kyuusaku wrote:
Step 1) Learn electronics
Step 2) Disassemble product
Step 3) "reverse engineer" product (whatever that means to you, maybe you should clarify)
Step 4) Verify that you have correctly "reverse engineered" the product
Step 5) Celebrate
I disagree that RE involves strict EE knowledge, disassembly of hardware. 'black box', or strict "input A yields output B" RE techniques are common and extremely valuable, and sometimes are the only techniques that are feasible.
I doubt the author of Bleem! followed the PSX hardware PCB traces, or used an electron microscope to inspect the CPU. But he probably ran programs that verified program behaviour on the hardware matched program behaviour on the emulator.
In many cases, it's the preservation of the problem solving technique or algorithm that is used, not the actual implementation details, that yield the best results. After all, even hardware is designed to solve a need or problem; the implementation is used to fulfill or even approximate the functionality of the design. Mimicking the design is often the most appropriate way to fill the requirement, especially when you have hindsight in your corner. Just check out the UltraHLE story.
I of course, agree, that celebration is the final (or at least a crucial) step.