SacredStonesRecomp - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Recompiled

This is a playable, actively maintained static recompilation for Windows and Android. It is already playable, but the project is still early and the runtime will keep improving. Testing reports and focused bug reproductions are useful.

Static recompilation of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (Game Boy Advance) to a native Windows executable and Android ARM64 app. Windows is built on a pinned gbarecomp runtime fork with a pinned recomp-ui launcher fork. Both retain their upstream projects' code and licenses. Android uses separately pinned upstream dependencies with reviewed local patches; see Android development and validation.

AI-Assisted Development

This project is developed with substantial assistance from OpenAI Codex, including code changes, runtime integration, debugging, code review, build tooling, and documentation. The maintainer directs the work, makes project decisions, and tests releases through gameplay, alongside automated checks.

This describes the work on SacredStonesRecomp and its dependency forks; it does not attribute AI use to the upstream projects or the original game.

Status - Playable, In Active Development

The game boots through the launcher and is playable into normal gameplay. The major visible issues found during early testing have been resolved or confirmed to match original/emulator behavior.

The previously reported intro audio artifact is no longer observed by the maintainer in recent releases; its original cause has not been confirmed.

Working now:

• Optimized Windows Release builds for the game and runtime.
• Integrated pre-boot launcher with ROM and BIOS selection plus box art.
• Play prompts for a missing or invalid BIOS.
• Remembered input-device selection, with safe fallback when a controller is absent.
• Remembered launcher window size, with a 940x799 default and fitting to smaller displays.
• Correct FE8 SRAM save/load configuration.
• In-game settings menu with state slots 1-9, save/load, and fast-forward controls.
• Fast-forward speed from 2x to 10x and independently switchable rewind.
• Remembered speed, rewind/Assist Tools enable switches, and selected state slot.
• Remembered Windows fullscreen mode, shared by the launcher and in-game menu.
• Native-resolution exclusive fullscreen and the same application icon as Android.
• ZIP save export from the in-game menu on both platforms.
• Xbox-compatible controller support through SDL.
• Optional direct mouse controls on Windows and direct touch controls on Android.
• Pointer navigation for maps, actions, menus, dialogue, world-map destinations, between-chapter saves and the Guide, including list/text scrolling.
• User-provided GBA BIOS support for correct boot, timing, and interrupt behavior.
• Quiet project builds: generated/framework warning noise is filtered from the normal build output.

Android provides a production-signed ARM64 APK. The maintainer reports working gameplay on Google Pixel 9 Pro, Xiaomi Pad 5, and Ayn Thor, and working save/load states through the in-game menu. The app includes touch controls, physical controller support, aspect-correct screen fitting, and automatic suspend/resume. Version 0.1.12 adds ZIP save export from setup and the in-game menu, modern Android Back support (validated on Ayn Thor), and larger display fitting without reserving the touch-gesture margins around the game image. The maintainer validated export on Pixel 9 Pro and accepted the display correction after three-device testing. Version 0.1.13 aligns the Windows and Android release numbers. Windows adds persistent fullscreen and ZIP save export; Android retains the validated 0.1.12 game runtime and features. The two platforms keep independent dependency pins.

Version 0.1.19 adds the direct mouse/touch controls described below. Maintainer testing covered the prologue, guided Trade, actions and menus; native snapshot tests additionally cover chapter saves, world-map selection/dialogue skip and Guide navigation. This is not a complete playthrough, and pointer controls remain experimental. Keyboard, virtual buttons and physical controllers remain available. Versions 0.1.14-0.1.18 were local test builds, not public releases.

Version 0.1.20 fixes unit Item inventory selection with mouse/touch controls and adds finger-drag camera panning anywhere on free battle/world maps on Android. Windows mouse edge scrolling and list/Guide scrolling are unchanged.

Known limitations:

• Packaged targets are Windows x64 and Android ARM64 (Android 9 or newer).
• Android has a single landscape surface; Ayn Thor's second screen is not used.
• Android has not been tested on every device, or through the entire game.
• Save export is available on both platforms; importing an archive is not implemented yet.
• Save-state compatibility across platforms or runtime versions is not guaranteed.
• Mods are not currently exposed.
• The supported game ROM and launcher are in English; translation is not planned.
• The game has not yet been exhaustively tested from start to finish.

Current maintenance priorities:

• Evaluate further upstream launcher improvements independently.
• Evaluate upstream CPU timing improvements separately, with boot, gameplay, battery-save, save-state, and rewind regression checks.

Version 0.1.10 adds the in-game menu, persistent runtime controls, and targeted launcher window/navigation fixes. It retains the optimized builds, opt-in diagnostics, BIOS picker, controller persistence, and save-safety fixes from earlier versions. Automated checks cover boot, SRAM reload, save overrides, locked-file recovery, windowed input, diagnostics, and preference loading. The maintainer validated the new menu controls and corrected layout, alongside previous gameplay checks. This is not exhaustive start-to-finish coverage. For 0.1.13, the maintainer also confirmed borderless/exclusive fullscreen sizing and successful save export in exclusive fullscreen. Automated checks cover temporary windowed transitions and restoration after cancellation.

What Static Recompilation Means Here

The ROM's ARM7TDMI machine code is translated ahead of time into native code and linked with a native runtime that models the GBA hardware: graphics, audio, DMA, timers, input, save memory, cartridge mapping, and BIOS services.

This repository does not contain the ROM, the GBA BIOS, or generated ROM-derived C/C++ output. You supply your own legally obtained ROM and GBA BIOS; local generated files and build products stay ignored by Git.

ROM

Target	Game	ROM	SHA-1	Save	Debug port
SacredStonesRecomp	Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones	USA	c25b145e37456171ada4b0d440bf88a19f4d509f	SRAM, 32 KiB	19842

The runtime validates the ROM SHA-1 and refuses unrecognized ROMs.

Quick Start - Windows

1. Download SacredStonesRecomp-0.1.20-win64.zip from the release's Assets section and extract it. The Source code archives are for developers, not the playable package.
2. Run SacredStonesRecomp.exe.
3. Select your legally obtained GBA BIOS when prompted.
4. Select your legally obtained Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones USA ROM when prompted.
5. Press Play.

The selected BIOS and ROM paths are cached next to the executable for future launches. Keep the extracted folder together when moving the game.

Play opens the BIOS picker if no valid BIOS is configured. After selecting it, press Play again. The preferred controller is remembered; if it is disconnected, the game falls back to available input without discarding the preference. Keyboard controls remain available.

Quick Start - Android

1. Download SacredStonesRecomp-0.1.20-android-arm64.apk from the release's Assets, not the source-code archives.
2. Open the APK on an ARM64 device running Android 9 or newer. Android may require permission to install from the browser or file manager you used.
3. Select your own legally obtained USA ROM and GBA BIOS, then press Play. These files are verified and imported into private app storage.
4. Use the virtual controls or a physical controller. The game keeps its original 3:2 proportions and fits the available screen without stretching.

Select is on the left near the D-pad; Start is on the right near A/B, both at the bottom. A connected controller hides virtual controls by default; a saved manual visibility preference takes precedence. Disconnecting the last controller restores the default touch controls when no manual preference is saved. Press Android's Back button once, or use the Back gesture, to open the in-game settings and Assist Tools menu. Ayn Thor's physical Back button is supported. Controller Select keeps its GBA Select function; Home remains a system action. R3/Guide are alternative menu inputs where the controller driver delivers them, not a requirement for Ayn Thor. Choose a state slot before Save state or Load state. Closing and reopening the app normally resumes the last suspended position; this is separate from the game's own save slots.

To back up your saves, open Assist Tools > Export saves, choose a ZIP destination, and wait for Saves exported. The game stays paused during the export. Export saves is also available on the setup screen; launchers that support app shortcuts can expose Saved games even when setup is skipped. The archive contains the game's battery save, existing state slots 1-9, the automatic suspend snapshot and a backup manifest, never the ROM or BIOS. Export does not remove or modify your saves. Import is not available yet.

The game maximizes its 3:2 image while protecting display cutouts. Black side bands on wider screens are normal; filling those bands would require stretching or cropping. Touch controls keep their own gesture-safe margins independently.

Updates: close the game and install the new APK over the existing app. Do not uninstall or clear app data. This production APK includes a signing lineage from the project's experimental builds, allowing those builds to update in place on supported Android versions. If Android refuses an update, stop and report the error rather than uninstalling to work around it.

The release uses a dedicated production certificate, not a debug build. Signing does not eliminate all unknown-app or Play Protect prompts for GitHub downloads. The SHA-256 checksum is provided alongside the APK.

Controls - Windows

GBA button	Keyboard
D-Pad	Arrow keys
A	X
B	Z
L / R	C / V
Start	Enter
Select	Right Shift

Default assist bindings:

• Save state: Shift+F1 through Shift+F9.
• Load state: F1 through F9.
• Rewind: hold 1 on keyboard or the left trigger on an Xbox-compatible controller.
• Fast-forward: hold 2 on keyboard or the right trigger on an Xbox-compatible controller.

Direct Mouse And Touch Controls

On Windows, enable Mouse controls (experimental) in the launcher's input settings or the in-game Input page. The choice is remembered across restarts. Android's Direct touch controls (experimental) option is enabled by default; change it from setup or the in-game Input page. It is also remembered when setup is skipped. Virtual buttons and physical controls remain usable.

• Left-click or tap a map tile, unit or action to select it. Map selection is immediate within the game's valid bounds; tutorial restrictions still apply.
• Combat targets require a separate confirmation after selection so the forecast can be checked. On the world map, select a destination, then click/tap again to confirm if the first selection only moved the cursor.
• Right-click goes back in menus, or acts as Start in skippable dialogue/scenes. On Android, use a two-finger tap. Protected tutorial messages cannot be skipped.
• Hover at an edge to pan a map independently of the selection cursor. On Android, drag anywhere on the map to move it with your finger. Releasing does not select a tile. Scripted camera movement retains control when required.
• Wheel over supported lists or scrollbars to scroll. On Android, swipe vertically over that area. Guide categories, article lists and article text support this; scrolling a list never opens an article. Click/tap an article to read it.
• Chapter-save selection still needs an explicit Yes/No confirmation. Guide Back/Sort badges and game menus are clickable/tappable.

These controls adapt native game inputs rather than bypassing story flags, inventory rules or save code. For an unsupported screen, use the original controls and report it, preferably with a save state immediately before it.

In-Game Menu - Windows

Press Escape or the controller Guide/Xbox button to open the menu. Some drivers or Windows shortcuts reserve Guide; Escape remains available. Use the mouse or D-pad/arrows to navigate, A/Enter to confirm, and B/Escape to go back. Resume returns to gameplay.

• Select State slot (1-9), then Save state or Load state.
• Set Fast-forward speed (2x-10x). Hold the usual shortcut or use the Fast-forward menu toggle; acceleration itself is not restored on restart.
• Enable rewind controls the temporary history independently. Turning it off discards that history; after re-enabling, wait for new history to build.
• Assist Tools enables/disables save-state, fast-forward, and rewind controls together. It does not disable the game's own battery save.
• Export saves opens a ZIP destination picker. The game stays paused and flushes its current battery save before exporting. The archive contains the battery save, existing state slots 1-9, any suspend snapshot, and a manifest; it never contains your ROM or BIOS. Keep the supplied tools/ folder beside the executable. Export uses Windows' built-in PowerShell; no install is needed. In exclusive fullscreen, the game temporarily becomes windowed for the native picker and confirmation, then restores fullscreen, including after cancellation.
• Display/audio settings include fullscreen, window scale, filtering, volume, audio enable, and the FPS readout. Fullscreen is remembered; the other display/audio adjustments made in this menu are session settings.

Use Alt+Enter or Display > Fullscreen to switch between windowed and fullscreen play. Borderless fullscreen is recommended; exclusive fullscreen remains available. The launcher, menu and shortcut share the remembered mode. The game preserves its original 3:2 image without stretching or cropping, so side bands on wider monitors are normal. An explicit --fullscreen=0, 1, or 2 overrides the remembered startup mode for that launch.

Fullscreen, state slot, fast-forward speed, and the rewind/Assist Tools enable switches are saved immediately. Savestates are snapshots, separate from the game's save slots; rewind history is temporary and is not restored after closing the game.

Saves And Runtime State

On Windows, runtime files are local to the extracted folder:

• Battery save: saves/SacredStonesRecomp.sav
• Save states: beside the selected ROM, <ROM filename>.state1 through .state9
• Launcher settings: sacredstonesrecomp.ini
• Launcher window dimensions: launcher-window.ini
• In-game control preferences: runtime-controls.toml
• Keyboard bindings: keybinds.ini
• ROM picker cache: sacredstonesrecomp-rom.cfg
• BIOS picker cache: sacredstonesrecomp-bios.cfg
• Self-heal cache and diagnostics: recomp_cache/ and recomp_coverage_*.json

These files are intentionally excluded from source control and release archives.

On Android, the battery save is files/saves/SacredStonesRecomp.sav inside private app storage. Save states and automatic suspend snapshots are beside the imported ROM in that storage, not beside the original file in Downloads. Installing an update preserves that storage; uninstalling or clearing app data deletes it. Use Export saves before any operation that could remove app data, and keep the resulting ZIP separately. An export error can leave an incomplete destination file: only an export reported successful should be used as a backup. No ROM, BIOS dump, player save, or user configuration is bundled in the APK.

When updating, close the game and extract the new binary archive into the existing folder. Keep saves/ and your settings files; the archive contains no player saves or preferences. Back up saves/ and any savestates beside your ROM before replacing an installation. Savestates keep their existing ROM-based location; only the internal battery save has the standardized name above.

Missing/invalid preference values use defaults. If runtime-controls.toml is malformed or cannot be updated, the game stays usable and reports the problem in the console. After closing the game, rename that file to reset the runtime preferences; this does not remove battery saves or savestates.

How It Self-Improves

gbarecomp tracks coverage honestly. If execution reaches a code path that was not part of the static corpus, the runtime can bridge it safely, compile a native replacement in-process, and cache that result under recomp_cache/<rom-sha1>/. The next launch can reuse the warmed path.

For the current FE8 build, the tested startup path reports FULLY_STATIC, so normal boot does not need a warmed cache. The cache still remains useful as the project explores more of the game and closes rare coverage gaps.

Building From Source

Developer workflow details live in docs/workflow.md. Android-specific tooling and signing instructions live in android/README.md. Clone submodules before building:

git submodule update --init --recursive

The short Windows path is:

pwsh scripts/bootstrap.ps1 -WriteLocalConfig
pwsh scripts/generate.ps1 -Force
pwsh scripts/build-runner.ps1

Release packages are created with:

pwsh scripts/package-release.ps1 -Version 0.1.10

The package script uses a whitelist and must not include ROMs, BIOS dumps, save files, caches, logs, generated objects, or local configuration.

Configure BiosPath, RomPath, and MingwBin in config/project.local.ps1, or pass them explicitly. Source generation needs Python 3 and builds its compiler from the pinned GBARecomp sources. Runner builds reject outdated generation.

Packaging tests staged binaries in isolation: boot, SRAM-file reload, explicit save paths, locked-save recovery, and 3,600 frames with menu input. Logs remain in build/validation/. This does not replace manual gameplay testing.

Legal

This project contains no copyrighted ROM data and no Nintendo BIOS. You must supply your own legally obtained Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones USA ROM and your own legally obtained GBA BIOS. Fire Emblem and The Sacred Stones are trademarks of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. This project is an unaffiliated preservation and research effort.