💾 Archived View for mirrors.apple2.org.za › active › 4am › images › games › action › Repton%20(4am%2… captured on 2023-07-10 at 19:18:24.
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
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-----------------Repton----------------
A 4am crack 2014-02-21
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The original Apple II disk for Repton
is encoded in a custom nibble scheme
with a 4-4 encoding that stores 12
pages of data per track. There is no
way to replicate this storage structure
on a disk image or unprotected disk, so
I'm going to break down the entire RWTS
and build it back up.
T0S0 loads the RWTS starting at $BA00,
then jumps to $BA80.
$BA80 initializes a bunch of boring
stuff, then starts loading tracks:
BAE5- A9 02 LDA #$02
BAE7- A0 05 LDY #$05
BAE9- 8D 07 BA STA $BA07
BAEC- 8C 06 BA STY $BA06
BAEF- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
$BB21 is the entry point to read all
data (12 pages worth) from a specific
track (passed in the A register as
track number x 2, as is common in these
track-at-a-time RWTS). $BB95 contains a
table of destination addresses, used by
the read routine at $BB21 to decide
where to put the data read from each
track.
BB95- BA 04 10
BB98- 14 60 6C 78 84 90 9C A8
BBA0- 04 10 14
So track 1 gets put into $0400, track 2
into $1000, track 3 into $1400
(overwriting part of the data read in
from track 2), and so on.
BAF2- AD 07 BA LDA $BA07
BAF5- 90 18 BCC $BB0F
BAF7- AC 06 BA LDY $BA06
BAFA- 88 DEY
BAFB- F0 0F BEQ $BB0C
BAFD- 8C 06 BA STY $BA06
; a complicated checksum routine
BB00- 20 76 BA JSR $BA76
BB03- AC 06 BA LDY $BA06
BB06- AD 07 BA LDA $BA07
BB09- 4C E9 BA JMP $BAE9
; pray you never end up here
BB0C- 4C 8E BD JMP $BD8E
; advance to next track and repeat
BB0F- 69 02 ADC #$02
BB11- C9 1C CMP #$1C
BB13- D0 D2 BNE $BAE7
All told, this loop reads data into
$0400-$1FFF and $6000-$B3FF. The entire
process is less efficient than it could
be. The range $0400-$1FFF briefly
contains code from tracks 01-03 before
being overwritten with (different) code
from tracks 0B-0D.
Once all the data is loaded, it seeks
to the end of the disk to perform not
one but two different nibble checks:
BB15- 20 A3 BB JSR $BBA3
BB18- 20 5B BC JSR $BC5B
Experimentation shows that these calls
can simply be NOP'd out. Then it turns
off the disk motor and jumps to $0767
to start the title screen and
instructions/demo.
BB1B- BD 88 C0 LDA $C088,X
BB1E- 4C 67 07 JMP $0767
If the space bar is pressed at any time
during the demo (checked at $06A0), it
jumps to $0764, which jumps to $BA00,
which jumps to $BA08.
$BA08 loads the main game code from
tracks 01-03 into $0400-$1FFF
(overwriting the title screen code that
was initially loaded from tracks 0B-0D)
and jumps to $868C to start the game.
; calibrate disk motor
BA08- A6 FB LDX $FB
BA0A- 20 5B BA JSR $BA5B
; read track 1 (into $0400)
BA0D- A9 02 LDA #$02
BA0F- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
BA12- B0 0E BCS $BA22
; read track 2 (into $1000)
BA14- A9 04 LDA #$04
BA16- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
BA19- B0 07 BCS $BA22
; read track 3 (into $1400)
BA1B- A9 06 LDA #$06
BA1D- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
BA20- 90 06 BCC $BA28
; pray you don't end up here
BA22- 20 76 BA JSR $BA76
BA25- 4C 0D BA JMP $BA0D
; turn off disk motor and start game
BA28- BD 88 C0 LDA $C088,X
BA2B- 4C 8C 86 JMP $868C
Once the main game code is loaded,
$89B7 contains a jump to $BA03, which
jumps to $BA2E, which reloads the title
screen code into $0400-$1FFF and some
data into $A800-$B3FF, and jumps to
$0767 again.
; calibrate disk motor
BA2E- A6 FB LDX $FB
BA30- 20 5B BA JSR $BA5B
; read track 0A (into $0400)
BA33- A9 14 LDA #$14
BA35- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
BA38- B0 15 BCS $BA4F
; read track 0B (into $1000)
BA3A- A9 16 LDA #$16
BA3C- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
BA3F- B0 0E BCS $BA4F
; read track 0C (into $1400)
BA41- A9 18 LDA #$18
BA43- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
BA46- B0 07 BCS $BA4F
; read track 0D (into $A800)
BA48- A9 1A LDA #$1A
BA4A- 20 21 BB JSR $BB21
BA4D- 90 06 BCC $BA55
; pray you don't end up here
BA4F- 20 76 BA JSR $BA76
BA52- 4C 33 BA JMP $BA33
; turn off disk motor and show title
BA55- BD 88 C0 LDA $C088,X
BA58- 4C 67 07 JMP $0767
According to my calculations, there's
just enough room to save this as a
single-load game WITH the title
screen. Which is great, because that
saves me the trouble of futzing with an
RWTS.
Here's the file layout:
$07FD jumps to a custom initialization
routine at $9406.
$0800-$1FFF contains the title screen
code that belongs there.
$2000-$3FFF holds $20 pages of common
code (to be moved into $9400-$B3FF).
$4000-$43FF holds $04 pages of title
screen code (to be moved into
$0400-$07FF).
$4400-$5FFF holds $1C pages of game
code (to be moved into auxiliary RAM
and later moved into $0400-$1FFF).
$6000-$93FF contains the code that
belongs there.
$9400-$95FF is free space where I can
write the custom initialization routine
that moves everything into the right
memory locations.
To eliminate the disk read when
switching between the title screen and
the actual game, I can store the game
code ($0400-$1FFF) in auxiliary RAM at
$D000. When the time comes to read the
game code from disk, I can simply copy
it down to main memory instead.
This clever plan is complicated
somewhat by the fact that I *also* need
to store the title screen code
somewhere, since the original disk
re-reads the title screen code from
tracks 0B-0D every time the game ends
(or when the player presses Ctrl-Q).
Luckily, I can simulate this as well by
swapping that code out as I swap the
game code in.
Thus, in pseudo-code, the custom
initialization routine needs to work
something like this:
copy $02 pages from $9400 to $BA00
and jump there to continue
MEMCPY(X=20, A=20, Y=94) ; copy $20
pages from $2000 to $9400
activate aux RAM bank 2 for writing
MEMCPY(X=1C, A=44, Y=D0) ; copy $1C
pages from $4400 to $D000
MEMCPY(X=0C, A=A8, Y=EC) ; copy $0C
pages from $A800 to $EC00
deactivate aux RAM bank 2
clear $20 pages at $2000
show HGR page 1
MEMCPY(X=04, A=40, Y=04) ; copy $04
pages from $4000 to $0400
set up zero page the same way the
original disk does
JMP $0767
The original game jumps to $BA00 to
load the game code after the title
screen is done. This should instead
jump to a custom routine that copies
that code from aux RAM:
JSR .SWAPCODE ; see below
JMP $868C ; start the game
Similarly, once the game ends, it jumps
to $BA03 to re-load the title screen
code. This should instead jump to a
custom routine that copies that code
from aux RAM:
JSR .SWAPCODE ; see below
activate aux RAM bank 2 for reading
MEMCPY(X=0C, A=EC, Y=A8) ; copy $0C
pages from $EC00 to $A800
deactivate aux RAM bank 2
JMP $0767 ; start the title/demo
The shared code here is a routine that
swaps one block of code out and the
other one in. During the transition
from title to game or game to title,
HGR page 2 is unused and can be safely
clobbered. So I can use that as a
temporary buffer to make the swapping
easier.
.SWAPCODE
show HGR page 1
MEMCPY(X=1C, A=04, Y=40) ; copy $1C
pages from $0400 to $4000
activate RAM bank 2 for reading
MEMCPY(X=1C, A=D0, Y=04) ; copy $1C
pages from $D000 to $0400
activate RAM bank 2 for writing
MEMCPY(X=1C, A=40, Y=D0) ; copy $1C
pages from $4000 to $D000
deactivate RAM bank 2
Finally, a MEMCPY routine used by my
custom initialization and simulated
disk read routines:
.MEMCPY
X-reg = # of pages to copy
A-reg = first source page
Y-reg = first destination page
copy memory (duh)
OK to clobber all registers
The final binary file is 144 sectors,
requires 64K (due to the use of the aux
RAM for storage), and can be BRUN from
any DOS 3.3-compatible disk. I've
chosen to actually distribute it with a
modified CompatiBoot loader that starts
the game as quickly and as silently as
possible, but you can copy the binary
file to another disk and BRUN it
manually. These softdocs are also
distributed on the disk, viewable with
any text file viewer.
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A 4am crack 2014-02-21
-------------------EOF-----------------