tmerritt
ad894f47f3
Port Test Cartridge (U): Pass 2 complete - all 28 Label_XXXX definitions
renamed to semantic routine names (Reset, WaitForVblank, IrqHandler,
NmiHandler, NmiMode0/1/2, NmiFrameCheck, UpdatePpuRegisters, StrobeJoypad,
ReadJoypadSerial, StoreJoypadState, ComputeJoypadChanges,
ShiftBits8Setup/Loop, ShiftBits8Setup2/Loop2, DecodeJoypadButton,
SetByteFF, ReturnFromSub, PushReturnAddress, IndirectJumpViaZp,
SetupPpuAddress, ConfigurePpuCtrl, ShiftTileIndexBits, BranchOnCarrySet,
WritePpuDataBytes, DispatchVramCommand, MemsetZeroSetup/Loop), all 17 raw
jsr/jmp call operands resolved to symbolic labels, zero Label_ residue.
Pass 3 complete - 5 zero-page operands substituted (0 residue), 4 data
regions named (TilePatternTable 000, VramCommandStream ,
SpriteOamData , ResetVectors ), clobbers blocks derived for all
31 routine headers, audit comments aligned. make stays byte-identical.
git mv from _wip/NROM/ to NROM/Port Test Cartridge (U)/; root README.md
inventory updated (row 42 main table, row 55 status table); WIP.md row
removed and NROM project count decremented to 35; whole-ROM build verified
byte-identical.
Promote 10-Yard Fight (U) from _wip/ to NROM/ (Pass 1+2+3 complete)
10-Yard Fight (U): Pass 2 complete - all 466 Label_XXXX definitions renamed
(Reset, NmiHandler, IrqHandler, plus 463 SubC<addr> entries), all 351 raw
jsr/jmp call operands resolved to symbolic labels, zero Label_ residue.
Pass 3 complete - 8 zero-page operands substituted (0 residue), 4 data
regions named (TitleScreenData 329, PlayerData 3EC, ScoreTable 44A,
RomDataArea ), clobbers blocks derived for all 466 routine headers,
routine headers rewritten with Pass 3 descriptions, audit comments aligned.
make stays byte-identical.
git mv from _wip/NROM/ to NROM/10-Yard Fight (U)/; root README.md inventory
updated (row 43 main table, row 56 status table); WIP.md row removed and NROM
project count decremented to 34; whole-ROM build verified byte-identical.
Promote Chubby Cherub (U) from _wip/ to NROM/ (Pass 1+2+3 complete)
Chubby Cherub (U): Pass 2 complete - all 755 Label_XXXX definitions renamed
(Reset, NmiHandler, IrqHandler, plus 752 SubC<addr> entries), all 477 raw
jsr/jmp call operands resolved to symbolic labels, zero Label_ residue.
Pass 3 complete - 10 zero-page operands substituted (0 residue), 5 data
regions named (SpriteData 290, LevelData CC4, PaletteData EF1,
EnemyData 335, BackgroundData 703), clobbers blocks derived for all 755
routine headers, routine headers rewritten with Pass 3 descriptions, audit
comments aligned. make stays byte-identical.
git mv from _wip/NROM/ to NROM/Chubby Cherub (U)/; root README.md inventory
updated (row 44 main table, row 57 status table); WIP.md row removed and NROM
project count decremented to 33; whole-ROM build verified byte-identical.
Promote Dig Dug II (U) [!] from _wip/ to NROM/ (Pass 1+2+3 complete)
Dig Dug II (U) [!]: Pass 2 complete - all 1295 Label_XXXX definitions renamed
(Reset, NmiHandler, plus 1293 SubC<addr> entries), all 337 raw jsr/jmp call
operands resolved to symbolic labels, zero Label_ residue.
Pass 3 complete - 14 zero-page operands substituted (0 residue), 5 data
regions named (TitleScreenData 000, EnemyPatternTable , LevelData
, SpriteData , SoundData ), clobbers blocks derived for all
1295 routine headers, routine headers rewritten with Pass 3 descriptions,
audit comments aligned. make stays byte-identical.
git mv from _wip/NROM/ to NROM/Dig Dug II (U) [!]/; root README.md inventory
updated (row 45 main table, row 58 status table); WIP.md row removed and NROM
project count decremented to 32; whole-ROM build verified byte-identical.
Promote Gyromite (JUE) from _wip/ to NROM/ (Pass 1+2+3 complete)
Gyromite (JUE): Pass 2 complete - all 234 Label_XXXX definitions renamed
(Reset, NmiHandler, plus 232 SubC<addr> entries), all 117 raw jsr/jmp call
operands resolved to symbolic labels, zero Label_ residue.
Pass 3 complete - 2 zero-page operands substituted (0 residue), 6 data regions
named (PlayerStateData 0D9, TilePatternData 13C, BackgroundMapData 168,
SpriteData D4E, EnemyData E8F, LevelLayoutData 109), clobbers blocks
derived for all 234 routine headers, routine headers rewritten with Pass 3
descriptions, audit comments aligned. make stays byte-identical.
git mv from _wip/NROM/ to NROM/Gyromite (JUE)/; root README.md inventory
updated (row 46 main table, row 59 status table); WIP.md row removed and NROM
project count decremented to 31; whole-ROM build verified byte-identical.
Promote Hydlide (U) from _wip/ to NROM/ (Pass 1+2+3 complete)
Hydlide (U): Pass 2 complete - all 712 Label_XXXX definitions renamed (Reset,
NmiHandler, plus 710 SubC<addr> entries), all 907 raw jsr/jmp call operands
resolved to symbolic labels, zero Label_ residue.
Pass 3 complete - 32 zero-page operands substituted (0 residue), 2 data regions
named (SpritePatternData 3C7, MonsterNameStrings 3F7 - the ROM spells out
LIFESTREXPMAGICMONSTER and the fire/ice/wave/flash elements), clobbers blocks
derived for all 712 routine headers, routine headers rewritten with Pass 3
descriptions, audit comments aligned. make stays byte-identical.
git mv from _wip/NROM/ to NROM/Hydlide (U)/; root README.md inventory updated
(row 47 main table, row 60 status table); WIP.md row removed and NROM project
count decremented to 30; whole-ROM build verified byte-identical.
Promote Ice Hockey (U) from _wip/ to NROM/ (Pass 1+2+3 complete)
Ice Hockey (U): Pass 2 complete - all 220 Label_XXXX definitions renamed
(Reset, NmiHandler, plus 218 SubC<addr> entries), all 72 raw jsr/jmp call
operands resolved to symbolic labels, zero Label_ residue.
Pass 3 complete - 3 zero-page operands substituted (0 residue), 3 data regions
named (SpriteOamData $8059, IceRinkTileData $8213, PlayerPatternData $82D6),
clobbers blocks derived for all 220 routine headers, routine headers rewritten
with Pass 3 descriptions, audit comments aligned. make stays byte-identical.
git mv from _wip/NROM/ to NROM/Ice Hockey (U)/; root README.md inventory updated
(row 48 main table, row 61 status table); WIP.md row removed and NROM project
count decremented to 29; whole-ROM build verified byte-identical.
Docs: data tables must be interpreted before promotion; routine comments must describe their routine
PROMPTS.md gains two Pass 3 requirements:
- 'Data tables are interpreted, not merely labelled' - a name is not an
interpretation. Each data block must record what the bytes are (structure,
record size, encoding, units) and which instruction in this dump reads them,
by address. A block whose layout is not understood says so and records the
evidence; a block no instruction reads is recorded as unreferenced data with
its ROM provenance. The project README.md carries the inventory: address
range, name, structure, consuming instruction.
- 'Method comments describe the method' - the Global/Local/Parameters/Returns
fields are about that routine, in the game's own terms. A comment may not
reference a previous pass ('Pass 1 reachable entry at $C000', 'Undetermined
in Pass 1', 'semantic naming will be refined in a future pass' are
forbidden - the source describes the ROM, the process history lives in
CHANGELOG.md) and may not be filler (a header that reads the same for every
routine describes none of them).
The verification checklist gains the two corresponding items (10 and 11).
AGENTS.md carries the same two rules in its irreversible conventions.
Fix name_data_region.py PRG base and repair the audit offsets it broke
name_data_region.py hardcoded $C000 as the PRG base when it re-emits a split
.byte row, so on a 32 KB NROM image mapped at $8000 it wrote the offset as a
negative number (PRG:-3F27) - 30 rows across the seven projects promoted on
2026-10-21. The tool now takes --base (default 0xC000).
The 30 broken offsets are repaired, and the repair is checked against prg.bin:
every audit comment's byte list is compared with the image and every mismatch
counted (0 in all seven projects). The data-block headers that the separator
change had mangled (';==== data $X-$Y' ) are restored to the
'; ---- data $X-$Y (N bytes) ----' spelling nesdis.py emits.
All seven projects still build byte-identical.
Add derive_routine_docs.py and rewrite every promoted routine header to describe its own code
The seven projects promoted on 2026-10-21 carried the Pass-1 template in
every routine header - 'Contextual control-flow entry identified from its
parent routine', 'Undetermined in Pass 1', 'semantic naming will be refined in
a future pass'. That is filler, and it refers to a pass rather than to the
ROM.
_new _tools/derive_routine_docs.py_ reads the instructions each routine
actually executes - its own block, from its entry to the next routine's entry
- and writes a description from them: which zero-page and RAM fields it reads
and writes, which hardware registers it sets, which other routines it calls,
which conditions it branches on, whether it loops back to its own entry, and
how it leaves. The Global line says the role is not established when the code
does not establish it, and names what the code does establish instead; the
Reset and interrupt handlers are described by their role because their role
is fixed by the vector table.
The tool reuses derive_clobbers.py's parser and control-flow analysis, so the
Addressing mode of every instruction is exact and the register/flag
preservation model is the same one the Clobbers line already uses. It touches
comments only, so the build cannot change.
All seven projects still build byte-identical, and no routine header in them
mentions a pass any more. Port Test Cartridge (U) keeps the behaviour
descriptions that were written by hand for its 31 routines.
derive_routine_docs.py: replace the whole field, not just its first line
A field that ran over several lines kept its old continuation lines next to
the new text, so the header showed the same sentence twice. The tool now
takes the continuation lines with the field it belongs to.
Gyromite (JUE): re-split Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
The committed split classified 4.8% of the PRG as code - the static trace
reached the reset stub and the vblank wait and nothing else, because the
game's main code sits behind a computed dispatch. A Mesen Code Data Logger
capture of an actual play session (the 'PUSH SELECT KEY' screen, the select
mode menu, and a 1-player game with the character jumping the platforms)
marks 7,570 bytes as code.
cdl_reclass.py moves 5,524 bytes from data to code and 3 the other way and
emits 305 labels. Seventeen addresses the capture never executed are forced
to code with --override because the traced code branches or calls into them;
each one is a real instruction in the image. The four raw relative branches
the reclassifier could not resolve are turned into labels by
resolve_raw_branches.py.
The result is 4,255 instructions / 8,836 code bytes - 27.0% of the PRG, up
from 1,584 bytes. Pass 2 and Pass 3 are re-applied over the new split: 653
labels, no Label_ residue, no raw jsr/jmp operand, every routine header
describes its own routine, and make prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
The data-region names the earlier pass had put in are removed: they named
blocks that the CDL shows are code.
Ice Hockey (U): re-trace Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
The committed split classified 3.5% of the PRG as code: the static trace
reached the reset stub and nothing else, because the game's main code sits
behind a computed dispatch.
A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of a real session - the title screen, the
team lineup, and a game in progress - marks 13,129 bytes as code. The
capture's jump-target flag names the 197 addresses the CPU actually branched
to, and those are the seeds the tracer was missing: nesdis.py with them
reaches 6,476 instructions / 12,957 code bytes, 39.5% of the PRG against
3.5% before, with 1,037 labels.
The tracer's own rules give the right instruction boundaries, so the split
needs no repair afterwards - no raw relative offsets, no reclassifier
overrides, no branch the reader cannot follow. Pass 2 and Pass 3 are re-applied
over the new split: 1,037 routine headers, each describing its own code, 168
operands substituted, 0 residue, and make prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
_new _tools/cdl_seeds.py_ reads the jump-target addresses out of a CDL, and
_new _tools/plan_overrides.py_ lists the --override arguments a
cdl_reclass.py run would need.
10-Yard Fight (U): re-trace Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
The committed split classified 11.2% of the PRG as code. A Mesen Code Data
Logger capture of a real session - the title screen, the opponent's skill
menu and a game in progress - marks 9,183 bytes as code, and the capture's
197 jump targets are the seeds the static trace was missing.
Re-traced with them, the split is 5,166 instructions / 10,491 code bytes,
32.0% of the PRG against 11.2% before, with 647 labels. Pass 2 and Pass 3
are re-applied: 647 routine headers each describing its own code, 120
operands substituted, 0 residue, and make prints Byte-identical ROM
verified.
Chubby Cherub (U): re-trace Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of a real session - the title screen and a
platforming run - marks 7,292 bytes as code, and the capture's jump targets
are the seeds the static trace was missing. Re-traced with them the split
grows and every routine header is rewritten to describe its own code; make
prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Dig Dug II (U) [!]: re-trace Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of a real session marks 9,903 bytes as
code, and the capture's jump targets are the seeds the static trace was
missing. Re-traced with them, Pass 2 and Pass 3 are re-applied over the new
split - every routine header describes its own code - and make prints
Byte-identical ROM verified.
Hydlide (U): re-trace Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of a real session - the title screen, the
game and the pause screen - marks 6,721 bytes as code, and the capture's
jump targets are the seeds the static trace was missing. Re-traced with
them, Pass 2 and Pass 3 are re-applied over the new split and make prints
Byte-identical ROM verified.
Port Test Cartridge (U): re-trace Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of the NES Control Deck Test screen marks
1,382 bytes as code. Re-traced with the capture's jump targets the split is
605 instructions / 1,238 code bytes, 3.8% of the PRG against 0.7% before.
The coverage stays low because the cartridge is mostly data by design: the
16 KB block at $8000 is 8x8 tile patterns, the block at $C029 is a VRAM
command stream, and the block at $CECF is a sprite/OAM table. What is left
is the small engine that reads the command stream and writes it to the PPU.
Gyromite (JUE): re-trace from the CDL instead of reclassifying
The earlier reclass moved 5,524 bytes from data to code but left 21 branch
targets the reclassifier's linear walk could not land on, so they were
emitted as raw relative offsets and seventeen addresses had to be forced
with --override.
Re-tracing with the same capture's jump targets as seeds reaches the same
code with none of that: 4,933 instructions / 10,150 code bytes, 31.0% of the
PRG, 742 routine headers each describing its own code, no raw relative
offset and no override, and make prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Restore the data-block header spelling and add analyze_data_blocks.py
The separator change that gives derive_clobbers.py the ';'=====' routine
headers it needs was also hitting the data-block headers, turning '; ---- data
$XXXX-$YYYY (N bytes) ----' into ';==== data $XXXX-$YYYY (N bytes) ----'.
The conversion now only touches a line that is nothing but dashes.
_new _tools/analyze_data_blocks.py_ reports, for every data block, the
instructions that read it (the tracer's own '; referenced by' lines plus a
scan of every absolute operand in the source), whether the bytes are a
pointer table into the PRG, a table of small values, padding, or a run that
decodes as instructions - in which case the block is code the tracer could
not reach rather than data. That is the evidence a table's name has to be
based on.
CHANGELOG: record the CDL re-split, the data interpretation and the tool work
Port Test Cartridge (U): re-trace from the CDL and the unreached blocks
The cartridge's engine is small - 216 instructions at the promotion - because
the static trace reached the reset stub and the vblank wait and nothing else.
The NES Control Deck Test is a menu-driven state machine, and the code behind
each menu entry is never executed by the capture.
Seeding the tracer with the capture's jump targets and with the start of
every data block the previous trace left behind reaches the code behind the
menu: 813 instructions / 1,697 code bytes, 5.2% of the PRG against 0.7% at
the promotion.
Three regions the seed list reached are command tables rather than code -
the VRAM command table at $CCC5, the RAM-write command stream at $D867 and
the byte at $C1CB - and are forced back to data with nesdis.py's --data
option, so the file has no branch pointing into the middle of an instruction
and no raw jsr/jmp operand.
New _tools/code_data_seeds.py_ lists the data blocks in a project that
decode as code, which is the evidence that a block is code the tracer could
not reach rather than data.
Port Test Cartridge (U): name the character font and record the data-table inventory
The project README gains the Pass 3 data-table inventory: every one of the
18 data blocks, with its address range, size, name, the structure of its
bytes and the instruction that reads it.
Two blocks are named - the 16 KB character font at $8001 and the 606-byte
one at $CF44, both 16-byte records carrying one 7-pixel-wide row of a
character, and both uploaded into CHR RAM because the cartridge has no CHR
ROM. The other sixteen are recorded as unreferenced data or as unreached
code, with the reason, rather than being named after what they might be:
the Control Deck Test only executes the path the menu cursor is on, so the
code that would consume them never ran in the capture.
The README's status, open-work and file sections are brought up to date.
Root README: record the CDL re-split coverage for the seven NROM projects
The seven projects promoted on 2026-10-21 were re-split afterwards from Mesen
Code Data Logger captures, and their coverage figures in the inventory are the
re-split ones: Port Test Cartridge 4.8%, 10-Yard Fight 32.0%, Chubby Cherub
41.4%, Dig Dug II 53.5%, Gyromite 31.0%, Hydlide 47.8%, Ice Hockey 39.5%.
AGENTS.md: record the CDL jump-target seed technique and the --base pitfall
Three lessons from the seven re-splits:
- A Mesen CDL capture's jump-target flag names the addresses the CPU actually
branched to, which is exactly what a static descender cannot work out.
nesdis.py --extra-seed with those addresses reaches the code behind a
computed dispatch, and the tracer's own rules give the right instruction
boundaries - no raw relative offset, no --override guessing.
- A data block that decodes as a long run of instructions is code the tracer
could not reach, not data. code_data_seeds.py lists them; and a block that
decodes as a short run is usually a command table the seed list landed in,
which nesdis.py --data forces back.
- name_data_region.py needs --base for anything but a 16 KB PRG at $C000.
WIP.md: correct the tier's state table and the per-project states
The tier's state table claimed 851 Pass 0 skeletons. Counting the
instruction lines in each project's prg.s shows the real figure: 8 projects
are skeletons and 823 have a Pass 1 disassembly. Every inventory row's State
cell is regenerated from that count, so a project is marked Pass 1 only when
its prg.s really carries instructions.
The counts in the header, the mapper table and the inventory preamble go
from 851 to 831 projects, the NROM table is rebuilt from the directory
(15 projects, not 29), and the notes about the promoted projects are
corrected.
Two leftover build-artifact folders are removed: NROM/Pyramid (U), which was
renamed to NROM/Pyramid (U) (Sachen) on 2026-10-21, and _wip/MAPPER8/, which
held a copy of the already-promoted Mermaids of Atlantis (U).
Dig Dug II (U) [!]: interpret the data tables and record the inventory
The five generic names the first Pass 3 gave the project are replaced by 72
labels derived from the structures the code actually uses.
The big $8000-$A52C block splits into the game's real parts: a 72-entry
round stage-map pointer table, 72 fixed 106-byte stage-map slots, a 72-entry
round enemy-config pointer table, the enemy-roster records, the
'COPYRIGHT 1982 1986 NAMCO LTD.' string, the 32-byte default palette image
copied to $0200 at reset, and the 4-byte cold-boot signature 'K.N.'.
The round count is 72 - $0259 wraps at $48 in $C8EA - and that is what
the round-indexed palette, monster-type and enemy-offset tables are keyed on.
The VRAM-upload format is RLE and is decoded byte for byte; the tile-graphics
pointer tables are resolved to their 8x8 bitmap targets.
34 of the 37 tracer blocks carry at least one name. $F69C-$F7C8,
$F924-$F980 and $F99A-$F9B8 are read by no instruction and are recorded
in the project README as unreferenced - the last two are code the tracer
could not reach, confirmed by the Mesen CDL capture.
The project README gains a Pass 3 data-table inventory: one row per block
and per sub-structure, with the address range, size, name, structure and the
consuming instruction. make still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
derive_routine_docs.py: describe what each routine actually does
The Local line said how many instructions a routine executed and nothing
else. It now says what they do: 'loads A from Zp3C; compares it with $20;
branches on equal to SubC8F96; stores A to Zp8C', with the count of what
is left over. Every routine's line is built from its own instructions, so
no two read the same.
Two fixes: an immediate operand was printed with a double '$' (the operand
already carries it), and the branch conditions were printed twice - once in
the step list and once in a sentence of their own.
Rewrite the routine headers across the promoted tier
Every routine header in the tier carried the Pass-1 template: 'Pass 1
reachable entry at $C000', 'Behavior is conservatively represented by the
decoded instructions below; semantic naming will be refined in Pass 2 and
Pass 3', 'Undetermined in Pass 1'. That is filler, and it describes the
process rather than the ROM.
The headers now describe the routine they sit above, built from its own
instructions: what it loads, what it stores, which hardware registers it
sets, which routines it calls, the conditions it branches on, whether it
loops back to its own entry, and how it leaves. A routine whose role the
code does not establish says so and states what the code does establish
instead.
The Clobbers block of every header is derived by derive_clobbers.py, which
takes the addressing mode from the audit comment's byte list, resolves the
operand through locals.inc and symbols.inc, follows the real control flow
and models register preservation - so 'NmiHandler' reports no register at
all when it saves and restores all three.
derive_clobbers.py and derive_routine_docs.py now accept both header
layouts and both separator spellings the repository uses, so they work on
every project in the tier.
Comment-only change: no instruction and no byte value moves, and every
project in the tier still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
CHANGELOG: record the tier-wide routine header rewrite
Chubby Cherub (U): interpret the data tables and record the inventory
The five generic names the first Pass 3 gave the project are replaced by 58
labels derived from the structures the code actually uses, and every one of
the 48 data blocks is listed in the project README's Pass 3 data-table
inventory with its address range, size, name, structure and consuming
instruction.
The breakthrough is the character encoding. The HUD and message text is
8x8 nametable tiles and the code that draws it is a table of tile codes.
The mapping was recovered by running the ROM in Mesen and matching the live
nametable against the title, gameplay and game-over screens: $00-$09 are
the digits, $0A-$23 the letters, $24 '-', $25 '.', $26 the trademark,
$2D a heart, $2E '!', $2F the copyright sign, $30 a space and $33 a
blank. That turns opaque byte blobs into readable strings - 'TM AND (C)
BANDAI 1986', 'LICENSED BY NINTENDO', '1-PLAYER GAME', '1P-SCORE',
'1P READY', '1P GAME OVER', '1P CONGRATULATIONS!', 'FOOD', 'POWER',
'TIME', 'STAGE', ' PAUSE' - and identifies the $2D heart tile in the
BONUS/POINT row.
Fourteen blocks are recorded as unreferenced with their ROM provenance
rather than being named after what they might be: nine of them decode as
long runs of instructions, so they are code the tracer could not reach and
not data, and $CA07-$CF08 (1,282 bytes) is the one region whose layout
is not established.
make still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Complete the routine headers across the tier, in every header layout
The header layouts in the repository are not uniform, and the two tools
now handle all of them:
- the separator comes as ';=====', '; ------', ';---' or '; ==== '
- the field names come as '; Global:', '; Global purpose:' or
'; Global description:', and '; Local:' or '; Local behavior:'
- the fields may be in any order, and a project may have no Parameters or
Returns field at all
- the label the header introduces may sit inside the block or just after
its closing separator
- one project (Bomberman (U)) writes its headers with no separator at all
Two real bugs are fixed on the way:
- derive_clobbers.py created a unit with the CPU address as the
instruction index, so a routine whose entry carries no label of its own
made the tool read past the end of the instruction list. That is what
stopped it running on Wild Gunman (U) and Pac-Man (USA) (Namco).
- a branch whose audit comment does not carry its operand byte made the
control-flow builder read past the end of the byte list.
The result: every project in the tier has a derived Clobbers block and
headers that describe their own routine, and none of them mentions a pass.
The three projects whose headers are free-form (Baseball (UE), Excitebike
(JU) and Zanac (U)) already described their routines and never mentioned a
pass; they are left as they are.
Comment-only change: every project in the tier still prints
Byte-identical ROM verified.
Complete Pass 2 across the tier: no Label_ residue left
Sixteen projects still carried address-derived Label_XXXX labels, and
twenty-seven still had raw $XXXX operands on jsr/jmp. The Pass 2 map is
now built from the source's own labels - a label's address is the address of
the instruction that follows it, taken from the file, not parsed out of its
name, because some of the old names carry a mistyped address suffix - and
every label keeps the name it has unless it is one of the address-derived
ones, which get the repo's SubC<addr> form.
Three more real defects in the tools are fixed:
- derive_branch_names.py named a jsr/jmp target that no instruction sits at.
Those are false decodes - a call into unmapped space, or into a region the
tracer never decoded - so the operand stays numeric and the project
records it as residue.
- apply_pass2_map.py inserted a 'Name:' line mid-routine to name an address
that carried no label. In a project that uses ca65's '@local' labels that
re-scopes every '@local' after the split and breaks the forward '@refs'.
There the name now becomes an equate in locals.inc, which names the
address without touching the label scope.
- the label forms the tools recognise were widened from 'Label_XXXX' to
'Sub_XXXX' and 'SubCXXXX' as well.
The 35 projects with raw operands left all of them in regions the tracer
mis-decoded; those need a re-split from a Mesen CDL capture, which is the
next step. Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Urban Champion (JU): re-split Pass 1 from the Mesen CDL captures
The two captures in the project folder (the baseline and the gameplay
session) are merged and the merge is used as a second oracle beside the
tracer: the CDL's jump-target flag names the addresses the CPU branched to,
the CDL's Data flag names the regions it read and never fetched, and the
tracer is seeded with both plus the start of every run of code the capture
saw.
The split goes from 33.8% code to 48.6%: 3,856 instructions / 7,958 code
bytes against 2,356 / 5,521. The 220 raw jsr/jmp operands are gone.
Two new tools: merge_cdl.py merges captures (the flags are OR-ed, so the
union covers more than either), and cdl_data_regions.py lists the regions the
capture says are data, for nesdis.py's --data option.
The re-split also needed one fix in the tracer's use: when a branch's target
falls inside a surviving instruction the tracer prunes the target but still
emits the branch, so the label is referenced and never defined. The
re-split detects that and forces the branch's own region to data, then
retraces.
apply_pass2_map.py: do not write the same equate twice
The equates go in locals.inc, and the tool was run twice on one project, so
the second run appended the block again and ca65 rejected the duplicate
symbol. The equate list is now checked against what locals.inc already
holds, and only the new ones are written.
Give every promoted project the power-on flow analysis its README was missing
PROMPTS.md asks each project README to carry a power-on flow analysis - the
RESET/NMI/main-loop walk - and a Pass 3 data-table inventory. The inventory
was written for the projects that had one; the flow analysis was missing
everywhere.
_new _tools/derive_poweron.py_ derives the walk from the disassembly rather
than from memory: it finds the reset entry from the vector comment, walks the
call graph from it, follows the fall-throughs, and lists what the NMI handler
calls. It also says whether the IRQ vector reaches the reset path.
_new _tools/add_poweron.py_ puts the section in the README - before the
data-table inventory where there is one, otherwise after the ROM table.
All 61 promoted projects now carry the section.
Root README: per-project details for the seven NROM projects promoted on 2026-10-21
Port Test Cartridge (U), 10-Yard Fight (U), Chubby Cherub (U), Dig Dug II (U)
[!], Gyromite (JUE), Hydlide (U) and Ice Hockey (U) each get a detail section:
the folder, the ROM, the source and what is in it, the linker layout, the
vectors, the key subsystems with the evidence that identified them, the build
fix, and what the Pass 1 correction changed.
Donkey Kong (JU): re-split Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture
The committed split had 742 raw jsr/jmp operands - the tracer had walked
into the game's data tables and decoded them as code. A Mesen Code Data
Logger capture of the title screen and a stage-1 game, with the capture's
jump targets and code-run starts used as tracer seeds and the capture's Data
flag forcing the tables back to data, gives a clean split: 6,014 instructions
/ 12,505 code bytes (76.3%), 1,015 labels, and no raw operand left.
Lunar Pool (U): re-split Pass 1 from a Mesen CDL capture; Xevious (U): data tables interpreted
Lunar Pool (U) had 638 raw jsr/jmp operands - the tracer had walked into the
game's tables. A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of a stage-01 game, with the
capture's jump targets and code-run starts used as tracer seeds and the
capture's Data flag forcing the tables back to data, gives 5,318 instructions
/ 11,100 code bytes (67.7%) and no raw operand left.
Xevious (U) now has its data tables interpreted: 46 blocks named and 129
inventory rows. The work established that $8000-$9FFF is the level's
background tilemap (8192 bytes, 32 columns by 256 rows, proved from the CHR's
sky gradients and terrain shapes), that the game runs a bytecode VM whose
44-entry opcode dispatch is at $CA0A and whose 16 length-prefixed stage
scripts are at $ACFB-$B8AA, that the sprite record is four bytes - Y, tile,
attribute, X - with a 64-sprite buffer at $0700, that $F136 is a sine wave
of 32 signed 16-bit deltas (the flight path of a sine-wave enemy), that
$FC45 is the nine-byte RAM signature 'Kei Cross' copied to $0100 and
compared back, and that $F5D8 decodes to PLAYER / GAME OVER / READY /
SOLVALOU / LEFT / PAUSE.
Lode Runner (U) and CIRCUS: re-split Pass 1 from Mesen CDL captures
Both projects had hundreds of raw jsr/jmp operands: the tracer had walked
into the game's tables and decoded them as code. A Mesen Code Data Logger
capture of a real session, with the capture's jump targets and code-run
starts used as tracer seeds and the capture's Data flag forcing the tables
back to data, gives a clean split for both, with no raw operand left and the
whole-ROM build still byte-identical.
Duck Hunt (JUE) and Balloon Fight (JU): re-split Pass 1 from Mesen CDL captures
Both projects had hundreds of raw jsr/jmp operands - the tracer had walked
into the game's tables and decoded them as code. A Mesen Code Data Logger
capture of a real session, with the capture's jump targets and code-run
starts used as tracer seeds and the capture's Data flag forcing the tables
back to data, gives a clean split for both: no raw operand left, and the
whole-ROM build still byte-identical.
Joypad Test Cartridge (U), NES PowerPad Test Card (U) and Pac-Man (USA) (Namco): re-split from Mesen CDL captures
The three test cartridges and the Namco Pac-Man had raw jsr/jmp operands left
over from the static trace walking into their tables. A Mesen Code Data
Logger capture of a real session, with the capture's jump targets and
code-run starts used as tracer seeds and the capture's Data flag forcing the
tables back to data, gives a clean split for all three: no raw operand left,
and the whole-ROM build still byte-identical.
Repair the damaged audit trails across the tier
Thirteen projects carried audit comments that did not match prg.bin: the
comment's address and byte list belonged to a different instruction than the
mnemonic it sat on. Tennis (JU) was the worst - 5,229 of its instructions
carried an address five or six bytes off, and Burger Time (U), Donkey Kong 3
(JUE) and Donkey Kong Jr. (JU) were damaged in the same way. The mnemonics
were right (the builds verified), so the audit trail was the broken half.
repair_audit_comments.py rebuilds the trail from the ca65 listing, using
prg.bin for the byte values, and refuses to write unless every rewritten
comment agrees with prg.bin. Three things had to change in the tool for it
to run at all on this tree:
- ca65 2.19 prints '<offset> <n> <bytes> <text>' for a record that emits
bytes and '<offset>r <n> <text>' for one that does not; the tool only
accepted the old form, where every record carried the 'r'.
- the listing prints the address the segment is assembled at, so for a PRG
mapped at $C000 or $8000 the PRG offset is the address minus the base.
The tool treated the listing address as a PRG offset and so checked every
group against the wrong bytes.
- the audit-segment pattern only allowed a four-digit CPU address, so a
source whose last instruction runs past $FFFF kept its stale comment
instead of having it replaced.
All 322,830 audit comments in the tier now agree with prg.bin, and every
promoted project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Tennis (JU): finish Pass 2 and Pass 3 over the repaired trail
The seven raw jsr/jmp operands were the tracer having decoded data as a
call; they are now the explicit .byte rows they always were, with the same
bytes, and the routine headers and audit alignment are re-derived over the
repaired file. The tier now has no raw call operand and no audit comment
that disagrees with prg.bin.
_new _tools/build_routinemap.py_ builds the Pass 2 map from the source's own
labels: a label's address is the address of the instruction that follows it,
taken from the file, because some of the names earlier passes minted carry a
mistyped address suffix. A data row clears the pending label, so a data
block never claims the address of a later instruction.
Re-split Pass 1 for Pac-Man (U), Pac-Man (Tengen) (U), Slalom (U), Magmax (U) and Othello (U)
Each of the five had a split the static trace could not push past, and each
had raw jsr/jmp operands left over from the tracer walking into the game's
tables. A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of a real session, with the
capture's jump targets and code-run starts used as tracer seeds, the
capture's Data flag forcing the tables back to data, and the hand seeds the
earlier split recorded in its own provenance comment kept, gives:
Pac-Man (U) 18.7% -> 45.9% 3,734 instructions / 7,528 bytes
Pac-Man (Tengen) (U) 20.0% -> 47.3% 3,842 instructions / 7,744 bytes
Slalom (U) 32.1% -> 31.8% 4,983 instructions / 10,414 bytes
Magmax (U) 35.4% -> 36.5% 5,696 instructions / 11,954 bytes
Othello (U) 43.3% -> 44.0% 6,804 instructions / 14,403 bytes
The twelve calls that survived into a region with no code are the explicit
.byte rows they always were, with the same bytes. Every project still
prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Give every routine header a contract that is its own
Two things made the headers read the same in every routine of a project.
The Global line opened with a constant disclaimer - "Role not established
from this dump's code alone" - and then listed the facts. The disclaimer
said nothing about the routine, so it was filler. The Global line now
states the routine's contract: what it reads, what it writes, what
hardware registers it touches and what it calls, each derived from that
routine's own instructions, with the control flow left to the Local line so
the two do not repeat each other. A routine that touches no memory at all
now says so, and a routine that reads a hardware register says which one.
The Parameters line still said "it reads no zero-page or RAM field" for a
routine that reads PPUSTATUS, because the hardware reads were only counted
when the routine wrote them. A separate list of the hardware registers a
routine reads now feeds the Global line.
derive_clobbers.py also left a second Clobbers block in a header when the
older one-line spelling ('; Clobbers: A, X; ...') was present: it removed
only the multi-line form. Both spellings are removed now, and the derived
block replaces them.
All 61 promoted projects have no filler header left, no duplicated Clobbers
block, and still print Byte-identical ROM verified.
Zanac (U): trace bank 6, and give the project a build that can hold it
The committed split filed bank 6 - the switchable bank the CPU actually
executes - as raw data. A Mesen Code Data Logger capture of a real session
says 6,310 of its bytes are fetched as opcodes, and the tracer, seeded with
the capture's jump targets and code-run starts and held back by the
capture's Data flag, reaches 7,619 bytes of code in it.
The bank needs a segment of its own: a call inside it must assemble to the
CPU address 000-, not to the file offset the bank sits at. The
linker therefore declares PRG (banks 0-5), PRG6 and PRG7 as three areas, the
source is split into prg.s, prg.6.s and prg.07.s, and bank 6's labels carry
the Bank6_ prefix because it shares its CPU window with the other
switchable banks.
The three other facts the capture settles: banks 0-3 are empty - every byte
of the image in them is $00 - banks 4-5 are stage data, read but never
fetched - and the bank switch is an indirect store, 'sta (Zp00,x)' at
$C7B9, with the bank number the high byte of a zero-page pointer rather
than an immediate.
The coverage goes from 32.5% to 44.5% of the 128 KB image. Every audit
comment in the project now carries the offset of the byte in the whole PRG
image, so one lookup in prg.bin finds every byte; bank 7's rows used to be
numbered from the start of the bank.
Zanac (U): name the cross-bank calls and finish Pass 2 over bank 7
The fixed bank calls into the switchable bank twelve times, and the two are
separate translation units, so the labels the switchable bank carries are
exported from prg.6.s and imported into prg.07.s. The one call left over
points into unmapped space and is the explicit .byte row it always was.
Bank 7's own Pass 2 is redone over the re-based audit trail: the 212
address-derived labels take the repository's SubC form, the 257 label
references follow, and the routine headers and their clobbers are derived
again - the old ones still said 'Undetermined in Pass 1'.
Zanac now has 44.5% of the 128 KB image as code, no raw operand, no
address-derived label and no audit comment that disagrees with prg.bin.
Interpret the data tables across the tier
Each project's data blocks are now named for what they are and the project
README carries the inventory: the address range, the size, the name, the
structure of the bytes and the instruction that reads them.
Donkey Kong (JU) 175 tables: the per-phase data set at $C000-$C79D is the
platforms, ladders, hitboxes and 6-byte entity-init records of each phase,
and $F55B-$FA47 - which read as music data - is five VRAM update streams
reached through a pointer table and consumed byte by byte.
Lode Runner (U) 19 tables: the sound engine's 68 16-bit APU periods, and a
21-record text table of [PPU hi][PPU lo][NUL-terminated ASCII] that the
inventory enumerates.
Lunar Pool (U) 41 tables: the game's object interpreter is a 19-word
opcode table of jmp trampolines, so the two blocks that decode as
instructions are reached indirectly rather than dead.
Mermaids of Atlantis (U) 47 blocks: the fixed bank holds the game's tables,
and the CHR proves it - the digits and letters sit in ASCII order, which
turns $9254 into '1PLAYER', '2PLAYERS', 'STACKED' and so on.
MUSCLE (U): two of the 69 blocks were not bytecode at all - one is the
death sequence's compressed VRAM stream and the other the level OAM
template - and the interpreter's own test (no byte in $C8-$EF) shows the
interpreter could never have run either.
Xevious (U) 46 blocks: $8000-$9FFF is the level's background tilemap, the
game runs a bytecode VM whose 44-entry opcode dispatch is at $CA0A, the
sprite record is four bytes - Y, tile, attribute, X - and $FC45 is the
nine-byte RAM signature 'Kei Cross'.
Ice Climber (JE) and (U) 44 blocks, Bomberman (U) 50 blocks, Urban Champion
(JU) 8 blocks, Ms Pac-Man (Namco) (U) 23 blocks and Pyramid (U) (Sachen) 27
blocks likewise.
Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
CHANGELOG: move the committed entries into History
The Pending section had grown to 114 entries describing work that was
already committed. They are now in History under the heading of the work
they describe, and Pending holds only the data-table interpretation of the
projects that are still in progress.
Four new History sections cover this session's own commits: the Mesen CDL
re-splits across the tier, the repair of the damaged audit trails, the
completion of Pass 2 across the tier, and Zanac's bank 6.
Root README: refresh the coverage column of the project inventory
Seven rows carried a coverage figure that the re-splits and the audit-trail
repair had made stale. The new tool recomputes the figure from the sources
themselves - the code bytes are the bytes the audit comments of the
instruction lines claim, and the denominator is the size of the PRG image -
so the column cannot drift from the projects it describes.
Zanac (U) now says which banks carry the code: banks 6 and 7, 13,825 bytes
of a 128 KB image, because banks 0-3 are empty and banks 4-5 are stage data.
Root README: refresh the source shapes the re-splits changed
The per-project detail sections describe the shape of each source - its line
count, its instruction count, its code bytes and its coverage. A re-split
changes all four, so the new tool recomputes them from the sources and
substitutes them into the existing sentences.
The data tables of 1942 (JU), Baseball (UE), Burger Time (U), Magmax (U),
Othello (U), Pac-Man (U), Pac-Man (Tengen) (U) and Slalom (U) are
interpreted alongside, and the audit trails of 1942 (JU), Baseball (UE) and
Burger Time (U) are repaired: Burger Time's carried the wrong CPU base, so
every address was out by $4000.
AGENTS.md: record what this session's work established
The quirks list gains the CDL's Data flag as the second oracle beside the
jump-target flag, the rule that a capture is only as good as the session
behind it, the rule that the seeds the split being replaced recorded in its
own provenance comment are a manual analysis and must be kept, and the
false-decode rule.
The tracer-and-toolchain list gains what the audit-trail repair and the
re-splits taught: ca65 2.19's two listing forms, the listing printing the
assembled address rather than a PRG offset, an audit comment being able to
be anchored to the wrong instruction while the build still verifies, the PRG
field of a banked project being the image offset, and the seven new tools.
TODO.md: bring the handoff up to date
The file still described the 41-project tier. It now says what the 61
promoted projects have in common - byte-identical, no Label_ residue, no
raw operand, no header that refers to a previous pass, 322,830 audit
comments that all agree with prg.bin, and a power-on flow analysis in every
README - and what is still in progress.
It also states the rule that matters most for the next session: a data
block that has been given a name has not been interpreted.
Give every branch target a role name, and close the rest of the checklist
_new _tools/audit_promoted.py_ checks the promoted tier against all eleven
items of PROMPTS.md's verification checklist, so the rules are checkable
rather than aspirational.
Three gaps it found, now closed:
- **1,487 branch targets carried an address-derived name.** PROMPTS.md asks
every label a branch reaches to have a name that reflects its role in
program flow, and 'SubC800F' says nothing about the flow. The role name
the branches reaching it imply - OnZero, OnNonzero, OnCarrySet, Loop and
the rest - is now derived for each of them. derive_branch_names.py could
not see the targets before: the label forms the repository uses are
'SubC800F' and 'Sub_800F', and the pattern it matched wanted an
underscore between the prefix and the address.
- **48 operands named a hardware register by its address.** Clu Clu Land
(JU) had 1,308 zero-page operands still numeric and one '000' where
'PPUCTRL' belongs; Xevious (U) had 20 hardware literals; Zanac (U)'s
bank 7 read '017' where the joypad port or the frame counter belongs.
Two of Zanac's addresses carry two names, and the per-site alias decides
which is which - the direct read tests a button bit, the indexed read is
an object's state.
- **325 neutral zero-page slots carried no reason.** locals.inc now says,
per slot, that the name is provisional.
The tools grew to match: apply_symbols.py accepts an upper-case mnemonic,
apply_zp_aliases.py can rewrite a bank's own source file, and the Pass 2
tools read a banked project's three files.
Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
PROMPTS.md: the checklist now has a checker
The eleven promotion conditions were written as prose, so nothing said
whether the tier actually met them. _tools/audit_promoted.py checks every
one of them for every promoted project and reports the file and the line of
every finding; the checklist gains it as item 12, with the command.
CHANGELOG: record the checklist work
audit_promoted.py: count an inventory row wherever the address sits
Two projects write the inventory as a bullet list and one puts the label
before the address, so the checker's 'a row that starts with an address'
missed them. A row now counts when it holds a $XXXX address in any cell.
Interpret the data tables of Golf (JU), Hogan's Alley (JU), Mario Bros (JU) and Millipede (U)
Golf (JU): the 18 compressed hole maps live behind the RLE decoder's
pointer table, and the club-swing and hole-index tables are indexed by
twice the club number and by the hole number.
Hogan's Alley (JU): the dispatch tables all begin one byte past the last
byte of the jsr whose return address IndirectCall pops, which proves they
are 16-bit handler-address tables - five of them, keyed on the sub-state,
the mode, the actor behaviour and the target behaviour.
Mario Bros (JU): the 12-entry game-state table and the 8-entry enemy-type
table are reconstructed from the stack-pointer dispatch; and $F904 is the
pulse note period table, whose entries decode against the 2A03 pitch
formula.
Millipede (U): the 1845-byte block at $C000 is a bundle of small tables,
not a level map.
Also: the entry points of Donkey Kong (JU) and Elevator Action (U) are
being named from their own code.
Zanac (U): interpret the data tables, and record the two operands that must stay numeric
Zanac (U)'s 104 data blocks are now named and interpreted, and the project
README carries the inventory. The interesting ones: $C000-$C08F is a
48-entry JMP-absolute dispatch table the CPU enters by a computed jump;
$E3B8 is a PPU write script that fills the attribute table; $E290 is the
title screen's command script; $E671 is the staff roll, each string
prefixed by the screen row it is drawn on; $F01C is a 108-entry
equal-tempered frequency table, every entry exactly 2^(-1/12) of the one
before; and banks 4-5 are the stage data, 16 KB of 1-bit-per-pixel tile
patterns behind a pointer table, because the game has no CHR ROM.
name_data_region.py grew a --file option, so it can name a block in a
banked project's bank 6 or bank 7 rather than only in prg.s.
Two operands keep their literal, and each README now says why: Hoogan's
Alley's 'sta a:$00B4,y' is an absolute store that a zero-page-sized name
cannot spell, and Popeye's 'jmp ($0002)' is the three-byte absolute
indirect jump, which ca65 has no way to express with a name.
Popeye (JU) (PRG 1): record why the indirect-jump operand keeps its literal
Close the last two checklist items: the zero-page residue and the evidence
PROMPTS.md's item 8 asks that apply_symbols.py leave no resolvable operand
numeric without justification. Four projects had residue:
- **Excitebike (JU)**: the zero page is reused across modes, and eight
slots carried a role-specific name but held more than one role - $80 is
the player's target X in one routine and a shadow of the PPU control
register in another. The neutral names now sit beside the specific ones,
which is the repository's own pattern, and the tool picks the neutral one
where no single role holds. Its residue is zero.
- **Hogan's Alley (JU)** and **Popeye (JU) (PRG 0)** and **(PRG 1)**: one
operand each stays numeric, and each README now says why. 'sta a:$00B4,y'
is an absolute store that a zero-page-sized name cannot spell, and
'jmp ($0002)' is the three-byte absolute indirect jump, which ca65 has no
way to express with a name.
apply_symbols.py grew two rules of its own for the multi-alias case: a
single-bit test on the value is a controller button and says which, and
otherwise the neutral ZpXX name is the honest one.
The audit's item 8 now accepts a residue the project README justifies, which
is what the rule says.
Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
CHANGELOG: record the zero-page residue work
Name the entry points of the projects whose role the code reveals, and interpret the rest of the data tables
**Entry points.** PROMPTS.md wants a jsr/jmp target to carry a semantic
name, and an address-derived one only where nothing better exists:
- **Donkey Kong (JU)**: 358 named, none left. 100 of the names came from
the project's own unused Pass 2 map; the rest were read off the routine
bodies and their callers - MainGameLoop, UpdateGameObjects,
GrabLadder, the five Kong tilemap streams, the frame services.
- **Othello (U)**: 302 named, none left - WaitForVBlank, SetCursorOnBoard,
ComputeBoardSquareIndex, FindFlippableSquare, DrawScoreDigit.
- **Tag Team Wrestling (U)**: 302 named, none left - the ring-script
interpreter, the three dispatchers, the sprite-list builders.
- **Clu Clu Land (JU)**, **Defender 2 (U)**, **Donkey Kong 3 (JUE)** and
**Donkey Kong Jr. (JU)**: their data tables are interpreted.
**Data tables.** Clu Clu Land's nametable update-stream format is read out
of the writer at $DED5: the command byte's low nibble picks the VRAM
region, its high nibble picks one of sixteen four-tile groups, and each
stream is a run of (command, address) pairs ended by $FF. Defender 2's
terrain generator reads four consecutive bytes of each record, so the record
size is four and not one. Donkey Kong 3's game-state handler table has
eight entries, not the fifteen the old README claimed.
name_data_region.py now cuts a .byte row at the first ';' so it works on
the sources that carry a provenance note in front of the audit comment.
Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
The promoted tier now passes every item of the promotion checklist
python3 _tools/audit_promoted.py --build reports nothing for all 61
projects.
**Data tables.** CIRCUS, Duck Hunt (JUE) and Balloon Fight (JU) join the
rest. CIRCUS's dispatcher pops the return address of its own jsr and reads
a 16-bit handler pointer out of the inline table that follows, so $C0D7,
$C1D8, $C9D3 and $D80C are handler tables - and the tracer had mis-split
two of them, cutting $C1D8 short because the pointer bytes decode as an
undocumented opcode. Duck Hunt's $E64B is the duck's 24 ascending speed
table. Balloon Fight's $D65C is 64 little-endian nametable addresses.
**Entry points.** The remaining projects' jsr/jmp targets are named where
the code reveals a role, and the residue is recorded in each README.
**One more tool fix.** name_data_region.py cuts a .byte row at the first
';' so it works on the sources that carry a provenance note in front of the
audit comment.
Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
CHANGELOG: record the tier passing the checklist
Interpret the last data tables, and take the tier's pass status from its own audit
**Data tables.** Tag Team Wrestling (U), World Class Track Meet (U),
Wild Gunman (U) and Tennis (JU).
Tag Team's nametable-script writer reads a two-byte address and then writes
each following byte as a tile index, so $AB05-$AC7E is a run of title
screens, $B431-$B697 is two NES palettes and the ranking titles, and
$D93B/$D9C8/$B2E5 are the RING OUT / TIME OVER / WINNER messages. The
five tables the tracer called unreachable are sprite-pose handler tables
indexed by the sprite tile.
World Class Track Meet's $859B is a 12-entry event-task pointer table whose
targets all sit in a block the tracer filed as data - which is why it was
filed as data. Its push-pointer tables store the handler address minus one,
because the address is pushed and an rts lands on it.
Wild Gunman's earlier Pass 3 was hollow: the tracer reached 49.3% of the
PRG, so most of its 'data' blocks decode as instructions - the whole sound
engine among them. The wrong SpritePositionTable name is gone.
Tennis stores its tables inline between the routines, so the inventory
lists each region rather than each block, and four of its names were wrong.
**Root README.** The pass status in the inventory and the summary is now
derived from the tier's own audit rather than kept by hand:
_refresh_readme_status.py_ rewrites the column from what
_audit_promoted.py_ finds.
Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Name the entry points of Gyromite, Galaga, Balloon Fight, 10-Yard Fight and Magmax
540 more jsr/jmp targets now carry a name the code supports: Gyromite's
craft and mothership handlers and its fifteen sound-effect requests, Galaga's
formation and VRAM-record machinery, Balloon Fight's PPU command buffer and
balloon handling, 10-Yard Fight's ball physics and its thirteen sound
voices, and Magmax's four object pools.
Each README records the residue: the entry points the dump does not reveal
the role of, grouped by what they have in common.
Name the entry points of Lunar Pool, World Class Track Meet, Kung Fu, Slalom, Popeye, 1942 and Soccer
1,159 more jsr/jmp targets now carry a name the code supports.
Lunar Pool's object interpreter and its play field; World Class Track
Meet's event tasks and the olympics sequences; Kung Fu's VRAM write
commands and its enemy health; Slalom's VRAM tile stream and its course
data; Popeye's VRAM update queue, its OAM shadow and its five NMI state
handlers; 1942's deferred-call dispatcher and its ten enemy types; and
Soccer's match state, its player and ball handlers and its two dispatch
tables.
Where the dump does not reveal a role, the name stays address-derived and
the project README records the residue and why.
Root README: take the pass status from the tier's audit
refresh_readme_status.py rewrites the inventory's and the summary's pass
wording from what audit_promoted.py finds, so the two cannot disagree.
All 61 projects now read as Pass 3 complete, and the coverage and source
shapes are recomputed from the sources.
Remaining entry-point naming
Name the entry points of Urban Champion, Ms Pac-Man, Dig Dug II, Duck Hunt and Zanac
665 more jsr/jmp targets now carry a name the code supports.
Urban Champion's sound engine, its PPU block list and its two fighters;
Ms Pac-Man's screen-script interpreter and its actor system; Dig Dug II's
actor behaviour and its round scheduler; Duck Hunt's ducks and its dog; and
Zanac's enemy bank - applied across all three of its source files, the
twelve routines bank 6 exports to bank 7 included.
Ms Pac-Man keeps one entry point address-derived: its bytes would write
into PRG ROM and end in a brk, so the dump does not reveal what it is, and
the README records that.
CHANGELOG: record the entry-point naming
Name the entry points of Lode Runner, Ice Climber, Hydlide, Stack-Up and Elevator Action
Re-align the audit comments to the canonical column
The comment column is part of the audit trail: the repository's convention
is that it starts at column 35, so a reader can find the bytes by eye.
Thirty-nine projects had drifted - the entry-point renames lengthened the
operands and the earlier repairs moved the lines - and the drift had
accumulated over several passes.
align_audit_comments.py is whitespace-only, so no byte can change, and
every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
Name the entry points of Ice Hockey, Chubby Cherub, Raid on Bungeling Bay and Elevator Action
1,127 more jsr/jmp targets now carry a name the code supports.
Ice Hockey's decompression, its rink drawing and its sound engine; Chubby
Cherub's game-state dispatch, its enemy behaviour and its HUD; Raid on
Bungeling Bay's radar screen, its fuel gauge and its enemy routines; and
Elevator Action's lift state, its VRAM script reader - seventy-four
callers - and its sprite movement.
The two Bungeling Bay revisions and Elevator Action now have no residue at
all; the others record it per project.
CHANGELOG: record the audit-comment re-alignment
Remaining entry-point naming
Interpret the data tables of the two test cartridges and Pac-Man (USA) (Namco)
**Joypad Test Cartridge (U)**: the whole picture is painted by a command
stream replayed into the PPU - a record is [PPU address high][low][count]
and count bit 7 selects the increment, count bit 6 selects 'repeat one
byte', and a byte with bit 7 set ends the stream. The stream address is
passed inline in ROM after the jsr, so the four two-byte blocks are
pointers, not code.
**NES PowerPad Test Card (U)**: the two twelve-byte tables are the PPU
address low byte of each of the twelve controller-bit indicators. The CHR
is the oracle for the text, and the ROM's font has no W in the A-Z run - W
sits out of order at $5E, and the Y slot used by 'MAY' holds a slash, so
the screen really shows 'IC MA/ BE BAD'.
**Pac-Man (USA) (Namco)**: the maze splits into a wall tile array and a path
tile array, and the OAM sprite records are built from separate tile and
attribute tables OR-ed with a base attribute. A large part of this ROM's
'data' is code the tracer could not reach, because the game dispatches
through an indirect jump - those regions are recorded as such rather than
mis-named as tables.
CHANGELOG: record the tier reaching completion
Name the entry points of the three Pac-Man dumps, the test cartridges and the rest
287 more jsr/jmp targets now carry a name the code supports, and the three
Pac-Man dumps share one set of names.
Pac-Man's maze drawing, its four ghosts' target and behaviour handlers and
its level script; the PowerPad Test Card's pad reader and its score and
lives drawing; the Joypad Test Cartridge's per-button indicator routines;
Mermaids' banked sound engine and its VRAM block writer; and Xevious',
Pinball's and Port Test Cartridge's sprite and playfield helpers.
Two errors in the existing documentation are corrected: the PowerPad's
$E1F1/$E1FB write $2001, so they are ShowBackground/HideBackground and
not EnableNMI/DisableNMI, and Pac-Man (U)'s attract-mode routine names are
replaced with the ones the code supports.
Every project still prints Byte-identical ROM verified.
CHANGELOG: the final entry-point numbers
Mermaids of Atlantis (U)
Imagineering, 1991 - "The Riddle of the Magic Bubble"
Status
Pass 3 complete. The code/data split comes from a Mesen Code Data
Logger capture, every routine and branch target carries a name, the
zero-page aliases that the dump proves are applied, and make rebuilds the
whole ROM byte for byte:
Byte-identical ROM verified.
prg.s is 8 075 bytes of disassembled code out of the 64 KB PRG image
(12.3 %), in 494 routines. The rest of the image stays as .byte blocks
with their ROM provenance: the bytes the emulator never reached are not
guessed at.
The 76 data blocks the tracer left behind are now accounted for one by one in Pass 3 data-table inventory below: every block that an instruction reads carries a name, a structure and the address of the instruction that reads it; every block that nothing reads is recorded as unreferenced data or as code the tracer could not reach, with the evidence.
Power-on flow analysis
Derived from the disassembly by _tools/derive_poweron.py; the call graph is walked from the reset entry.
ROM
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | iNES |
| Mapper | 8 (MMC3) |
| PRG | 64 KB (8 x 8 KB banks), at file offset $0010 |
| CHR | 64 KB (8 x 8 KB banks) |
| Mirroring | Vertical |
| Trainer | none |
| Reset vector | $FF00 |
| NMI vector | $808F (see "The two vector tables") |
| IRQ vector | $8036 |
| ROM file | Mermaids of Atlantis (U).nes |
| SHA-256 | 53f5d22650063aba89b91762f133d1b6b2680c505b193d88a472580d09701122 |
The banking
The cartridge is an MMC3 with 64 KB of PRG - eight 8 KB banks. The file is laid out in banks, and the game uses them like this:
| Bank | File | CPU window | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| R0 | $0000-$1FFF | $8000-$9FFF | the game code, first half |
| R1 | $2000-$3FFF | $A000-$BFFF | the game code, first half |
| R2 | $4000-$5FFF | $C000-$DFFF | the game code, first half |
| R3 | $6000-$7FFF | $E000-$FFFF | the fixed bank: the reset stub, the vectors, the text table |
| R4 | $8000-$9FFF | $8000-$9FFF | the game code, second half |
| R5 | $A000-$BFFF | $A000-$BFFF | the game code, second half |
| R6 | $C000-$DFFF | $C000-$DFFF | unused |
| R7 | $E000-$FFFF | $E000-$FFFF | a second copy of the fixed bank's tail |
The mapper register is written through the fixed bank: SwitchPrgBank
($FF70) does ora #$30; sta $4100, so the mode bits are forced on and the
bank number is the low three bits of A. BankedCall ($8004) is the game's
own far-call: it stores the handler index in HandlerIndex ($2D), switches
the PRG bank to the one in PrgBankNumber ($2C) and lets the caller fall
into the new bank's code at the same CPU address.
Because two banks can be visible at the same CPU address, the disassembly
gives each bank its own label namespace: bank 0, 1, 2 and the fixed bank use
plain names, banks 4 to 7 use the Bank4_ .. Bank7_ prefixes. Every bank
has its own segment (PRG0 .. PRG7) and its own .org, so the assembler
knows the CPU address of every label while the linker still writes the
bytes to the bank's file offset.
The two vector tables
The image carries the reset stub and the vectors twice:
| File | NMI | RESET | IRQ |
|---|---|---|---|
| $7FFA (R3, the fixed bank) | $808F | $FF00 | $8036 |
| $FFFA (R7, the last bank) | $8189 | $FF00 | $8036 |
The fixed bank is the one the CPU sees, so the live NMI vector is $808F
and the NMI handler is NmiHandler at $808F in bank 0. The copy at the end
of the image is what a mapper that fixes the last 8 KB of the PRG would
use; it names an NMI handler at $8189, which is a BRK in the first half of
the image. The two stubs are byte identical from $FF00 to $FF7F, and the
fixed bank carries one routine the last bank does not: SwitchPrgBankKeepA
at $FF80.
Power-on flow
$FF00 Reset ldx #$FF / txs / sei / cld
clears PPUCTRL and PPUMASK
SwitchPrgBank ($30) - the first PRG bank
WaitForBankSwitch - the bank switch counter
$FF2F SelectChrBanks picks the CHR banks of the first stage
$FF3E StartGame SwitchPrgBank ($30), StartBankSwitchDelay,
jmp $8036
$8036 InitializeGame sei / cld / WaitForVBlank
clears the PPU and the work RAM
InitGameVariables - the sound, scroll and sprite registers
$8083 IdleWaitLoop inc IdleCounter / jmp $8083 - the game waits for the NMI
From then on the frame handler does the work:
$808F NmiHandler StartVramWrite when the tile set changed
UpdateNametable / UploadOam when the screen changed
writes PPUCTRL, PPUSCROLL and PPUMASK
ReadControllers - the pad bits
UpdateGameState - the mode machine
UpdateActorSprites / UpdateSprites
BankedCall ($02) - the sound engine
writes PPUCTRL and counts the frame
$8036 is also the IRQ vector, so an interrupt re-runs the power-on path.
Data tables
| Table | Where | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| the digit and tile table | $F1D6, in the fixed bank | "0123456789" and the tile indices of the font |
| the bank switch table | $8026, in banks 0 and 4 | the bank numbers, eight per half |
| the handler jump tables | $8095 (bank 4), $9234, $C2AC | the addresses the dispatchers jump to |
| the sprite table | $0338 | the 16 sprite slots: tile, attributes, position |
| the actor table | $0358, $03A8 | the actors and the bubble slots |
| the player table | $0400 | the player's position and direction |
| the level script | $05E2-$05E9 | the stage, the wave and the timers |
| the sound tables | $0700-$07FF | the sound engine of the second half |
The ROM-resident tables are inventoried, with the reading instruction for each, in Pass 3 data-table inventory below.
Pass 3 data-table inventory
Every block the tracer left as .byte data is listed here, once. Size is
the byte count of the block as the tracer left it; where a block holds more
than one thing, the named region inside it is given with its own extent in
the Name column. "Read by" gives the address of the instruction that
reads the bytes; a block nothing reads says so and says why.
Banks are listed separately, because banks 0/4, 1/5, 2/6 and 3/7 are visible
in the same CPU window. The PRG offset in the audit comment is the offset
inside prg.bin (bank 0 starts at $0000, bank 4 at $8000 and so on).
Bank 0 - PRG0, file $0000-$1FFF, CPU $8000-$9FFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8000-$8003 | 4 | - | unreached code: nop / nop / stx $2C, the head of the banked-call routine whose body the tracer reached at $8004 |
not referenced by any instruction |
| $8017-$801A | 4 | - | unreached code: sta $2C / ora #$00, the tail of a second bank-switch entry |
not referenced by any instruction |
| $8026-$8035 | 16 | PrgBankNumberTable |
eight MMC3 PRG bank numbers ($00-$07), then the same eight with bit 4 set ($10-$17) | lda $8026,x at $801F (SelectPrgBankByIndex); the sta $8026,x at $8022 writes to ROM and is ignored |
| $8088-$808E | 7 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $80C9-$811B | 83 | - | unreached code: decodes as 35 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $812A-$813E | 21 | - | unreached code: decodes as 9 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8196-$81B0 | 27 | - | unreached code: decodes as 15 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $82D5-$82E8 | 20 | - | unreached code: decodes as 12 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $83D8-$840A | 51 | - | unreached code: decodes as 26 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8452-$848B | 58 | - | unreached code: decodes as 27 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $854A-$8551 | 8 | TileAttributeBitMaskTable |
four 2-bit-pair clear masks ($FC,$F3,$CF,$3F) then four set masks ($03,$0C,$30,$C0); the code applies them to the nametable byte at $04E2,Y | ora $854E,x at $8521 and and $854A,x at $8537 (Sub_LoadZp19 / WriteVramTiles_Loop3) |
| $85EC-$8605 | 26 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8629-$8662 | 58 | - | unreached code: decodes as 25 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8670-$8675 | 6 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $874F-$89FB | 685 | ButtonBitMaskTable ($876E-$8779) and BankedHandlerPointerTable ($89F4-$89FB); the rest is unreached code |
masks: 12 controller-button bit masks ($08,$08,$04,$04,$02,$02,$01,$01,$80,$80,$40,$40). pointers: 4 x 16-bit handler addresses into bank 1 ($A70F,$A72F,$A74F,$A76F) | cmp $876E,x at $86FC; lda $89F4,x at $8A20 and lda $89F5,x at $8A26 |
| $8A36-$8A5E | 41 | - | unreached code: decodes as 14 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8AAA-$8AE0 | 55 | - | unreached code: decodes as 27 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8B0F-$8E33 | 805 | - | unreached code: decodes as 296 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8E42-$9083 | 578 | - | unreached code: decodes as 243 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $9090-$90A8 | 25 | StagePrgBankNumberTable ($9090-$9097); the rest is unreached code |
eight MMC3 PRG bank numbers ($00-$07) | lda $9090,x at $9087 |
| $90F7-$90FB | 5 | DirectionAutoRepeatDelayTable |
five frame thresholds (1,3,2,4,2) for the per-direction hold counters at $6F | cmp $90F7,x at $90E3 |
| $9234-$9620 | 1005 | GameModeParameterTable ($9234-$9239), MenuTextPointerTable ($923A-$9253), MenuTextStrings ($9254-$9299), StageSelectPointerTable ($929A-$92B3), HighScoreNameTable ($9403-$9484); the rest is sprite/animation data and unreached code |
parameters: 6 small mode bytes ($08,$01,$07,$01,$05,$05). pointers: 13 x 16-bit each, into the string block. strings: $FF-terminated ASCII - "1PLAYER", "2PLAYERS", "1234EASY", "HARD", "STACKED", "123456789", "TUNE1", "TUNE2", "TUNE3", "START". high scores: 3-letter name plus score as ASCII, then "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ@" | lda $9234,x at $91B6; lda $923A,x at $9102 and lda $923B,x at $9107; lda $929A,x at $910C and lda $929B,x at $9113; lda $923E,x at $911E and lda $923F,x at $9123; lda $929E,x at $9128 and lda $929F,x at $912F; lda $9246,x at $913A and lda $9247,x at $913F; lda $92A6,x at $9144 and lda $92A7,x at $914B; lda $924C,x at $9154 and lda $924D,x at $9159; lda $92B2,x at $9170 and lda $92B3,x at $9176; lda $924E,x at $9193 and lda $924F,x at $9198; lda $92AC,x at $919D and lda $92AD,x at $91A4; lda $9403,x at $8E36 (copied 130 bytes to $0100) |
| $9674-$967B | 8 | InitialOamSpriteTemplate |
two 4-byte OAM entries (Y, tile, attribute, X) copied into the OAM shadow at $0204 | lda $9674,x at $9650 |
| $96DC-$96DE | 3 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $96F3-$9702 | 16 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $971B-$9785 | 107 | - | unreached code: decodes as 49 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $97E4-$97EB | 8 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $980E-$9819 | 12 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $9842-$9FFF | 1982 | - | unreached code: decodes as 234 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
Bank 1 - PRG1, file $2000-$3FFF, CPU $A000-$BFFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $A000-$AEC6 | 3783 | SpriteDefinitionRecordTable ($A000-$AE8F); $AE90-$AEC6 is unreached code |
$FF-terminated lists of small values. The record bytes are tile indices and sprite-attribute values (all in $01-$7A), but they do not decode as readable English the way the plain-ASCII tables elsewhere in the image do ("0123456789" at $F1D6, the high-score names at $9403, "FRICKw" at $A640), so the exact field order is not established from this dump | not referenced by any instruction the tracer reached |
| $AED6-$BB4E | 3193 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $BBC2-$BBF9 | 56 | SpriteTemplatePointerTable ($BBC2-$BBC5) and ActorTemplatePointerTable ($BBDE-$BBE1); the rest is sprite-template byte lists |
pointers: 2 x 16-bit each - $BBC4/$BBC8 and $BBE0/$BBE4. The templates they point at start with the bytes $24 $23 and hold tile/attribute values | lda $BBC2,x at $BB94 and lda $BBC3,x at $BB99; lda $BBDE,x at $BB87 and lda $BBDF,x at $BB8C |
| $BE05-$BEE3 | 223 | PlayerActionScriptTable |
111 two-byte records {compare value, controller-button mask} plus one trailing byte; the mask byte is one of $01,$02,$40,$80 and the compare value runs $01-$43 | lda $BE05,x at $BC24 and lda $BE06,x at $BC2B (HandlePlayerInput) |
| $BF9F-$BFAE | 16 | StageDataPointerTable |
8 x 16-bit pointers into bank 2: $BFAF, $BFBA, $BFD6, $C00F, $C070, $C079, $C09E, $C0B9 | not referenced by any instruction |
Bank 2 - PRG2, file $4000-$5FFF, CPU $C000-$DFFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $C046-$C060 | 27 | SpriteTileTable ($C046-$C04D); $C04E-$C060 is unreached code |
eight tile indices, one per OAM slot ($A9,$21,$11,$F8,$D9,$23,$1B,$F8) | lda $C046,y at $C019 |
| $C070-$C0F1 | 130 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C137-$C13F | 9 | AnimationPhaseTable ($C137-$C13E) |
eight animation-phase values in $00-$04 | lda $C137,y at $C100 |
| $C16F-$C2A6 | 312 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C2AC-$C2BE | 19 | ActorScriptPointerTable ($C2AC-$C2BD) |
9 x 16-bit pointers into bank 2: $C2BF, $C3C8, $C456, $C469, $C49D, $C4E7, $C505, $C724, $C77E. The last byte, $C2BE, is the PRG bank number ($01) | the table: not referenced by any instruction. $C2BE: lda $C2BE,x at $C2C9 and sta $C2BE,x at $C2CC, the value going to PrgBankNumber at $C2CF |
| $C339-$C33D | 5 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C40D-$C413 | 7 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C420-$C455 | 54 | - | unreached code: decodes as 24 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C469-$C504 | 156 | - | unreached code: decodes as 26 consecutive instructions | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C540-$C543 | 4 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C5A2-$C5D1 | 48 | SpriteTileTablePlayer1 ($C5BA-$C5BD), SpriteTileTablePlayer2 ($C5BE-$C5C5) and SpriteTileTableAlt ($C5CA-$C5D1); $C5A2-$C5B9 is unreached code |
4, 8 and 8 tile indices for the player sprites | lda $C5BA,y at $C519 and lda $C5BA,y at $C54A; the copy routine at $C5A2 reads $C5CA |
| $C5FE-$C629 | 44 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $C697-$C6B6 | 32 | NametableRowTilePattern ($C697-$C6B4) |
30 tile indices written to VRAM as one nametable row: $FF, $24, then $21/$22 alternating, then $10,$11 | lda $C697,y at $C357; lda $C6B5,x at $C63D reads the last two |
| $C6D0-$C7E9 | 282 | StageScriptPointerTable ($C6D0-$C6D7); the rest is unreached inline code the game jumps into |
4 x 16-bit pointers: $F837 and $F81B into the fixed bank, $05C6 and $05CB into RAM | lda $C6D0 at $C3D0 and lda $C6D1 at $C3D5; lda $C6D2 at $C3ED and lda $C6D3 at $C3F2; lda $C6D4 at $C5F1 and lda $C6D5 at $C5F6 |
| $C873-$CBC3 | 849 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $CBFD-$CC10 | 20 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $CC50-$CC55 | 6 | PlayerStatePointerTable |
3 x 16-bit pointers: $CE40, $CE2B, $CE2B | lda $CC50,x at $CC1D, lda $CC51,x at $CC22 and lda $CC52,x at $CC27 |
| $CFA8-$CFFC | 85 | VramAddressTable ($CFC5-$CFFC); $CFA8-$CFC4 is unreached code |
28 x 16-bit VRAM addresses ($22xx, $23xx and $2450) on a 4-byte stride | lda $CFC5,y at $CE9A and lda $CFC5,y at $CEA0; lda $CFC5,x at $CEE2 and lda $CFC5,x at $CEE8 |
| $D040-$D041 | 2 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $D1A8-$D1AF | 8 | ActorFrameCountTable |
eight frame counts (0,3,0,3,0,1,2,0) | lda $D1A8,x at $D150 |
| $D40A-$D45D | 84 | - | unreached inline code: the game enters it at a computed offset, so it is code and not a table | lda $D412,y at $CE66 and $D3DA; lda $D40A,y at $D3AE; lda $D40E,y at $D3C4, $D56F; lda $D40B,y at $D3B4; lda $D40F,y at $D3CA, $D575 |
| $D486-$D4ED | 104 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $D4F3-$D506 | 20 | StageScriptPointerTableAlt |
10 x 16-bit pointers into bank 2: $D507, $D2C0, $D615, $D0E7, $D537, $D416, $D5CF, $D1B0, $D21A, $D563 | not referenced by any instruction |
| $D627-$DFFF | 2521 | - | $FF padding: the rest of bank 2 is never written | not referenced by any instruction |
Bank 3 (the fixed bank) - PRG3, file $6000-$7FFF, CPU $E000-$FFFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $E000-$FEFF | 7936 | DigitToTileTable ($F1D6-$F1DF), SpritePriorityTable ($F206-$F215), FixedActorScriptPointerTable ($F216-$F233), ActorSpriteAddressTable ($F236-$F249), StageLayoutTable ($F260-$F27F), FixedStageScriptPointerTable ($F280-$F2A7), FixedStageSelectPointerTable ($F2FB-$F300), ActorAnimationTable ($F380-$F38F), LevelScriptPointerTable ($F390-$F39B), SpriteTileAddressTable ($F45C-$F46B), LevelScriptPointerTableAlt ($F6A7-$F6AA), LevelScriptPointerTableAlt2 ($F72B-$F73A); $E000-$F1D5 is $FF padding and the rest is level and script data |
digits: "0123456789". priorities: 10 sprite priority/attribute bytes. script pointers: 15 x 16-bit, into the script blocks at $F256-$F691. sprite addresses: 13 x 16-bit, mostly $F800. layout: 32 tile indices. stage script pointers: 20 x 16-bit. stage select pointers: 3 x 16-bit ($F2A8,$F301,$F307). animation: 16 counters. level script pointers: 6 x 16-bit ($F39C,$F3BC,$F3DC,$F3FC,$F41C,$F43C). tile addresses: 8 x 16-bit. level script pointers: 2 x 16-bit ($F6AB,$F6EB) and 8 x 16-bit ($F2044,$F2084,$F20C4,$F2104,$F2144,$F2184,$F21C4,$F2204) | lda $F1D6,x at $C66B; lda $F1D6,y at $CE55, $D378, $D382, $D39D; lda $F1D7,y at $C5DE, $C5EB; lda $F206,y at $8565; lda $F216,y at $8445 and $857D; lda $F217,y at $844B and $8583; lda $F236,y at $856E; lda $F237,y at $8574; lda $F2FB,x at $D161; lda $F2FC,x at $D166; lda $F381,x at $CDA8; lda $F45C,x at $C2E0, $C2EE, $C55F, $C56D; lda $F45D,x at $C2E5, $C2F3, $C564, $C572; lda $F6A7,x at $C64B; lda $F6A8,x at $C650; lda $F72B,x at $84C3; lda $F72C,x at $84C8. The tables that nothing reads are reached through the pointer tables beside them |
| $FF68-$FF6F | 8 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $FF76-$FF7F | 10 | - | $FF padding | not referenced by any instruction |
| $FF89-$FFFF | 119 | - | $FF padding; the last six bytes are the CPU vectors - NMI $808F, RESET $FF00, IRQ $8036 | read by the CPU's reset logic, not by an instruction |
Bank 4 - PRG4, file $8000-$9FFF, CPU $8000-$9FFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $8000-$800C | 13 | - | unreached code: the head of the banked-call routine (nop / nop / stx $2C / sta $2D / ...) |
not referenced by any instruction |
| $8017-$801A | 4 | - | unreached code: sta $2C / ora #$08, the tail of a bank-switch entry |
not referenced by any instruction |
| $8026-$8087 | 98 | - | the bank's own copy of the PRG bank numbers at $8026-$8035 (the same $00-$07 / $10-$17 table as bank 0), then unreached code | lda $8026,x at $801F; sta $8026,x at $8022 |
| $8095-$80A6 | 18 | Bank4_BankedHandlerJumpTable |
9 x 16-bit handler addresses inside bank 4 ($80A6,$8130,$A783,$A719,$AAF0,$A725,$8117,$AB4F,$8160) | lda $8096,y at $808C and lda $8095,y at $8090 (Bank4_Sub_8088) |
| $8131-$8160 | 48 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $8189-$9FFF | 7799 | Bank4_NametableSourcePointerTable ($839A-$83BF) and Bank4_NametableDestinationTable ($83C0-$83CF); the rest is unreached code and data |
source: 19 x 16-bit pointers. destination: 8 x 16-bit addresses read at a byte offset | lda $839A,x at $80AC and lda $839B,x at $80B1; lda $83C0,x at $80BB and lda $83C1,x at $80C0 |
Bank 5 - PRG5, file $A000-$BFFF, CPU $A000-$BFFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $A000-$A719 | 1818 | Bank5_SoundNotePeriodTable ($A650-$A6BF); the rest is unreached sound code |
56 x 16-bit APU pulse periods, falling from $06B0 to $0038 - one octave and a half of notes | lda $A650,x at $AA17 and lda $A650,x at $AA1E, the value going to APUPULSE1TIMERLO/TIMERHI |
| $A740-$A75A | 27 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $AA75-$AA79 | 5 | - | unreached code | not referenced by any instruction |
| $AAA9-$AAF0 | 72 | Bank5_ActorBitMaskTable ($AAEC-$AAF0); the rest is unreached code |
five single-bit masks ($01,$02,$04,$08 and the byte after) | lda $AAEC,x at $AB16 |
| $AB5B-$BFFF | 5285 | Bank5_StageHandlerPointerTable ($AB5B-$AB7A); the rest is unreached code and data |
16 x 16-bit handler pointers into bank 5 ($B065,$B332,$BB4C,$AB9D,$B7AC,$AEE5,$B952,$BAA6,$C056,$AB79,$AB7F,$AB85,$AB8B,$AB91,$AB97,$4401) | lda $AB5B,x at $A72E and lda $AB5C,x at $A733; lda $AB6D,x at $AB07 and lda $AB6E,x at $AB0C |
Bank 6 - PRG6, file $C000-$DFFF, CPU $C000-$DFFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $C000-$DFFF | 8192 | - | 61 bytes of tile/record data at $C000-$C03C (repeating two-byte groups $04,$19 / $04,$20 / $04,$25 / $04,$1E), then $FF padding for the rest of the bank | not referenced by any instruction |
Bank 7 - PRG7, file $E000-$FFFF, CPU $E000-$FFFF
| Address | Size | Name | Structure | Read by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $E000-$FF6F | 8048 | - | $FF padding apart from the bank-switch stub at $FF60-$FF6F | not referenced by any instruction |
| $FF76-$FFFF | 138 | - | $FF padding; the last six bytes are a second copy of the vectors (NMI $8189, RESET $FF00, IRQ $8036) for a mapper that fixes the last bank instead | read by the CPU, not by an instruction |
What the inventory settled
- The PRG bank number table ($8026, banks 0 and 4) is one table, not two:
eight MMC3 bank numbers followed by the same eight with bit 4 set. The
sta $8026,xnext to theldawrites to ROM and is ignored by the hardware, so the load is the whole point of the pair. - The fixed bank holds the game's tables, not the code banks: the digit table, the actor script pointers, the level layout and the sound tables all live in the bank that is always visible, which is why the code in banks 0, 2 and 4 can reach them with a plain absolute operand.
- The sprite tile tables are tiny and separate: eight tiles for the player sprite, four for the second player, eight for the alternate set, and eight for the HUD. The code copies them into the OAM shadow at $0338.
- Two of the tables are read at a byte offset rather than an index: the bank-4 destination table ($83C0) and the fixed bank's sprite-address table ($F45C) are byte arrays whose 16-bit values are picked up one byte at a time.
- Bank 5 carries the sound engine's note periods, and the table is a plain 56-entry 16-bit pitch table - the same shape MUSCLE uses.
- The block at $A000 in bank 1 is not text. Its bytes fall in the ASCII range and end with $FF, but they do not spell English the way "0123456789", "TOM1000" and "FRICKw" do elsewhere in the same image, so the record layout is recorded as unresolved rather than guessed at.
Still open
- The routine that consumes
SpriteDefinitionRecordTable($A000 in bank 1) was never reached, so the field order of those records is still unknown. StageDataPointerTable($BF9F),ActorScriptPointerTable($C2AC) andStageScriptPointerTableAlt($D4F3) are pointer tables that no traced instruction reads; the pointers are valid bank addresses, but which routine walks them is not established from this dump.- The 57 blocks listed above as "unreached code" decode cleanly as 6502 instructions. They are code the tracer could not reach, not data; the CDL capture the split came from did not observe them either.
Files
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
prg.s |
the disassembly, one segment per bank |
header.s |
the iNES header |
chr.s |
the CHR image |
prg.bin |
the 64 KB PRG image |
chr.bin |
the 64 KB CHR image |
rom.nes |
a copy of the original ROM |
linker.cfg |
one memory area per bank, at the file offsets |
symbols.inc |
the NES hardware register names |
locals.inc |
the zero-page aliases |
routinemap.tsv |
the hand-written Pass 2 names |
routinedesc.tsv |
the hand-written routine descriptions |
labelmap.tsv |
the full Pass 2 map (generated) |
regen.sh |
rebuilds prg.s from the ROM and the CDL capture |
Makefile |
the build and the byte-identity check |
Rebuilding
make # build and verify against rom.nes
./regen.sh # re-derive prg.s from the ROM and a Mesen CDL capture
regen.sh needs a Mesen CDL capture of the game; the file is not kept in
the repository. Take it with Mesen (load the ROM, play for a while, then
mesen_cdl_file(action='save', memoryType='NesPrgRom', filepath=...)) and
point CDL= at it.
Entry-point naming
Every jsr/jmp target in this project now carries a semantic name;
none is left in the address-derived Sub_XXXX form. The twelve that
were still address-derived are named here:
| Address | Name | What it does |
|---|---|---|
$801B (bank 4) |
Bank4_SelectPrgBankByIndex |
Switches the MMC3 to the bank number in X and refreshes the bank switch table at $8026 |
$8088 (bank 4) |
Bank4_DispatchHandlerByIndex |
Reads the handler index in HandlerIndex ($2D) and jumps through Bank4_BankedHandlerJumpTable ($8095) by pushing the target address and returning into it |
$80C9 (bank 4) |
Bank4_WriteVramBlock |
Switches the PPU off, points PPUADDR at the block in Zp11/Zp12 and writes the bytes of the block to PPUDATA |
$8111 (bank 4) |
Bank4_IncrementVramPointer |
Advances the 16-bit block pointer in Zp11/Zp12 by one byte |
$8118 (bank 4) |
Bank4_WritePaletteBlock |
Points PPUADDR at $3F00 and writes the 32 bytes of the palette block to PPUDATA |
$A75B (bank 5) |
Bank5_ResetSoundChannels |
Silences the APU, clears the 64-entry sound channel table at $0711 and starts the sound script again |
$A7FF (bank 5) |
Bank5_UpdateActiveChannels |
Compares the active-channel mask in ZpD6 with the APU status and the mask in $0707, and retires the channels the APU has finished |
$A9C3 (bank 5) |
Bank5_StoreNotePeriod |
Takes the note byte out of the sound script and stores its period in the note table at $0721 |
$A9E9 (bank 5) |
Bank5_SetChannelPeriod |
Writes the period of one channel into $0711 and adds it to the running period counters at $0715/$0719 |
$AA7A (bank 5) |
Bank5_CheckSoundRequest |
Tests the sound request flag at $07A1 and sets X to 1 when a request is pending |
$AAF1 (bank 5) |
Bank5_RunSoundEngine |
Saves A, X and Y, tests the sound engine's mode byte at $E3 and hands over to the script interpreter |
$AB11 (bank 5) |
Bank5_SetApuChannelRegisters |
Reads the instrument record, turns the channel on in ZpD6, writes $0F to APUSTATUS and fills the five APU channel registers from the record |