Files
Dragon-s-Lair-X68k/README.md
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prosolis 7ba979a236 Handoff: green-light script, reconciled figures, a smaller first step for the decoder
Prepares session 4 for handoff. No new measurements; this reconciles the docs
with what session 4 changed and makes the next session's entry point cheaper.

- tools/bench/check.sh re-runs both display regression tests from the Blu-ray in
  ~40 s and prints ALL GREEN. Verified green cold, after wiping tmp/ and
  re-extracting. STATUS and README both open with it, because everything
  downstream assumes the display path is pixel-exact and nothing previously
  checked that in one command.

- Reconciled the figures session 4 invalidated. Session 3's 38.88 dB ceiling is
  struck through in STATUS with a pointer to 40.81; the "three facts the player
  must honour" table no longer quotes R20 = 0x0116, which was the 768-wide IPL
  timing and would have been copied into the player as if it were the shipping
  value. crtc_mode.lua is now named as the single source of truth for CRTC
  registers, in both STATUS and README.

  The 38.88 dB in the session-3 reproduce section is left alone and annotated
  instead: it is correct for that test, which still packs I = 1. The two numbers
  disagree for a reason and a reader should be able to see which is which.

- Next-step 2 now leads with something smaller than "write the decoder": a dumb
  full-frame RAM->GVRAM blit in 68000 code, timed. That number alone confirms or
  kills the 38% estimate, and needs no bitstream, codebooks, or DLX1 parsing.
  The reference image and its checker already exist.

- Parked the user's Cliff Hanger / Lupin III follow-on in STATUS so it is not
  lost and not mistaken for scheduled work. Cheaper than this project on every
  axis except media prep, which is where it would actually stall.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01194oWYW8DQXK1SZ2DnChW6
2026-08-23 13:31:11 -07:00

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Markdown

# Dragon's Lair — Sharp X68000 port
Porting Dragon's Lair to a stock X68000 (68000 @ 10MHz, 2MB, SASI/SCSI).
This is fundamentally a **video codec problem**, not a game-logic problem: the
game logic is a scene table with branching input windows; the difficulty is
pushing ~22 minutes of Don Bluth animation through a 10MHz 68000.
**Green-light check:** `./tools/bench/check.sh` (~40 s, needs the Blu-ray
mounted) re-runs both display regression tests and prints `ALL GREEN`.
## Read first
- **`docs/FINDINGS.md`** — measured hardware facts, content statistics, codec
decision, and a section on measurement traps that produced three separate
false results. Read §4 before trusting any pipeline number.
- **`docs/STATUS.md`** — current state, working setup, blockers, next steps.
**Start here.** It also lists what has been explicitly abandoned, so old ideas
do not get re-proposed.
- **`docs/BENCHMARK.md`** — how to measure the storage subsystem, and why a
bandwidth figure out of MAME would be meaningless.
- **`docs/HARDWARE.md`** — X68000 GVRAM/CRTC reference.
## Layout
```
docs/ findings, status, hardware reference
tools/analysis/ measurement scripts, numbered in the order they were written
(01/02 marked BROKEN deliberately, kept as regression refs).
Run from the repo root — they import from tools/encoder/.
tools/bench/ MAME Lua injection harness + 68000 benchmark sources.
`check.sh` re-runs both display regression tests (~40 s).
`crtc_mode.lua` is the single source of truth for CRTC R00-R08
and R20 — do not write CRTC values anywhere else.
tools/vasm/ vasm m68k assembler (built from source)
tools/encoder/ hybrid VQ encoder + DLX1 container writer (working)
src/player/ 68000 player (not yet written)
assets/ extracted frames/audio (gitignored)
```
## Encoder
```
python3 tools/encoder/extract.py 00020 /tmp/fr 12 crop
python3 tools/encoder/encode.py /tmp/fr out.dlx --profile sasi --preview p.png
```
Two quality profiles ship from one codec and one decoder — `sasi` (110 KB/s) and
`scsi` (280 KB/s) are two points on the same rate-distortion curve. The codec is
a Cinepak-style hybrid: each 4x4 block is coded as SKIP, one 4x4 codeword, four
2x2 codewords, or RAW literal pixels, chosen per block by rate-distortion.
The RAW escape means `lam=0` is pixel-exact against the palettised frame, so the
quality knob spans lossless to heavily-compressed without changing the bitstream.
Profiles are derived from a bandwidth figure, not chosen by eye:
```
python3 tools/encoder/profile_gen.py --bw-mbps 4 --name scsi
```
> **On reading `docs/FINDINGS.md`:** it is append-only and several later sections
> overturn earlier ones. Superseded sections carry a blockquote at the top
> pointing to the correction — heed those, especially 18 (reversed by 21).
Source media (`DRAGONS_LAIR.iso`) and ROMs are gitignored — supply your own.