Jaan's Tech Logs

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X.EXE. This is a DOS game made by an Estonian. It's a Xonix clone.

=====The file=====
The game executable (X.EXE) is only 8107 bytes. The executable is from October 14, 1992, and the binary contains a few sentences in Estonian ("Kollarv läks üle max.-i", "Maxsamm läks lõhki !").

It may have been compiled using Turbo Pascal or similar, as the binary also contains text "Portions Copyright <nowiki>(c)</nowiki> 1983,90 Borland".

The binary is in  [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_MZ_executable|MZ file format]] and also contains [[http://justsolve.archiveteam.org/wiki/LZEXE|LZ91 signature]], but regular UNLZEXE tools didn't work. What worked was [[https://github.com/virginwidow/mz-explode|mz-explode]]. To compile mz-explode, in Linux, I had to change line 407 in CMakeLists.txt (replaced "gcc49" with "gcc"), then I ran "cmake .", "make", and "bin/mzexplode X.EXE xoutput.exe".

  ~/src/mz-explode/bin/mzexplode X.EXE xoutput.exe
  Input file                      :       X.EXE
  .EXE size (bytes)               :       1fab    8107
  Initial CS:IP                   :       1db:e
  Initial SS:SP                   :       2e4:80
  Minimum allocation (para)       :       1238    4664
  Maximum allocation (para)       :       b238    45624
  Header Size (para)              :       2       2
  Relocation table offset         :       1c      28
  Relocation entries              :       0       0
  
  Output file                     :       xoutput.exe
  .EXE size (bytes)               :       2d40    11584
  Initial CS:IP                   :       0:c33
  Initial SS:SP                   :       bda:8000
  Minimum allocation (para)       :       1126    4390
  Maximum allocation (para)       :       c273    49779
  Header Size (para)              :       20      32
  Relocation table offset         :       1c      28
  Relocation entries              :       70      112

{{ :x.zip |Download X.EXE as ZIP}}

=====The game=====
For it's size, the game is very playable.

The goal is to decrease the area where the balls can bounce, and to avoid balls hitting you and to avoid balls bouncing into each other. Otherwise, there will be a skull who will eat more area for the balls to bounce.

To complete each level, you need to fill a certain amount of area (or, make the area for the balls smaller than a certain size).

{{::x_exe.png?400|The game played in DosBOX}}

=====Videos=====
There used to be one Youtube video about this gameplay, but the channel Rozyx is deleted now. Original URL: https://www.youtube.com/@Rox00000/videos

I made a video about the gameplay: https://youtu.be/WqX6FNptlc8

=====Bugs=====
There are a few known bugs in the game.

Sometimes, there is a section of filled area created without any connection.

{{::x_exe_artefact.png?400|}}

If the score goes over 32767, it turns negative and current level may become impossible to be completed (as on following image).

{{ :x_exe_glitch1.png?400 |}}

In the last levels (maybe levels 12 and up), the game will have problems, and often a level will complete even if a 1x1 area is created.

This happens after you enter level 16: text in Estonian.

{{ :x_exe_level16.png?400 |}}
=====Other=====
The game might be related to a Xonix clone by Erik Jürviste that was just 4 kB (https://arvutimuuseum.ee/cs00000/).

P.S: If you know anything about this game, who made it etc, please contact me (jaan_r@yahoo.com)