Automatically detect and patch walking-dead states in Sierra games
Details
- External ID
- 49355607
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- games
- Website domain
- github.com
- Launched
- Aug. 19, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 161
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.9596774193548387
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 10, 2026, 5:32 a.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 10, 2026, 5:32 a.m.
Description
Hi HN, I've become lazier in my old age and struggle to replay my favorite Sierra games from the 80s and 90s because I keep getting into those situations where I need an item from 3 acts ago, I have no save game handy, and now I gotta make dinner.So I'm building the Lucasartsifier: a static analysis tool that decompiles Sierra resource files, automatically finds those states, automatically generates code to prevent the player from getting into those states, then emits loose patch files that can be placed alongside the original game resources. There's no game-specific code involved; all the logic is generic, though of course Sierra introduces new idioms and mechanics in every game so every new supported game needs a bunch of engine work.So for example in Leisure Suit Larry 2, the patched game prevents you from boarding the cruise ship until you have both the sunscreen and the Grotesque Gulp. Without them you die on the raft 3 play-hours later.So far this works on Leisure Suit Larry 2 (SCI0), King's Quest 4 (SCI0), King's Quest 6 (SCI1.1), and Laura Bow 2 (SCI1.1). I'm currently working on King's Quest 5 (SCI1.0).This is work done with Claude -- I do the design and playtesting and it does the rest :DAny feedback, play testing, and suggestions would be great!
Enrichment
- Theme
- interactive simulations and creative experiments
- Vertical
- Media & entertainment
- Function
- Workflow automation
- Audience
- B2C
- AI stance
- AI feature
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- automatic bug detection for sierra games
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
No Reverse-engineering proprietary 1980s-90s Sierra AGI/SCI bytecode, building a static analysis reachability solver for legacy adventure game states, and binary patching requires deep binary analysis and compiler/interpreter reverse engineering expertise.
What it would actually take: The architecture requires an SCI/AGI bytecode disassembler and AST lifter, an SMT or abstract interpretation solver to construct game state-space graphs, and a binary patcher to modify game logic scripts. The primary bottleneck is reverse-engineering legacy VM opcodes and modeling global/local flag transitions across room boundaries without source code, demanding specialized reverse engineering and formal verification skills.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: LucasArts adventure games, DDLC (Doki Doki Literature Club), Grim Fandango
Concerns raised: Adventure games had obtuse, nonsensical puzzles that required guides, DDLC's fourth wall breaking felt forced and inconsistent within its engine, DDLC lacks character depth and feels like a proof of concept rather than complete game, Game design parser work is underestimated; playtesting burden falls on developers, Roguelike saving mechanics inconsistent with true roguelike design philosophy
Feature requests: Better in-game hints or integrated help system to reduce guide dependency, More character development and longer story content, Improved save system reliability to prevent corruption
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 27 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #2 of 28 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 275 days after the earliest competitor.
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Other launches for this product
Same idea, different domain
Nobody's really built a workflow automation tool for Real estate yet.