What is midwinter-decode?

This repository contains a complete reverse-engineering of Midwinter, a 1990 DOS game designed by Mike Singleton. Reverse-engineering in this context means taking the original compiled game executable and systematically figuring out what every function inside it does, then writing that down in a way humans can read. The project mapped and documented all 602 reachable functions in the game binary. The most concrete output of the work is a Python replica of the game's terrain generator that produces results bit-for-bit identical to the original. This means if you run the original game and run the replica with the same inputs, you get the exact same output. The island map, the placement of trees, and the heightfield data all match. This level of verification is what the project calls runtime-verified, as opposed to claims that were only checked by reading the disassembly without running it. The repository is organized into several folders. The docs folder contains written specifications of the game's major systems: terrain generation, enemy movement and combat logic, player attributes and injuries, and file formats. The ledger folder holds a function-by-function knowledge base showing what each of the 602 functions does and the evidence behind each claim. The tools folder has scripts for extracting and analyzing data from the game's files. The replica folder has the working Python re-implementations of decoded algorithms. This is not a playable game and not a decompiled source listing. It is documentation and verified behavioral specifications intended to feed a separate Unreal Engine 5 remaster project. The repository deliberately contains no copyrighted game content, you need your own legally-obtained copy of the original game to use the extraction tools. The decode was produced in a single overnight run using Anthropic's Fable 5 model, which orchestrated parallel analysis agents over the disassembly. All claims trace back to specific bytes in the original binary. About 20 entries in the ledger are flagged as pending runtime verification in DOSBox, the rest are byte-verified from static analysis.