SkoolKit 2.1 is now available from this very website. Get your fresh copy from the ever-present download page.

Now, as the title of this article asks in abbreviated form: What could be better than hexadecimal support in SkoolKit? I couldn’t think of an answer to that question, so I made support for hex the top item on the SkoolKit TODO list the past few weeks. What that means is that you are no longer tied to using decimal addresses in your disassembly. The disassembler, sna2skool.py, can now produce a hexadecimal skool file, and both skool2html.py and skool2asm.py will work just fine with it. So if you’re the kind of hex-headed disassembly-monger for whom $8000 is immediately more meaningful than 32768, you should be smiling inside at this point. Go and get SkoolKit 2.1 now!

In other news, SkoolKit is now more un-Skool-game-centric than ever. Specifically, all the skool macros that were useful only in the Skool Disassemblies (such as #MSG, #BOX and #TAP) are gone, their effects now being achieved by the use of generic macros (such as #R and #UDGARRAY). In addition, all the ref file sections that were useful only in the Skool Disassemblies (such as [Lessons]) and [Characters]) are gone too. No longer will you be distracted by a bunch of skool macros and ref file sections that will never be of any use in your ‘Stonkers’ or ‘Infection’ disassembly (or whatever).

As is traditional when SkoolKit’s version number is X.Y (with no .Z on the end), the Skool Disassemblies have been updated. And as is also traditional, you can browse these disassemblies online, or download a copy for offline viewing, or download SkoolKit and build a copy yourself. Also, don’t forget that the incomplete Contact Sam Cruise disassembly is still in progress. With any luck, I’ll be able to call it ‘complete’ some time this year.