Thoughts on Reuse of Disassembled Code?

So a matter that is starting to take more shape in my disassembly projects now is identification of common subroutines between different Nintendo codebases, for instance the PPU display list handling and APU engines common to SMB and Zelda (and others) titles. Since these same library routines are used across multiple titles, I've been thinking of pulling the commonalities out and creating generalized versions such that:

• Common routine and variable names are used across titles
• Thoroughly documented versions of the routines can be dropped into new disassemblies with just minor edits
• Said minor edits can be worked back into the "generics" behind perhaps preprocessor switches, allowing for a thorough view of the different ways that core functionality was used in practice
• The same routines could be used for new things

The latter item is the one I'm pondering on the most. It certainly would be beneficial to start with an established sound engine or PPU display list management, at least when in the prototyping stages of a project. However, it does constitute code written and distributed by a specific corporate player. This makes me wonder if that is actually a tenable option in practice or if that would be barking up the wrong tree?

In any case I would make any distribution clear that I am not licensing the material for commercial use, although in reality I don't put a license on my disassembly work at all, I don't consider myself the final arbiter of what people's rights to the code are.

Thoughts? Would I be better off continuing to not provide a license or would it make sense to provide a license clearly delineating that I'm only providing the stuff for non-commercial use and disclaim liabilities tied to someone deciding to use it for a commercial, for-profit venture? My own personal investment in such a thing is just to have shared bits between titles well documented and isolated so they aren't getting reanalyzed every time they are encountered again.

Statistics: Posted by segaloco — Mon Dec 23, 2024 2:08 pm — Replies 9 — Views 385

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