If you are not familiar with recompiling projects, you are likely not alone as it is a new opportunity in the retro gaming community. At its base level, an original, commercially released, game is converted back to the computer code that created it. This code can be edited as needed and then converted (compiled) to run on a new platform such as a competing console or computers. It became popular with the Nintendo 64 platform with such games as Super Mario 64, Star Fox, and 007 Goldeneye among others seeing ports to PC and Sega Dreamcast (SM64 even got a PSOne port and to Sega Dreamcast). Recompiling is now hitting the PlayStation 2 platform.
Not likely, while it is great, it is not likely to make game developers stop producing remakes and remasters anytime soon. What it can help with is fans enjoyment of old titles. Could this impact sales of a remaster or a remake? Very likely.
Why would fans fork over $50+ for a remaster of a PSOne game that might have changed features that fans really enjoyed when they could grab a recompile project? Using the original discs, in the case of platforms that used CD/DVD storage, makes this process super easy and even harder for publishers to stop. Cartridge ROMs are another story, and Nintendo has a long history of shutting down websites that offer their titles.
What recompile projects bring to the table is an update while staying as true as possible to the source material. This can be changed by anyone that has the skills to do so. Many recompile projects add fan favorite things such as improved controller support, button remapping options, widescreen support, and more.
None that I know of at the moment go as far as injecting new material into the original game. Most developers with the necessary skills seem focused on only offering quality of life improvements over their vision for the game itself.
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Simply put, not many fans are willing to put in the effort to create new assets or levels and such for classic games. This might change as we see progress with recompile projects though. Tools could eventually be made available that will improve the ease in which retro games are modified. Level editors, graphics plugins for programs like Blender, etc could be created and made available to further ease the difficulty of modding classic games.
Some games have level editors without recompile projects being required as well. Those are nothing new, though having access to the code to edit actions and such would be a game changer – imagine a Resident Evil style experience set in the Mushroom Kingdom with Mario and gang. That might require creating proper guns, healing options, etc though – things that are not staples of the Mario world officially. With access to the code, it could be done.
Remasters and remakes still hold the upper hand with new content though. That is often what is touted as incentive to purchase them, that and better sounds and graphics. For most fans, they just want the original to look like they remember it. That is likely part of the reason emulation is so popular – you can tweak graphics via filters and plugins to make the games look amazingly detailed (anyone remember the Bleem side by side for Omega Boost that Bleem did in their early days? It showed off how just a bump in video memory, better graphical rendering, etc could make a game look so much better. They did it for Gran Turismo (may have been Gran Turismo 2) as well.
I am sure recompiling is already in use by select game developers but what we are seeing now is the early days of it being available to fans.
