decompilation as archiving?

It depends. I've disassembled plenty of ROMs in my day and it's not too bad--just time consuming. Decompilation can be somewhat harder if you don't know the way the original compiler worked. Aggressive automatic optimization can really obscure the original code, especially when the optimizer can move code or schedule instruction issue times. A lot of the time, an optimization will result in a bit of clever code that not many programmers would consider writing, if they were working in assembly. On the other hand, compilers organize data and code in a predictable way, which does give you a leg up over a hunk of code generated from assembly. That being said, the occasional orphan application or operating system will yield its secrets only to decompilation/disassembly. Depending upon how littlel you understand the original program and its structure and optimization, the time required can be large. For modern processors, I own a copy of IDA Pro, probably one of the best (and wouldn't you know that it comes out of Russia!). The only worrisome nugget is that if you're in the USA, decompilation may be a violation of the DMCA--I'm not sure. Cheers, Chuck