What was done
Tim-campy reimplemented Maxis's 1991 SimAnt in Rust and SDL2. It reads the original game files and saves, runs the simulation and supports Lua mods, with Claude Opus 5.5 co-authoring the commits.
SimAnt recomp is a modern reimplementation of SimAnt (Maxis, 1991, Windows 3.x version) in Rust and SDL2. It reads the user's own original game files, which are not redistributed. Commits are co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5, and the repo has a CLAUDE.md with the project's rules.
How it was done
The behaviour of the original is written down as specs under docs/spec (screens, rules, sound) and implemented from them. Parsers read the game's files and the original .ANT saves, and tests compare against real files when they are present. The program can export screens and sound effects as images and WAV files and run a number of ticks without a window, which makes results easy to check.
Results
You can load a save or start a Quick Game, Full Game, Tutorial or Experimental game and play the yellow ant. The simulation, the yard view, nest views, advice messages, music and effects work, and saves are accepted by the original SimAnt. A Lua mod API is included. The README says map, caste and history windows and some rules are still missing. The README is in Portuguese.