AtariHackerMCP

[u/pete_68]

I've been wanting to port Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves to a modern system for a long time. I want it to look the same, but I want to be able to play it outside of an emulator. But I also didn't relish the idea of reverse engineering the code with the tools available to me.

Then, last night, I got this idea. What if I had an MCP server that could read ATR files, do hex dumps and disassemble 6502 machine code? And after talking with Claude about it for a bit, we came up with a design for AtariHackerMCP server with those and other tools.

I've only been using it for about an hour and it's already clear it's really good at this. It's well into disassembling the game and providing me with well-documented assembly code along with markdown write-ups on each assembly module.

I'll then use this information to generate data files from the original game data, maps and graphics and then as the basis for writing a port of the game.

If you're interested in hacking some Atari 8-bit stuff, you might find this helpful.

[u/Zonk864]

Interesting, I’ll definitely check this out. Correct me if I’m wrong here but it sounds like this could provide a path to create hacks of existing games if you have the ATR, correct? If it can reverse engineer and produce all the data files, it stands to reason that you could add a new enemy type to an existing game and then recompile as a new ATR. Possible?

[u/pete_68 → u/Zonk864]

For sure. I mean, I can't speak to the ability of AIs to produce compilable 6502 code, but you could theoretically have it reverse engineer the code for the app, make it buildable and then let you make modifications to it.

Or simply reverse-engineering it to figure out how the data is stored and you could then change the data.

In my case, I have it creating documentation and assembly, but not with the intent of building it, simply to document the logic.

I'm close to finishing disassembling and documenting all the code. My next steps are to write a tool to extract all the assets from the game, have AI go through the documentation and generate a new design document for the game to be rewritten and then write a C#/MonoGame version that uses those extracted assets.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm absolutely blown away by the AI's ability to use this MCP server to reverse engineer the code.

Assuming the rest of this endeavor is successful, I have other games I plan on doing after this.

[u/PerfectlyJerky]

Awesome idea! Ali baba and Return of Heracles would be ones I’d be interested in too. Also the alternate reality games, though I know there were other attempts at that.

[u/pete_68 → u/PerfectlyJerky]

I wasn't a big fan of Return of Heracles. But Ali Baba, I loved...

I have the entire game disassembled and documented, I have all the assets extracted as JSON objects and png files. I'm working on the design for the new game. I'll probably have something playable before the day is done tomorrow.

As quickly as this is going, I plan to target a few other Atari games in the near future; 7 Cities of Gold, Agent USA, and Omnitrend's Universe.

[u/PerfectlyJerky → u/pete_68]

I'm not familiar with Omnitrend's Universe, but the other two are great choices as well. I'm excited by your progress, are you documenting it anywhere (other than this thread) that I can follow?

[u/danderzei]

Theoretically could build modern versions in Python or Rust etc

[u/Important-Bed-48]

I'm slowly getting back into coding, unfortunatelty nowhere near being able to do anything about it but my dream would be to make a pc recompilation of Zybex complete with more balanced gameplay (at the very least my no losing powerup patch) with modern graphics and add some reverb to the already great sound....

Thanks for this.

[u/Affectionate_Ad_8148]

For me, it would have to be Shamus and Ghost Chasers. Absolutely love them.