Icewind Dale II

Game: Icewind Dale II → (Windows, 2002)

A cross-platform engine for Icewind Dale II rebuilt from a decompilation of the original executable, for Linux, Windows, and macOS (Apple silicon). It keeps the original simulation underneath, with a classic 2D renderer (and an optional SDL3 GPU one) and the IWD2EE mod built into its own source; the plan includes a high-fidelity renderer with a toggle back to the classic look. The repository contains decompiled output of the original game: about 1,690 files in docs/evidence with Ghidra’s output for each recovered function, plus the reconstructed source in src; it holds no executable and no game data. According to its README it has recovered 84.2% of the code and 62.6% of the functions (4.8% verified against the original), and it can’t yet be played from start to finish: a party can be formed, walk, talk, and win the first fight, and saving, loading, and resting is under way. It has no published releases; you build it from source. It states that the recovery work is done by Claude Code sessions (with Anthropic or Z.ai models), and 56 of its last 100 commits list Claude as a co-author.

You needYour own copy of Icewind Dale II: Complete from GOG (DRM-free), which is the reference; the README gives the Windows (2.01) and macOS installers. To build it: CMake 3.28 and, on Windows, Visual Studio 2022; on Linux, a compiler and the libraries the README lists; on macOS, the Xcode command line tools. On macOS the engine builds and passes its tests, but the README says playing there hasn’t been tried.

How it gets to PC

Port of a decompilation

Console

Microsoft Windows

Original studio

Black Isle Studios

Year

2002

Author

thierbig

GemRB See all →