Technical appendix

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Everything found while reverse engineering Maupiti Island (Lankhor, PC version): how the programs work, every file format, and the evidence. These pages reveal the plot.

Status. The containers, the LZ/Huffman codec, the fonts and the text encoding are decoded. All 1,589 game strings are in game-text.txt, in the seven banks MAUPITI1.EXE uses. The image format is ported and checked against the game's own code, and every scene renders (scenes/). The speech engine is ported. The structure and main rules of MAUPITI1.EXE are mapped, including the winning route, though parts of its scripted reactions and some of the 51 INT 0FEh services aren't.

Chapters

Chapter	Subject
The two programs	How `maup.exe` and `MAUPITI1.EXE` share the work, start up and talk through `INT 0FEh`.
Game logic	Commands, time, conversations, what decides each sentence, sympathy, the ending.
File formats, scenes and palettes	Archives, the image format, how a scene is layered, the exact VGA palette system.
The compression codec	Adaptive Huffman and LZ77.
Video	Pages, the sprite sheet, blitters, adapter code.
Text and fonts	Glyph coding, 5-bit strings, text banks, proportional fonts.
Speech	The famous voice: data, driver rules, playback, and a text-to-speech tool.
Naming	Names across the IDA and Binary Ninja databases.
Refuted claims	What was believed and then disproved.
Open questions	What is still unknown.

Images and sounds

The gallery has every scene, the portraits, documents and object icons, and all the sounds.

Address conventions

Base	Rule
IDA EA, used throughout these docs	`EA = file offset + 0xF800`
Binary Ninja address (`maup.exe.bndb`, flat file map)	`BN = EA - 0xF800`, which is the file offset
`DS:` offset	`EA = 0x1A420 + offset` (image paragraph `0xA42`)
far target `seg:ofs` in the file	`EA = 0x10000 + seg*16 + ofs`; segments are image-relative
runtime address	load-dependent; `DS = 298Ch` was only true in one captured session

MAUPITI1.EXE has its own base, EA = file offset + 0xEA00.

Confidence labels

verified: read from the disassembly at the cited address, or checked against a file.
inferred: the best reading of the evidence, not proven.
unverified: inherited from earlier work and not re-checked.

Reference data

Generated from the game's own tables.

File	Contents
Dialogue	Every answer for each character and question, and what changes it
Actions	Per room and zone: each verb's reply, objects, containers
Topic unlocks	What unlocks each conversation topic
Timed events	Messages and scene changes by time
Schedule	Where each character is, every half-hour
Rooms	Room exits and travel costs
Questionnaire	The final quiz, with every answer
Documents	Every readable object with its pages, the newspapers, the piano's tunes
All game text	The 1,589 decoded strings, including period language that is offensive today
Font atlas	Both fonts, as text
Record `0x2A` entries	Each entry of the game data table, with its callers
`maup.exe` symbols	All names, with addresses
`MAUPITI1.EXE` symbols	All names, with addresses

Tools

Script	Use
`maup_parse.py`	Container and codec reader: `selftest`, `extract-all --dir-out maupiti_out`
`tools/verify_docs.py`	Checks the docs' main byte-level claims
`tools/render_font.py`	Regenerates `font-atlas-99.txt`
`tools/mauptext.py`	Decodes strings: `--out docs/game-text.txt`
`tools/decode_image.py`	Image decoder to PNG: `G3.CON 0x27 2 out.png`, or `G1.CON 0x1A 0 out.png --room` (needs Pillow)
`tools/m1calls.py`	Reads `MAUPITI1.EXE` as named calls with arguments: `0x1EBC8 0x1EF37`
`tools/game_logic.py`	Regenerates `logic/` from record `0x2A`
`tools/build_site.py`	Rebuilds the website in `../site/` from these docs and the game's files
`tools/render_scene.py`	Renders a scene with all its overlays, at any time
`tools/verify_image.py`	Compares the image decoder with the game's own code in an emulator (needs `unicorn`)
`tools/maup_speech.py`	Speaks any French text in the game's voice
`tools/verify_speech.py`	Compares that tool with the game's own code in an emulator (needs `unicorn`)
`tools/m1index.py`	Lists `MAUPITI1.EXE` functions with callers and tables
`tools/rec2a.py`	Splits record `0x2A` and lists who uses each entry
`tools/disasm.py`	`ndisasm` by EA: `0x11590 0x116A0`; add `--m1` for `MAUPITI1.EXE`
`tools/m1xref.py`	`MAUPITI1.EXE` far and near callers, and INT 0FEh stubs
`tools/unlzexe91.py`	Unpacks `MAUPITI1.olz` and compares it to `MAUPITI1.EXE`