Actual Cracking Entertainment [ACE] 02

Actual Cracking Entertainment [ACE]

1.067 lines of code

RasterbarsRSTRMusicSIDSpritesSPRT

History

Released
28 September 1987
Code
Coco (attributed, unverified)
Music
Paul Norman — Beyond the Forbidden Forest (ripped)
Graphics
None credited
Group
Actual Cracking Entertainment — West Germany, founded September 1987

ACE's second intro swaps the warm SID of their debut for something altogether more eerie: Paul Norman's legendary Beyond the Forbidden Forest theme, ripped from his own 1983 Cosmi game and given a new life as a cracktro soundtrack. The scrolltext is a window into the 1987 scene hierarchy — ACE ranks #1 Fairlight, #7 Hotline, FCS, Radwar, and others, while directing mail to "Coco Industries, PLK 030974 C, 6080 Dornheim, West Germany." Alongside raster color bars and animated sprites, the intro established ACE as one of West Germany's most prolific groups; they shipped well over a hundred crack releases before dissolving in 1988.

Sources: CSDb · CSDb group · docsnyderspage

a_c_e-02.asm 1.067 lines
// ============================================
// a_c_e-02 - Disassembled Source
// ============================================
// KickAssembler syntax
// Generated by Restore 64 vdisasm-one 1.0 build 1, 2026-03-29 17:54:05
// https://restore64.dev by datucker / Rabenauge
//
// Load address: $0700  End: $d011  (51474 bytes)
// Crunched with Exomizer — depacked by emulation
// Packer entry: $082a (via BASIC SYS 2090)
// Entry point:  $0b00 (2816)
// IRQ handler:  $0c00 (irq_0c00)
//
// Code: 722 bytes, Data: 50752 bytes
// Labels: 130, Subroutines: 7
//
// Cross-references: all OK
// ============================================


// --- Region $0a88-$0ab0 ---
.pc = $0a88 "$0a88"
        lda $0ac0
        pha
        ldx #$00

loc_0a8e:
        lda $0ac1,x
        sta $0ac0,x
        inx
        cpx #$1f
        bne loc_0a8e
        pla
        sta $0adf
        lda $0aff
        pha
        ldx #$1e

loc_0aa3:
        lda $0ae0,x
        sta $0ae1,x
        dex
        bpl loc_0aa3
        pla
        sta $0ae0
        rts

// --- Region $0b00-$0bac ---
.pc = $0b00 "main_0b00"

main_0b00:
        sei
        lda #$7f                                    // disable all CIA1 interrupts
        sta $dc0d                                   // disable all CIA IRQs
        lda #$f1
        sta $d01a                                   // raster IRQ on
        lda #$00
        sta $d020
        sta $d021
        sta $d012
        ldx #$00

loc_0b18:
        lda dat_0e00,x
        sta $0400,x
        lda $0f00,x
        sta $0500,x
        lda $1000,x
        sta $0600,x
        lda #$20
        sta $0700,x
        lda #$00
        sta dat_0e00,x
        sta $0f00,x
        lda #$09
        sta $d800,x
        sta $d840,x
        lda #$01
        sta $d940,x
        sta $da40,x
        inx
        bne loc_0b18
        ldx #$00

loc_0b4c:
        lda $0a48,x
        sta $d000,x
        inx
        cpx #$10
        bne loc_0b4c
        lda #$e0
        sta $d010
        lda #$7f
        sta $d015
        sta $d017
        sta $d01c
        sta $d01d
        ldx #$38
        stx $07f8
        inx
        stx $07f9
        inx
        stx $07fa
        inx
        stx $07fb
        inx
        stx $07fc
        inx
        stx $07fd
        inx
        stx $07fe
        lda #$00
        sta $0314                                   // set IRQ handler low byte
        lda #$0c
        sta $0315                                   // set IRQ handler high byte
        jsr sub_1547
        ldx #$00
        lda #$3a

loc_0b98:
        sta $0340,x
        clc
        adc #$02
        inx
        cpx #$20
        bne loc_0b98
        lda #$12
        sta $d018                                   // screen=$0400, charset=$0800
        cli

loc_0ba9:
        jmp loc_0ba9

spr_0bac:
        // === Charset data (1 bytes, $0bac-$0bac) ===
        .byte $a2                                   // char 0 (partial)

// --- Region $0c00-$0c40 ---
.pc = $0c00 "irq_0c00"

// ============================================
// IRQ handler
// ============================================

irq_0c00:
        lda #$d0
        sta $d016                                   // multicolor, 38 cols, X-scroll=0
        ldx #$00

loc_0c07: