[stella] Definitive Combat Disassembly

["Roger Williams" <mer02@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here it is -- the ultimate COMBAT disassembly.

 

What does it have that you haven't seen?

 

* Every single RAM location accounted for

* Every single byte of ROM data tables accounted for

* Every single branch and jump target non-cryptically labelled

* Tables compile correctly even if you change the length of the file

* Original Atari labels used for toplevel routines

  (thanks to Brian Prescott for Joe DeCuir's lecture notes!)

* Find out how COMBAT manages Tank PONG missile reflections

  when it doesn't know whether you hit a horizontal or vertical wall

* Explore COMBAT's byzantine and yet, during play, barely

  perceptible acceleration and deceleration system

* Find out what mystery RAM locations $88, $A8, and $AA do

* Find out what the mystery tables at L15F7, L1637 do, and learn how

  the SNDP sound pitch table is incorrectly documented in NBCOMBAT

* Find out why GTIMER was misnamed in NBCOMBAT, and how the length

  of the game is really controlled

* Look over Larry Wagner's shoulder from more than 25 years in the

  future and see which routines were coded first, and what flags

  and patches were obviously added as last-minute tweaks

 

All in all, this is everything you should need to make arbitrary

changes to COMBAT without guessing.  By recompiling to a 4K ROM

(a very trivial change) it should be straightforward to add new

mazes, backgrounds, and even game variations.  Enjoy!

 

--Roger Williams

Attachment: dicombat.asm
Description: Binary data