The incomplete Contact Sam Cruise RAM disassembly, with which I have have teased the audience by (a) mentioning its inclusion in SkoolKit, and (b) mentioning updates to it in the recent SkoolKit changelogs, is now up, online, in a browsable HTML form, at this very website.

However, unlike its cousins - the Skool Disassemblies - the incomplete Contact Sam Cruise RAM disassembly really is, as its name unambiguously indicates, incomplete. In other words, it is a work in progress. It also probably contains many inaccuracies and outright errors that will need fixing over time. Any members of the audience wishing to see a full reverse engineering job of Microsphere’s classic private eye game will have to exercise patience, and lots of it. You have been warned.

In the meantime, bug reports for the disassembly itself, and suggestions for content on the Bugs and Trivia pages (or any other pages) are welcome. If you’d like to build the disassembly yourself from the comfort of your own Python-endowed computer, grab SkoolKit; version 2.0.3 (released today) includes the source skool and ref files for the current online version.

SkoolKit 2.0 is ready for release, so I have released it. Grab a copy from the download page.

It hasn’t been long since the previous release, but there have been many changes under the hood (as the saying goes). Before I list the main ones, though, a little history. SkoolKit 1.x supported four different types of macro and directive in skool and ref files (the ‘source’ files for a disassembly): skool macros, ASM directives, skool directives, and ref file macros. That’s a large number of macros and directives to remember the purposes of, differences between, and syntax for. SkoolKit 2.0, on the other hand, supports only two types of macro and directive: skool macros and ASM directives. All instances of and support for skool directives and ref file macros are gone. Trust me: you won’t miss them.

Continuing the quest for simplification, support for five (yes, five) of the skool macros has disappeared: #ASM, #LOAD, #SAVE, #START and #PT. But again, trust me: you won’t miss them. Anything they could do can now be done by the enhanced #R macro.

Simplification was not the only goal for 2.0, however. Clarification was high on the priority list as well. To that end, load.skool, save.skool and start.skool - which confusingly used to serve as source files for code in both Skool Daze and Back to Skool - have been split into separate files for each game. Also on the clarification front, the mysteries of the ref files have now been exposed: every section that may appear in a ref file is fully documented in the user manual.

In other documentation news, the user manual has been tidied up a bit. There’s now a separate page describing each of the commands that ship with SkoolKit: bin2tap.py, skool2asm.py, skool2ctl.py, skool2html.py, and sna2skool.py. And the ‘Disassembly DIY’ page - which was previously a rather feeble and disorganised attempt at explaining how SkoolKit could be used to develop a disassembly of some game other than Skool Daze or Back to Skool - should now be much more accessible and useful. It even includes tips on using skool2ctl.py to create a control file from a skool file, in case you ever (understandably) supposed that that was a completely pointless and backward thing to do.

No one complained about it - so I suppose no one actually noticed - but owing to a cockup by my incompetent release manager (that is, me) the loading code, save code, and startup code disassemblies for Contact Sam Cruise that were promised in 1.4 never actually made it into the tarball and zip archive. Let me dwell on this blunder no further other than to say that the omission has been rectified in SkoolKit 2.0.

Last and most definitely least - because SkoolKit is not just for skools any more, remember - the Skool Disassemblies have seen a minor update in celebration of the SkoolKit 2.0 release. As usual, you can browse these disassemblies online, or download a copy for offline viewing, or download SkoolKit and build a copy yourself. Full instructions are (still, despite the skool de-emphasis) included.

Well, that’s about it. Now go forth and disassemble.

SkoolKit 1.4 is ready for release on this here internet. Get your copy from the download page.

As a reminder to those who have forgotten what it is, or as news to those who have never heard of it, SkoolKit is a collection of utilities that enable you to disassemble a Spectrum game (or, indeed, a non-game) into a format known as a skool file. And what’s the point of that? Well, from this skool file you can create a browsable disassembly in HTML format, or an assemblable disassembly in ASM format. So the skool file is - from start to finish as you develop it - the common ‘source’ for both the reader-friendly HTML version of your disassembly, and the developer- and assembler-friendly ASM version of your disassembly.

As a kind of showcase of SkoolKit’s capabilities, the source files for the Skool Disassemblies are included with it. As a reminder to those who have forgotten what they are, or as news to those who have never heard of them, the Skool Disassemblies are disassemblies of Skool Daze and Back to Skool, created with the help of SkoolKit. You can either browse the online HTML version of the Skool Disassemblies, or download a copy for offline viewing. Or you can download SkoolKit and build a copy yourself. Full instructions are included.

So what’s new in 1.4? First of all, some work has been done on the incomplete Contact Sam Cruise disassembly, which is also included with SkoolKit. Full disassemblies of the loading code (the code that loads the game), save code (the code that saves the game to tape), and startup code (the code that runs immediately after the game has loaded, and is later removed) have been added. Second of all, the Skool Disassemblies have been updated to version 20101111. For details of the changes to the Skool Disassemblies, see the changelog.

I think it goes without saying that the world needs more disassemblies of Spectrum games. So do your bit: download SkoolKit today and get disassembling.