Category Archives: Reverse Engineering

Editorial note: This is the second of a two-part tutorial on reverse engineering executables. Today, we’ll walk through the process of analyzing a series of assembly instructions. These instructions implement the codewheel verification check from the 1989 game “Neuromancer”. We … Continue reading →

Editorial note: This is the first of a two-part tutorial on reverse engineering executables. Today, we’ll walk through the process of finding the section of an executable responsible for performing a certain task, and next week we’ll analyze the assembly … Continue reading →

I’ve been working on a longer, reverse-engineering piece about Neuromancer, but couldn’t get it finished in time to post this week. In it’s place, a simple javascript implementation of the game’s code wheel.

As I’ve mentioned before, I like to use the DOS DEBUG command to investigate older 16-bit programs. Today, I present a brief guide to using that tool to take snapshots of running programs.

I often use the DOS DEBUG command to investigate older 16-bit programs; while there are doubtless better tools, DEBUG is ubiquitous and effective. There are many guides to its operation, but here I focus on a specific and practical question: … Continue reading →

Editorial note: I enjoy poking around the innards of old computer games. I think it’s interesting to learn how the things worked, especially since they often had to cope with formidable resource restrictions. This is one of an occasional series … Continue reading →