DX-Ball with REA: read the existing case, not the viral slogan

On 2026-10-15T13:45:03Z, @humzaakhalid posted that REA helped rebuild a 1990s game and pass 3,205 original tests, with a link-out article. That number is real — and it already lives on rea.run. This page is a discovery / backlink twin: tables you can re-verify, tone control on marketing language, and a primary CTA back to the maintained case study. It does not invent a second DX-Ball case.

Primary CTA: the full Evidence walkthrough is /showcase/dx-ball/ (sound-pan at 0x406400). Chinese twin of this post: /zh/blog/dx-ball-rea-discovery/.

Framing: viral wording ≠ a new case

Stars, likes, and impressions are discovery signals only. They are not an install SLA and not permission to analyze a binary you do not have rights to.

Sourced snapshots (2026-10-16)

Fetch date for GitHub API and X API on this page: 2026-10-16 (UTC+8 lab clock). Counters move; keep the date when you cite rows.

X discovery post

Arithmetic on the X snapshot only: likes − bookmarks = 38 − 35 = 3 (liked slightly more often than bookmarked in this snapshot). Do not invent engagement rates beyond that.

Reconstruction repository

Showcase Evidence numbers (do not reinvent)

These rows are the existing case study, not a rewrite. Full narrative, instructions dump, and recovered C live on the showcase page.

Check the arithmetic yourself: 641 × 5 = 3205. That is the same 3,205 figure the X post cites as “original tests” for the stereo-pan behavior suite — not a mysterious second metric.

!figureSound-pan path figure reused from the existing showcase (EN SVG).

What the reconstruction is (and is not)

Repo progress ledger (broader than one function)

The showcase page’s narrative checkpoint (7 October 2026) named 55 maintained C functions, 45,380 comparisons, and 33 byte-matching functions for context around the sound-pan walkthrough. The live MIT repo keeps a generated ledger that moves as recovery continues. Snapshot from upstream docs/PROGRESS.md on 2026-10-16:

Read those counts as repo ledger, not as a replacement for the sound-pan Evidence table. When social posts say “passed all 3,205 original tests,” map that phrase to the 641 × 5 pan suite on /showcase/dx-ball/, then follow the repo for everything else.

Operator path (authorized copy only)

1. Read /showcase/dx-ball/ end-to-end (caller → doubles → C → 3,205 cases → 63 bytes).
2. Skim N0zoM1z0/dx-ball README + docs/PROGRESS.md for current ledger.
3. Only if you have rights to a DX-Ball 1.07 copy: follow upstream import / REA / Codex goal docs — do not paste commercial binaries into public benches.
4. Pin rea-agents deliberately; run doctor --json (/blog/rea-agents-6-5-0/, teaching pin elsewhere; the reconstruction README currently locks REA 6.4.0 + Ghidra 12.1.4 in config/rea.lock.json).
5. Prefer Evidence + unknowns over chat vibes (/blog/evaluating-rea-claims/).

npx -y [email protected] doctor --json
# Study the MIT reconstruction; analyze only a DX-Ball copy you may hold.
# Showcase evidence command shape (from the case page):
# scripts/rea function original/DXBALL.EXE 0x00406400 \
#   --snapshot .analysis/rea/dxball.snapshot.json --json

Discovery checklist (for writers and SEOs)

• [ ] Link /showcase/dx-ball/ as the primary case URL — not a paraphrased fork of its body.
• [ ] When repeating 3,205, write 641 × 5 next to it and name the pan scales.
• [ ] Cite GitHub stars/forks and X metrics with the snapshot date.
• [ ] Credit the X image as public X media; prefer the hosted path /media/blog/dx-ball/x-humzaakhalid-attachment.jpg.
• [ ] Soften or skip “most dangerous” slogans; keep compliance first.
• [ ] Point Chinese readers to /zh/showcase/dx-ball/ and /zh/blog/dx-ball-rea-discovery/.

FAQ

Compliance

• Authorized / own / written-rights copies of DX-Ball only. Not a crack, keygen, or DRM guide (/compliance/, /faq/legal-boundary/).
• Quote or fork the reconstruction under MIT; credit original game creators as upstream README does.
• rea.run is a community guide; footer disclaimer stays low-key — titles do not shout “Unofficial.”
• Images under /media/blog/dx-ball/: public X media + copies of showcase SVGs already published on this site.

Sources

• Showcase Evidence: /showcase/dx-ball/ (sound-pan 0x406400, 3,205 = 641 × 5, 63 bytes)
• GitHub: N0zoM1z0/dx-ball (API snapshot 2026-10-16: 57★, 15 forks, MIT) · docs/PROGRESS.md ledger counts above
• X: @humzaakhalid/status/2110728665038549085 (created 2026-10-15T13:45:03Z; metrics table above) · public media HUrQiQ7aAAA4O9P.jpg
• REA upstream: morluto/rea · npm rea-agents
• Related: /blog/evaluating-rea-claims/ · /blog/community-week-rea-demos/ · /blog/what-is-rea-reverse-engineer-anything/ · Chinese twin /zh/blog/dx-ball-rea-discovery/

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