em_kay Posted September 3, 2023 Share Posted September 3, 2023 hi, does anyone have a hex edit that allows you to play just the city or the final battle parts ? thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
em_kay Posted September 4, 2023 Author Share Posted September 4, 2023 replying to my own post in case anyone else is interested in this.. using Altirra debugger it seems as you play the game the number of special targets you hit is stored in $06AC so using the built in cheater function, set $06AC to a high number such as $60 and start the game you go straight to the final battle and if you manage to hit the 3 targets then the next runway will be flashing green and you win the game next step is to patch the ATR... 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firebottle Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 BTW, what are those things you're bombing at the final stage? They look like decapitated Battlezone tanks. I never saw this stage back in the day... is it mentioned in the manual? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 You'd probably just do well to search the program area for the hex sequence AC 06. Likely there's instructions that set it, increment it, compare it. Match found at: 0DCB Match found at: 0F8D Match found at: 2F26 Match found at: 3E2C Match found at: 3E4C Match found at: 3E74 Match found at: 3F4F Match found at: 3FDD Match found at: 437E Match found at: 45C4 Match found at: 45DA Match found at: 4C94 That's looking from $600 to end of 48K Ram. You'd also do better to leave the ATR alone - Blue Max has been available as an XEX for a long time. The done thing is to just append a cheat menu to such programs, it would probably be worthwhile doing Lives and maybe having some disable collision options as well though you'd probably not want to disable ground collisions. Atari800Win+ has trainer (A8T) files for some games though I've only got a few and Blue Max isn't one of the ones I have. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
em_kay Posted September 5, 2023 Author Share Posted September 5, 2023 special targets and final battle are all mentioned in the manual - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-blue-max_5978.html so back to the hex edit challenge... it was the 2nd address block identified by Rybags looking at the source code to blue max here - https://gitlab.com/atari/bluemax (linked from it is this block of code that executes if you make a successful take off - 005800 LDA $6AC 005820 CMP #2 005840 BCC SRT 005860 CMP $6C7 005880 BCS V0 005900 INC $6A7 005920 .18 LDA 53770 005940 CMP #160 005960 BCC ZN 005980 .9 JMP SRT 006000 V0 INC $6AE 006020 ZN LDA #90 with the lack of source code comments, it first checks the number of special targets hit ($6AC) is less than 2 (which it isnt at the start of the game) then subsequent check is if you have reached the target number required ($6C7) then you get the final battle so for the .xex file in Altirra - before... Altirra> u 0f8c 0F8C: AD AC 06 LDA $06AC 0F8F: C9 02 CMP #$02 0F91: 90 5C BCC $0FEF 0F93: CD C7 06 CMP $06C7 0F96: B0 0D BCS $0FA5 0F98: EE A7 06 INC $06A7 0F9B: AD 0A D2 LDA RANDOM 0F9E: C9 A0 CMP #$A0 0FA0: 90 06 BCC $0FA8 0FA2: 4C EF 0F JMP $0FEF 0FA5: EE AE 06 INC $06AE 0FA8: A9 5A LDA #$5A 0FAA: 8D 67 06 STA $0667 after... Altirra> u 0f8c 0F8C: AD C7 06 LDA $06C7 0F8F: 8D AC 06 STA $06AC 0F92: 4C A5 0F JMP $0FA5 cleanest solution tested so far is putting the required targets number into the number of targets hit to hex edit the .xex file - search - AD AC 06 C9 02 90 5C CD C7 replace - AD C7 06 8D AC 06 4C A5 0F .xex file attached for testing cheers! Emkay Blue Max final battle hack.zip 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 While you're looking through the code, would it be possible to discover why bombing your own hangar corrupts the display list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddyFree Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 The patch I came up with in [SEARCH:REPLACE] form with XX meaning ignore this byte(no change) is [ADAC06C9:A960EAXX]. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryleffaovell Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 I'd love to patch the cartridge as well but can't find any of the mentioned hex values there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted September 6, 2023 Share Posted September 6, 2023 12 hours ago, Stephen said: While you're looking through the code, would it be possible to discover why bombing your own hangar corrupts the display list? I think this might have been investigated in a thread elsewhere a fair long time back, and found to be deliberate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
em_kay Posted September 6, 2023 Author Share Posted September 6, 2023 ah my fault I should have used a forced branch instead of an absolute jump as the cartridge has the code relocated at a different address in memory using the rom dump here - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-blue-max_s700.html original - Altirra> s 0 Lffff AD AC 06 c9 02 Match found at: 5381 Altirra> u 5381 5381: AD AC 06 LDA $06AC 5384: C9 02 CMP #$02 5386: 90 5C BCC $53E4 5388: CD C7 06 CMP $06C7 538B: B0 0D BCS $539A patched - Altirra> u 5381 5381: AD C7 06 LDA $06C7 5384: 8D AC 06 STA $06AC 5387: 18 CLC 5388: 90 10 BCC $539A search for - AD AC 06 C9 02 90 5C CD C7 replace with - AD C7 06 8D AC 06 18 90 10 attached file for testing now on to bombing your own hanger... it might take me a while Blue Max final battle hack.rom 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddyFree Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 The Display List corruption after bombing your own hangar was intentional. Patch to remove it = [D28D3002:XXEAEAEA] And, while I'm at it: Don't Spawn Enemy Planes = [291FD0:A9XXXX] Player's Plane doesn't take damage = [CE5906:60EAEA] And here's a "fun" one I came up with since I use an actual SNES controller with Altirra and I have the Y button mapped as "space" since that's usually "pause" in most games. This patch allows me to drop bombs with it in this game. "Space Bar" drops bombs instead of pausing the game (regardless of whether bombing damage is present) = [60A907A225A025205CE4:XXXX008DFC024C1C1AEA] 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
em_kay Posted September 7, 2023 Author Share Posted September 7, 2023 impressive thanks for those especially like the idea of space bar for bombing dont suppose you have one to stop you going too low and crashing ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddyFree Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 19 hours ago, em_kay said: impressive thanks for those especially like the idea of space bar for bombing dont suppose you have one to stop you going too low and crashing ? That's a challenge considering the way the program was written. After tinkering a while I was able to limit the plane so it wouldn't go lower than the "strafe" range where you can shoot ground objects but aren't in danger of crashing. Unfortunately, as I was patting myself on the back for that, I realized that I wouldn't be able to land the plane for repairs/refueling either as said plane has to go lower than the "capped" range I set in order to land. Back to square one! So the only method I see left, without extensive code replacement, is to NO-OP the "crash routine" calls. It's a little "rough" and may create some temporary "quirks" in the graphics, but works overall. And it pretty much eliminates all crashes. No Crashing Patch = [4CD916:EAEAEA] (ALL 10 occurrences) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
em_kay Posted September 8, 2023 Author Share Posted September 8, 2023 impressive thanks I'll give that a go needing to land on the runway didnt even cross my mind either I'm moving onto my next favorite game - http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-galahad-and-the-holy-grail_6499.html but I'll head over to your official game patch topic for this one and keep the forum nice and clean .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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