pasmo and z80dasm to assemble and disassemble, and Python 3 for the tools. For screenshots and for the harnesses that pull data out of the running game, openmsx.
The tape is not distributed with this repository — only the documentation work. You need your own copy, named stardust.tsx in the root of the project, and it has to give this sha256:
8f4fb3840e5ad043d8d694faeaa86a6e4a5cd2cabe5dd99fec08e5cf0a7dbb13
make # extracts the blocks, generates the listings and checks everything
make test # the tests only
make web # rebuilds the site under docs/make on its own runs the whole cycle and fails if anything doesn't add up: if a listing stops reproducing its block byte for byte, if the tracer wanders into a data zone, if an entry point sits inside a range declared as data, or if a single byte of the tape is left unaccounted for.
You can read the listings in src/ and the notes, which is where the work is. And the tests that don't depend on the binary pass all the same: several of them just do arithmetic on the published figures and run with nothing else.
Each block on the tape has three files that govern its disassembly:
src/X.entries | the entry points: where tracing starts |
src/X.nocode | the zones that are NOT code, and how that is known |
src/X.notes | the annotations, and the data ranges with their explanation |
Those produce the src/stardust_X.asm files, which are never edited by hand: they are generated. If you want to change a comment, it goes in the .notes.
That separation is what keeps the listing and its verification from drifting apart: the file that gets published is the file that gets checked.
tools/perfil.py | X-rays a binary and says where the nature of the data changes |
tools/clasifica_huecos.py | classifies a range by measuring it, and says which measurement the label came from |
tools/check_entradas.py | refuses any entry point that falls inside a range declared as data |
tools/render_graficos.py | draws tiles, sprites and charset straight from the tape |
tools/omsx_*.tcl | openMSX harnesses: they pull out of the running game what the binary won't say |
tools/omsx_replay.tcl | replays a recorded playthrough and samples the program counter |
What's missing is set out with figures in What's missing. The two lines where most ground can be gained right now are the 3349 unidentified bytes and the routines of the second part, which has barely been played.