# Decompile a childhood PC game with an agent and get it running in the browser

PaperChase agent use case (free feed entry), version 1.0. Source: [Bouke van der Bijl (bou.ke)](https://bou.ke/blog/zoetermeer/), 2026-10-28.

## What they did

He gave Claude one goal: decompile the zip and make it work on the web. The first build ran but crashed, so the second instruction was to do a full playthrough and fix any crashes, which made it stable. The game was written in Pascal, a language he had never used. He also tried a much bigger target, a commercial strategy game, which stalled at about 60 percent after a month on his budget.

## Worth knowing

Decompilation suits agents because there is a clear test (does the rebuilt code behave like the original) and the work splits into many small functions. Start small: the big game stalled while the small one worked in a short session. Check the rights first; this game was a municipal educational title shared on archive.org, and commercial games carry their own rules.

## Workflow template

```text
Apply this workflow to [your project]:
1. Pick a small game you have the right to work on and keep the original files.
2. Ask the agent to rebuild the source and produce a web build.
3. Ask it to play the whole game and fix every crash it finds.
4. Compare behaviour against the original on a few known scenes.
5. Publish only what the rights allow.
Stop and ask me before anything irreversible: deploys, payments, sends or deletes.
```

## Steps

1. **Pick a small game you have the right to work on and keep the original .** Pick a small game you have the right to work on and keep the original files.
2. **Ask the agent to rebuild the source and produce a web build.** Ask the agent to rebuild the source and produce a web build.
3. **Ask it to play the whole game and fix every crash it finds.** Ask it to play the whole game and fix every crash it finds.
4. **Compare behaviour against the original on a few known scenes.** Compare behaviour against the original on a few known scenes.
5. **Publish only what the rights allow.** Publish only what the rights allow.

## Credit

Workflow reported by Bouke van der Bijl (bou.ke): https://bou.ke/blog/zoetermeer/
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50273416

Summary and template written by PaperChaseWebb in our own words. Questions: mgmt@paperchasewebb.com