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Finding Start Addresses

Now, the fact is that you might need to decompile a C64 program, but you don't know which address from which to start and you need a bin file.

There are a few ways to get a start address:

• Find it on the Internet
• Get it from a depacker/decruncher
• Use unp64
• Find it yourself by using SAM

Outputting a 'bin' File

1. First load Frodo SuperSAM from the Start menu.
2. Alt+F9
3. 
4. Double-click "zol.fss".
5. Select Menu 'Tools -> SAM'.
6. 
7. Next, type s 0000 ffff "../RevEngE6502/jobs/zol.bin" and you'll write it out.
8. 

The bit you'll appreciate is that this is how to generate a bin file that will load into the decompiler ('Binary' box in the RevDasm disassembler).

Now we have a .bin file, we can proceed to finding the start address using Frodo SuperSAM.

Finding a Start Address

1. First load Frodo SuperSAM from the Start menu.
2. Alt+F9
3. 
4. Double-click "zol.fss".
5. 
6. Menu 'Tools -> SAM'
7. 
8. Go to SAM window
9. 
10. Look at the first of the Entry Points (should be e5dc, though it says 44a5 above)...
11. This entry point is now loaded into the RevEngE6502 disassembler as follows:
12. 
13. Click on 'Launch RevDasm'
14. Now we want to decompile the disassembled file, zol.usub_E5DC.txt as seen here:
15. 
16. Click on 'Launch RevEngE'
17. Congratulations, you've decompiled your first C64 program!
18. The next step is to look at more entry points to find more code.
19. By the way, if you hit Recurse in RevEngE6502 (the decompiler, not the disassembler), it will find more functions.