Technical Reference

Technical Reference

Technical details about Tutankham ROM structure.

ROM Files

Program ROMs

• m1.1h, m2.2h - Object data, palettes, high scores
• m4.4h, m5.5h - Game code, scoring
• 3j.3h - Game code, copyright checksum

Graphics ROMs

• c1.1i through c5.5i - 160 tiles (32 each)
• c6.6i, c7.7i - Logical maps (collision)
• c8.8i - Visual maps (appearance)
• c9.9i - Treasure graphics
• j6.6h - Fonts and UI graphics

Memory Map

Key addresses in m1.1h/m2.2h:

• 0xA2D1-0xA340 - Palettes (7 × 16 bytes)
• 0xA4A0-0xA4D3 - High scores
• 0xA61E-0xBA9D - Map objects (all difficulties)

See MemoryMap.txt for complete details.

Map Structure

Each map has:

• Visual map - Tile IDs for display
• Logical map - Collision data
• Object data - Items, spawns, teleports
• Config data - Time limit, spawn rate, width

Coordinate System

Game uses big-endian coordinates:

• YY YY XX format
• YY = column (0x00-0x200)
• XX = row from bottom (0x00-0x60)

Color Format

Palettes use 1-byte per color:

• Bits 0-2: Red (0-7)
• Bits 3-5: Green (0-7)
• Bits 6-7: Blue (0-3)

Format: BBGGGRRR

Graphics Format

Tiles and fonts:

• 4 bits per pixel (16 colors)
• Interleaved nibbles - Two pixels per byte
• Rotated 90° - Stored sideways

Checksum

The copyright graphic at 0x5C0 in j6.6h has a checksum at 0xCE25-0xCE26 in 3j.3h.

Editor auto-updates checksum on save.

Next Steps

• See MemoryMap.txt for byte-level details
• See README.md for project info