There are a number of tools that we will need in order to dig into the code of Rocket Raid, and some books that will come in handy.
Software Tools
First is a BBC Emulator for running the game and for its debugger/monitor feature which allows memory locations to be updated on the fly. I will be using the excellent BeebEm.
The disassembler BeebDis, by Phil Harvey-Smith, allows game code to be turned back into assembly language instructions for closer examination. Not only that, but the assembly instructions can be modified for reassembly which will be very useful for investigations.
BeebAsm, by Rich Talbot-Watkins, is an assembler which will allow assembly code to be assembled into machine code for running on the emulator. The BeebDis assembler produces code in a format that is compatible for feeding into BeebAsm.
BBC Explorer by Laurie Whiffen. This easy-to-use GUI-based utility allows the contents of a BBC disc to be extracted into individual files, and is compatible with various emulated disc formats.
Reference Material
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| The Advanced User Guide |
One useful reference manual is the BBC Advanced User Guide, which can be downloaded from here. This guide was the companion to the standard User Guide for the BBC, and contains a wealth of information including operating system calls, memory locations and assembly language instructions.
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| Creative Assembler by Jonathan Griffiths |
As mentioned in the previous post, Jonathan Griffiths wrote a book called "Creative Assembler - How To Write Arcade Games" which is available online here. Inside are a number of assembly-language routines with comments by the author which will hopefully help shed light on some of the code found in the Rocket Raid game.
And Last But Not Least...
And of course we will need to obtain a disc image of the game itself, which can be found on various websites such as Stairway To Hell.
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