2600 Rom Comparisions and Dumps

[Omegamatrix]

Tonight I'd like to take a look at a specific rom in the Rom's set, the one marked:

 

 

Stampede (Canal 3 - Intellivision) (16K).bin

 

 

 

We know that Stampede is a 2K game originally, so what changes could possibly be made to it, except for making the best looking Stampede game ever? J/K I love Stampede and think it is a remarkable 2K game. Saying that, a 16K rom with no obvious differences except the logo is quite disturbing. Time to analyize...

 

 

First we break the 16K rom all into 2K chunks, because we do know unaltered Stampede functions as a 2K rom (because it is a 2K rom). Basically we are trying the lowest known common denominator here, and in Stella emulation! After trying each rom in Stella a pattern emerges:

 

16k / 2k = 8 new roms

 

rom 1 works (100%)

rom 2 fails (black screen of death)

rom 3 works (100%)

rom 4 fails (black screen of death)

rom 5 works (100%)

rom 6 fails (black screen of death)

rom 7 works (100%)

rom 8 fails (black screen of death)

 

Again, each rom is 2K. The 2600 can only address 4K (and then we have to "bankswitch"). What you really need to know right now is 2K games are "doubled up" to fill the 4k space read by the 2600, and you need to note that the list of 2 games above are grouped together as:

 

rom 1 & rom 2 = 4K

rom 3 & rom 4 = 4K

rom 5 & rom 6 = 4K

rom 7 & rom 8 = 4K

 

The "doubling up" of the game will become important to us later as the code is essentially repeated twice, which is a benefit when one half is crapped. Errr..... I speak to much already.

 

 

Okay, half the roms work, and half don't. Time to use Clonespy:

 

Roms 1,3,5, and 7 match 100%. They are also are the only ones that work. It is a good sign that all the ones that actually work are 100% the same. What about the others though? Time for HOM3.

 

Rom 2 vs Working roms - 115 bytes different

Rom 4 vs Working roms - 92 bytes different

Rom 6 vs Working roms - 74 bytes different

Rom 8 vs Working roms - 64 bytes different

 

There seems to be a diminishing pattern of differences here, but we can't discern more. Time for Distella.

 

 

Hmmm. It appears that the code in each game follows the original Stampede, and then craps out. By crapped out I mead it becomes all garbled, and then causes the game to crash. All the roms that didn't work in Stella do this, and at start at the same area. With that it know appears obvious that this is an overdump/bad dump combo. However the 4 identical roms in the low half of each bank work, so are the good? Perhaps they are the real, 100% good rom?

 

 

Well, what do we know?

- 2K roms are doubled in a 4K space.

- Pirate companies often altered the graphics of the logo, nothing more.

 

 

The basic run of Stampede compared with the working 2K Canal 3 rom reveals any, all, and evermore changes are purely a logo hack. This makes absolute sense and lends 100% support in my books that the 2k rom is the correct rom, and the only true rom for this overdumped/ bad dumped cart.

 

 

 

 

COMPLETE, ABSOLUTE, ONLY DIFFERENCES IN VALID GOOD ROMS

 

;		  XXXXXXXX	XXXXXXX
;	   X	 X   X   XX
;	  XXX XX X X X  XX  XXX X XXX X  X
;	  X X X  X X X XX X X   X X X XX X
;	  XXX X  X X XXX  X XXX X X X XXXX
;	  X X X  X X XX   X   X X X X X XX
;	  X X XX X X X	X XXX X XXX X  X
;
;
;	  XXXX XXXX XX  X XXXX X	  XXXX
;	  X	X  X XX  X X  X X		 X
;	  X	X  X X X X X  X X		 X
;	  X	XXXX X X X XXXX X	  XXXX
;	  X	X  X X  XX X  X X		 X
;	  X	X  X X  XX X  X X		 X
;	  XXXX X  X X   X X  X XXXX   XXXX
;
;

 

 

Good Canal 3 rom (2k):

Stamped__Canal_3__2K.bin

[Rom Hunter]

Excellent work, Omega.

 

I've replaced the overdump with your repaired version.

 

I will check my collection on similar cases.

 

Edited January 16, 2009 by Rom Hunter

[Rom Hunter]

Found these:

 

Air_Sea_Battle__Hack___Unknown___4K_.bin

Diagnostic_Test_Cartridge_2.6P__1982___Atari___TE016643___PAL___4K_.bin

Tennis__1983___CCE___C_858___4K_.bin

Tennis__Tennis_Game___AKA_Tennis___1983___Home_Vision___Gem_International_Corp.___VCS83107___PAL___4K_.bin

 

Not the original K size.

 

[Omegamatrix]

Air-Sea Battle is just a graphical hack type of rom. No other changes besides the graphics. Split the 4K in half and both roms work (as they should). They do not match however. The one you are used to seeing is this hack:

 

AirSea1.bin

 

The other half you cannot play, unless the rom is split from 4k to 2k:

 

AirSea2.bin

 

 

Now we compare the original 2K Air-Sea Batte by Atari against these two 2k graphical hacks; so we can see the differences between them.

 

;	 Original	 hack 1	  hack 2
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F695
;	|X	   |  |		|  |X	   | $F696
;	|X	XX |  |X   XXX |  | X  XXX | $F697
;	|XXXXXXXX|  | X XXXXX|  | X XXXXX| $F698
;	|XXXXXXXX|  | XXXXXXX|  | XXXXXXX| $F699
;	|  XXX   |  | X XXXXX|  | X XXXXX| $F69A
;	|  XX	|  |X   XXX |  | X  XXX | $F69B
;	|		|  |		|  |X	   | $F69C
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F69D
;	|X XXXXX |  |XX XXXXX|  |X XXXXX | $F69E
;	|X   X   |  | X  X   |  |X   X   | $F69F
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |  XXXX  |  |XXXXXXXX| $F6A0
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |   XX   |  |XXXXXXXX| $F6A1
;	|	X   |  |		|  |	X   | $F6A2
;	|  XXXXX |  |		|  |  XXXXX | $F6A3
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6A4
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6A5
;	|X	   |  |X	   |  |X	   | $F6A6
;	|XX	  |  |XX  XX  |  |XX	  | $F6A7
;	|XXXXXXX |  |XXXXXXX |  |XXXXXXX | $F6A8
;	|	XXXX|  | XXXXXXX|  |	XXXX| $F6A9
;	|   XX   |  |		|  |   XX   | $F6AA
;	|  XX	|  |		|  |  XX	| $F6AB
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6AC
;	|   XXXXX|  |X   XXX |  |   XXXXX| $F6AD
;	|X	X  |  |XX XX  X|  |X	X  | $F6AE
;	|XX  XXXX|  | XXXX XX|  |XX  XXXX| $F6AF
;	| XXXXX X|  |XX XXXXX|  | XXXXX X| $F6B0
;	|	XX X|  |X   XXX |  |	XX X| $F6B1
;	|	XXXX|  |		|  |	XXXX| $F6B2
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6B3
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6B4
;	| XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX | $F6B5
;	|XX	XX|  |X	  X|  |XX	XX| $F6B6
;	|XX XX XX|  |X X  X X|  |XX XX XX| $F6B7
;	|XX	XX|  |X	  X|  |XX	XX| $F6B8
;	|XX XX XX|  |X X  X X|  |XX XX XX| $F6B9
;	| XXXXXX |  |X  XX  X|  | XXXXXX | $F6BA
;	|   XX   |  | XXXXXX |  |   XX   | $F6BB
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6BC
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6BD
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6BE
;	|	X   |  | XXXXXX |  |	X   | $F6BF
;	| X   X  |  |XX XX XX|  | X   X  | $F6C0
;	|  XXX X |  |XXXXXXXX|  |  XXX X | $F6C1
;	| XXXXX  |  |XX	XX|  | XXXXX  | $F6C2
;	| X   XX |  | XXXXXX |  | X   XX | $F6C3
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6C4
;	| XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX | $F6C5
;	|XX XX XX|  |X  XX  X|  |X  XX  X| $F6C6
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |X XXXX X|  |X XXXX X| $F6C7
;	|XXX  XXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F6C8
;	|X XXXX X|  |X XXXX X|  |X XXXX X| $F6C9
;	|X	  X|  |XX	XX|  |XX	XX| $F6CA
;	|XXXXXXXX|  | XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX | $F6CB
;	|		|  |		|  | X	X | $F6CC
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6CD
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6CE
;	|	XX  |  |   XXX  |  |	XX  | $F6CF
;	|	X XX|  |	XXX |  |	X XX| $F6D0
;	| X   X  |  |XXXXXXXX|  | X   X  | $F6D1
;	|XXXXXXX |  |	XXX |  |XXXXXXX | $F6D2
;	| XXXXXX |  |   XXX  |  | XXXXXX | $F6D3
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6D4
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6D5
;	|   X	|  |   X	|  |   X	| $F6D6
;	|  XXX   |  |  XXX   |  |  XXX   | $F6D7
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F6D8
;	|XXXXXXX |  |XXXXXXX |  |XXXXXXX | $F6D9
;	| XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX | $F6DA
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6DB
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6DC
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6DD
;	|   X	|  |   X	|  |   X	| $F6DE
;	| X X X  |  | X X X  |  | X X X  | $F6DF
;	| XXXXXXX|  | XXXXXXX|  | XXXXXXX| $F6E0
;	|XXXXXXX |  |XXXXXXX |  |XXXXXXX | $F6E1
;	|XXXXXX  |  |XXXXXX  |  |XXXXXX  | $F6E2
;	|  XXXX  |  |  XXXX  |  |  XXXX  | $F6E3
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6E4
;	|   X	|  |   X	|  |   X	| $F6E5
;	|   X	|  |   X	|  |   X	| $F6E6
;	|  XX XX |  |  XX XX |  |  XX XX | $F6E7
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F6E8
;	| XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX | $F6E9
;	|  XXXX  |  |  XXXX  |  |  XXXX  | $F6EA
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6EB
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6EC
;	|  X X   |  |  X X   |  |  X X   | $F6ED
;	|  X X   |  |  X X   |  |  X X   | $F6EE
;	|  X X   |  |  X X   |  |  X X   | $F6EF
;	|X X X XX|  |X X X XX|  |X X X XX| $F6F0
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F6F1
;	| XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX |  | XXXXXX | $F6F2
;	| XXXXX  |  | XXXXX  |  | XXXXX  | $F6F3
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6F4
;	|  X X X |  |  XX XX |  |  X X X | $F6F5
;	|   XXX  |  | X  X  X|  |   XXX  | $F6F6
;	|   XXX  |  | X  X  X|  |   XXX  | $F6F7
;	|  X X X |  |  XX XX |  |  X X X | $F6F8
;	|	X   |  |   X X  |  |	X   | $F6F9
;	|  XX	|  |  X X   |  |  XX	| $F6FA
;	|XX	  |  | X X	|  |XX	  | $F6FB
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F6FC
;	|   XX   |  |   XX   |  |   XX   | $F6FD
;	| X XX X |  |XX XX XX|  | X XX X | $F6FE
;	|  XXXX  |  |  X  X  |  |  XXXX  | $F6FF
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXX  XXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F700
;	|  XXXX  |  |  X  X  |  |  XXXX  | $F701
;	| X XX X |  |XX XX XX|  | X XX X | $F702
;	|   XX   |  |   XX   |  |   XX   | $F703
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F704
;	|   XX   |  |		|  |   XX   | $F705
;	|  X  X  |  |		|  |  X  X  | $F706
;	| X	X |  |  X  X  |  | X	X | $F707
;	|X	  X|  |   XX   |  |X	  X| $F708
;	| X	X |  |  X  X  |  | X	X | $F709
;	|  X  X  |  |		|  |  X  X  | $F70A
;	|   XX   |  |		|  |   XX   | $F70B
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F70C
;	| X	X |  |X	  X|  | X	X | $F70D
;	|X	  X|  | X	X |  |X	  X| $F70E
;	|X  XX  X|  |		|  |X  XX  X| $F70F
;	|  X  X  |  |		|  |  X  X  | $F710
;	|X  XX  X|  |		|  |X  XX  X| $F711
;	|X	  X|  | X	X |  |X	  X| $F712
;	| X	X |  |X	  X|  | X	X | $F713
;	|		|  |		|  |		| $F714

;	Cannons:
;	 Original	 hack 1	  hack 2
;	|   XXX  |  |   XXX  |  |   XXX  | $F71C
;	|   XXX  |  |   XXX  |  |   XXX  | $F71D
;	|  XXX   |  |  XXX   |  |  XXX   | $F71E
;	|  XXX   |  | XXXXXX |  |  XXX   | $F71F
;	| XXX	|  |XXXXXXXX|  | XXX	| $F720
;	| XXX	|  |XXXXXXXX|  | XXX	| $F721
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F722
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F723
;	| XXX	|  | XXX	|  | XXX	| $F724
;	| XXX	|  | XXX	|  | XXX	| $F725
;	| XXX	|  | XXX	|  | XXX	| $F726
;	| XXX	|  | XXXXXX |  | XXX	| $F727
;	| XXX	|  |XXXXXXXX|  | XXX	| $F728
;	| XXX	|  |XXXXXXXX|  | XXX	| $F729
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F72A
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F72B
;	|		|  |	  XX|  |		| $F72C
;	|	   X|  |	  XX|  |	   X| $F72D
;	|	 XXX|  |	 XX |  |	 XXX| $F72E
;	|   XXXX |  | XXXXXX |  |   XXXX | $F72F
;	|  XXXX  |  |XXXXXXXX|  |  XXXX  | $F730
;	| XXX	|  |XXXXXXXX|  | XXX	| $F731
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F732
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F733
;	|   XXX  |  |   XXX  |  |   XXX  | $F734
;	|   XXX  |  |   XXX  |  |   XXX  | $F735
;	|  XXX   |  |  XXX   |  |  XXX   | $F736
;	|  XXX   |  | XXXXXX |  |  XXX   | $F737
;	| XXX	|  |XXXXXXXX|  | XXX	| $F738
;	| XXX	|  |XXXXXXXX|  | XXX	| $F739
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F73A
;	|XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXX| $F73B

 

As you can see hack 2, the one you can not play is mostly the same as the original, but does have the gfx changed in a couple of places. My guess is it's either an earlier version that got stored in the eprom buffer (logical) or they hacked this game with a hex editor, and stopped once they realized changes in the upper rom were useless. Either way the version is different and can't be played unless the rom is split.

 

Side note:

hack 1 = $F000 - $F7FF

hack 2 = $F800 - $FFFF

[Omegamatrix]

Splitting the CCE Tennis rom I found one half worked 100% and the other was the black screen of death. Comparing the roms they were not the same. Not even close. I peered in the rom with HOM3 and soon recognized the graphics from Laser Gates. Now Laser Gates will never work as a 2k game as half of the game would be missing! It was obvious the data was not cleared when they burned the CCE Tennis rom.

 

 

Upon further investigation, I found that it is not only a chopped up Laser Gates in the 2nd half of the rom, but more specifically the CCE version of Laser Gates. below is the complete, working version of the CCE Laser Gates, which I think they just spell "Laser Gate" according to Rom's rom set:

 

Laser_Gates__CCE_.bin

 

Not really a surprise that it is the CCE's version of Laser Gates, but something that certainly should be noted! Now to compare Tennis we'll use the 2k chunk and compare it to Activision's Tennis. You just have to compare roms that are the same size in HOM3.

 

Tennis__CCE__2K.bin

 

 

It turns out to be a graphical hack of the logo. No other changes are done.

 

;		  XXXXXXXX	XXXXXXX
;	   X	 X   X   XX
;	  XXX XX X X X  XX  XXX X XXX X  X
;	  X X X  X X X XX X X   X X X XX X
;	  XXX X  X X XXX  X XXX X X X XXXX
;	  X X X  X X XX   X   X X X X X XX
;	  X X XX X X X	X XXX X XXX X  X
;
;
;			 XXXX   XXXX   XXXX
;		 X  XX  XX XX  XX XX  XX  X
;		X X XX	 XX	 XXXXXX X X
;		 X  XX  XX XX  XX XX	  X
;			 XXXX   XXXX   XXXXX

[Omegamatrix]

Tennis is a 2k game, but the Home Vision version expanded it to 4K. Part of the reason is the Home Vision version put in a second screen, which I never knew about until I played it a little bit. Peeking in the rom I had seen Roman numerals, but I had no idea where they were used. Then this popped up:

 

 

 

I consider this a significant hack now, something where they did more then change the logo, time, or a few colors.

 

 

@Rom did you know about this screen? I saw no screenshot on Atarimania. I feel this is fairly siginificant as I believe this is the only version (hacked version) of Tennis that has this.

[Tempest]

Neat! I wonder why they went out of their way to do that? Very cool.

 

Tempest

[Omegamatrix]

I don't remember how the scoring in a game of Tennis works. Having said that I'm not sure why they couldn't count one point as 1 point instead of 30, 15, etc...

 

 

The screen does make a nice touch, at least to break the game up a little bit with a brief intermission. I was surprised when I saw it.

 

 

 

The 2.6 Diagnostic cart is more complex to analyze. It is actually a 1K rom, and I don't remember any other old era 1K roms off hand. Basically you turn your 2600 on, and the game cartridge plugged in holds the game. The 2600 goes to address $FFFC in the game cartridge, which is very close to the end of the memory the 2600 can see. It grabs the two byte address stored across $FFFC & $FFFD and jumps to that address. The address at $FFFC - $FFFD is called the reset vector, because when you hit reset (or power on) it always goes to that address first. Vectors in physics have a magnitude and direction. Anyhow the idea is there has to be defined place the Atari goes to when it starts. It would do no good if the game started anywhere in the code, right? The flexibilty comes in that what you store at $FFFC - $FFFD is just the address of where to go to next (and start executing code of the game). That is entirely up to the programmer.

 

 

Before I get even further off topic, the diagnostic cart jumps to $FC00 at the reset vector. All of the code is contained within the 1K, and nothing is addressed or looked up outside of it. Now I have to still check all of the roms to confirm this, but this seems to be the case so far.

 

 

I'll have to do a little rough disassmbly to figure out what is different in all the roms. The problem is the emulators and Krok cart don't let you load anything 1K (it has to be a minimum of 2K). I'm pretty sure there is a very valid technical reason for this on actual hardware I don't know about. I've never really studied the 2600 hardware, or maybe it has to do with game masked rom or eprom? I'd like to know if anyone can please explain.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Splitting the CCE Tennis rom I found one half worked 100% and the other was the black screen of death. Comparing the roms they were not the same. Not even close. I peered in the rom with HOM3 and soon recognized the graphics from Laser Gates. Now Laser Gates will never work as a 2k game as half of the game would be missing! It was obvious the data was not cleared when they burned the CCE Tennis rom.

Nice find, but why don't you simply use CloneSpy?

														  0  1  2  3  4  5  6
0 Laser Gates (Inner Space) (1983) (Imagic, Dan Oliver)   · 97 95 95 49  -  -
1 Laser Gates (Inner Space) (1983) (Imagic, Dan Oliver)   =  · 98 98 51  -  -
2 Weltraumtunnel (AKA Laser Gates) (1983) (Quelle) (292.  =  =  · 99 51  -  -
3 Laser Volley (AKA Laser Gates) (Zellers)·············   =  =  =  · 51  -  -
4 Tennis (1983) (CCE) (C-858)··························   =  =  =  =  · 99 97
5 Tennis (32 in 1) (1988) (Atari) (CX26163P) (PAL)·····   -  -  -  - 51  · 98
6 Tennis (1981) (Activision, Alan Miller - Ariola) (EAG-  -  -  -  - 51  =  ·

[Rom Hunter]

Tennis is a 2k game, but the Home Vision version expanded it to 4K. Part of the reason is the Home Vision version put in a second screen, which I never knew about until I played it a little bit. Peeking in the rom I had seen Roman numerals, but I had no idea where they were used. Then this popped up:

 

 

 

I consider this a significant hack now, something where they did more then change the logo, time, or a few colors.

 

 

@Rom did you know about this screen? I saw no screenshot on Atarimania. I feel this is fairly siginificant as I believe this is the only version (hacked version) of Tennis that has this.

?!?

 

Never seen this screen in my entire life.

 

That sure is an interesting discovery, Omega.

 

Many thanks!

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Never seen this screen in my entire life.

 

That sure is an interesting discovery, Omega.

Missed that screen. And since I always wondered about the additional size of the game, I am happy to know why now.

[Rom Hunter]

Ok, I'll keep the (4K) additions.

 

The ROMs have historically speaking meaning as 4K ROMs.

 

Edited January 18, 2009 by Rom Hunter

[Omegamatrix]

Rom, in your rom set you have the four 64K roms marked 128-in-1 Junior Console (Chip X of 4) (1991) (Atari) (PAL). What is the story behind this unit? Was it really Atari? There are several non-Atari roms on there I noticed, so I wonder if Atari was pirating or doing an official release of some sort?

 

 

I split all the roms and compared them with clonespy. No new roms hidden in there, but many, many that are marked as unknown, including games made by Atari themselves. I bet most of these unknowns came from this console. There is a rough comparision list below. I thought you should know.

 

 

128_in_1_Junior_Console.zip

[Rom Hunter]

I never knew that all ROMs inside these four sets were already in my collection as single ROMs, so I kept the sets in.

 

I'm going to remove them.

 

[awace]

[oh beg beg plead please make hackomatic III avalible here as a link just rename .zip to .bin so you can list it here I have II but I seen a snap you made of III and am drolling already!!..

[Omegamatrix]

Link to Hack-O-Matic 3:

 

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1578599

[awace]

Link to Hack-O-Matic 3:

 

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1578599

Thank you its cool .

any info on what kind of file to send to burner is it bin2hex.exe at 7,1,none in intel hex then switch burner to binary and push program I am confused. or i dont know how to erase the ram in burner cause i keep getting the last chip i copied 1:1 HMM mabie i should e2 erase a chip then read it then try downloading from computer cause i would be filling empty ram ..

[Omegamatrix]

Yankee Doodle Dino came to town... and made off like a bandit!! Damn those Yanks!

 

 

Many interesting carts have found, some unbelievably rare too. To start things off this week we have some sample copies of the Video Gems games. They look like this (scan courtesy of Pangasinan):

 

 

 

Video Gems is an interesting company as they made some PAL exclusives for the 2600. The sample copies that have surfaced are:

 

- Mission Survive

- Steeplechase

- Treasure Below

 

These sample copies were given away to try and gain some sales. It is also possible that they would be used in a kiosk, but it is more likely they were meant to demo'd by a dealer. It was found that both Steeplechase and Treasure below matched the release versions 100%, but Mission Survive did not.

 

 

The differences in the Mission Survive have to with audio. Some sounds will be louder in the sample copy, and might sound a little different. It's hard for me to tell as at the moment I am partially deaf in one of my ears (long story, but I've had ear problems all my life). Anyway I can tell just from looking at the disassembly of the rom, and I have included the disassembly if anyone wants to take a look. Mission Survive is also an interesting game as it has a built in checksum. If you altered any bits with a hex editor, and the checksum doesn't balance then the game will crash. I found one byte that didn't seem to do anything in the rom, yet was different between both versions. I believe now that the purpose of this byte is to offset the checksum so that it balances. Since both roms are different, so is this byte.

 

 

It'd be interesting to know if this alternate rom was actually on a released version of Video Gems too. It's quite possible. At the same time this rom doesn't appear to be a fix. It's just an alternate. It's hard to say which would be more desirable in terms of volume. There were no bug fixes here. Maybe one day a released version of this game will be dumped and match this rom, who knows?

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE:

To play this game the right difficulty switch must be set to "A" (the Expert setting). The Z26 and Stella emulators recognize the original game and set the console switch for you. The sample copy will not be known to these emulators as it is a new dump, and you have to manually configure the switch or the game will appear frozen.

 

In Stella hit the F7 key while the game is running. In Z26 hit the F8 key while the game is running.

 

Video_Gems__sample_copies_.zip

Edited March 27, 2009 by Omegamatrix

[Omegamatrix]

The Challenge of Nexar was hacked by Suntek into a game called "Galactic". The name of this game scrolled onto the screen where "Nexar" had previously been:

 

 

But at least one NTSC pirate of this PAL pirate showed up with the Suntek logo on the screen, so there had to be a rom out there that originally had the logo. Well a PAL copy has been found on this cart by King Tripod Enterprise Co.

 

 

 

Note the King Tripod is actually called Space Raid (SS - 007) which is a different game by Suntek altogether. None the less it is clear this is game is a pirate of a pirate. There does happen to be some other differences in the rom besides the title.

 

;			 Suntek	 King Tripod

;$FC11	  |XXXXXXXX|   |   X	|
;$FC12	  |	   X|   |   X  X |
;$FC13	  |	   X|   |X XX XX |
;$FC14	  |XXXXXXXX|   |X X  X  |
;$FC15	  |X	   |   |XXXXXX  |
;$FC16	  |XXXXXXXX|   | XXXXX  |
;$FC17	  |	   X|   |  X  X X|
;$FC18	  |XXXXXXXX|   |  XXXX X|
;$FC19	  |X	   |   | XXXXXXX|
;$FC1A	  |XXXXXXXX|   |XXX  XX |
;$FC1B	  |	   X|   |  X  X  |
;$FC1C	  |XXXXXXXX|   |  X XX  |
;$FC1D	  |X	   |   | X   XXX|
;$FC1E	  |XXXXXXXX|   |		|

;$FC31	  |XXXXXXX |   |   X	|
;$FC32	  |X	   |   |  XXXX  |
;$FC33	  |XXXXXXX |   |  XXXX  |
;$FC34	  |	  X |   |  XXXX  |
;$FC35	  |XXXXXXX |   | XXXXX  |
;$FC36	  |X	   |   | XX  X  |
;$FC37	  |XXXXXXX |   | XX  XX |
;$FC38	  |	  X |   | XX  XX |
;$FC39	  |XXXXXXX |   | XX  XX |
;$FC3A	  |X	   |   | XXXXXX |
;$FC3B	  |XXXXXXX |   |  XXXX  |
;$FC3C	  |	  X |   |  XXXX  |
;$FC3D	  |XXXXXXX |   |  XXX   |

;$FC52	  | XXXXXX |   | XX XX  |
;$FC53	  | X	  |   |  X  X  |
;$FC54	  | XXXXXX |   |  X  X  |
;$FC55	  |	  X |   |   XXXX |
;$FC56	  | XXXXXX |   | X XX   |
;$FC57	  | X	  |   | XXXX   |
;$FC58	  | XXXXXX |   | XXXXX  |
;$FC59	  |	  X |   |   X X  |
;$FC5A	  | XXXXXX |   |   X X  |
;$FC5B	  | X	  |   | XX  XX |
;$FC5C	  | XXXXXX |   |		|

;$FC73	  |	   X|   |   XX   |
;$FC74	  |XXXXXXXX|   | XXXXXX |
;$FC75	  |X	   |   | XXXXXX |
;$FC76	  |XXXXXXXX|   |XXX  XXX|
;$FC77	  |	   X|   |XXX  XXX|
;$FC78	  |XXXXXXXX|   | XXXXXX |
;$FC79	  |X	   |   | XXXXXX |
;$FC7A	  |XXXXXXXX|   |   XX   |
;$FC7B	  |	   X|   |		|
;$FC7C	  |XXXXXXXX|   |		|

;$FC94	  |	  X |   | X  X X |
;$FC95	  |XXXXXXX |   | X X X  |
;$FC96	  |X	   |   |  XXXX  |
;$FC97	  |XXXXXXX |   |   XX   |
;$FC98	  |	  X |   |   X X  |
;$FC99	  |XXXXXXX |   | XX   X |
;$FC9A	  |X	   |   |		|
;$FC9B	  |XXXXXXX |   |		|

;$FCB5	  | XXXXXX |   |   X	|
;$FCB6	  |	  X |   |  XXX   |
;$FCB7	  | XXXXXX |   | XX XX  |
;$FCB8	  | X	  |   |  XXX   |
;$FCB9	  | XXXXXX |   |   X	|
;$FCBA	  |	  X |   |		|
;$FCBB	  | XXXXXX |   |		|

;$FCD6	  |  X	 |   |  X X   |
;$FCD7	  |  XXXX  |   |   X	|
;$FCD8	  |  X	 |   |  X X   |
;$FCD9	  |  XXXX  |   |		|

 

There were also two more differences in the rom I never bothered to trace:

 

	bcc	LF0E9				; 2³
lda	#UNK_01			  ; 2   Suntek = 6, King Tripod = 5
sta	$C8				  ; 3
LF0E9:
lda	#$FB				 ; 2
sta	$F9				  ; 3
sta	$FA				  ; 3
lda	#$40				 ; 2
sta	$B3				  ; 3
lda	#$45				 ; 2
sta	$B8				  ; 3
lda	#$21				 ; 2
sta	$BD				  ; 3
lda	#1				   ; 2
sta	$FF				  ; 3
sta	$8F				  ; 3
lda	#$2F				 ; 2
sta	$F8				  ; 3
lda	$B2				  ; 3
cmp	#2				   ; 2
bne	LF119				; 2³
lda	#5				   ; 2
sta	$FF				  ; 3
sta	$8F				  ; 3
lda	#UNK_02			  ; 2   Suntek = 6, King Tripod = 7
sta	$C4				  ; 3
lda	#$50				 ; 2
sta	$B3				  ; 3
LF119:
jmp	LF42C				; 3

 

The reason I didn't trace these was because of time, but I did go back to the original Challenge of Nexar rom, and I found the King Tripod rom matched it in these two spots. It seems that Suntek changed these themselves when they changed the name to Galactic. This moves this King Tripod rom back in the timeline to before Galactic. The mystery of the changed graphics (those posted above) remains. Did King Tripod do it, or do they belong to this earlier version of the Suntek rom? We won't know until a Suntek cart is found that matches this rom. I strongly suspect there might be a released copy out there by Suntek that matches this 100%;, or at least a sample copy.

 

Rough disassembly and rom:

 

Space_Raid__aka_Galactic_.zip

[Omegamatrix]

On to some more demo copies. This time they come from the Ample Ace Co., Ltd. This seems to be the parent company or at least a distributor for Puzzy/Bitcorp. These are truly meant to generate sales as the full address has been printed on the main label. You wouldn't want someone to loose a business card if they want to buy some carts from you, so it makes sense to plaster the address onto the cart itself.

 

 

These were also stuck on the boxes (often any box on hand, it didn't even have to be the box for that game):

 

 

 

A comparison of the roms sent to me from Dino showed Mr. Postman (PAL), Snail Vs Squirrel (PAL), and Sea Monster (NTSC) were the same as the final released versions. Mission 3000 AD was not the same however. Disassembly showed that deliberate changes were made to have the game jump from levels 1 to 6, instead of going through all the levels (i.e. 1-6). So when you complete level one it goes straight to level 6. I can only guess that maybe Bit Corp was worried about their own games getting pirated at this point, and decided to restrict the rom. Another theory is perhaps they felt levels 1 and 6 were the best levels and that they would sell more carts "showcasing" these. Who really knows. It is a very interesting piece, and even more so since it is a cleaner rom. What I mean is the unused areas have been left filled (blanked) in the sample cart. The Bit Corp rom has garbage code in these areas, literally part of the code from elsewhere in the rom copied into there by mistake. This seems to be a common theme in the Bit Corp versions compared to the Puzzy Versions. More on that later.

 

 

Ample_Ace_Co.__Ltd.__Sample_Copies_.zip

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The Challenge of Nexar was hacked by Suntek into a game called "Galactic". The name of this game scrolled onto the screen where "Nexar" had previously been:

 

attachment=126139:Galactic.png]

Actually it says "GALATIC".

[Rom Hunter]

True, Thomas.

 

On to some more demo copies. This time they come from the Ample Ace Co., Ltd. This seems to be the parent company or at least a distributor for Puzzy/Bitcorp. These are truly meant to generate sales as the full address has been printed on the main label. You wouldn't want someone to loose a business card if they want to buy some carts from you, so it makes sense to plaster the address onto the cart itself.

 

 

These were also stuck on the boxes (often any box on hand, it didn't even have to be the box for that game):

 

 

 

A comparison of the roms sent to me from Dino showed Mr. Postman (PAL), Snail Vs Squirrel (PAL), and Sea Monster (NTSC) were the same as the final released versions. Mission 3000 AD was not the same however. Disassembly showed that deliberate changes were made to have the game jump from levels 1 to 6, instead of going through all the levels (i.e. 1-6). So when you complete level one it goes straight to level 6. I can only guess that maybe Bit Corp was worried about their own games getting pirated at this point, and decided to restrict the rom. Another theory is perhaps they felt levels 1 and 6 were the best levels and that they would sell more carts "showcasing" these. Who really knows. It is a very interesting piece, and even more so since it is a cleaner rom. What I mean is the unused areas have been left filled (blanked) in the sample cart. The Bit Corp rom has garbage code in these areas, literally part of the code from elsewhere in the rom copied into there by mistake. This seems to be a common theme in the Bit Corp versions compared to the Puzzy Versions. More on that later.

 

 

Ample_Ace_Co.__Ltd.__Sample_Copies_.zip

Great work, Omega.

 

And Dino, many thanks for dumping these!

 

 

Excellent info as well.

 

This certainly underlines my Puzzy is older than Bit Corporation theory (only I found that out by comparing the label and box artwork).

 

 

Strange that the Tripod label carries the Space Raid title.

 

It should have read Galactic (SS-002) instead.

 

Nevertheless, this cart solves some of the mysteries around that strange Challenge of Nexar hack by Suntek ROM, which is great.

 

I always thought there had to be a PAL version of this ROM as well.

 

 

Omega, also know that the NTSC version of Mission 3000 A.D. by Bit Corporation shows a thinner 1 on screen, unlike the released PAL version and Ample demo version, which show a fatter 1.

 

 

All different ROMs file-named and added to the V5 collection.

 

Looking forward to the other dumps!

 

Edited March 28, 2009 by Rom Hunter

[Omegamatrix]

The Challenge of Nexar was hacked by Suntek into a game called "Galactic". The name of this game scrolled onto the screen where "Nexar" had previously been:

 

attachment=126139:Galactic.png]

Actually it says "GALATIC".

Yes, but I was talking about the name on the cart. I knew it was printed as "Galatic" on the screen. I actually forgot to mention that. Thanks though Thomas.

 

[Omegamatrix]

This certainly underlines my Puzzy is older than Bit Corporation theory (only I found that out by comparing the label and box artwork).

 

Well for that we need proof, hee hee. You'll like the next Bit Puzzle here.

 

 

 

 

Puzzy titles are extremely rare. There was only two commerically released in NTSC; Sea Monster and Space Tunnel. Everyone knew that Puzzy was tied to Bit Corp as both names are on the label. The Puzzy one is bigger at the top, and the Bit Corp is at the bottom with the copyright. This suggests (in my mind at least) that Bit Corp is the parent company. Compare these two PAL labels side by side:

 

 

 

"Bit Corporation" at the bottom of the label never changes, but which cart came first? At This point it is hard to tell. Thankfully Dino dumped these PAL Puzzy titles:

 

- Sea Monster PG201

- Space Tunnel PG202

[ note: Phantom Tank PG203 goes here on a normal library list ]

- Open, Sesame! PG204

- Dancing Plate PG205

 

These all have the face in the Atarimania data base. Looking through Rom Hunters collection of roms though we find four roms marked by the company "Goliath" that have the "Puzzy" logo on the screen.

 

 

 

While it is obvious here the Puzzy version precedes the Goliath; the point is Goliath only copied these Puzzy games and that's it.

 

- Open Sesame

- Phantom Tank

- Sea Monster

- Space Tunnel

 

All of them have the Puzzy logo on the screen. The theory was that they had copied the entire Puzzy library at this point, which would have been PG201 to PG204. This made even more sense when you see Pangasinan's boxed Open Sesame. It has Puzzy printed on the box, and came with a Bit label on the cart. This suggests transistion from between companies, and logically cuts off where Goliath stopped piratiing too. The Bit Corp titles continue on after that doing such games as Mission 3,000 A.D. and Bobby is Going Home, etc...

 

As a side note both the Puzzy box and Puzzy label are printed Open Sesame, and it seems Bit Corp later changed that to Open, Sesame!

[Omegamatrix]

Now to the meat and potatoes. Comparing the dumps Dino did to Rom's collection I found these PAL Goliath roms matched the PAL Puzzy ones 100%.

 

- Sea Monster

- Space Tunnel

- Open Sesame

 

It seems Goliath did zero changes to these. I would bet dollars to donuts that if Puzzy Phantom Tank was ever dumped it would match the Goliath rom 100% too. Or rather I should say the Goliath rom will match the Puzzy rom 100%, as it is obvious that Puzzy came first.

 

 

So the Puzzy roms where there the entire time. They are different then the Bit Corp versions though. Compare them to each other line by line and you may end up with thousands of differeneces. The biggest problem is large areas of each game has garbage code. This garbage code can be chopped bits from other areas of the same rom or other games altogether. Whether this happened when the eprom was burned I don't know. It makes an interesting task trying to figure out what is important to the game and what is not. It is also interesting to see what other games accidently got in there.

 

 

The approach I took was to compare PAL Puzzy to PAL Bit Corp when doing my configuration file. Areas that were blanked or chopped from another place I just left as DATA. That saved getting false labels all over the place, and gives it nice seperation from the used code and the graphics. At one point I will go back and trace where each piece of this garbage code comes from for all the Bit Corp versions, but I don't have time now.

 

 

Anyhow I really only looked at Dancing Plate PG205 as it was a brand new dump. It didn't match anything dumped before. After seperating out the garbage code the changes that were truily meant appeared. The Puzzy version has a small bug that causes the logo to be a little shorter then it should be. The Bit Corp version fixes this bug. I altered the game to display the logo as it should be, and then took a screenshot with Stella. I then used Microsoft Paint to merge the two Puzzy Logo screen shots side by side for comparision:

 

 

The "Puzzy" on the left is how it does appear. The Thinness of the top of the Z's is caused by skipping a line of graphics. The Puzzy on the right is how it should appear, and how all the other Puzzy logos do appear. When Bit Corp corrected this bug they also had to change a value loaded into the timer to keep the scanlines the same, and prevent the color display from going black and white. You will get B&W on PAL tv's with an odd number of scanlines.

 

The second bug is really deadly, and will cause the game to crash. I had a hard time activating it as you have to get over 8 lives. You only start with 4 lives and once you get a lot of plates spinning it is easy to die. So I altered the initial number of lives and this is what I found:

 

	sta	WSYNC				; 3
;---------------------------------------
lda	#$10				 ; 2
sta	TIM64T			   ; 4
lda	#0				   ; 2
ldy	#4				   ; 2
ldx	$86				  ; 3   test the number of lives
beq	L731C				; 2³  - branch if zero (if you are dead)
cpx	#8				   ; 2   otherwise compare to eight lives
bcc	L730E				; 2³  - branch if less then eight lives
ldx	#8				   ; 2   otherwise cap the limit to eight lives
;=======================================

 IF PUZZY
 
;In the Puzzy version the Lives Display disappears if you get more than 8 lives.
;However you don't die, as that is triggered in another part of the code. Once
;the score rolls over another 10,000 your Lives Display shows one life, and if
;a block hits the ground on that one life you legitimately die.
 
sta	$86				  ; 3   this should have been STX.

 ELSE BITCORP
 
stx	$86				  ; 3   the Bit Corp version fixes this bad glitch

 ENDIF
 
;=======================================
L730E:
sec						 ; 2

 

The other changes are in the garbage code. The Puzzy code is a little more cleaner with having some areas just blanked. None the less the Puzzy version does have a huge chunk of Phantom Tank stuck in it. you can even see the tank graphics in a hex editor. It will be interesting to see what code is what game, but that is a project way in the future. For now it becomes apparent that the Puzzy version is the older rom, and in my mind at least the Puzzy games are the true originals (when compared to the Bit Corp releases). I would suggest changing all the PAL Puzzy titles to the bolded original versions on Atarimania, and updating Stella so that it uses Puzzy over Goliath in the title at the top of the screen.

 

 

 

 

As a side note I found lots of the Puzzy games looked very similar in code. They might have all started from the same code base.

 

 

Puzzy_Roms__PAL_.zip