Reverse engineering the source code for Lander on the Acorn Archimedes
Software archaeologist Mark Moxon has released the reconstructed source code for Lander, David Braben’s epic game for the Acorn Archimedes, with every single line documented and (for the most part) explained.
Lander was the very first game to be released for the ARM processor, and it is both a milestone and a masterpiece.
My hope is that this site will be useful for those who want to learn more about Lander and what makes it tick. It is provided on an educational and non-profit basis, with the aim of helping people appreciate the second classic game from this legend of 3D coding (the first classic being Elite, of course).
Note that the code on this site is not David Braben’s original source code, as that hasn’t been released. Instead, it is a fully buildable source that’s been lovingly reconstructed from a disassembly of the original game binaries, and which produces 100% identical game files. All of the variable and routine names are my own invention, but the code itself matches the original source.
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