Stuff like that is definitely fun. In the 1990s I bought a Sharp PC-E500S pocket computer and hacked the CPU's instruction set. With no internet and no documentation about the processor, I invented my own assembler syntax for the instructions. Assembler, disassembler, hex monitor, (written in Basic) are all still working to this day.
All my notes at the time were made with pencil on paper. Even if I could find them, I'm not sure they would still be readable. The Basic programs could only be copied by re-typing them manually on a contemporary computer. Presenting this pre-internet stuff on a website would just be too much work, sorry.
If you do find the documents though, please consider just scanning them and uploading them to Internet Archive and posting the links to HN. That way someone else in the future can find it and decide if they want to do the manual re-typing etc themselves :)
That just makes it a meta challenge…for some unknown engineer who wants to reverse-engineer an engineer’s program that reverse-engineered a program with an unknown instruction set.
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Stuff like that is definitely fun. In the 1990s I bought a Sharp PC-E500S pocket computer and hacked the CPU's instruction set. With no internet and no documentation about the processor, I invented my own assembler syntax for the instructions. Assembler, disassembler, hex monitor, (written in Basic) are all still working to this day.
Lovely, you should document your stories that sounds impressive!
Please please write about the whole process :) I'd love to read it!
You should post that online I'm sure people, including me, would love to read it.
All my notes at the time were made with pencil on paper. Even if I could find them, I'm not sure they would still be readable. The Basic programs could only be copied by re-typing them manually on a contemporary computer. Presenting this pre-internet stuff on a website would just be too much work, sorry.
I understand and sympathise with that.
If you do find the documents though, please consider just scanning them and uploading them to Internet Archive and posting the links to HN. That way someone else in the future can find it and decide if they want to do the manual re-typing etc themselves :)
That just makes it a meta challenge…for some unknown engineer who wants to reverse-engineer an engineer’s program that reverse-engineered a program with an unknown instruction set.