gamesexplained
@gamesexplained Organization
Public Skills
70-minisite
by gamesexplained
Build the game's minisite. The "How it works" page (index.html) from symbols.json, facts.md and the reference images; the Discoveries tab of secrets, quirks and bugs; the listing behind the Source code tab; the Maps / levels tab for a game with more than one level; an optional Play tab. Interactivity first and the best of it high on the page, evidence beside every claim, copy written last under the house style.
50-coverage
by gamesexplained
The annotation loop. Measure comprehension with the shared coverage metric, work the burn-down queue of largest undescribed runs, export symbols.json after every session. Includes how to split the work across subagents safely.
tool-regen2000
by gamesexplained
How to drive regenerator2000 on a BBC Micro game. Starting it on the kit's jsbeeb snapshot in its BBC Micro mode, how the BBC's text, the MOS's names and SHEILA's registers come through to symbols.json and the listing, and the traps that are the BBC's. The rest is the C64's skill.
bbc-reference
by gamesexplained
BBC Micro Model B facts for reverse engineering, memory map, paged ROMs, SHEILA, the screen modes, the VIAs and keyboard, interrupts and events, timing, sound, the MOS calls, disc and tape loading, games written in BBC BASIC, and the mistakes that bite. Consult this instead of recalling from training.
tool-jsbeeb
by gamesexplained
How to drive jsbeeb 2.4.0, the BBC Micro emulator the kit uses, through the kit's own server. Start it, connect, the commands, runs and checkpoints, frames, keys and the joystick, snapshots, discs and tapes, the screen, the text and the sound chip, and the traps measured on the release. What to do when a check fails is in workarounds.md, beside this file.
60-verify
by gamesexplained
Turn traced claims into verified facts. Test cheaply testable claims live in the emulator, hunt down the negative results you are relying on, and write facts.md as current truth with evidence.
80-retro
by gamesexplained
The last step of every run. Name the skill text that changed what you did, record where the kit fell short, and change in the same branch only what the next run would not catch by itself, so the next contributor starts from a better kit. Complete game.json.
tool-zesarux
by gamesexplained
How to drive ZEsarUX 13.0 over ZRCP, the ZX Spectrum emulator the kit uses. Start it, connect, the commands the kit runs, stepping and checkpoints, frames, input, snapshots, and the traps measured on the release. What to do when a check fails is in workarounds.md, beside this file.
tool-skoolkit
by gamesexplained
How to drive SkoolKit 10.1 for ZX Spectrum disassembly — the control file that is the annotation surface, the directives the kit writes, the round trip through symbols.json, and the traps. The kit's own Z80 decoder and snapshot reader mean a listing never depends on it. The machine facts it needs are in zx-spectrum-reference.
zx-spectrum-reference
by gamesexplained
ZX Spectrum facts for reverse engineering, memory map, ULA port $FE, 128K paging, AY sound, timing, the character set, and the mistakes that bite. Consult this instead of recalling from training.
review-game-pr
by gamesexplained
Review a gamesexplained pull request that adds or updates a game against the maintainer's checklist, and recommend the next step. Run by hand on a PR number, or by the hourly routine below.
c64-reference
by gamesexplained
Commodore 64 facts for reverse engineering, memory map, banking, video, sound, timers, interrupt vectors, and the mistakes that bite. Consult this instead of recalling from training.
tool-vice-mcp
by gamesexplained
How to drive VICE through the vice-mcp server, the recommended emulator setup. Check the build first, then the tool names, the sequence that works, stepping and input, and the behaviours that waste time on any build. What to do when a check fails is in workarounds.md, beside this file.
tool-regen2000
by gamesexplained
How to drive regenerator2000, the recommended disassembler, through its MCP server with the kit's client script. Starting it on a snapshot, the tools that matter, the annotation log, and the traps.
10-orient
by gamesexplained
First step for any game. Boot it in the emulator, get past the loader with the least effort that works, reach real gameplay, save the steady-state snapshot, write orientation.md and start the disassembler on the snapshot.
30-text
by gamesexplained
Decode the game's text when it uses a custom character set. Render the glyphs and read them; byte-pattern search cannot find text stored in a private alphabet.
20-features
by gamesexplained
Before reading any code, write down everything the game is documented to do and collect reference screenshots. Turns "what am I looking at" into a checklist and stops the commonest misreadings.
40-sweep
by gamesexplained
Cheap mechanical sweeps that convert large regions from unknown to understood in one pass (a hardware register census, a string sweep, a twin-copy check and, when another version of the game is documented, a map of that version onto this image). Also how to start from an analysis the contributor already has. Run early, and again whenever the burn-down stalls.