THE HACKER'S VIEW OF THE COMMODORE 64

Sep 30, 2009

Custom Display for Paradroid

A hack for the game Paradroid (1985):

(watch in full-screen)

This game is set on a spaceship with 20 decks. There is an off-screen with a full deck, somewhere in the RAM, but only a small part of it is visible on the display while playing. ICU64 reads directly from the off-screen and visualizes it whole in a custom display.

This case wasn't so trivial as was the 'Boulder Dash':

(read more on this and other future applications at lemon64)

Paradroid uses sprites (in a swap mechanism) and splits the screen using raster effects. But it's done now, proving that any game can be hacked like this.

(During this hack several missing features from ICU64 were pointed out and they are on their way now)

Sep 12, 2009

ICU64 for VICE 2.1

It was asked by many, so here it is:

ICU64 for VICE 2.1 
Requirements:
- a PC with Windows XP and .NET Framework 2.0
- the WinVICE 2.1 emulator

Have fun! 
(Read the included README.TXT for the installation instructions)

NOTE
In this version ICU64 operates as a common debugger over the x64 process. This approach reduces the features that can be supported, in comparison to the Frodo Redpill version. But since it is slightly newer, it has some more functionality and some bugs are fixed. The notable addition is a simple 'memory scanner'.

Also, this version can be connected with other C64 emulators. However, the procedure to do this is a little hard, for safety reasons.

The included file 'x64mm.exe' comes from a recompilation of the VICE 2.1 source code with the -memmap option. (The source code is NOT altered this time, in contrast to the Frodo version). With this option, the x64 tracks the memory accesses made by the CPU (unfortunately with some issues: some RAM accesses reported incorrectly by the x64 as ROM accesses).

I hope that the VICE team will notice the possibilities, so that one day they fully expose the C64 virtual machine to the external applications.

    Sep 1, 2009

    First Release of ICU64 and Frodo Redpill

    After the first public preview of ICU64, the hacking tool that provides real-time view and edit of the C64 internals, here is the first public version: 
    You can now experience the hacker's view of the Commodore 64!


    (the above video is also available at vimeo)

    Requirements:
    - a fast PC with Windows XP and .NET Framework 2.0
    - the Frodo v4.1 emulator

    NOTE
    It is still a prototype, and it is missing a lot of functionality and user guidance. This software is intended for advanced users.