Case study

Starmaster: a commented Atari 2600 disassembly

Starmaster for the Atari 2600 (Activision, 1982) is disassembled with DiStella v2.0 and then analyzed, named and commented into readable 6502 source. Named constants describe the 6x6 sector map, starbases, enemy IDs, star field, warp and laser timing and enemy fire distance, and an OPTIMIZE switch swaps in code improvements the author identified while studying the routines.

Targets: Game
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-09
Evidence class: C3 notes only

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Evidence

Observed: No code found behind the entry URL.
Scope: Notes
Checked: 2026-11-10

How evidence classes are assigned

Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Assembling requires a 6502 assembler and vcs.h.
Limits: Version 0.9 of the analysis.
License: No licence stated on the project page.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{starmaster-atari-2600-disassembly-case,
  title = {{Starmaster: a commented Atari 2600 disassembly}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.qotile.net/minidig/disassembly/Starmaster.asm}},
  url = {https://www.qotile.net/minidig/disassembly/Starmaster.asm},
  urldate = {2026-11-09},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/starmaster-atari-2600-disassembly-case/}}
}

Plain text

Starmaster: a commented Atari 2600 disassembly. https://www.qotile.net/minidig/disassembly/Starmaster.asm (accessed 2026-11-09). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/starmaster-atari-2600-disassembly-case/

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About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

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Primary sources

https://web.archive.org/web/20260730190418/https://www.qotile.net/minidig/disassembly/Starmaster.asm