[BBC] Video Game programming archeology - or, "Mayne, you could have a job as a video-game programmer".

[VirtualLarry]

The mysterious origins of an uncrackable video game

With the digital equivalent of trowels and shovels, archaeologists are digging into the code of early video games to uncover long forgotten secrets that could have relevance today.

www.bbc.com

He too remembered being confused by the table at the time. “I couldn’t unscramble it,” he told the researchers. And he claimed it had been the work of a programmer who developed it while not entirely sober: “He told me it came upon him when he was drunk and whacked out of his brain.” Aycock tried to contact the programmer in question but got no response.

I'd love to have a look at that source code. I've done maze-games before, and developed an algorithm for "presentation" of a 2D maze view segment into a 3D view. Not sure if that would be relevant to this code, but I'm good at figuring out puzzles.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

@VirtualLarry i never understood how code could be lost when it’s in a game. When I hear the source code was lost why does that make copying the game difficult, it’s all in the game file isn’t it?
Regarding this cool story, why can the code be extracted from the cartridge and analyzed? I understand that there probably aren’t a lot of Atari 2600 programming experts around and those that did have experience are probably pretty rusty.

 

[VirtualLarry]

i never understood how code could be lost when it’s in a game. When I hear the source code was lost why does that make copying the game difficult, it’s all in the game file isn’t it?

Source code is kind of like a programming recipe. If you have a bottle of beer, can you use that to get the recipe for beer, and how to make it? It's not always that easy to turn machine code back into source code.

Regarding this cool story, why can the code be extracted from the cartridge and analyzed? I understand that there probably aren’t a lot of Atari 2600 programming experts around and those that did have experience are probably pretty rusty.

Well, the games are stored in ROM, I believe, so just reading out the ROMs, would give the machine code. Which can then, if properly analysed, be turned into data tables and assembly code. Which, given the primitive nature of these games and systems, would probably be good enough for that.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Source code is kind of like a programming recipe. If you have a bottle of beer, can you use that to get the recipe for beer, and how to make it? It's not always that easy to turn machine code back into source code.


Well, the games are stored in ROM, I believe, so just reading out the ROMs, would give the machine code. Which can then, if properly analysed, be turned into data tables and assembly code. Which, given the primitive nature of these games and systems, would probably be good enough for that.

Thanks and cool link too!

 

[esquared]

The mysterious origins of an uncrackable video game

With the digital equivalent of trowels and shovels, archaeologists are digging into the code of early video games to uncover long forgotten secrets that could have relevance today.

www.bbc.com

I'd love to have a look at that source code. I've done maze-games before, and developed an algorithm for "presentation" of a 2D maze view segment into a 3D view. Not sure if that would be relevant to this code, but I'm good at figuring out puzzles.

I read that article earlier and one of the people said that one of the guys, or the guy that created that algorithm, may not have been sober.

"He too remembered being confused by the table at the time. “I couldn’t unscramble it,” he told the researchers. And he claimed it had been the work of a programmer who developed it while not entirely sober: “He told me it came upon him when he was drunk and whacked out of his brain.” Aycock tried to contact the programmer in question but got no response. "

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I read that article earlier and one of the people said that one of the guys, or the guy that created that algorithm, may not have been sober.

"He too remembered being confused by the table at the time. “I couldn’t unscramble it,” he told the researchers. And he claimed it had been the work of a programmer who developed it while not entirely sober: “He told me it came upon him when he was drunk and whacked out of his brain.” Aycock tried to contact the programmer in question but got no response. "

I read that, interesting the guy who did the coding didn’t want to talk about it and I wonder if it was a combination of that drunken obsession we sometimes get and a bunch of luck that can’t be explained or recreated.
I have close to zero experience with coding things but I find it fascinating. Especially regarding the Atari 2600. Amazing what was created with so few processes and barely useful hardware.
Admittedly I remember 90% of it being monotonous crap but that remaining 10% was amazing.
Also shows the value of “fun” other than the glowing banner in the hidden room in Adventure! or the craziness that was Revenge of Yar, I never felt the graphics were that spectacular with the Atari the games were simply fun.

 

[whm1974]

I read that, interesting the guy who did the coding didn’t want to talk about it and I wonder if it was a combination of that drunken obsession we sometimes get and a bunch of luck that can’t be explained or recreated.
I have close to zero experience with coding things but I find it fascinating. Especially regarding the Atari 2600. Amazing what was created with so few processes and barely useful hardware.
Admittedly I remember 90% of it being monotonous crap but that remaining 10% was amazing.
Also shows the value of “fun” other than the glowing banner in the hidden room in Adventure! or the craziness that was Revenge of Yar, I never felt the graphics were that spectacular with the Atari the games were simply fun.

True but the Atari 2600 was designed during the late 70's and to keep the console affordable, the designers had limited hardware to work with.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

True but the Atari 2600 was designed during the late 70's and to keep the console affordable, the designers had limited hardware to work with.

Yes that’s what’s amazing about it

 

[sdifox]

Let me go find the boxes of punchcards

 

[Red Squirrel]

Reminds me when I used to be active coding on my UO server. Some nights I would just get into a super code mode where the next morning I look at my work and can't believe I actually coded that. "This is more than prod worthy, it's a masterpiece, why is it still on dev?" The most notable was a mob called the Changeling. It's a pixie like mob that will randomly change into the form of it's attacker and inherit the skills, armor etc. Rather complex mob to code but I did it in a single night in like an hour since I was just into that super coding mode. The way I coded it was so genius I could not believe it myself that I did it. It worked so well it was better than even the official EA version. (I guess that's setting the bar low, but still!)

On other days I spend 3 hours debugging code only to find out I did something stupid like put a semi colon after an if or while statement.