Jump to content
IGNORED

2600 Rom Comparisions and Dumps


Omegamatrix

Recommended Posts

RH's post #1084. "Sword" was his description of the object, not mine. I don't know if it was supposed to be an inventory icon (since the upside-down ark obviously shouldn't be one). Just stand on a basket and all of the icons will appear.

Oh that one. I thought it was a new one. Still, very cool.

 

BTW did anyone ever look at Going Up??, Pompeii, or Squoosh to see if they're anything other than movement demos? Pompeii has a tiny bit of stuff going on, but others seem to just be early demos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh that one. I thought it was a new one. Still, very cool.

 

And no, there's no gfx object supposedly representing JD's signature here (which supports the theory that the object in the PR photo was just placeholder gfx for the master thief when it was taken).

 

There's no copyright or HSW2 gfx either (although the Yar can be revealed properly). Instructions that update scoring are completely absent (as well as the final tally subroutine). All of that would have been added later when making the final build.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The game looks like it might have been intended to be more-difficult...assuming that the full key gfx object in the treasure room was going to be the other half (a half-key object also appears) which needed to be joined. This is no glitch, as the data tables specifically point to the objects in this order:

 

12:00 = hourglass
1:30 = ankh
3:00 = half-key
4:30 = hourglass
6:00 = chai
7:30 = ankh
9:00 = full key
10:30 = chai
(LFCEF = index value, LFCB3-1 = object number)

 

The data tables were shortened in the released game to be in this order:

 

12:00 = hourglass
1:30 = ankh
3:00 = chai
4:30 = hourglass
6:00 = ankh
7:30 = hourglass
9:00 = chai
10:30 = ankh
(LFCDC = index value, LFCAB-1 = object number)

 

It could be that the unknown action which awards no points in the released game was to be for joining these "key halves".

 

You also start the game only with 1 reserve life (tho the spider is the only thing that can kill you - everything else is disabled).

Edited by Nukey Shay
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

After a few years, I finally have my rom dumper back!

 

 

I dumped Mr. Do!'s Castle, and I believe the dump out there is bad. The only difference between dumps is in one byte which is for a graphic of something. I have no idea what the graphics is though.

 

Mr. Do!'s Castle (good dump).zip

 

 

The evidence for the graphic being bad lies in the graphic being repeated a few places in the rom. Only at $1984 (HOM3 address) is it different. I'm a little tripped out by the George Orwellian reference, and that Mr. Do!'s Castle also has a 1984 copyright. Kind of spooky, really. Like X-Files spooky.

 

 

Here are the graphics for comparison, showing all the places the graphic shows up in the rom:

|XXX     | $1578  |XXX     | $16B8  |XXX     | $1978  |XXX     | $1AB8
|  X  XXX| $1579  |  X  XXX| $16B9  |  X  XXX| $1979  |  X  XXX| $1AB9
|  XXXX  | $157A  |  XXXX  | $16BA  |  XXXX  | $197A  |  XXXX  | $1ABA
| XXXXXX | $157B  | XXXXXX | $16BB  | XXXXXX | $197B  | XXXXXX | $1ABB
|XXX  XXX| $157C  |XXX  XXX| $16BC  |XXX  XXX| $197C  |XXX  XXX| $1ABC
|XXX  XXX| $157D  |XXX  XXX| $16BD  |XXX  XXX| $197D  |XXX  XXX| $1ABD
|XXX  XXX| $157E  |XXX  XXX| $16BE  |XXX  XXX| $197E  |XXX  XXX| $1ABE
|X      X| $157F  |X      X| $16BF  |X      X| $197F  |X      X| $1ABF
|X      X| $1580  |X      X| $16C0  |X      X| $1980  |X      X| $1AC0
|XXX  XXX| $1581  |XXX  XXX| $16C1  |XXX  XXX| $1981  |XXX  XXX| $1AC1
|XXX  XXX| $1582  |XXX  XXX| $16C2  |XXX  XXX| $1982  |XXX  XXX| $1AC2
|XXX  XXX| $1583  |XXX  XXX| $16C3  |XXX  XXX| $1983  |XXX  XXX| $1AC3
|XXXXXXXX| $1584  |XXXXXXXX| $16C4  |XXXXXXXX| $1984  |XXXXXXXX| $1AC4
| X XXXX | $1585  | X XXXX | $16C5  | X XXXX | $1985  | X XXXX | $1AC5
| X XXXX | $1586  | X XXXX | $16C6  | X XXXX | $1986  | X XXXX | $1AC6
| XXXXXX | $1587  | XXXXXX | $16C7  | XXXXXX | $1987  | XXXXXX | $1AC7


|     XXX| $158C  |     XXX| $198C
|XXX  X  | $158D  |XXX  X  | $198D
|  XXXX  | $158E  |  XXXX  | $198E
| XXXXXX | $158F  | XXXXXX | $198F
|XXX  XXX| $1590  |XXX  XXX| $1990
|XXX  XXX| $1591  |XXX  XXX| $1991
|XXX  XXX| $1592  |XXX  XXX| $1992
|X      X| $1593  |X      X| $1993
|X      X| $1594  |X      X| $1994
|XXX  XXX| $1595  |XXX  XXX| $1995
|XXX  XXX| $1596  |XXX  XXX| $1996
|XXX  XXX| $1597  |XXX  XXX| $1997
|XXXXXXXX| $1598  |XXXXXXXX| $1998
| XXXX X | $1599  | XXXX X | $1999
| XXXX X | $159A  | XXXX X | $199A
| XXXXXX | $159B  | XXXXXX | $199B

And a direct comparison of the good and bad dumps:

   GOOD      BAD
|XXX     |XXX     |
|  X  XXX|  X  XXX|
|  XXXX  |  XXXX  |
| XXXXXX | XXXXXX |
|XXX  XXX|XXX  XXX|
|XXX  XXX|XXX  XXX|
|XXX  XXX|XXX  XXX|
|X      X|X      X|
|X      X|X      X|
|XXX  XXX|XXX  XXX|
|XXX  XXX|XXX  XXX|
|XXX  XXX|XXX  XXX|
|XXXXXXXX| X      | <----- $1984
| X XXXX | X XXXX |
| X XXXX | X XXXX |
| XXXXXX | XXXXXX |

I'm not the only one who found this byte location to be $FF instead of $40. Years ago A.J. and I were looking at Mr. Do!'s Castle. He also had $FF at the location, just as I did. I do remember his dumper also had other problems, and if you look at the other 4 bytes he had different in that post you will notice that bit 0 is always, well, zero. More conspiracy!!

 

 

Jokes aside I think my dump is good, and that the dump out there is bad, unless anyone else can prove otherwise.

Edited by Omegamatrix
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, I took a look at the roms you posted. There are two reasons that they didn't work in an emulator.

 

1) The banks were reversed in 'Fathon'. I have switched them back to the proper order.

2) The hotspots were changed to use a different logic chip to switch between banks.

- Bank 0 (normally $1FF8) ---> now is $02C0

- Bank 1 (normally $1FF9) ---> now is $02A0

 

The other actual differences were just in the logos and text. You can see the differences below:

 

post-7074-0-91469400-1402244188_thumb.pngpost-7074-0-48775200-1402244197_thumb.png

 

post-7074-0-05625200-1402244209_thumb.pngpost-7074-0-31529900-1402244218_thumb.png

 

 

Here is the Fathon rom with the banks placed in the correct order, as well as two patched roms that will run in the emulator:

 

Digivision.zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2) The hotspots were changed to use a different logic chip to switch between banks.

- Bank 0 (normally $1FF8) ---> now is $02C0

- Bank 1 (normally $1FF9) ---> now is $02A0

That's pretty strange, I wonder why the would do that? Must be cheaper to decode that address or something. Seems like it would be simple to add this new mode to Stella, I think it should be left in the ROM for historical purposes.

Edited by Wickeycolumbus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems like it would be simple to add this new mode to Stella, I think it should be left in the ROM for historical purposes.

If you look in the file I attached to my post above, both versions are there. One version is "patched" where the hotspots have been changed to F8. The other version is the original roms yoshizuki posted except the Fathon rom has it's banks swapped around so that they are in the correct order.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you look in the file I attached to my post above, both versions are there. One version is "patched" where the hotspots have been changed to F8. The other version is the original roms yoshizuki posted except the Fathon rom has it's banks swapped around so that they are in the correct order.

Sorry, should have looked at your zip before I posted. I wonder what the origin of those ROMs are. They must have been dumped by someone who knew what they were doing since both banks are present. Or maybe they pulled the EPROM?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2) The hotspots were changed to use a different logic chip to switch between banks.

- Bank 0 (normally $1FF8) ---> now is $02C0

- Bank 1 (normally $1FF9) ---> now is $02A0

The two bankswitched games by UA Limited use $0240 and $0220 for their hotspots. Maybe there is some connection between these two companies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't look at the all of the files, but I think it's all of Matt's proto files posted earlier in this thread. One interesting thing I found that I either have forgotten about or missed is that the source code for Dune is in there...

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gave the zip a quick look, there are some ROMs in there that definitely aren't 100% matches with the collection. These are probably ROMs that have been previously weeded out. I just wanted to say that the "Defender EPROM" ROM comes from my defender prototype:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/149256-strange-defender-prototype/

Edited by Wickeycolumbus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...