Important
Hey. I'm no computer engineer and I don't pretend to be one. I'm just interested in having recompilations available to everyone so we can run the games we love on the hardware we have. This project HEAVILY uses AI. It is fully vibecoded: steered by me, written by AI. This should be evident by how messy the ecosystem is (a hard-fork of DolRecomp with customizations, GXRuntime, and StrikersRecomp). Using a custom agent harness, I had claude models work in checkpoints, iterating different designs in search of the most efficient development path to get games recompiled via DolRecomp playable. This resulted in an unmaintainable codebase, but that was never the goal. The path of least resistance for Gamecube/Wii recompilation was found. Finally, after sharing with the good developers of ExpansionPak, this project's approach (and code, as of now) has been adopted by GekkoRuntime. This repo and those adjacent to it will not be iterated upon further. I'm glad to have provided to the community and hope tthe ExpansionPak developers can continue their good work ❤️
License: GPL-2.0-or-later ·
Discussions
RecompCore is a Dolphin fork with one addition: a CPU core that runs statically recompiled GameCube code. You run your own copy of a game through DolRecomp, compile the output into a native module, and RecompCore loads it by disc ID at boot. Code the module covers runs as ordinary native functions — no JIT, no interpreter. Everything else — graphics, audio, discs, controllers, and any code the module doesn't cover — is still Dolphin, unchanged.
With no module present, RecompCore behaves exactly like stock Dolphin, for any ISO. With a module, the worst case is falling back to Dolphin's interpreter: slower, never broken.
Two reasons, honestly stated.
First, platforms where JITs aren't allowed. This architecture needs none: the game's code is compiled ahead of time, on your machine, by an ordinary C compiler.
Second, a referee for recompiler correctness. RecompCore has a lockstep mode that reruns every dispatch on Dolphin's interpreter and compares full CPU state. When native code and the interpreter disagree, one of them is wrong — and we find out which. This is how the recompiler's floating-point unit was brought to bit-exactness.
This work stands on a lineage: Dolphin (the hardware model everything here runs on), DolRecomp (the GameCube static recompiler), N64Recomp and Zelda64Recomp, XenonRecomp and UnleashedRecomp, ReXGlue, and rexdex.
Verified with Super Mario Strikers (G4QE01) as the first module:
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Native dispatch coverage | 99.908% (24.30B native / 22.3M fallback, full game session) |
| Lockstep differential | 0 divergences over 37.7B dispatches (boot through a full match) |
| Speed vs stock JIT | ~real-time (97–100% by scene); the JIT keeps ~3.8× headroom |
| Module-less invariant | re-proven on two unrelated titles (native=0, stock behavior) |
| Savestates | round-trip mid-match |
| Recompiler oracle suite | 239 differential cases, 0 unexpected |
The ~3.8× dispatch-headroom gap against the JIT is the headline roadmap item.
your ISO → main.dol → DolRecomp → C files → clang → g<GAMEID>_recomp module
│
RecompCore autoloads by disc ID ────────────┘
│
covered PC? ├─ yes → native function
└─ no → Dolphin interpreter (transparent fallback)
The module ABI is versioned (currently v2); the loader rejects a module built against a different ABI rather than loading it wrong.
-
Build RecompCore — recipes in CHASSIS.md. The no-Qt build:
cmake -B build -GNinja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_QT=OFF -DENABLE_NOGUI=ON -DUSE_MGBA=OFF ninja -C build dolphin-emu-nogui
-
Package a module. For Super Mario Strikers, follow StrikersRecomp and run its
tools/package_module.sh. For any other game, see module-template/. -
Run with the StaticRecomp core:
./build/Binaries/dolphin-emu-nogui -e your.iso -C Dolphin.Core.CPUCore=6
The config kill-switch
-C Dolphin.Core.StaticRecompModule=Falseruns the same core interpreter-only, without touching the module file.
You bring your own ISO. Nothing game-derived ships in this repository or its releases, and module binaries must not be redistributed.
- Close the dispatch-headroom gap against the JIT (block linking, an inlined flat-RAM fast path — both gated on the oracle suite and the lockstep differential).
- Qt GUI verification (nogui is what's verified so far).
- Windows CI and verification (macOS and Linux build in CI today; macOS is the verified host).
- A second title.
- Periodic upstream rebases (policy in CHASSIS.md).
Ecosystem: DolRuntime is the standalone native runtime built on the same CPU core and module ABI — the lightweight path toward JIT-banned platforms.
The fork is thin by design: one new directory
(Source/Core/Core/PowerPC/StaticRecomp/) plus ~10 small seams in upstream
files, all listed in CHASSIS.md with the sync policy. RecompCore
is not affiliated with the Dolphin project — please don't report RecompCore
bugs to Dolphin.
Is this legal? This repository is tools and emulator code only. You build modules from your own copy of a game; nothing game-derived is distributed, and built modules must not be shared.
Is it faster than Dolphin? No — parity without a JIT is the point today. Dolphin's JIT keeps ~3.8× headroom in heavy scenes; closing that is the roadmap.
Why not upstream this into Dolphin? It's a different execution model with a per-game build step — better proven out in a fork first. The recompiler fixes it surfaced are being upstreamed to DolRecomp.
Which games work? Any ISO boots stock-identical. Super Mario Strikers is the validated module; module-template/ covers the rest.
Wii? DolRecomp decodes Broadway code, but Wii titles are untested here.
This project is not affiliated with Nintendo or the Dolphin project. No game code or assets are distributed — do not ask for or share them.
Licensed GPL-2.0-or-later, unchanged from upstream Dolphin (see COPYING).
Credits: the Dolphin team (the hardware model everything here stands on, and CachedInterpreter as the structural template), ExpansionPak (DolRecomp, libPorpoise), Mr-Wiseguy and the N64Recomp ecosystem, hedge-dev (XenonRecomp/UnleashedRecomp), ReXGlue (Tom Clay et al.), rexdex, encounter (Aurora, dtk), yannicksuter (smstrikers-decomp, CC0), the Melee decompilation project, and devkitPro.