# This Old Repo: LLMs and the Restoration of BattleTris

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2026-06-09
- Length: 1h 18m
- Episode: 13
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/b5fcf24b

## Summary

Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal discuss using LLMs, specifically Claude, to restore BattleTris, a networked Tetris clone Bryan developed in 1993. They detail the process of getting the legacy C++ code to compile and run on modern Linux, highlighting how the AI resolved complex dependency issues, stack corruption bugs, and Makefile inconsistencies that would have been difficult to debug manually. The conversation explores how LLMs change the calculus for maintaining old open-source software, reducing the uncertainty of revival and enabling the restoration of projects like BattleTris that have fallen into disrepair due to changing implicit assumptions and deprecated libraries like Motif.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=0) Introduction: LLMs and BattleTris
- [5:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=316) The Origin Story of BattleTris and the Super Shuttle Incident
- [18:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=1083) Resurrecting BattleTris at Sun Microsystems
- [26:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=1576) Using Claude to Restore Legacy Code
- [37:04](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=2224) Debugging Stack Corruption and Makefile Issues
- [46:18](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=2778) LLMs and the Future of Open Source Maintenance
- [52:46](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=3166) The 2038 Problem and Y2K Retrospective
- [1:01:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris#t=3682) LLM Ramifications for Open Source and BUN

## Topics

- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Intellectual property](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/intellectual-property)

## Most relevant to

large enterprises

## Mentioned

- BattleTris (product)
- Claude (tool)
- Motif (tool)
- OpenMotif (tool)
- OpenLook (product)
- BUN (product)
- Rust (other)
- Zig (other)
- Terraform (product)
- Cockroach (product)
- DTrace (product)
- Solaris (product)
- Linux (other)
- Git (tool)
- SCCS (tool)
- Teamware (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [#007: AI, Open Source, and the Future of Embedded Development: How Much Code Will We Actually Write?](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-29-007-ai-open-source-and-the-future-of-embedded-development-how-much-code-will-we) (Coredump Sessions)
- [AI-enhanced Embedded Development (May 2025 Edition)](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2025-11-12-ai-enhanced-embedded-development-may-2025-edition) (The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast)
- [334: Bag of Heuristics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2020-06-11-334-bag-of-heuristics) (Embedded.fm)
- [100 Episodes! Break Out the Champagne! A Retrospective](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2026-08-24-100-episodes-break-out-the-champagne-a-retrospective) (The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast)
- [191: What, Yogurt!?!](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2017-03-15-191-what-yogurt) (Embedded.fm)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-06-09-this-old-repo-llms-and-the-restoration-of-battletris. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Oxide and Friends.