Tool Demo

A short public sketch of the tools used for the Chronologia analysis pass. This is intentionally generic and omits private deployment commands, credentials, and local scratch paths.

Binary Triage

The first pass identifies archive contents, executable formats, packers, and embedded text:

file DEMO.EXE
strings -a DEMO.EXE | head
strings -a DEMO.EXE | rg -i "gus|sound|vga|mod|pklite|lzexe|dos4gw"

For DOS MZ executables, the header and relocation layout can show whether the program is a tiny real-mode intro, a linked C/Pascal program, or a packed shell.

Local Repo Search

Existing coverage is checked before adding a new article:

rg -ni "space pigs|xmas|phoney|cascada" .
rg --files | rg -i "xmas|space|phoney"

That avoids duplicating work and helps keep the README and homepage consistent.

Runtime Observation

When an executable is runnable, the timing pass uses DOSBox or a captured video to annotate effect changes:

00:00 loader / setup
00:07 first logo or text state
00:18 main effect transition
00:31 end text or reset path

Those timestamps are not meant as scene folklore; they are reconstruction hints for anyone trying to remake the pacing.

Rendering

Markdown sources are rendered into static HTML pages with:

python3 tools/render_markdown_pages.py

Rendered pages include a raw-text link so the public site can show both normal HTML and the source Markdown.