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the (124), code (51), and (50), journal (44), ramuse (41), txt (30), cas (26), hardware (23), you (20), #computer (16), are (14), for (13), instructions (11), text (11), that (10), from (10), can (9), game (9), sound (9), site (9), there (8), this (8), all (8), adventure (8), defender (8), pdf (8), data (7), then (7), but (7), into (7), with (7), see (7), have (7), out (7), games (7), what (6), program (6), programmer (6), these (6), work (6), time (6), soundramuse (6), soundhardware (6), disassembly (5), will (5), assembly (5), one (5), blocks (5), chess (5), zelda (5), here (5), his (5), pyramid (5), galaga (5), github (5), asm (5), soundcode (5), your (4), own (4), long (4), used (4), read (4), only (4), like (4), building (4), simple (4), memory (4), they (4), viruses (4), series (4), systems (4), cartridge (4), asteroids (4), bedlam (4), them (4), arcade (4), check (4), frogger (4), early (4), invaders (4), dig (4), archeology (4), coco (4), phoenixj (4), part (3), where (3), 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Text of the page (random words):
computer archeology contact journal home site page amiga rainbow islands 1loader dec 1loader boot orig boot journal arcade asteroids 80 hardware ramuse code dvg vectorrom journal centipede hardware ramuse code crazy climber 1 bigspritegraphics pdf buildings pdf cclimber asm charenc inc crazyclimbermemorymapinfo pdf graphicsandcharacterassetinfo pdf memorymap inc defender 75 ramuse hardware bank1 bank2 bank3 bank7 bankfixed mapping txt soundhardware soundramuse soundcode defender theory early pdf defender theory later pdf defender cpu jpg defender rom b w jpg defender vid b w jpg soundrom txt donkey kong ai hardware ramuse code frogger sound soundhardware soundramuse soundcode hardware ramuse code gfx journal galaga 5 cpu1 main cpu2 secondary cpu3 sound gfx1 characters gfx2 sprites promcolors prompalettechar prompalettesprite cpu1fix journal moon patrol 75 hardware ramuse code gfx1 text gfx2 sprites gfx3 mountains gfx4 hills gfx5 city imagebackgroundcolors spritecolors spritecolorsets textcolors moonpatrolsound soundhardware soundramuse soundcode journal omega race 10 hardware ramuse mainboard soundhardware soundramuse soundboard dvgprom vectorrom journal pooyan ai hardware ramuse code phoenix 90 hardware ramuse code background foreground journal scramble hhi phoenixj func main2 pdf phoenixj func main2 scap phoenixj asm may2025 txt phoenixj asm may2025 txt pdf space invaders invaders asm hardware ramuse code journal tempest hardware ramuse code the pit ai hardware ramuse code time pilot sound soundhardware soundramuse soundcode hardware ramuse code journal sea wolf 1 hardware ramuse code journal scramble 1 soundhardware soundramuse soundcode journal atari2600 stella hardware info asteroids 5 ramuse code journal battle zone 1 ramuse code journal chess 1 ramuse code journal combat 10 ramuse code codepal journal double gap code doublegap asm journal entombed 1 ramuse code journal et 1 ramuse code journal burger time 1 ramuse codebank0 codebank1 codebank2 codebank3 codebank4 codebank5 codebank6 codebank7 journal missile command 1 ramuse code journal space invaders 1 ramuse code journal colossalcave codeorg dataorg code350 data350 coco hardware early work pyramid ramuse code journal raaka tu ramuse code journal bedlam ramuse code journal madness minotaur walk through after_start txt after_start cas after_1 txt after_1 cas after_2 txt after_2 cas after_3 txt after_3 cas after_4 txt after_4 cas after_5 txt after_5 cas after_6 txt after_6 cas after_7 txt after_7 cas after_8 txt after_8 cas after_9 txt after_9 cas after_10 txt after_10 cas after_11 txt after_11 cas after_12 txt after_12 cas after_13 txt after_13 cas after_14 txt after_14 cas after_15 txt after_15 cas after_16 txt after_16 cas after_17 txt after_17 cas after_18 txt after_18 cas after_19 txt after_19 cas after_20 txt after_20 cas after_21 txt after_21 cas after_22 txt after_22 cas after_23 txt after_23 cas after_24 txt after_24 cas after_25 txt after_25 cas ramuse code savegameviewer journal mega bug ramuse code journal popcorn ramuse code journal daggorath ramuse code level maps journal downland 5 ramuse code journal audio analyzer 5 ramuse code journal doubleback ramuse code journal nes zelda 5 hardware ramuse bank0 bank1 bank2 bank3 bank4 bank5 bank6 bank7 journal kid icarus 1 hardware ramuse bank0 bank1 bank2 bank3 bank4 bank5 bank6 bank7 journal gameboy hardware link s awakening 1 ramuse bank00 bank01 bank02 bank03 bank04 bank05 bank06 bank07 bank08 bank09 bank0a bank0b bank0c bank0d bank0e bank0f bank10 bank11 bank12 bank13 bank14 bank15 bank16 bank17 bank18 bank19 bank1a bank1b bank1c bank1d bank1e bank1f journal tetris 1 ramuse code journal trs80 hardwarelevel2 hardwarelevel1 hardwaredisk hauntedhouse ramuse1 code1 ramuse2 code2 journal pyramid ramuse code ramuse1 code1 journal raakatu ramuse code journal bedlam ramuse code journal xenos ramuse code section1 section2 section3 section4 section5 section6 section7 section8 section9 ssvdobjs usvdobjs journal virus morris worm 1 journal stoned journal tools blend blend zip journal computer archeology play me raw content on github references dig sites one quarter at a time sounds of the 80s adventures in text tv console systems zelda viruses amiga some assembly required disassembly computer archeology this web site is about digging up old forgotten computer systems and cracking open the code that ran on them think of each program as a different dig site i am a nerdy indiana jones my goal is to find the original programmer s spirit ideas and ingenuity in the code the programmer s flavor there are code gems and wise idea nuggets in these programs buried in the ancient decades past roms of old my goal is to dust them off and put them on display for all to share welcome to my museum play me there are several emulations on this site if you want to experience the code for yourself then click on these links pyramid 2000 text adventure on the coco raaka tu text adventure on the coco bedlam text adventure on the coco pyramid text adventure on the trs 80 haunted house text adventure on the trs 80 raw content on github this site is auto generated from the markdown files in a public github repository all of the web content and tools are here https github com tophercantrell computerarcheology you will find plenty of tools assemblers disassemblers formatters etc and the disassembly text files free from html markup want to add your own disassembly to this site or want to enhance correct my work fork the github repo and send me a merge request i ll add your work to the museum or you can click the contact button at the top and send me corrections and additions if you would like me to add a link to your own site then send me the information references if you like computer archeology you must visit don hodges amazing site he has a series of digs into pac man ms pac man dig dug donkey kong and defender to name a few visit his archive for most of the series vecoven frederic has disassembled the galaga sound processor see his awesome work here vecoven frederic galaga sound hopefully he will tackle the entire code base dr stefan holtgen in berlin is working on a project investigating the nexus of hardware and programming languages of the early micro computer era check out his blog at dr stefan holtgen google translate does a great job if you don t read german dig sites use the site tab on the navigation tree to the left to go straight to a particular page one quarter at a time there is a famous bug in the arcade game galaga shoot everything in the game except the lower left bee then dodge it for fifteen minutes eventually it will stop firing and none of the bees will fire at you again for the rest of the game let me lead you into the tomb of z80 opcodes and show you the mistake in galaga space invaders was one of if not the first arcade games the 8080 code is littered with questionable code design there is a hidden message easter egg in the code and i found a subtle bug check it out here in spaceinvaders many early video games used vector graphics the display hardware reads a long list of lines from memory and then drives the electron gun from point to point the technology is all but lost today check out the line list programming in asteroids and in omega race harry hurst has dug into the multi bank roms of defender have a look at his ongoing work sounds of the 80s remember the songs in frogger there is actually a snippet of hidden music buried until now see and hear it here in frogger i grew up with the ay38910 sound chip i still have a couple dozen of them they were used in several arcade games and it is fun to see how different sound boards scheduled long running effects over multiple channel resources check out the sound board disassemblies of moon patrol and time pilot and frogger the running base line in moon patrol is a treasure in itself you can see the beginnings of domain specific languages in these boards that define their own sound script languages adventures in text the trs 80 color computer hosted a series of text adventure games from robert arnstein follow the fascinating evolution of his adventure engine from pyramid to raaka tu to bedlam spectral associates produced a complex text adventure game with real time features in madness and the minotaur it is possible to win the game but it is extremely difficult without knowing the secrets they are all described here tv console systems if you were a child in the 70s chances are you had an atari2600 the hardware seems designed for the included game combat but game developers squeezed out ingenious games using the simple hardware objects in missile command the player duplication feature creates the parallel falling missiles the 2600 was limited to a direct access of 4k bytes in the cartridge many games included several banks of rom that were swapped in and out through cartridge circuitry see bank switching in action in asteroids the chess cartridge is a complete chess playing program for the atari2600 with multiple difficulty levels the entire game fits in a 4k cartridge and uses only the system s 128 bytes of memory zelda the legend of zelda for the nes started a long series of wonderful zelda games spanning all the different nintendo game systems viruses computer viruses are an intriguing part of our computer culture let me take you into the assembly workings of two famous but defunct viruses first i ll show you the morris worm vax assembly snippet written into a buffer overrun to forge a root shell then have a look at the pc stoned boot sector infector as tiny and efficient as it is there is always room for improvement amiga patrik sevallius is tackling rainbow islands he is especially focused on the rob northen copylock disk protection some assembly required you can learn the rules of chess in an afternoon becoming good at chess could take a lifetime programming is similar the instructions the computer can execute are simple and few but learning to combine the instructions into a sequence that does something something creative an engaging is more of an art than a science it takes learning and practice and discipline maybe legos are a better metaphor there are relatively few types of pieces you have to work with you have the 4x4 and the 4x8 and the 1x8 and so on some very creative people have written out sequenced instructions a program for combining pieces to make castles and starships and a replica of the death star you the computer can easily follow the simple instructions and snap the pieces together to build these marvels but designing the thing and writing the instructions to implement it well that takes a master builder who works with legos on a higher plane after decades of evolution computers still only understand the myopic language of opcodes their moment by moment life is simple read a value from memory subtract five from it store it back to memory and jump to another part of the program if the new value is zero they see only the current instruction they have no internal inspiration of ah ha i see what this code is doing the programmer on the other hand starts at a higher level he thinks about alien ships and scrolling screens and collision detection where the computer sees read location 100 the programmer sees get the coordinates of qbert the programmer stitches sequences of instructions together to form routines that perform tasks like draw a line from a b to c d then these routines are building blocks used to build more complicated building blocks like draw a rectangle these are combined to make more powerful blocks eventually the building blocks are all combined to form a working program and other programs can reuse the crafted building blocks humans think in labels and symbols but the computer instructions use only numbers and addresses the assembler is a tool that translates the programmer s label filled instructions into the same instructions with numbers the computer can use the label drawline becomes address 1577 and the label qbertobjectstructure becomes address 8000 the labels and precious comments and drawings all get lost in the assembly process all that remains is a list of very very crude instructions that the computer follows one by one disassembly if the computer can read the instructions then you can too a disassembler reads a binary program image and produces human readable mnemonics for each instruction it isn t always easy to tell what is data and what is code tables and data objects are often scattered between routines in the code the disassembler will generate for invalid opcodes markers for data sections separating the code from the data is just the beginning what does the code do what is the data how is ram being used this is where the archeologist studies the code and ponders and begins to write comments on how the system works he begins to assign labels to code and data he begins to decipher what the data structures are there is no science to this part of the disassembly this is where your own experience insight luck and long staring result in that ah ha moment of understanding
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