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Against All Odds says its space game SEEDS runs Linux-based in-game tools on a fully emulated 64-bit RISC-V system. The studio has published details of its in-house emulator, PasRISCV, as free open-source software under the zlib license. The report describes its virtual hardware and software setup, but does not provide performance benchmarks or compatibility figures beyond specific claims about its JIT.
Game developer Against All Odds has detailed PasRISCV, an in-house emulator that runs a complete 64-bit RISC-V virtual machine and Alpine Linux for tools inside its space game SEEDS. The studio says the emulator is available as free, open-source software under the permissive zlib license, making the game’s unusual Linux-based setup relevant to developers as well as players.
According to the studio’s October 3 report, the emulator runs the game’s native Linux programs, including applications that present planetary information and statistics through a computer in the player’s home base. The system is emulated even when the game itself runs on a Windows host: the game’s tools execute as ELF binaries on an Alpine Linux riscv64 environment, rather than as native Windows applications.
PasRISCV emulates a complete machine, not just Linux userspace. The report describes virtualized processor, display, storage and interrupt hardware, with support for SMP/MultiHART and RV64GC, as well as the RISC-V Hypervisor and Vector extensions and selected cryptography extensions. The emulator is written in Object Pascal; its companion frontend, pasriscvemu, is also released under the zlib license.
The CPU implementation combines an interpreter with a tracing just-in-time compiler. Against All Odds says the JIT currently works only on x86-64 host systems and supports about 99% of the instructions the developers encounter; that figure is the studio’s description, not a published general compatibility benchmark. The game boots Linux through OpenSBI and U-Boot, and uses virtual disk images, including a read-only root partition that can be replaced with game updates while retaining a separate partition for player data.
Linux Tools Inside a Space Game
The design lets the developers build in-game applications as ordinary Linux programs and run them in a guest computer presented as part of the game world. That separates those tools from the host operating system and gives the game a virtual hardware environment with its own Linux kernel, storage and display.
For other developers, the report offers a practical example of a game embedding a complete virtual machine rather than implementing a narrow, custom environment for its tools. Releasing PasRISCV under a permissive license also gives programmers a codebase they can inspect or adapt. The report does not establish how the emulator performs across a range of hardware, however, so it should not be read as a general performance or compatibility evaluation.
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How SEEDS Boots Its Guest System
Against All Odds says SEEDS starts the emulator in the background when a player begins a new game or loads a saved one. The studio uses an OpenSBI-to-U-Boot boot chain to load Linux from a disk image. It says the disk can be presented to the guest as VirtIO block storage or as emulated NVMe hardware over PCIe, and can be mounted read-only where appropriate.
The game’s current Linux environment is a modified version of Alpine Linux 3.23.6 with a custom kernel, according to the report. The developers say a recent stock Alpine image also runs. For graphics, the game reads pixels through a SimpleFB framebuffer backed by a custom display buffer, then applies effects such as scanlines and phosphor glow in the game. The report also lists support for several virtual graphics and audio devices, while noting that running an X server with Motif was too slow to be useful on most machines.
“For PasRISCV we chose the latter and emulate a machine including display and storage devices, interrupts, everything down to the last thing.”
— Against All Odds, in its PasRISCV report
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Performance and Compatibility Limits
The report does not give measured performance results, minimum hardware requirements, or a broad account of which third-party Linux applications have been tested. The JIT’s stated roughly 99% instruction support refers to instructions the developers encounter, and the report does not define the test set or measurement method. It also says the JIT is currently limited to x86-64 hosts, leaving its behavior on other host architectures unspecified.
Some capabilities remain qualified: the report calls 3D/VirGL support experimental and says the Motif desktop test was too slow for practical use on most machines. It does not say when the game will add a mechanism to store all player data directly in game state, or describe the project’s future development schedule.
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Repository and Game Development
Against All Odds directs readers to the PasRISCV repository for a complete feature overview and source code. Interested developers can examine the emulator and its pasriscvemu frontend under their stated zlib licenses; the studio’s report invites readers to make use of the software but does not announce a specific release milestone or roadmap.
For SEEDS, the report describes the current arrangement: a separate user partition preserves data such as mini-game high scores while the root partition can be updated. The studio says a proper way to hold that state in the game state itself is still to come, but gives no timeline. Further information on performance, host support and project plans will depend on later documentation or developer updates.
virtual machine software for Linux
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Key Questions
What is PasRISCV?
PasRISCV is an emulator written in Object Pascal by Against All Odds. It emulates a 64-bit RISC-V machine that can boot Linux, and is used to run in-game tools in SEEDS.
Does SEEDS run Linux tools on Windows?
Against All Odds says that even when SEEDS runs on a Windows host, the game’s Linux ELF programs execute inside the emulated RISC-V system running Alpine Linux.
Is PasRISCV open source?
The developer says PasRISCV and its frontend companion, pasriscvemu, are released as free, open-source software under the zlib license. The report points readers to the project repository for the sources and feature details.
How fast is the emulator?
The report provides no broad performance benchmarks. It says the tracing JIT is currently limited to x86-64 hosts and supports about 99% of the instructions the developers encounter; that is not a standardized speed or compatibility measure.
What Linux distribution does the game use?
SEEDS uses a slightly modified Alpine Linux 3.23.6 system with a custom kernel, according to Against All Odds. The studio also says a recent stock Alpine image runs in the emulator.
Source: hn
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