Spectrum Computing

Probably a daft question, is reverse engineered different from disassembled?

Well, different people may have different definitions.

Personally I would agree with RMartins that reverse engineering is a bit more than just disassembling. It's disassembling + documenting.

Actually disassembling may be entirely automatic - your input is binary file and your output is text file with assembler commands, labels like L32768 and not a single comment. Adding meaningful labels and comments makes it something more than just disassembly.

I discovered a Head Over Heels disassembly the other week on github which I'd not previously spotted: https://github.com/simon-frankau/head-over-heels

Does any one know of a reverse engineered version of Space Harrier ?

Closest I can offer is "Cannonball": the reconstructed OutRun engine: https://github.com/djyt/cannonball/wiki

Doesn't seem identical, although I agree the implementation of the floor could be considered similar.

I find the annotated disassembly listings really useful, far more so than the books on assembly in making a game. While the books are necessary for looking up things like processor specs, timings - of a technical nature. And of course the basics. Its the games themselves where the practical applications are found. Being able to see how various creators did what they did is great.

The games I wish that would get this treatment are in no particular order...

The Forest - , its a mix of basic and assembly. How they managed to get the game space in the spectrum always made me scratch my head, especially considering it was a mix of basic and assembly (well according to infoseek).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpyLanR7lG4[/youtube]

Mailstrom - while the game was a grind, I always wondered how they got the scrolling to work like they did and all the various menus.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ZvACJsR0E[/youtube]

saboteur - I loved that game back in the day, to be able to poke around inside and figure out how it worked its 'magic' would be really something.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2Mq2TMkm8o[/youtube]

Luny has disassembled Pyjamarama here:

http://www.luny.co.uk/index.php?page=90