Super FX Assembler

Hi,

I was looking through a source code package for Star Fox 2, and found what I believe to be the Argonaut Super FX assembler. It was in the same folder as the alpha version of Star Fox 2 that has been floating around the Internet since 2000. Anyways, I'd like to get this to work so I can attempt to assemble binaries for the other two source packages I have. When I ran it in DOSBOX, it gave an error stating that it doesn't work under DOS mode. It is entirely possible that development was done on OS/2 rather than Windows, so maybe that is part of the problem. I've attached the assembler here if anyone wants to have a look.

running "file" on the enclosed EXE gives: "ARGOS2.EXE: MS-DOS executable, NE for OS/2 1.x" so it's highly likely.

I wonder if it'd be easier to implement the assembler as a ca65 macro pack the way blargg did for SPC700, rather than try to get a working copy of OS/2 up and running.

It is an OS/2 program. I just checked with the unix 'file' utility, and it's an OS/2 program in NE format.


I installed Windows 2000 in a virtual machine because it has some level of OS/2 compatibility, and the assembler looks to run fine.

Ok, that is good to know there is a way for it to work.

I've attached the makefile that was in the code package. Unless I am mistaken, the executable isn't the actual assembler, but some file called "ARGSFXX". It might not be possible to use this to assemble the code.


Edit: looks like the guy who originally had the source code was also looking for the assembler. Some info in the comments section here:

http://dailly.blogspot.jp/2008/06/tg16-fun.html

Woah, I didn't know this. Cool!

That doesn't look like the output from the assembler, It should print something similar to this:
Btw, IIRC argos2 is the assembler and argfxx the linker

I tried assembling some example code from some of the sfx patents on a virtual os2warp4 machine but without success, I just got empty output files.
I know the source code for some sfx games are out there somewhere but I haven't been able get hold of any and debugging without it is a PITA.

I'll try to set up a virtual machine on my own end and give it a go.

Are you sure it wasn't Windows NT? OS/2 was effectively dead by the time Windows 2000 was released. And, there is a lot of material about how Microsoft created the NT kernel based on the info taken from OS/2.

Here's the quotes from Wikipedia:
"Microsoft decided to recast NT OS/2 3.0 as Windows NT"
"Windows NT's OS/2 heritage can be seen in its initial support for the HPFS filesystem, text mode OS/2 1.x applications..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2

The Windows NT wikipedia page says it's available in Windows NT 3.1:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

If it was in NT it's still possible for it to be there in 2000, even if just because removing it could have broken way more than it should have (Windows is known to have lots of now-useless code just in case removing it ends up backfiring)

Wouldn't it make more sense to just use OS/2 if you're going to use a VM anyway?

Is there any tutorial to start programming some stuff for the Super FX chip?

Luigiblood wrote a linker, so in theory you should be able to write Super FX programs with this. Confirmed to work with legit Star Fox 2 source code.

https://github.com/LuigiBlood/ARGLINK_REWRITE

I must say, the Argonaut SNES Linker rewrite may not be accurate, I tried the best I could. At least it produces working ROMs.

Searching for "Usage : OS2 /P <full path> /C <original CommandLine>"...

It's mentioned on several webpages. Most people seem to consider it as an "error message", as far as I understand it's complaining about spaces in the path/filename. If that's right then it might work in, for example, "C:\TEST" instead of "C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents".

Though it doesn't really look like an "errror message" to me. Sounds more as if it's asking you to use a workaround (possibly needed only if the path contains spaces), ie. maybe it wants you to type this (?)
OS2 /P "C:\Documents and Settings\..\My Documents" /C ARGOS2.EXE

Or, other idea, as you said that ARGSFXX might be the actual assembler, try sth like this:
ARGOS2 /P <whather path> /C ARGSFXX

Where can I download the StarFox 2 source code?

Not here. And generally I don't think it's floating around the internet. It could be out there but it can't be posted here for the same reason you can't post the ROM here.

It's not out there on the Internet. That's for certain.

Necroposting a bit:

This guy who's made a job of porting games to linux has written an OS/2 compatibility shim that he's called 2ine. I haven't tried running argonaut's tools using it yet, though.

I'll add a little more related info as well in case it's of interest. naken_asm supports Super FX assembly. I've been using naken_asm for STM8 assembly on windows & linux and have enjoyed it. Tinkered with 6502 a little as well, had a few discussions with Michael directly for bug fixes and he's been receptive and quick to help.
http://www.mikekohn.net/micro/naken_asm.php