DOS game “F-15 Strike Eagle II” reverse engineering/reconstruction war stories

Reverse engineering F-15 Strike Eagle II

• Readers appreciate the detailed writeups on reconstructing the game’s C code using IDA, Ghidra, and custom tools.
• The sequence is best read chronologically; later posts (e.g., on Ghidra) are also interesting standalone.
• Some wish there were more technical reverse‑engineering narratives of this kind.

Challenges of DOS / real‑mode reverse engineering

• Reverse‑engineering 16‑bit DOS games is described as unusually hard: real‑mode segmentation, custom hardware access, and minimal OS abstractions.
• Modern tools often have poor or partial support for 16‑bit MS‑DOS binaries; Ghidra’s analyzers and decompiler struggle with large memory models.
• IDA fully supports 16‑bit DOS, but its commercial decompiler intentionally does not. Ghidra is seen as weaker here; some think the IDA/Hex‑Rays team could do much better.
• Alternate approaches mentioned: using Bochs with its debugger; Spice86 as a growing but not yet “real” decompiler.

Segmented memory and early PC architecture

• Discussion criticizes segmented memory as a major source of wasted human effort, yet notes it saved RAM when machines had 256 KB and pointers could be 16‑bit.
• Debate over whether segmentation’s overlapping design was worth the complexity; some argue different paragraph sizes or flat addressing would have been better.
• There’s a detailed side‑thread comparing DOS and CP/M (and variants) on child processes, TSRs, executable formats, and how segmentation enabled “semi‑multitasking” without full virtual memory.

MicroProse era nostalgia

• Many recall F‑15 SE II, F‑19 Stealth Fighter, Gunship 2000, and other sims as formative childhood games.
• Boxed manuals are fondly remembered for mixing gameplay instructions with serious historical and technical background; modern tutorial‑driven design is seen as losing that richness.
• Other beloved sims and series are mentioned (Comanche, Jane’s titles, Origin games, Novalogic, Microsoft Flight Simulator).

Graphics and 3D techniques on limited hardware

• Flight sims are noted as early adopters of “real” polygon‑based 3D, often accepting very low frame rates.
• Clarification that F‑15/F‑19 used actual 3D projection, not purely pseudo‑3D, though some older or console titles used simplified horizon‑plus‑sprites tricks.
• Voxel terrain (e.g., Comanche, later Novalogic games) is highlighted as a notable pseudo‑3D technique.
• Several commenters share resources and strategies for learning 3D from scratch and then targeting constrained platforms (DOS, 8‑bit systems), with strong advice to use assembly on 6502‑class hardware.

DOS boot disks, memory managers, and custom “OS‑like” games

• The original PC F‑15 Strike Eagle reportedly booted directly from disk, bypassing DOS; from one angle, the game effectively was the OS.
• Others recall the complexity of DOS configurations: XMS/EMS managers, TSRs, custom boot disks per game, and later DOS4GW making things saner.
• Ultima VII’s unconventional memory manager (“Unreal Mode”) is cited as an especially fragile example.

Related projects and communities

• Another reverse‑engineering effort referenced: an open project to reconstruct Stunts / 4D Sports Driving, with active technical discussion elsewhere.
• There is a dedicated Discord for technical discussion of the F‑15 SE II reverse‑engineering project.

Personal anecdotes and loose ends

• Memories include joystick‑destroying play sessions, crashing a parent’s mission, and hex‑editing save files for medals and ranks.
• One story describes a partially downloaded DOS game that somehow ran and consistently crashed at a certain point; the exact technical cause is left unclear.
• A recurring commenter is still trying to identify a mid‑90s PC flight sim with null‑modem dogfights and high‑end graphics; several candidates are suggested but none confirmed.