Keen Vorticons deconstruction?

Request patches for Keens 1-3.
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levellass
Posts: 3001
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:03 pm
Location: Ngaruawahia New Zealand

Keen Vorticons deconstruction?

Post by levellass »

I've been working on a sprite editing program, and doing so has forced me to take a good look at the Keen 1-3 sprite code, looking through Levellord's copious notes and trying a bit of trial and error. (The program is about 1/2 done, I would like some beta testers.) with the result that, while not understanding everything, I now know enough to 'deconstruct' the sprite code for all three episodes, putting notes on every byte and such, much like what has been done with Keen 4

Sadly, I don't know everything, I don't know the proper terminology, and I haven't written everything up. So for example, this is how I 'explain' the Vortikid's death code:

$55 Start segment
$8B Start command 1
$EC Set command as behavior
$56 Set command
$8B Start command 2
$76 End command 2
$04 Command size of 4
$8B Start command 3
$5E Value (Unknown)
$06 Size of command
$83 Start sub-command
$3F Set Value byte
$0F Value (Set value of what kills Vortikid)
$75 End command 3
$21 Set value location
$B8 Get a long value
$27 $00
$50 Stop getting value
$E8 Jump from cursor
$7A $85 Jump
$59
$C7 Change value
$44 Set value as sprite value
$2A Value byte (Continue)
$00 $00 Value
$C7 Change value
$44 Sprite value
$2C Value byte (Animation frames)
$02 $00 Value
$C7 Change value
$44 Sprite value
$28 Value byte (Animation)
$37 $00
$C7 Change value
$44 Sprite value
$34 Value byte (Goto when collide)
$00 $6A
$C7 Change value
$44 Sprite value
$32 Value byte (Goto action)
$C0 $7E
$5E Unset command 1 as behavior
$5D Close command 1
$C3 End segment

My question is, since writing all this up would take some time and would be a lot of work, is this kind of thing of any use to anyone, and would they use it, or should I not bother and just give people any information they ask for, when they need it?
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Tulip
Posts: 394
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:40 pm
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
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Post by Tulip »

Well,
while this would definetly be a nice tool, if it worked kind of like Patchotron, I don't really know how many people will use it.

I'm sure I'd use it it a few times in my mods, but as I'm not programming myself I've no idea how much work this really is.
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