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This page was created on 23-Jan-2016 15:08 by Roland B. Wassenberg

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1 23-Jan-2016 15:08 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to last Star Raiders source code by Lorenz Wiest

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At line 10 changed one line
Fully documented, reverse-engineered STAR RAIDERS source code\\
Reverse engineered and fully documented STAR RAIDERS source code\\
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During the last years, as a hobby afterhours project, I reverse-engineered a complete, extensively documented assembly language source code of STAR RAIDERS for the Atari 8-bit Home Computer System. I created it directly from the binary file of the ROM cartridge, finishing it in September 2015.\\
STAR RAIDERS is a seminal computer game, published by Atari Inc. in 1979 as one of the first titles for the original Atari 8-bit Home Computer System (Atari 400 and 800).\\
At line 14 changed one line
You may find it useful if you are curious about the internals of STAR RAIDERS or if you are planning to make your own, modified version.\\
During the last years, as a hobby afterhours project, I reverse engineered a complete, extensively documented assembly language source code of STAR RAIDERS. I reverse engineered the source code directly from the binary file of the ROM cartridge, finishing it in September 2015.\\
At line 16 changed one line
After very positive reader feedback on the initial release of my reverse-engineered source code I reviewed it again, resulting in a minor update.\\
This repo contains both the reverse enginered assembly source code input [StarRaiders.source.asm.txt] and output [StarRaiders.source.txt].\\
At line 18 added 4 lines
You may find this useful if you are curious about the internals of STAR RAIDERS or if you are planning to make your own, modified version.\\
\\
After very positive reader feedback on the initial release of my reverse engineered source code I reviewed it again, resulting in a minor update.\\
\\
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PS: I was absolutely thrilled to learn that in October 2015 [scans of the original STAR RAIDERS source code|https://archive.org/details/AtariStarRaidersSourceCode] re-surfaced.\\
P.S. I was absolutely thrilled to learn that in October 2015 [scans of the original STAR RAIDERS source code|https://archive.org/details/AtariStarRaidersSourceCode] re-surfaced.\\
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To my delight, inspection of the original source code confirmed the findings of my reverse-engineered version and caused only a few trivial corrections.\\
To my delight, inspection of the original source code confirmed the findings of my reverse engineered version and caused only a few trivial corrections.\\
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Even more, the documentation of my reverse-engineered version adds a substantial amount of information - from overall theory of operation down to some tricky details - to the understanding of the often sparsely commented original (quite expected for source code never meant for publication). So, if you are interested in learing how STAR RAIDERS works, my reverse-engineered source code could be of help to you.\\
Even more, the documentation of my reverse engineered version adds a substantial amount of information - from overall theory of operation down to some tricky details - to the understanding of the often sparsely commented original (quite expected for source code never meant for publication). So, if you are interested in learning how STAR RAIDERS works, my reverse engineered source code could be of help to you.
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!!Extras
!Genome Sequence
The picture below shows the 'genome sequence' of the reverse engineered STAR RAIDERS 8 KB ROM (which I prepared for a [publication|https://archive.org/details/pocorgtfo13]. I stacked the 8192 bytes vertically, with each byte represented by a tiny, solid horizontal line of 8 pixels. Then, I split the stack into strips of 192 bytes, arranged side-by-side. The segments of the stack are color-coded:\\
* Code (main game loop and subroutines) is in alternating shades of blue.\\
* Data (lookup tables, texts, etc.) is in alternating shades of green.\\
* Bitmap data (Player-Missile shapes and character set) is in alternating shades of purple and the solid line of a byte is replaced by its actual bit pattern.\\
\\
[{Image src='GenomeSequence.png' width=774 height=384 }]\\
STAR RAIDERS 8KB ROM Genome Sequence ; thank you so much Lorenz, that is totally incredible! :-)
!ColorSheets
* [STAR RAIDERS Color Sheets|ColorSheets.pdf] ; size: 250 KB
!DisplayListSheets
* [STAR RAIDERS Display List Sheets|DisplayListSheets.pdf] ; size: 250 KB