X.EXE. This is a DOS game made by an Estonian. It's a Xonix clone.
The file
For it's size, it's very playable. 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 (c) 1983,90 Borland”.
The binary is in MZ file format and also contains LZ91 signature, but regular UNLZEXE tools didn't work. What worked was 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
The game
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).
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.
If the score goes over 32767, it turns negative and current level may become impossible to be completed (as on following image).
In the last levels (maybe levels 12 and up), the game will have problems, and often a level will complete even if a 1×1 area is created.
This happens after you enter level 16: text in Estonian.
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)