N64Recomp projects do. If its authors or any other rights holder object to how it or anything else is used here, please open an issue and it will be changed or taken down.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by the game's publisher, the console maker, or the rights holders of Neon Genesis Evangelion. "Neon Genesis Evangelion" is a trademark of its respective owners and is used here only to identify the game this project works with. It contains no copyrighted game data: no ROM, no game code, no graphics, sound or text from the game.