Files

T

feat(reverse): trace the live original physics state

WineDbg changes the Win16 exception path and cannot capture continuous game
state reliably. Add a Linux-only launcher that opts the normally running Wine
process into same-user tracing without modifying TDKPIN.EXE, plus a sampler
that locates the loaded DGROUP and game object from recovered signatures.

The CSV trace exposes original millipixel positions, predicted positions,
velocities, flipper state, and claw state whenever they change. This provides
an external oracle for reconstructing and differentially testing the fixed-
point mechanics instead of tuning the Rust approximation against screenshots.

Test Plan:
- `shellcheck original/tools/run_traceable_original.sh` -- passed
- `ruff check original/tools/trace_original_state.py` -- passed
- strict shared-library compile with `cc` warnings as errors -- passed
- live Wine smoke trace and four-second charged launch capture -- passed
- `git diff --cached --check` -- passed

2026-08-22 20:16:14 +02:00

5.0 KiB

Raw Blame History

Mechanics reconstruction progress

This ledger scopes the current reverse-engineering pass to the claw and flippers. The preserved executable is the authority; TDKPIN_GHIDRA_RAW.c remains immutable raw evidence, while TDKPIN_MECHANICS_RESTORED.c carries reviewed names and control flow.

Target: TDKPIN.EXE SHA-256 a9022f1894e3e6e21fc42e8f6c932f7c549ca77f63aaa0c488bb9d55d9d0174c.

Function inventory

Address	Raw name	Restored role	Status
`1000:638e`	`FUN_1000_638e`	key-release flag updates	reviewed
`1000:6bf8`	`FUN_1000_6bf8`	key-press flag updates	reviewed
`1000:7ed9`	`FUN_1000_7ed9`	flipper collision movement and sound	reviewed; inner fixed-point geometry still raw
`1000:8b0d`	`FUN_1000_8b0d`	flipper bitmap/collider movement	reviewed; inner fixed-point geometry still raw
`1000:99f0`	`FUN_1000_99f0`	binary flipper transition state machine	restored
`1000:c79c`	`FUN_1000_c79c`	collision dispatch, including claw object `0x59`	claw branch restored
`1000:eab1`	exported ordinal 10	timer tick, claw release and return	claw branch restored
`1008:0002`	`FUN_1008_0002`	sound-enabled dispatch	restored
`1008:0e08`	`FUN_1008_0e08`	claw background restore and sprite slicing	restored

Inventory coverage is 9/9 functions inspected for this mechanism pass. This is not a claim that all instructions in the two large physics functions have been renamed.

Proven behavior now available to the Rust port

Left Control (scan 0x1d) and keypad Enter (scan 0x1c) set input flags; the timer changes each flipper position only between 0 and 1.
Every flipper movement edge, including return, invokes sound number 21, Win16 WAVE resource 2021.
Claw collision object 0x59 suspends the ball, zeros its live motion, disables collision records 12 through 20, and selects terminal frame 1, 6, 7, or 18.
The claw advances exactly one frame per timer tick to its terminal, releases the ball, then advances one frame per tick back to frame 10 before clearing the overlay and restoring collision records 12 through 20.
Resource 900 is sliced into 100x74 frames, nine columns by four rows. The destination is (238,47); closing rows begin at source y=0 and opening rows at source y=148.
Claw capture/contact uses sound 2015; release uses sound 2016.
The release-coordinate projection is (raw + 500) / 1000 for rendering; decoded physics centers are (258,78), (270,94), (275,97), and (325,92) for the four selectable terminal frames.
The speed scalar is 3800 millipixels per tick. Its Borland Real48 direction constants are decoded for all release cases in the readable C companion.

Explicit pending evidence

Differentially verify the recovered 10/20/30/40/50 ms timer choices against live original captures; the Rust port intentionally uses the default 30 ms claw cadence independently of render rate.
Transcribe the full fixed-point flipper impulse calculation, then compare it with the Rust floating-point collision response.
Force a chosen claw terminal in the live original and compare its complete frame/trajectory sequence with the deterministic Rust trace.

Those items are intentionally not counted as semantic parity. The readable C file preserves their raw constants and labels the unresolved conversion so a later implementation cannot silently turn an estimate into claimed evidence.

Runtime comparison on 2026-08-22

Wine 11.15 (staging) ran the preserved 16-bit NE executable from this tree. Keypad + was sent to the real window and produced the one-player started state. Down was then held for 1.1 seconds and released; captures confirmed that the original plunger advances while held and launches only on release.

The Rust validation mode captured the corresponding started and half-charge states plus closing and release frames for claw terminal 6. The original claw was not forced into a chosen terminal during the live session, so its claw parity evidence remains the decoded 1000:c79c/1000:eab1 control flow, millipixel/Real48 constants, sprite sheet, and deterministic Rust traces rather than a claimed live trajectory comparison.

Live fixed-point tracing

Wine's remote debugger changes the Win16 exception path and is not suitable for continuous gameplay traces. On Linux, tools/run_traceable_original.sh starts the unmodified executable with a same-user ptrace opt-in. While it is waiting at the launcher, tools/trace_original_state.py locates the live DGROUP and game object by recovered binary/state signatures and records their fixed-point state:

original/tools/run_traceable_original.sh
original/tools/trace_original_state.py --duration 5 --output /tmp/launch.csv

The sampler records original millipixel positions, predicted positions, velocities, flipper inputs and states, and claw animation state whenever any of them changes. It neither patches TDKPIN.EXE nor pauses Wine. The tracing helper is Linux-only development infrastructure; it is not part of the Rust replica.

5.0 KiB Raw Blame History