About

This is a work-in-progress decompilation project of Final Fantasy VIII (PS1, USA — SLUS_008.92).

Progress

A more detailed progress report is available on decomp.dev

Total Progress
Binary	Functions	Code
Main Executable
menumain.ovl
menucfg.ovl
menupty.ovl
menusts.ovl
menuabl.ovl
menushop.ovl
menuext.ovl
menuitem.ovl
menumgc.ovl
menugf.ovl
menujnc2.ovl
menusav.ovl
menucrd.ovl
menututo.ovl
menutmag.ovl
menutips.ovl
menutest.ovl
field_init.bin
intro.bin
field.bin
tripletriad.bin
battle_render.bin
battle.bin
world.bin

Development

Any help is greatly appreciated! Below are some basic steps to get started and building the project.

1. Clone the repo with submodules:

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/roengstrom/ff8-decomp.git
   cd ff8-decomp

   • Note: If you are using Windows, you must use WSL 2 to build the project.

     The following distributions have been tested for building the project:

     Distro	Can build?
     Ubuntu-22.04	✅
     Ubuntu-24.04	✅
     Ubuntu-26.04	❌

     On a fresh installation, run the following commands to install the packages required to build the project:

     sudo apt update
     sudo apt install python3-venv make build-essential binutils-mipsel-linux-gnu

2. Create a Python venv and install splat:

   python3 -m venv .venv
   .venv/bin/pip install -e "tools/splat[mips]"

3. Provide your own disc image — You need a BIN/CUE of FF8 Disc 1 (USA, SLUS-00892).

4. Extract game data from the disc:

   python3 tools/extract.py /path/to/ff8-disc1.bin

   This verifies the disc SHA1, then extracts SLUS_008.92, all executables and overlays.

5. Full build:

   make full

   This runs clean, split (runs splat on the executable + overlays), build-assets (converts binary assets to C source), and verify (assembles, links, and checks that each output matches the original SHA1).

   For incremental work, the individual targets are also available:

   make split          # re-run splat
   make build-assets   # regenerate asset C source
   make verify         # build and compare SHA1s
   make verify EFFECTS=all   # ... including all 343 battle effect overlays

6. objdiff GUI (optional). To diff against the original in objdiff:

   make expected       # builds the target objects, on a verified tree

   then open the repository in objdiff. Re-run after make split.

References

This project stands on the shoulders of giants. A lot of work has already been put into figuring out the inner workings of FF8 which I have liberally used when starting with this project. A shoutout to the decomp community as well, this project wouldn't be possible without all the work that has been put in and the tools that have developed.

• deling
• hyne
• FF8UltimateEditor
• OpenVIII
• FF8 Modding Wiki
• Qhimm Wiki
• maspsx
• splat
• decomp.me

License

This project does not contain any game assets or copyrighted material. It is a clean-room decompilation for educational and preservation purposes. You must provide your own copy of the game to build.