Moving a project's labels and references to a newer version of the game

What to know

A project that started on one release and moves to a later one (POD's first edition of March 1997 to POD Gold 2.8 of October 1997) has to carry three things across: the names of functions and globals, the patches that make the game run, and the recorded reference runs. In POD's move (measured):

• Export both builds the same way and fill the gaps in both. Ghidra left 31% of each build's code outside functions (missed functions). Match before filling, and the functions the port depends on most (pointer-only ones) are missing on both sides.
• Expect a rebuilt compiler, not just changed code. Gold's code section moved and was renamed, jump targets are padded, registers and instruction order differ. Only 545 of 2,258 matched functions kept the same instructions. Compare instructions with relocated words (from .reloc), call displacements and padding masked; then compare pseudocode; then what a function uses (constants, strings, mapped globals and callees). Only the last says whether the logic changed (compiler noise).
• Match by references when shape fails. The race loop, lap logic and physics step were rewritten past shape matching, but each refers to the same mapped globals and callees: a pass that pairs functions by those sets matched them.
• Hand-check what is reached only through pointers. Controllers stored in per-object pointer slots paired up only by reading the setter in both builds.
• Re-derive every patch. The same fix sits at another address, may be gone (the Cyrix probe), or may need a second site (a flag the new build sets in code: flag reset in code). New checks can stop the game silently (unknown CPU).
• Re-record references on the new build. Data files changed too (Gold's tracks keep their geometry but have new race paths), so old recordings are no longer ground truth.
• Keep readers for both, tests for both. Point tests at the newer folder by default and give each count per edition; files of the newer build keep records after their counts (records after the count).

The tools POD used are in run/versions (match, what changed, labels) and run/ghidra (gaps).