Disassemblies of BBC Micro Games

[billcarr2005]

[gfoot]

Just to confirm then, all four Acornsoft Revs HFE images in scarybeast's spreadsheet (at least my copy of it, not sure if it's up-to-date) behave exactly the same once you're through the initial loading screen - the embedded revs1, revs2, and silver files are identical, even being stored at the exact same sectors on the discs. The significant differences seem to be only in the initial "REVS" BASIC loader, which has a guard against PAGE being less than &1000, and in the second stage loader that the outer "REVS1" loads from raw sectors on disc - which is mostly responsible for setting up access to the embedded catalog. An interesting feature of that loader is that it has support for double-stepping to allow use of the 40 track disc in an 80 track drive.

I also verified that the CRC of revs2 in these four variants corresponded to the one billcarr posted earlier (E22A0A93).

The Acornsoft Revs4 disc in scarybeast's sheet also appears to only contain the new tracks and loader code, with no main executable - when you run it, it prompts you to insert the original disc after selecting a track, so it can load the main game from that. So it does look like the CAS feature and the bundling of all five tracks together were all introduced at once in the Superior re-release.

[MarkMoxon]

Just to confirm then, all four Acornsoft Revs HFE images in scarybeast's spreadsheet (at least my copy of it, not sure if it's up-to-date) behave exactly the same once you're through the initial loading screen - the embedded revs1, revs2, and silver files are identical, even being stored at the exact same sectors on the discs.

Great! Thanks for confirming that, it’s good to know there are still only two variants out there (that we know about, anyway). You never know until you’ve checked!

Mark

[gfoot]

Diminished suggested there should be a list of published Beeb game disassemblies. Here's a list of all the ones I know about (including my own). Some can be reassembled too. Any more?

I did most of a disassembly of Wizzy's Mansion at the weekend, but haven't uploaded it anywhere yet. I've also started a disassembly of Inertia, which seems to be a very interesting and well-written game - so far I've mostly done the initialization, scoring, and input logic, and made an infinite-lives cheat of course.

[TobyLobster]

I did most of a disassembly of Wizzy's Mansion at the weekend, but haven't uploaded it anywhere yet. I've also started a disassembly of Inertia, which seems to be a very interesting and well-written game - so far I've mostly done the initialization, scoring, and input logic, and made an infinite-lives cheat of course.

Thanks - I've added these two to the 'work in progress' section. Let us know when you upload a version and I'll add links.

For anyone who hasn't seen the full list recently, take a look at the initial post of this thread. I've been updating it with any new or existing disassemblies I find, so the list has grown quite a bit since it started.

[tricky]

You could also add Jeltron, although it isn't finished if you like.
On waybackmachine http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/ind ... le=Jeltron until RS is back.

[TobyLobster]

You could also add Jeltron

Thanks, done.

[fizgog]

I also made a start on Attack on Alpha Centauri around the same time as Zany Kong (which has recently been updated), in case anyone else was going to work on it

https://github.com/fizgog/Attack-On-Alp ... isassembly

[TobyLobster]

I also made a start on Attack on Alpha Centauri

Added, thanks.

[lovebug]

I've always wanted a disassemby of revs because I really want to make a track designer for it and hope that the game engine allows for extremely angled roads and roller coaster type designs for some crazy action

[MarkMoxon]

I've always wanted a disassemby of revs because I really want to make a track designer for it and hope that the game engine allows for extremely angled roads and roller coaster type designs for some crazy action

I’ve almost finished documenting the format of the Silverstone track file, so once that’s done, creating new tracks (and writing a track editor) should be pretty doable. I’ve also got the Nurburgring track from the C64 loading, but the track buckles at one point, so I’ve got something wrong! Getting there, though. See this Tweet for the latest progress on Silverstone:

https://twitter.com/markmoxon/status/15 ... 2941761538

Not sure how much variation in track height is possible, but we’ll have to see…

Mark

[lovebug]

I've always wanted a disassemby of revs because I really want to make a track designer for it and hope that the game engine allows for extremely angled roads and roller coaster type designs for some crazy action

I’ve almost finished documenting the format of the Silverstone track file, so once that’s done, creating new tracks (and writing a track editor) should be pretty doable. I’ve also got the Nurburgring track from the C64 loading, but the track buckles at one point, so I’ve got something wrong! Getting there, though. See this Tweet for the latest progress on Silverstone:

https://twitter.com/markmoxon/status/15 ... 2941761538

Not sure how much variation in track height is possible, but we’ll have to see…

Mark

amazing

[tautology]

For works in progress, I have a 80% complete annotated disassembly version of Island of Xaan at https://github.com/tautology0/textadven ... obico/xaan

I wrote some words about it as well: https://tautology.org.uk/blog/2017/11/

My intention was to reimplement it in Python natively, but, well, time.

[TobyLobster]

...Island of Xaan...

Thanks, added.

[MarkMoxon]

Might be worth adding a link to my Revs website too, now that it’s released?

https://revs.bbcelite.com/

It’s a bit easier to follow than the git repository.

Mark

[TobyLobster]

Might be worth adding a link to my Revs website too, now that it’s released?

Thanks, added.

[TobyLobster]

I've added a new Castle Quest disassembly from level7:

http://www.level7.org.uk/miscellany/cas ... sembly.txt

[Diminished]

I've added a new Castle Quest disassembly from level7:

http://www.level7.org.uk/miscellany/cas ... sembly.txt

I've now deleted my post with the start I made on Castle Quest, so you should probably remove that note from the list. I'm now glad I didn't waste any more time on it.

I notice level7 has also now added Bonecruncher.

[TobyLobster]

I've now deleted my post with the start I made on Castle Quest, so you should probably remove that note from the list. I'm now glad I didn't waste any more time on it.

Removed.

I notice level7 has also now added Bonecruncher.

Thanks, added.

[maniacminer]

I got about 40% through disassembling Hopper and noticed it wasn't a game as such, but some kind of weird game builder running a program from within it like a virtual machine. Has anyone had a look at it? I don't have the time to go through it now, maybe around Xmas.

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

I think you should definitely continue if you can!

What you're talking about is a "program generator" called GOAL (Graphics Oriented Arcade Language) which was written by Neil Raine and which was mentioned in this thread. It was apparently a top secret project within Acornsoft which was never publicly released, or even alluded to, and we only know of two games which used it: Hopper and an unreleased Neil Raine game called Bandit.

Pausing Hopper in an emulator and looking at the code being executed, it looks like it has some kind of bytecode interpreter - it would be fascinating to see the capabilities and features of that bytecode!

There are also artefacts of GOAL lying around in the Bandit executable, e.g. we can see this fragment of BASIC which I guess we can speculate might have been from some kind of sprite editor?

Code: Select all

    0REM S.DESIGN
  100REM /// Shape designer for the GOAL system ///
  200 
  300page%=PAGE:PAGE=&1C00:IFpage%<>PAGE CHAIN$(page%+5)
  400mode%=2:d=8:p=2
  500VDU23,224,0,&3C,&42,&42,&42,&42,&3C,0
  600HIMEM=&2E00:names=HIMEM:ss=10
  700Sdata=&1100:maxshape=&1C00:s=48
  800shapelo=Sdata+&10:shapehi=shapelo+s:shdata=shapehi+s:I%=FNnew
  900bx=72:by=15:buff%=&3000+8*bx+&280*by
 1000bx%=d*p*bx:by%=1020-32*by:BX%=1:BY%=2
 1100*FX226,148
 1200 
 1300ONERRORGOTO1600
 1400PROCmenu:END
 1500 
 1600PROCon:REPORT:PRINT" at line ";ERL:END
 1700 
 1800DEFPROCon
 1900*FX225,1
 2000*FX4,0
 2100VDU23;10,&72,0;0;0;28,0,24,39,23:ENDPROC
 2200 
 2300DEFPROCoff
 2400*FX225,140
 2500*FX4,1
 2600VDU23;10,&20,0;0;0;26:ENDPROC
 2700 
 2800DEFPROCmenu
 2900exit%=FALSE
 3000REPEATG%=GET:PROCon:VDU12
 3100IFG%>=140ANDG%<=149THENexit%=EVAL("FN"+FNoption(G%-140)):GOTO3400
 3200IFG%>=&88THENN%=N%+(G%=136)-(G%=137)+3*(G%=139)-3*(G%=138)
 3300N%=(N%+s-1)MODs+1:IFN%=s THEN3200ELSEPROCc

It's an interesting concept, and potentially a great way of squeezing more complicated game logic into a tight memory footprint, but the little we know about it suggests that it was incredibly difficult to use! Magic Mushrooms, a later Neil Raine game, doesn't appear to use it.

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

If anyone has any time, it'd be interesting to investigate one of the original Acornsoft disk releases of Hopper, to see if there is any GOAL source code on any of the unused sectors. Unlikely, if the disc is generated by a mastering program, but you never know.

[Diminished]

If anyone has any time, it'd be interesting to investigate one of the original Acornsoft disk releases of Hopper, to see if there is any GOAL source code on any of the unused sectors. Unlikely, if the disc is generated by a mastering program, but you never know.

The planets have aligned. The Snapper source code disc that just turned up seems to contain the following, in the file DESIGN. It may look ... strangely familiar.

Code: Select all

   0REM DESIGN
  100REM /// Shape designer for the GOAL system ///
  200 
  300page%=PAGE:PAGE=&1C00:IFpage%<>PAGE CHAIN$(page%+5)
  400mode%=2:d=8:p=2
  500VDU23,224,0,&3C,&42,&42,&42,&42,&3C,0
  600HIMEM=&2E00:names=HIMEM:ss=10
  700Sdata=&1100:maxshape=&1C00:s=48
  800shapelo=Sdata+&10:shapehi=shapelo+s:shdata=shapehi+s:I%=FNnew
  900bx=72:by=15:buff%=&3000+8*bx+&280*by
 1000bx%=d*p*bx:by%=1020-32*by:BX%=1:BY%=2
 1100*FX226,148
 1200 
 1300ONERRORGOTO1600
 1400PROCmenu:END
 1500 
 1600PROCon:REPORT:PRINT" at line ";ERL:END
 1700 
 1800DEFPROCon
 1900*FX225,1
 2000*FX4,0
 2100VDU23;10,&72,0;0;0;28,0,24,39,23:ENDPROC
 2200 
 2300DEFPROCoff
 2400*FX225,140
 2500*FX4,1
 2600VDU23;10,&20,0;0;0;26:ENDPROC
 2700 
 2800DEFPROCmenu
 2900exit%=FALSE
 3000REPEATG%=GET:PROCon:VDU12
 3100IFG%>=140ANDG%<=149THENexit%=EVAL("FN"+FNoption(G%-140)):GOTO3400
 3200IFG%>=&88THENN%=N%+(G%=136)-(G%=137)+3*(G%=139)-3*(G%=138)
 3300N%=(N%+s-1)MODs+1:IFN%=s THEN3200ELSEPROCcursor
 3400PROCoff:UNTILexit%:ENDPROC
 3500 
 3600DEFFNoption(I%)LOCALJ%,A$
 3700RESTORE3800:FORJ%=0TOI%:READA$:NEXT:=A$
 3800DATA new,old,load,save,nowt,edit,nowt,nowt,rename
 3900 
 4000DEFFNold PRINT"Sorry mush - can't do that":=FALSE
 4100DEFFNnew
 4200S%=shdata:FORI%=0TOs-1:shapelo?I%=S%:shapehi?I%=S%DIV256
 4300!S%=&101:S%=S%+3:NEXT:N%=1:Sdata!2=S%
 4400FORI%=0TOss*(s-1)STEPss:names?I%=13:NEXT
 4500PROCrestart:=FALSE
 4600DEFPROCrestart PROCmode(7):PROChelp:PROCdispnames:ENDPROC
 4700 
 4800DEFFNload
 4900*L.X.shapes 1100
 5000*L.X.names 2E00
 5100top=Sdata!2 AND&FFFC:PROCrestart:=FALSE
 5200DEFFNsave
 5300INPUT"Save ? "A$:IFA$<>"Y"THEN=FALSE
 5400*S.X.shapes 1100 1C00
 5500*S.X.names 2E00 3000
 5600=FALSE
 5700DEFFNnowt:PRINT"Not implemented":=FALSE
 5800DEFFNedit PROCdesign:PROCrestart:=FALSE
 5900DEFFNrename
 6000INPUT"Name = "A$:IFLENA$>=ss THENPRINT"Too long":GOTO6000
 6100$(names+ss*N%)=A$:PROCoff:PROCpname(N%):=FALSE
 6200 
 6300DEFPROChelp PROCoff
 6400FORI%=0TO1:VDU31,0,I%,&81,&9D,&83,&8D
 6500PRINT"       GOAL shape designer":NEXT
 6600FORI%=0TO8:PRINTTAB(1+13*(I%DIV3),2+I%MOD3)"f";I%" "FNoption(I%);:NEXT
 6700ENDPROC
 6800 
 6900DEFPROCdispnames
 7000PROCoff:@%=3:FORI%=1TOs-1:PROCptab(I%):PRINTI%;
 7100PROCpname(I%):NEXT:PROCcursor:ENDPROC
 7200 
 7300DEFPROCcursor LOCALI%,J%:PROCoff
 7400IFNN%=N%ENDPROC ELSEIFNN%THENPROCptab(NN%):PRINTNN%;
 7500NN%=N%:PROCptab(N%):PRINTTAB(POS+13,VPOS)CHR$&9C;
 7600PROCptab(N%):VDU&84,&9D,&87:ENDPROC
 7700 
 7800DEFPROCptab(I%)
 7900PRINTTAB((I%-1)MOD3*13,6+(I%-1)DIV3);:ENDPROC
 8000 
 8100DEFPROCpname(I%)
 8200PROCptab(I%):VDU9,9,9,32
 8300PRINTLEFT$($(names+ss*I%)+STRING$(9," "),9);:ENDPROC
 8400 
 8500DEFPROCdesign PROCmode(mode%):PROCoff
 8600PROCgetbuf(N%)
 8700PRINTTAB(0,0);N%". "$(names+ss*N%):PROCborder(7)
 8800FORI%=0TOXS-1:FORJ%=0TOYS-1
 8900PROCsq(I%,J%,POINT(bx%+I%*d,by%-J%*4)):NEXT,
 9000CX%=0:CY%=0:PROCcuron:REPEATG%=GET
 9100IFG%>=140THENPROCsq(CX%,CY%,G%-140):PLOT69,bx%+CX%*d,by%-CY%*4:PROCcuron:GOTO9600
 9200IFG%<&88THEN9600
 9300IFINKEY-1 THENPROCchsize:GOTO9600
 9400PROCcuroff:CX%=CX%+(G%=136)-(G%=137):CY%=CY%-(G%=138)+(G%=139)
 9500CX%=(CX%+XS)MODXS:CY%=(CY%+YS)MODYS:PROCcuron
 9600IFG%=ASC"Q"UNTILTRUE:ENDPROC
 9700UNTILG%=13:PROCputbuf(N%)
 9800ENDPROC
 9900 
10000DEFPROCchsize
10100x=XS+p*((G%=136)-(G%=137)):y=YS-(G%=138)+(G%=139)
10200IFx>CX%IFx<=128/d IFy>CY%IFy<29 ELSEENDPROC
10300PROCborder(0):XS=x:YS=y:COLOUR128
10400IFG%=136THENPRINTTAB(BX%+x,BY%)STRING$(y,"  "+CHR$10+CHR$8+CHR$8)
10500IFG%=139THENPRINTTAB(BX%,BY%+y)SPC(x)
10600GCOL0,0:MOVEbx%,by%-4*y:PLOT1,d*x,0:PLOT1,0,4*y:PLOT1,d,0:PLOT1,0,-4*y
10700PROCborder(7):ENDPROC
10800 
10900DEFPROCborder(C%)LOCALx,y:GCOL0,C%:x=8*d*XS+3*d:y=32*YS+12
11000MOVE8*d*BX%-2*d,1028-32*BY%:PLOT1,x,0:PLOT1,0,-y:PLOT1,-x,0:PLOT1,0,y
11100ENDPROC
11200 
11300DEFPROCsq(X%,Y%,C%)
11400VDU31,BX%+X%,BY%+Y%,17,128+C%,32:GCOL0,C%
11500ENDPROC
11600 
11700DEFPROCcuron
11800C%=POINT(bx%+d*CX%,by%-4*CY%):COLOUR128+C%:COLOURC%EOR7
11900VDU31,BX%+CX%,BY%+CY%,224:ENDPROC
12000 
12100DEFPROCcuroff
12200COLOUR128+POINT(bx%+d*CX%,by%-4*CY%)
12300VDU31,BX%+CX%,BY%+CY%,32:ENDPROC
12400 
12500DEFPROCgetbuf(N%)
12600S%=shapelo?N%+256*shapehi?N%:XS=p*?S%:YS=S%?1
12700FORI%=0TOXS*YS DIVp-1:IFI%MODYS=0THENJ%=buff%+I%DIVYS*8
12800?J%=S%?(I%+2):J%=J%+1:IF(J%AND7)=0THENJ%=J%+&278
12900NEXT:ENDPROC
13000 
13100DEFPROCputbuf(N%)
13200S%=shapelo?N%+256*shapehi?N%:T%=?S%*S%?1:Z%=XS*YS/p-T%:T%=S%+T%+2
13300IFSdata!2+Z%>maxshape THENVDU7:ENDPROC
13400top=(Sdata!2-T%AND-4)+T%
13500IFZ%>0THENFORI%=top TOT%STEP-4:I%!Z%=!I%:NEXT
13600IFZ%<0THENFORI%=T%TOtop STEP4:I%!Z%=!I%:NEXT
13700IFN%<s-1 ELSE14000
13800FORI%=N%+1TOs-1:J%=shapelo?I%+shapehi?I%*256+Z%
13900shapelo?I%=J%:shapehi?I%=J%DIV256:NEXT
14000FORI%=0TOXS*YS DIVp-1:IFI%MODYS=0THENJ%=buff%+I%DIVYS*8
14100S%?(I%+2)=?J%:J%=J%+1:IF(J%AND7)=0THENJ%=J%+&278
14200NEXT:?S%=XS/p:S%?1=YS:Sdata!2=Sdata!2+Z%
14300ENDPROC
14400 
14500DEFPROCmode(I%) NN%=0:VDU22,I%:ENDPROC

[gtoal]

I remember the game programming language - didn't remember the name but GOAL sounds plausible.

It *was* used in one released game at least - the one with the roundabout and funfair-type games. Sorry, don't remember the name immediately.

The system was only capable of implementing very simple games. It wasn't as powerful, for example, as the current "Scratch" programming environment for teaching programming to kids.

I just remembered that Tim Dobson might have been the author of the game I was thinking of. 'Carousel' perhaps? No - 'Carnival'!

G

[TobyLobster]

Level 7 has disassembled the three text adventures of the 'Saga of a Spy - The Rick Hanson Trilogy' series:

Rick Hanson, Project Thesius, Myorem

http://level7.org.uk/miscellany/

[0xC0DE]

http://level7.org.uk/miscellany/

Maybe a stupid question: is "Level 7" someone we know from this forum perhaps?

[lurkio]

Maybe a stupid question: is "Level 7" someone we know from this forum perhaps?

They’ve contacted us via bbcmicro.co.uk and said that they prefer to remain anonymous (or, rather, to simply be known as level7).

[tautology]

Level 7 has disassembled the three text adventures of the 'Saga of a Spy - The Rick Hanson Trilogy' series:

Rick Hanson, Project Thesius, Myorem

http://level7.org.uk/miscellany/

I had a partial disassembly I was working in the past with my data extractors and disassembly for Island of Xaan (same engine): https://github.com/tautology0/textadven ... ter/Robico

I have a work in progress for MP Software's ADVCONT engine (mainly just the Crown of Mardan) which I have locally, but will be posting it to github soonish.

[tautology]

For tools, can I point to my UEF loader for Ghidra, which makes it easy to use ghidra to RE BBC games as you can use a state file directly from BeebEm.
https://github.com/tautology0/UEFLoader

[TobyLobster]

I had a partial disassembly I was working in the past with my data extractors and disassembly for Island of Xaan (same engine): https://github.com/tautology0/textadven ... ter/Robico

Added, thanks.

For tools, can I point to my UEF loader for Ghidra, which makes it easy to use ghidra to RE BBC games as you can use a state file directly from BeebEm.
https://github.com/tautology0/UEFLoader

Added, thanks.