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Against All Odds says its space game SEEDS runs native Linux tools inside a full-system RISC-V emulator called PasRISCV. The Object Pascal project and its companion frontend are open source under the zlib license; the developer’s report describes the emulator’s hardware, Linux boot process, graphics and audio support.
Developer Against All Odds says its space game SEEDS runs Linux applications inside a built-in 64-bit RISC-V emulator, rather than simply simulating individual programs. In a report published October 3, the studio described PasRISCV, its Object Pascal emulator, and said the project and its companion frontend are available as open-source software under the permissive zlib license.
In SEEDS, some computer-based in-game tools—including applications showing planetary overviews and statistics—are native Linux programs. The studio says their ELF binaries run on an emulated RISC-V system with a modified Alpine Linux v3.23.6 installation and a custom kernel. Players can use these tools even when running the game on Windows, according to the report.
PasRISCV emulates a complete virtual machine, including CPU, memory, display and storage devices, rather than only providing a userspace environment. The developer lists support for SMP/MultiHART, RV64GC and RVA23, along with hypervisor, vector and cryptography extensions. The report says its CPU emulation combines an interpreter with a tracing just-in-time compiler; that JIT is currently limited to x86-64 host systems.
The guest operating system boots through an OpenSBI-to-U-Boot chain, which loads the Linux kernel and disk image. The game can attach storage as VirtIO block devices or emulated NVMe hardware, and can make host directories available to the guest through VirtIO-9P or VirtIO-FS. The studio says this lets developers access tools built on the host without repeatedly rebooting the emulator.
Linux Tools Inside the Game
The implementation makes Linux software part of the game’s interactive environment: the in-game computer is not just presenting a visual mock-up of a terminal or operating system, but running native Linux applications on emulated hardware. That approach gives the developer a way to build and update tools using familiar Linux software while presenting their output within SEEDS.
For other developers and emulator users, the report offers a practical example of full-system RISC-V emulation being integrated into a commercial game project. Making PasRISCV available under the zlib license also allows others to inspect or reuse the code, though the report does not establish how readily it can be adapted to different software or hardware setups.
The technical choices also serve the game’s presentation. SEEDS reads pixels from an emulated framebuffer and applies custom game-side shaders for effects such as scanlines and phosphor glow. That connects the virtual computer’s output to the game’s visual style while keeping the Linux environment functional.
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How SEEDS Uses PasRISCV
Against All Odds presents PasRISCV as an in-house project developed for the needs of SEEDS, while also making it available as free, open-source software. The report’s announcement is primarily a technical account of how the emulator works, rather than a claim that the game or emulator has just launched. The article links readers to the project repository for a fuller feature list and source code.
The developers chose to emulate a full machine so a normal Linux kernel can run on it. For the game, disk images can include a replaceable root partition and a separate user partition for player data, such as minigame high scores. On graphics, the studio says it uses a simple framebuffer for the game’s virtual screens; PasRISCV also supports other virtual graphics adapters, with some 3D capability described as experimental.
The report also lists emulated audio hardware, including CMI8738 and FM801 sound cards, Intel HDA and VirtIO sound. These details illustrate the range of devices the virtual machine can present, but the developer does not provide independent performance testing or a broad compatibility assessment in the supplied report.
““our game SEEDS includes a fully emulated Linux system, which runs our in-game tools for the player.””
— Against All Odds
open-source RISC-V development board
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Performance and Compatibility Limits
The report does not give benchmarks, minimum system requirements or performance comparisons across host computers. It says the JIT supports about 99% of instructions the developers encounter, but does not specify the test workload or how that figure was measured. The JIT’s current x86-64 limitation is explicit; the report does not say when, or whether, other host architectures might receive JIT support.
The developer says a recent stock Alpine image also runs, but does not provide a complete list of tested distributions or applications. It describes VirtIO GPU 3D/VirGL capabilities as experimental and says an X server with Motif was too slow to be usable on most machines. It remains unclear how broadly the project has been tested outside the game, what its roadmap is, and how player data will be handled once a dedicated in-game save mechanism is available.
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Repository and Game Development
Readers can examine PasRISCV and its frontend companion, pasriscvemu, through the source repository linked in the developer’s report. The studio directs users there for the complete emulation feature list and invites them to inspect or reuse the software under the zlib license.
For SEEDS, the report says a separate user partition currently retains certain player data while the team lacks a proper mechanism to store that state within the game’s own save data. The studio has not announced a timetable for changing that arrangement. Further information about emulator development, compatibility and game updates will depend on what the developers publish next.
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Key Questions
What is PasRISCV?
PasRISCV is an emulator written in Object Pascal by SEEDS developer Against All Odds. The studio says it emulates a complete 64-bit RISC-V machine capable of booting Linux, and that the project is open source under the zlib license.
What does the emulator do in SEEDS?
It runs the game’s Linux-based in-game tools, including programs used to access planetary information and statistics. The developer says their ELF binaries run inside an Alpine Linux environment on the emulated system.
Can PasRISCV run outside the game?
The developer has made PasRISCV and its companion frontend available as open-source software and invites people to inspect or reuse them. The report does not provide independent testing or establish compatibility across a broad range of uses.
What are the emulator’s stated limitations?
The report says the tracing JIT compiler is currently limited to x86-64 host systems. It also describes 3D graphics support as experimental and says an X server with Motif was too slow to be useful on most machines.
Source: hn
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