The findings
At $5900–$59A4, 165 bytes of assembler text survive, including character definitions written with DFB directives. The high-bit characters and $8D line endings fit Apple II-style conventions. Some graphics bytes match tiles in the finished game; the format alone does not identify the development machine.
An 896-byte region at $8B00–$8E7F contains 88 complete symbol-table entries and a partial entry. The names include 46 animation frames, encoding action, direction, phase and sprite layer. Address shifts connect this older layout to the final game.
Earlier routines, sprites, room characters, sound effects and an attract-mode recording show changes during development. Atari-specific key tables also remain, supporting an Atari-to-C64 development path.
Other fragments include MicroPearl music-editor data and a C64 bitmap utility with packing, scrolling and a sprite cursor. The graphics utility’s identity and author remain unknown.
Reconstruction and evidence
The modern ACME source builds the game portions of the SAEGER, TBC and DC captures. Emulator scenarios compare screens, memory and VIC-II state, including all 20 rooms. These checks cover documented scenarios, rather than every possible game state.
The source tree is a modern reconstruction. Only a small original source fragment survives; the complete 1984 source and uncracked original master were not recovered. The research separates observations from interpretations and lists open questions.
The logs below follow the individual findings. Full address-level evidence is in the repository’s development report.
Development report: https://github.com/henols/c64_games/blob/main/bruce_lee/docs/development.md
Release comparisons: https://github.com/henols/c64_games/blob/main/bruce_lee/docs/releases.md
Toolkit project: https://hackaday.io/project/207111-c64-re-tools
Henrik Olsson
ebenupton
Jim Shortz
lion mclionhead
Santiago Germino