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Knight Rider
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 116 |
If it were 1987 again....
I was watching Robin's video https://youtu.be/yVtKKb3wkYc regarding cracking from an original cassette. And it stirred a little interest in me again. To be honest I can't even remember how now but I cracked Wizball from original cassette using a Trilogic Expert (2nd version with botched ESM daughter board) and very likely V2.9 of the monitor software.
I did this again now on real hardware (as I wasn't having much luck with WinVICE 3.7), just for laughs and to try to stir up memories of way back then. Defeating Freeload now was much easier for me than back then.
I used the following packers:
MCC Compressor
then
Card Cruncher V4 (no idea who lent me this cartridge, but probably Tork&Torky)
(usual one was Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1 or a hacked version which ended up becoming Time Cruncher V3.1)
I ended up with 182 blocks incl. intro in Wizball
So it leads me to the next question, back in the day (for me) the best cracks had the smallest disk block size.
What packers did you use then on a real C64 in 1987, and what would you use now on real hardware (a. released upto 1987 and then anytime). What block size can you achieve ?
Exomizer V3.02 gives 144 blocks when no additional parameters are given.
TRIAD Wizball + is 166 with intro
Krejzi Packer $005E-$FFFF + Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1 gives 161 blocks
MCC Compressor + Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1 gives 165 blocks
Beast-Link/64k + Byte Boiler 256k V1.0 gives 148 blocks
Byte-Buster V4.1 + Byte Boiler 256k V1.0 gives 148 blocks |
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Bansai
Registered: Feb 2023
Posts: 34 |
Quoting Knight RiderWhat packers did you use then on a real C64 in 1987, and what would you use now on real hardware (a. released upto 1987 and then anytime). What block size can you achieve ? How aggressive for size reduction does someone want to go and how much time is to be spent on it? It's not completely a question of the compressor used. Unused bytes can be blanked out and an instrumented emulator can be used to identify and tag them in a manner similar to that found in the the table that sidreloc outputs. For example, if a music player doesn't use its entire frequency table or its complete set of commands, those code/data bytes are unreachable and can be zeroed out, saving space in the compressed version. |
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hedning
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 4614 |
Make a super small intro, and win the battle. And add trainers. |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2854 |
That small-size craze (due to modem trading, presumably) made for a lot of bad cracks missing loader screens and game intros and such, though. |
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Knight Rider
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 116 |
Quote: That small-size craze (due to modem trading, presumably) made for a lot of bad cracks missing loader screens and game intros and such, though.
Maybe, but for me back in the day it was to fit as many games on one disk and possible about faster loading times.
I found some similar or relevant forum threads
History of Crunchers & Packers
What Packers and Crunchers?
which both reconfirm the findings above.
So the 1987 solution would probably have been MCC Compressor + Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1 and the best C64 packing would have been Byte-Buster V4.1 + Byte Boiler 256k V1.0 |
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6R6
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 244 |
The two byte packers was released in the 90's. Using them in 1987 would be cheating! |
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Knight Rider
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 116 |
Quoting 6R6The two byte packers was released in the 90's. Using them in 1987 would be cheating!
Both are 1987 ?
Quoting Knight Rider
So the 1987 solution would probably have been MCC Compressor + Matcham Time Cruncher V3.1
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TheRyk
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2085 |
But Byte Boiler 256k V1.0 (1994) and Byte-Buster V4.1 (1997) ain't 1987, that's why it's a little confusing to find them in your list and even in your "1987 solution" |
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Ziaxx
Registered: Oct 2020
Posts: 15 |
Not confusing at all as he clearly asked in the first post what packers/crunchers you used back in 1987 AND what your choice would be if you could pick ANY packers/crunchers ever released (new or old) on real hardware (ie no Windows stuff etc)... |
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Knight Rider
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 116 |
Correct |
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TheRyk
Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2085 |
_NOW_ it's clear :) |
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