Files

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CydandClaude Fable 5 e3c090695d Phase 1 complete: captured VPX boot conversation from shipped binary

Built DOSBox-X from source with a custom VPX link-adapter logging
device (vpx-device/vpxlog.cpp) and captured the game's outbound boot
sequence. Findings:

- Register map confirmed against LINKIO.C: outputData 0x151,
  outputStatus 0x153 (polled bit0), resetRoot 0x160, analyseRoot 0x161.
- Reset preamble captured exactly (analyse=0, reset 0->1->0 + status inits).
- The game streams 85298 bytes to outputData that are BYTE-FOR-BYTE
  identical to VRENDMON.BTL; first byte 0xF0 = transputer boot-from-link
  primary-bootstrap length. Protocol stage 1 (reset + monitor download)
  fully characterized; no hidden bulk/interrupt path.
- Production cockpit dump ALPHA_1 added (git-ignored): its BT is v1.1.0.6
  with a VRENDMON.BTL byte-identical to the captured stream, so this
  result reflects the exact cockpit software. ALPHA_1 is the reference
  image going forward (carries RP + production pod/network boot chain).

Adds analyze_capture.py, capture.conf, PHASE1-RESULTS.md. DOSBox-X
source tree and capture artifacts are git-ignored.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-07-02 22:46:20 -05:00

README.md

Phase 1 complete: captured VPX boot conversation from shipped binary

2026-07-02 22:46:20 -05:00

vpxlog.cpp

Phase 1 complete: captured VPX boot conversation from shipped binary

2026-07-02 22:46:20 -05:00

README.md

VPX device — DOSBox-X integration

Our original source for the emulated Division VPX link adapter. Kept here under version control because the DOSBox-X source tree itself (emulator/src/, ~490 MB) is git-ignored.

vpxlog.cpp — Phase 1 logging device. Impersonates the INMOS C012 link adapter at I/O base 0x150, answers status reads so the game keeps transmitting, and logs every access to $VPXLOG. (Phase 2 will grow this into a responding transputer-monitor + i860-loader + frame-stream renderer, or fork into a separate vpx.cpp.)

Applying to a DOSBox-X source checkout

Tested against DOSBox-X v2026.06.02, MSYS2 mingw64.

Copy the device in:

cp emulator/vpx-device/vpxlog.cpp  emulator/src/src/hardware/vpxlog.cpp

Add it to the hardware build — in src/src/hardware/Makefile.am, append vpxlog.cpp to libhardware_a_SOURCES (we inserted it after glide.cpp).
Call the init — in src/src/gui/sdlmain.cpp, declare void VPXLOG_Init(); next to the other *_Init() prototypes and call VPXLOG_Init(); right after GLIDE_Init(); in the machine bring-up sequence.

Build:

cd emulator/src
./build-mingw-sdl2 --enable-debug=heavy

Output: src/src/dosbox-x.exe.

Running

set VPXLOG=C:\VWE\TeslaRel410\emulator\vpxlog.txt
emulator\src\src\dosbox-x.exe -conf emulator\capture.conf
python emulator\analyze_capture.py

With VPXLOG unset the device is inert and the build behaves like stock DOSBox-X.