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Recently I asked a question about an error in the Spy format expert program when starting. Then they helped me fix this program, but there are still some mysteries and questions related to it. The program itself can write boot blocks to Apple IIgs and here's what confused me: at the end of the program, the boot blocks that it can write are listed and among them there is one that is apparently not used in the program or is it secret? It seems to be Apocalypse II, since one symbol I disappeared for some reason. Does anyone know how to extract all the boot blocks that it can write? (In HEX, they are written differently than if they were written through the program)

Below is the end of the program with a list of boot blocks:

000055e0: 5741 49a3 92ab 8046 4f52 4d41 5454 494e WAI....FORMATTIN 000055f0: 470a 4533 2f8c 9680 0b57 454c 434f 4d45 G.E3/....WELCOME 00005600: a087 4f50 5449 4f4e f21f 860a 4e4f 2044 ..OPTION....NO D 00005610: 5249 5645 5320 0a57 5249 5445 20db 2e92 RIVES .WRITE ... 00005620: a420 af20 ba20 c520 d020 db20 e622 4d74 . . . . . . ."Mt 00005630: 616e 6461 7264 9507 c711 4753 2f4f 5320 andard....GS/OS 00005640: 7632 2ec8 09c6 1153 7079 204e 6574 776f v2.....Spy Netwo 00005650: 726b 958b 114c 6f61 6420 5275 6e6e 2249 rk...Load Runn"I 00005660: c780 104f 6479 7373 6579 2032 3030 31b6 ...Odyssey 2001. 00005670: 8d10 5374 6172 4669 6768 7465 7220 490f ..StarFighter I. 00005680: 4e10 4170 6f63 616c 7970 7365 2049 014d N.Apocalypse I.M 00005690: 20ff 2010 2121 2132 2143 2100 0000 0000 . .!!!2!C!..... 000056a0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
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  • Can you format a disk with each boot block and just extract it from the disk image? The docs say there are six options. Commented Aug 22 at 14:40
  • @fadden This option is only written in the code... It cannot be written through this program. Commented Aug 22 at 14:45
  • @fadden It goes as the seventh in a row. If you change the boot block 7 times, it will return to the standard one and so on ad infinitum... Although it is only in the code and can only be extracted by writing it through this program (probably?) But I pulled out a non-working piece of code and checked it through an antivirus from the same group. It detected Apocalypse II Commented Aug 22 at 14:53
  • If the boot block is in there, you'll either need to fix the list count so the program actually uses it, or identify where the block lives and extract it. As noted in an earlier post, the program has been deliberately obfuscated to make reverse-engineering difficult, and may have scrambled some of the data (e.g. strings in the hex dump show "Load Runn", rather than "Load Runner"). Your best bet is probably to trap on keyboard accesses from an emulator debugger, figure out where the 'B' key is being handled, and patch that code. Commented Aug 22 at 15:07

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