Therons Quest Technical Reference

Theron's Quest Technical Reference

Door movement boundary

Movement does not implicitly open a closed or locked door. The explicit door-use route performs the state transition and key validation; this keeps source-bound Track 02 object state transactional and fail-closed. A stair query likewise returns STAIRS only when the destination level is resident.

Track 02 map-directory boundary

The world handoff validates the complete authenticated Track 02 map directory before replacing a dungeon bank. A zero or oversized map count, or a map whose x_dim + 1 / y_dim + 1 exceeds Firestaff's fixed square grid, is rejected without changing the previous bank. This protects the source-bound state boundary; it does not claim the unresolved post-CD level/object consumer.

Door state boundary

The runtime treats LOCKED=6 as a sentinel state, not as a later opening animation frame. The bounded passability range is QUARTER_OPEN..DESTROYED; movement queries, movement mutation and door_open() share that predicate. This prevents a locked door from becoming passable through numeric state ordering. Source-authenticated key/object consumption remains capture-gated.

Teleporter failure boundary

theron_v1_teleporter_resolve() is transactional: an absent endpoint, cyclic chain, unloaded destination or invalid coordinate returns -1 without publishing party or transition state. Movement now propagates that failure as THERON_MOVE_BLOCKED and does not apply per-move effects. Only the verified object-ID and Track 02 coordinate routes may publish a teleport destination; this guard does not infer new dungeon semantics.

Status reviewed 2026-08-13. The missing-endpoint regression is covered by the mechanics-hardening probe. Source-owned level/object consumers remain capture-gated.

Stairs failure boundary

Movement queries and execution require the stairs destination level to be loaded. If transition setup or execution fails, the result is THERON_MOVE_BLOCKED; no party position, transition state or per-move effect is published. This preserves the fail-closed boundary while dynamic source-owned level loading and the original stairs consumer remain unresolved.

Dungeon exit failure boundary

An exit is actionable only when dungeon_complete is true and transition execution succeeds. Queries and movement both report THERON_MOVE_BLOCKED otherwise, without applying per-move effects. This keeps quest completion and next-dungeon source consumers behind their existing evidence gates.

Pit failure boundary

On a source-authenticated level, a pit does not use the host fixture's damage or stamina rules. Query, movement and the public pit handler remain blocked until the original T700 pit consumer is joined to the source level/object receipt. Synthetic fixture levels retain the existing probe-only behavior.

Status reviewed 2026-08-13. JP/US Track 02 identity and several loader receipts are real-data verified. Game-owned dungeon handoff, object/level semantics and bitmap/palette binding remain open. The verified startup boundary does not establish the Firestaff $2600 consumer or gameplay semantics.

Scope

Theron's Quest is a PC Engine CD target. Firestaff accepts original Track 02 media through a strict CUE/BIN handoff and verifies known media identities. It does not assume ISO-9660 files or create a directory from a disc image.

Record-Based CD Layout

System Card access is record-based relative to a CD base. Official Hu7 layouts compile record constants into the executable, so the final disc has no runtime file directory to enumerate. Firestaff follows observed loader record handoffs rather than filename scans.

The verified JP/US Track 02 chain is:

• CD_EXEC record 0x0003e7 into local RAM at $4000;
• a traced stage-two one-sector CD_READ into local RAM at $3800;
• record 0x0004df for JP and 0x0004e0 for US;
• a payload beginning BRK $ff with a bounded $0308 envelope.

The resulting 218-entry manifest is structural provenance only. It has no object, level, palette, bitmap, or text meaning until loader control flow proves that meaning.

Startup, Levels, and Saves

M12-to-M11 receipts preserve CUE declarations, raw-sector form, known hash, IPL, stage-two record, user-data span, header, and payload hash. Incomplete bitmap or object-table evidence blocks title, Soul Room, Continue, and dungeon entry rather than producing a synthetic route.

Level/object candidates are staged and committed atomically only when every original-data receipt validates. Descriptor proximity and repeated byte shapes are not semantic evidence.

The JP Track 02 champion cluster has a separate source receipt at raw offset 0x0B3D98. It validates eight newline/NUL-framed records against the JP BIN identity and decodes the A–P nibble fields for HP, stamina, mana, attributes and skill levels. This is data-format evidence only: the US BIN has no proven equivalent text consumer, and portraits or live gameplay ownership are not inferred from the JP records.

SRM discovery validates gzip framing, optional header fields, CRC32, and ISIZE. Opaque original bodies remain unavailable until their layout is correlated with evidence. Firestaff-native export is no-replace atomic, protecting original Save Disk artifacts. Continue itself is transactional and carries the consumed media route mask, checksum, and selected level bank.

Multi-Level Object Table and Progression

Track 02 object-table decode has been extended from level-0/32x27-only to every level of a dungeon: theron_v1_track02_read_object_table() bounds records against the real per-dungeon level count (0..THERON_MAX_LEVELS_PER_DUNGEON-1), and theron_v1_track02_decode_dungeon_level_object_table() extracts one level's records from a full-dungeon buffer. theron_v1_world_apply_track02_object_table_for_dungeon() routes decoded records to every loaded level of a dungeon. Two object kinds were added to carry decoded fields: THERON_OBJTYPE_SOUND (ambient sound ID) and THERON_OBJTYPE_PIT (pit records own their grid position). theron_v1_transition_execute() implements stairs (validated target level), progression advance, theron_v1_world_reset_for_dungeon(), and quest-complete handling at the end of move_party_internal().

Verification

cmake --build build --target firestaff_theron_v1_track02_ipl_loader_probe \
  firestaff_theron_v1_track02_level_handoff_probe \
  test_theron_v1_startup_save_resume_pc34 --parallel

FIRESTAFF_THERON_TRACK02_US_BIN="/path/to/us-track02.bin" \
FIRESTAFF_THERON_TRACK02_JP_BIN="/path/to/jp-track02.bin" \
  ./build/firestaff_theron_v1_track02_level_handoff_probe

Open technical work remains semantic binding for later loader records, object tables, non-startup levels, original SRM bodies, and packaged-app capture.

Dungeon Text Boundary

The seven US Track 02 dungeon-text spans are retained directly from the real disc data. Firestaff verifies their source word counts and diagnostic terminator counts in a release-build-safe regression, but publishes none as world or UI text: every span has unresolved five-bit control glyphs. A cross-check against DMBuilder's source confirms the same offsets and sizes, not the PC Engine renderer or its control-code semantics. A future text route requires an executing HuC6280 consumer plus a source payload join; host text and guessed scroll markup are deliberately excluded.

For strict CUE/record handling and Stage 2/3 receipts, see Theron's Quest Track 02 Internals.