lego-legacy

Each game's own code, as it shipped

Not a remake of any game, and not a general PC emulator. lego-legacy runs each title's own retail executable: an x86 interpreter runs the game's code, and every Win32 and DirectX call it makes is answered in Rust.

• Zero crates

  The whole workspace uses zero external crates, by design. Window, sound and input are the operating system's own libraries, reached at run time behind one seam: one backend per OS.

• A declared machine

  Each title gets the machine declared for it: processor, clock, display, drives, install state. The game cannot see your computer.

• A named wall

  Ask for something the emulator does not have, and the run stops at a named wall instead of guessing, with a report of what was asked for and where.

Eight golden rules

lego-legacy is a preservation effort: anyone can play these games again from their own discs, unchanged, on any computer. Eight rules outrank everything else in the project.

1. Everything is deterministic

   The machine is a state machine under complete control. Every input the game sees is declared, never read from your computer, so any run can be paused, stepped and replayed exactly.

2. The game runs exactly as it shipped

   Its own code from its own disc, unchanged: nothing patched, replaced or faked.

3. Extras sit on top, never inside

   Mods, cheats, editors and TAS tools are welcome as a separate layer, added or removed with no effort.

4. A per-title emulator, true to Windows

   Each game gets only the Windows behaviour it uses, answered as real Windows answers, from public sources and never Microsoft's code.

5. Runs anywhere, depends on nothing

   Zero external crates, and the operating system behind one seam, so the games outlive any one platform.

6. Bring your own disc

   No game data is ever distributed, and copy protection is never bypassed. We do not condone piracy.

7. Nothing is released until it is proven three ways

   The full test suite, a full headless run, and a person playing it and signing off, on the exact build that is tagged.

8. Everything is written down so anyone can pick it up

   Every crate is versioned and tagged on its own, with notes verbose enough that a person or an agent can carry on without asking.

The full text is in GOLDEN-RULES.md.

Three games, all playable

• LEGO Rock Raiders

  A person has played the first mission through.

• Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver

  A person has driven the first race to the finish.

• LEGO Alpha Team

  The first mission, the Training Area, plays to its end.

The maintainer signed each one off by playing it on 2026-10-18. LEGO Racers is next: on the roster, not started.

Frames from the emulator

Each one is the emulator's own, shot headless while it replays a route committed to the repository: what the game drew, pixel for pixel.

What you need

• A Mac, for now

  lego-legacy is OS-agnostic by design, and macOS has the first backend. Windows and Linux are next.

• Rust

  rust-toolchain.toml pins the version, and rustup picks it up on its own.

• Your own discs

  Each disc's data track ripped to a plain ISO ( dd does it ). Only the game's executable is checked, by its SHA-256.

No game data is in the repository and none ever will be, and no copy protection is circumvented. Rock Raiders runs from the Masterpiece re-release: the original pressing is wrapped in SafeDisc, which is recognised and refused, never bypassed.

Up and running

1. Clone the repository.
2. Put each disc's ISO under game-data/, where the README's table says.
3. From the repository's root, cargo run --release -p lego-legacy-launcher. It lists the titles, says whether each one's image was found and is the right one, and asks which to play.

Sound stays off until you ask for it: start a title directly with cargo run --release -p lego-rock-raiders -- --audio. Cmd-Q or Cmd-W ends a run. If your computer can't keep up, the game runs in slow motion with its sound stretched to match, rather than skipping.