RoboCop – Breaking the Law. H0ffman Cracks RoboCop Arcade from DataEast

dfxm12 · 2025-12-31T17:43:40 1767203020

It seems like the game is “off loading” the enemy bullet to player collision detection to the HuC6280. This would have presented a very complicated challenge to would-be bootleggers back in the day

Having an invincible RoboCop would be a devious punishment for arcade operators bootlegging the game. One quarter would eat up a lot of time on the machine. It would be hard to make any money on it.

erickhill · 2025-12-31T17:18:17 1767201497

If you're not familiar, Hoffman is also a supremely talented musician as well (often inspired by and/or made on an Amiga).

His track "Eon" here is from a very famous and artistically beautiful demo. https://hoffman.bandcamp.com/album/the-cave-sessions

fabiensanglard · 2025-12-28T02:35:27 1766889327

I can feel the passion. Great write up!

Thorrez · 2026-01-01T11:00:47 1767265247

MAME emulates both CPUs?

So that means there are 2 ways to crack it. Emulate both CPUs, or rewrite the code from the sub CPU to work on the main CPU.

doublerabbit · 2026-01-01T01:41:17 1767231677

Sigh, one day I'll have the time to put my feet up and learn about debugging and assembly.

Personally thinking, I need to buy a breadboard and start tinkering.