Introduction

Reincarnate is a framework for lifting legacy software from obsolete runtimes into modern web-based equivalents.

The Problem

Millions of interactive applications are trapped in dying runtimes:

• Flash/Shockwave: Browser plugins deprecated, content inaccessible
• Director/Authorware: Museum kiosks, corporate training, educational CD-ROMs
• Visual Basic 6: Enterprise line-of-business apps nobody dares touch
• HyperCard/ToolBook: Early interactive media, lost to hardware rot
• Java Applets/Silverlight: The brief dark age before HTML5

The Approach

Reincarnate works on bytecode and script, not native binaries.

Tier 1: Native Patching

For targets you can't fully lift (obscure compiled binaries):

• Pointer relocation, hex editing
• Font texture replacement
• Limited by original rendering constraints

Tier 2: Runtime Replacement

For engines you can shim (Ren'Py, RPG Maker, Flash, GMS):

1. Hook the internal draw_text() function
2. Cancel the original draw call
3. Emit to a modern HTML/CSS overlay
4. Render with real typography, flexbox layout, accessibility

Components

• Frontends: Engine-specific extractors that parse bytecode, decompile scripts, and dump assets into a common IR
• Transform pipeline: Type inference, optimization passes (constant folding, Mem2Reg, DCE), coroutine lowering, and engine-specific IR normalization
• Backends: Code generators targeting TypeScript (active) and Rust (planned)
• Replacement runtime: Modern reimplementation of the original engine's API surface (Flash, GameMaker, Twine)

What Reincarnate Is Not

• Not a VM or emulator (use Wine/DOSBox for native code)
• Not a "remaster" tool (we preserve, not improve)
• Not magic (some targets require significant manual work)