Big Bang Bar

[jadziedzic]

You may have seen my recent post on rec.games.pinball regarding BBB game software source code. Being a software type I'd like to fix some of the niggling (and nasty) bugs that exist in the game software. Unfortunately, Gene does not have possession of the source code (I've asked).

Mark Clayton has set up a Google Code project (http://code.google.com/p/bbbsource/) that contains the binary version of the game code. That can be disassembled into uncommented machine lanuage source code - although that's not exactly a correct statement, as there are lookup tables, etc., that also exist in the binary that won't necessarily be identified by the disassembler as data. Perhaps by collective collaboration we might be able to sort out enough bits of the code to consider small fixes - such as that annoying lamp #48 issue.

(This is assuming that the real source code never surfaces.)

Mark has done some excellent work setting up a starting point, and I would like to invite him to join this forum. Does anyone have strong objections against doing so?

Tony
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Joseph "Tony" Dziedzic
BBB #39

[sellenoff]

[jadziedzic]

Oh, I agree, it would be incredibly tedious to try to resurrect code from the compiler/linker output. Source code would definitely be the way to go for anything other than the most trivial fixes.

I do believe someone (or several someones) has the source code (for the game as well as the underlying O/S), but the problem is in getting them to release it. That's one reason for the open post on r.g.p - hopefully someone might rise to that offer.

Even assuming that a CD shows up at my door, the next question is: does Gene *really* have rights to the Capcom software IP? I may try a call to Capcom's US headquarters this week and try to get in touch with someone in the licensing area; perhaps the mother ship has a copy of the source.
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Joseph "Tony" Dziedzic
BBB #39

[latecomer]

[awarner]

I e-mailed Pfutz as others did. This is a dead end. We'll need to NOT do this again. He's a really great guy, but I don't think he can help us. His e-mail was helpful in recommending Capcom or Gene but it sounded like he doesn't want to be bugged anymore. I apologized and told him I would alert y'all.

I'll check in other directions...

-Al-
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Pins and Vids #4 - A New Hoax DVD, Available NOW at www.pinsandvids.com for only $12.00 plus shipping.

[jadziedzic]

Small update:

I haven't had much time to tinker lately, but I did manage to figure out some of the basics of the lamp matrix control table. That allowed me to tell the software that lamp 48B (the credit lamp on the apron) really does exist, as well as change its name in the diagnostic menu to "CREDIT" (which, conicidentally, is the same length as "UNUSED").

Yeah, I know, big deal, but it was a fun diversion.

Tony
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Joseph "Tony" Dziedzic
BBB #39

[CraigC]

congrats. thats actualy pretty awesome.

-c

[BBB94]

[christian1]

Tony,

Are you running the software that recognizes the credit light? If so, can it be made available to the rest of us?

Jon
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BBB #10

[jadziedzic]

Jon, at this point I do not believe that I have any legal right to distribute the modified software, given that the software is copyrighted. I do not know if Capcom still retains ownership of the software or if that was sold or assigned to Gene. With Gene out of commission for a while due to his surgery that question probably won't be answered in the near future. I want to contact someone in Capcom's licensing department to see if I can get a definitive answer from their point of view, but I haven't had a lot of luck getting past the receptionist yet

I *think* it would be legal for me to document how to patch the ROM image files (u1h_b19.bin and u1l_b19.bin); that would have to be a solely do-it-yourself arrangement, though. You'd need a hex editor program and a ROM burner in order to burn a new set of ROMs for your game. However, I have reservations about doing that much, as there's a chance the modified version could take on a life of its own, and I don't want to piss off any of the folks who might have close ties to the software.

Tony
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Joseph "Tony" Dziedzic
BBB #39

[metallik]

You can easily make an IPS patch of the modification and distribute that with no worries. The patch will simply be an automated version of your "describe how to..." method. This method has been used frequently in the past to distribute translations and other mods for console ROM images. The IPS file you generate will be tiny (considering how little you modified the original ROM) and it will contain no Capcom copyrighted code.

As for whether this will "piss off" the people closely tied to the software, I couldn't tell you for sure, but I wouldn't think anyone would be too crabby about bug fixes...

This site offers an IPS generation utility (I'm sure there are others as well):

http://home.arcor.de/minako.aino/ipsXP/

[jadziedzic]

Thanks, Larry, I'll look into that. No guarantees, and I'm WAY overloaded at work, but I *will* look into it.
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Joseph "Tony" Dziedzic
BBB #39

[christian1]

Tony,

Any update to the project? I wouldn't think anyone would get upset with the correction you have made.

Jon
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BBB #10

[jadziedzic]

I haven't had much time to work on this project - busy season at work. I have been making some discrete inquiries about ownership of the software rights. I have to fix the checksum of the ROM image to reflect the changes my "missing lamp" patch made; hopefully I can do that in the very near future

By the way, anyone have a copy of IDA Pro they'd be willing to run the ROM image through? A decent disassembled source would be helpful. I'm still debating dropping the $$$ (yes, hundreds) to acquire a copy myself.

Tony
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Joseph "Tony" Dziedzic
BBB #39