The Challenge
Could the AI reverse-engineer the Yamaha Y8950 ADPCM encoding and the MoonBlaster MBK sample kit format purely from Z80 assembly sources, and then build reliable converters from that understanding? These are obscure, undocumented formats from 1980s MSX home computers — not exactly the kind of thing you find on Stack Overflow.
The Process
This project came from a community suggestion after word got out that a MoonBlaster replayer was in the works. It turned out to be remarkably easy. The AI understood the ADPCM format and MBK structure almost immediately from the Z80 sources, and within very few iterations the converter was working correctly. It was so straightforward that we quickly added a second tool to convert in the opposite direction as well.
In a funny twist, building the project webpage and making the tools available for download ended up being roughly the same amount of work as building the actual converters.
Surprises & Disappointments
The AI proactively suggested adding support for downsampling to different frequencies to decrease file size — a genuinely useful feature we hadn't thought to ask for. No real problems at all with this one.
This project also turned into an unexpected learning moment: it was where we discovered how good AI could be at helping with deployment and redeployment workflows, not just writing the code itself.