Robotron Nvram Reader

Scores and stats and other runtime data is stored in Robotron's 1K ram file, which is dumped by MAME on exit to the /nvram/robotron.nv file. This programs reads the data and returns it in an object.

Requires node.js.

Usage

Standalone usage: node r8read.js <path to robotron.nv>

Or from code:

var r8 = require('./r8read.js');
var r8reader = r8.Reader(<path to robotron.nv>);
r8reader.printHighScores();
r8reader.printStats();

Details / Notes

Scores

All bytes are with upper nibble 0xF.

• 0x132 = half of ascii code in lower 4 bits of each byte (6 bytes) - name of top score
• 0x138 = 6 bytes - long name of top score (20 chars x 2 bytes = 40 bytes)
• 0x161 = 7 bytes - numeric portion of top score
• 0x168 = 2nd score
• 0x176 = 3rd score
• etc...

each score (after first one) takes 14 bytes, by relative offset:

• 0-5: name (initials = 3 ascii chars)
• 6: padding (unclear purpose for this digit?)
• 7-D: score

Stats

6 bytes each - raw base 10 digits.

• 0x102 3 -> 4 left slot coins
• 0x108 0 -> 0 middle slot coins
• 0x10E 0 -> 0 right slot coins
• 0x114 3 -> 4 total coins
• 0x11A 8 -> 12 extra men earned
• 0x120 4 -> 6 play time in minutes
• 0x126 17 -> 24 men played
• 0x12C 3 -> 4 credits played

Game also shows following (calculated) stats in service menu:

• time (minutes) per credit
• turns (men) per credit