More thoughts about Lode Runner & other multiload games...

[Steve Nickolas <usotsuki@buric.co>]

I still haven't found what I'm looking for (apologies to U2)

The necessary parts are "read level", "read score table" and "write score 
table".  Once these can be located, I can work on the file cracks.  I 
still have a copy of the work I've done so far, including a copy of the 
partially disassembled code at http://1.buric.co/lrdas1.txt

An actual level is 224 bytes, but is stored as 256.  I could use the video 
memory ($2000-5FFF), as I probably mentioned before, to hold anything 
bound for the language card, as it is the same amount of memory. 
Relocation code would replace RWTS.

Lode Runner is 150 levels, and Championship Lode Runner is 50 levels.

12K (D000-FFFF) and 256 byte levels .................................  47
12K (D000-FFFF) and 224 byte levels .................................  53
16K (D000-FFFF+D000-DFFF) and 256 byte levels .......................  63
16K (D000-FFFF+D000-DFFF) and 224 byte levels .......................  72
20K (D000-FFFF+D000-DFFF+B000-BFFF) and 256 byte levels .............  79
20K (D000-FFFF+D000-DFFF+B000-BFFF) and 224 byte levels .............  90
24K (D000-FFFF+D000-DFFF+0400-07FF+A400-BFFF) and 256 byte levels ...  95
24K (D000-FFFF+D000-DFFF+0400-07FF+A400-BFFF) and 224 byte levels ... 108

At any rate I can't fit the whole game.  I could take two approaches here.

1. 20/256 - split the original Lode Runner in half (75/75) - and 16/256
   for Championship Lode Runner.
2. 12/224 - split the original Lode Runner in thirds (50/50/50) and use
   the same format for Championship Lode Runner.

Either way, I intend to compress the files.  Most likely I'll make a 
special "Apple Crunch Lode Runner Edition" with Lode Runner Part I, Lode 
Runner Part II, (Lode Runner Part III) and Championship Lode Runner.

Now, other games... is anything other than the screens loaded off the disk 
with Donkey Kong?  Might it be possible to use a small RLE packer, then 
ram the screens (they won't fit in 16K uncompressed but I bet they 
compress well even with RLE) onto the language card?  A depacker might 
even fit in place of the load code?

Karateka is a 48K multiload, is it possible to stuff extra code in the LC 
for that too?

-uso.