4cade/res/notes/attract-mode.txt
2021-08-02 21:58:19 -04:00

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# List of candidates for self-running 'captive' demos
#
# Not all games are good candidates. Some have no demo mode at all. Others
# technically have one but it's visually uninteresting or too short. Still
# others are ruled out by technical constraints. Due to the architecture of
# the launcher, all self-running demos must run entirely in main memory.
# NO languard card, NO auxmem!
#
# We have enough disk space that we don't worry too much about it. (Wow.)
# Generally we start with an uncompressed ProDOS port of the entire game
# and whittle it down to just the files it needs for its demo mode, then
# apply patches so that it
#
# - returns control after the natural end of the demo cycle
# - returns control on any keypress
# - returns control on any button press (note: some games don't support
# joystick buttons at all, and we don't add button support, but if you
# can start the game by pressing a button, we need to ensure that that
# returns control instead)
# - disables all sound output
#
# 'Returning control' involves activating RAM bank 1 read access and
# jumping indirectly to ($FFFC), which points to the routine labeled as
# |Reenter| in the source code. The launcher puts this code at $0100 before
# executing a self-running demo, so generally you can just put 'JMP $0100'
# anywhere you can find 3 bytes. If a particular game overwrites this area
# of the stack page, you will need to find 6 bytes for the instructions
# 'LDA $C088 / JMP ($FFFC)' yourself.
#
# Notes on completed and in-progress demos are in res/notes/demos/
#
# 2021 additions
Apple Invader
Arena
Boulder Dash II
Bug Battle
Fly Wars
# needs work
Formula 1 Racer
# done
Agent USA
Alien Ambush
Alien Downpour
Alien Rain
Apple Cider Spider
Aquatron
Bolo
Bouncing Kamungas
BurgerTime
Buzzard Bait
Ceiling Zero
Championship Lode Runner
Choplifter
Conan
Dino Eggs
Dung Beetles
Firebird
Firebug
Flip Out
Gamma Goblins
Gumball
Hard Hat Mack
High Rise
Jungle Hunt
Karateka
Lady Tut
Lode Runner
Lost Tomb
Mr. Cool
O'Riley's Mine
Pac-Man
Pest Patrol
Pie-Man
Pitfall II
Plasmania
Pooyan
Repton
Robotron 2084
Sammy Lightfoot
Serpentine
Snake Byte
Sneakers
Spare Change
Spider Raid
Spy Hunter
Spy's Demise
Stargate
Stellar 7
The Goonies
Thunder Bombs
Track N Field
Tubeway ][
Warp Destroyer
Wavy Navy
Vindicator
# obvious candidates that we're skipping
Arkanoid (requires 64K)
Drol (attract mode is minimal)
Mr. Do (attract mode requires 64K)
Prince of Persia (requires 128K)
Rescue Raiders (requires 64K)
Ribbit ("demo" is just "practice mode" with infinite lives and no scoring)
Starblaster ("demo" is just "practice mode" with infinite lives and no scoring)
Succession ("demo" is just "practice mode" with infinite lives and no scoring)
Tag Team Wrestling (requires 64K)