Game and platform status

Last status review: 2026-10-27, against main 88ef19df. This is the operational status matrix. It separates media recognition, verified runtime slices and end-to-end playability. A row marked as supported does not mean that every menu, save format or visual parity gate is complete.

The preceding functional revision e70c460d had successful GitHub Actions main CI run 40487479502 and Pages deployment run 40487479478 completed successfully after PR #142 merged. These checks establish that revision’s build, test and documentation deployment status; they do not establish that all five games are playable. The original-media startup sweep below is dated history and has not been rerun at that revision.

On 2026-10-20, the current main commit f97398d8 passed another local original-media startup sweep. DM1 passed the Atari ST 1.2, Amiga 3.6, English DOS and FM Towns native CLI suites. Its mixed-library M12 test selected FM Towns automatically and reached authenticated first runtime frames for Atari ST, Amiga and DOS. CSB passed the Amiga, Atari STX and FM Towns native CLI suites, including Atari’s source C200 entrance event and the FM Towns English MINI.DAT party. The DM1, CSB and DM2 return-to-menu matrix also passed its configured original-media sessions, including availability rescans, direct-CLI exit behavior, return during rescans, and discovery after adding or removing media. firestaff_cli_game_option_forms passed its normal no-game startup guard and CLI spelling checks. These runs use SDL dummy video/audio and local original archives; they verify bounded startup and launcher behavior, not native display, sound output or full visual parity.

Also on 2026-10-20, fresh isolated configurations started the application without --game against a shared root containing only links to the installed original DM1, CSB and DM2 data. The normal M12 main-menu keyboard flow selected each game and reached its real-data runtime: DM1 selected FM Towns and loaded HoC map 0 at (1,3); CSB selected FM Towns and loaded its MINI.DAT party on map 4 at (22,18); DM2 selected FM Towns, completed all 225 original title frames, reached the first champion on map 0 at (1,8), and accepted a turn. The logs began with startup game=none mode=menu and recorded each actual M12 game handoff. These SDL dummy sessions verify the previously untested no-CLI-game main-menu selection path and bounded runtime entry, not native presentation or audio output.

Status terms

On 2026-10-08, the current main commit 5126347d passed a focused local startup/menu revalidation against supplied original media: DM1 Amiga v2.0 (dm1_v1_amiga_v20_archive_cli_boot), CSB Atari ST (csb_v1_atari_original_archive_cli_boot), and DM2 FM Towns (dm2_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot). The real-media return-to-menu regression (return_to_menu_rescans_dm1_csb_dm2_real_media) passed all four configured routes and rediscovered DM1, CSB and DM2 after each return. The empty-data menu flow (m12_startup_menu) also passed its DM1/CSB/DM2 missing-media checks. These tests ran on Mac16,10 with headless SDL; they do not verify native M5 HiDPI presentation or input.

On 2026-10-10, dm2_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot was run directly against the installed original FM Towns ZIP after CTest’s configured archive path skipped the case. Bare --game dm2 and M12 both selected FM Towns; its New Game menu matched the source RGB digest, and ordinary main-loop input reached the first party. This remains headless startup evidence, not physical M5 parity.

On 2026-10-12, the complete dm2_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot test passed against the installed original FM Towns package on Mac16,10 in 346 seconds. It checked bare CLI and M12 AUTO selection from the full data root, completed all 225 TWANIM frames by 40 seconds, compared the presented New Game menu pixels with the decoded original TITLE/0/4 RGB digest, and drove New Game to the first champion on map 0 through both direct CLI and M12. The normal-loop runtime frame used the original graphics with zero core fallback draws. These checks use SDL’s dummy video and audio drivers; they do not verify a native window, HiDPI input or audible playback.

The same day, csb_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot passed against the original CSB FM Towns package in 110 seconds. It covered automatic and explicit F31 selection, keyboard and mouse start-menu routes, the original TITLE.ANM → SWITCHTW → CHTWE/CHTWJ → C004 Prison → MINI.DAT chain, and the authentic first party at map 4, (22,18), direction 2. Captures checked the closed-door C28 palette composition in Original, Modern and Custom modes; the 1920×1080 FIT route also reached the same party. This uses SDL dummy output and does not prove native HiDPI or audio parity.

Also on 2026-10-12, dm1_v1_fmtowns_archive_cli_boot passed against the original DM1 FM Towns ZIP in 264 seconds. It exercised bare and explicit CLI launch, English EDM and Japanese JDM selection through the start menu, language-specific runtime admission and movement inputs, and the source-owned Hall route through mirror selection and champion resurrection. SDL dummy output establishes route and input behavior only; this run did not assess visual, audible or native HiDPI parity.

dm1_v1_m12_auto_multi_platform_menu also passed against the installed English FM Towns, DOS 3.4, Atari ST 1.2 and Amiga 2.0 archives. The mixed-data M12 AUTO route selected FM Towns and reached its original Hall-of-Champions runtime; the menu and direct CLI routes also selected each explicitly chosen edition and reached its authenticated first runtime frame. This is startup and route evidence with SDL dummy output, not native-display parity.

On 2026-10-12, both dm1_v1_pc34_native_cli_boot and dm1_v1_m12_auto_multi_platform_menu passed again from commit 62793e3 against the installed original media. The PC 3.4 test reached its first source-owned runtime frame from the authentic retail ZIP and loose files extracted from that ZIP in the test scratch area. The mixed-platform menu test discovered the authentic FM Towns, DOS 3.4, Atari ST 1.2 and Amiga 2.0 editions, selected FM Towns through AUTO, and verified bare CLI and explicit platform routes. The tests took 255.74 and 88.10 seconds respectively. SDL dummy output verifies startup routing and source identities, not native Retina presentation or input.

csb_v1_atari_stx_native_cli_boot passed the same day against the original Atari STX and campaign archive. It covered the retained Atari title, menu keyboard and pointer paths, the original map-0 party pose and movement input, the authentic two-champion recruitment route, and the normal M12-to-entrance handoff. The runtime probes retained a nonzero source viewport receipt. SDL dummy output does not establish native display or audio parity.

csb_v1_amiga_native_cli_boot passed against the original A31 ZIP in 67 seconds. It exercised both the A31M title/program route and A31E C03_GAME handoff, Original and Modern startup/input paths, the full first-movement input matrix, M12 launch and AUTO discovery of the original FTL Amiga package. The runtime receipt retained a nonzero viewport hash. SDL dummy output does not establish native display or audio parity.

dm2_v1_dos_native_cli_boot passed against the installed English DOS retail ZIP in 73 seconds. It reached the source New Game menu through the normal M12 route and loaded the first party at map 0, (1,8), facing north. A presented menu capture was checked for a populated multicolour source surface; the run used SDL dummy video and audio and does not establish native display or audio parity.

dm2_v1_amiga_native_cli_boot passed in 103 seconds against the original Amiga ZIP→ADF data. The M12 keyboard and pointer paths reached the source SWSH/TITL New Game screen and loaded the first map-0 party with zero fallback draws; the presented runtime frame was nonblank, and the authentic movement and action input matrix passed. SDL dummy output does not establish native display or audio parity.

dm2_v1_mac_native_cli_boot passed in 168 seconds against the authentic Macintosh retail ZIP. The normal loop completed the original Title.MooV, opened New Game and mirror selection, reached runtime and accepted two moves; the M12 route checked a scaled 1920×1080 host surface, and direct --game Back exited the process instead of reopening the start menu. Its screenshot checks are headless smoke checks, not native HiDPI or pixel-parity evidence.

The 2026-10-10 original-media return-to-menu checks also cover DM1 Atari ST 1.1 and Amiga 3.6. Each route reached its source-owned runtime, returned to the launcher, and rediscovered DM1, CSB and DM2 from an isolated collection root. Combined with existing checks, this closes headless return/rescan coverage for DM1 DOS/Atari ST/Amiga/FM Towns, CSB Atari ST/Amiga/FM Towns, and DM2 DOS/Macintosh/Amiga/FM Towns; it does not establish physical desktop input or platform visual parity.

On 2026-10-12, commit 0b8f1f347 passed the complete local return_to_menu_rescans_dm1_csb_dm2_real_media matrix against the installed original-media collection in 1,188 seconds. The regression now also verifies that SDL3 window-close requests cancel synchronous return scans, without redrawing the launcher, for keyboard and mouse return paths. The focused asset_scan_access_denied test passed with the authentic DM1 FM Towns archive staged; it covers reporting an unreadable folder beside valid game data, a same-process rescan after access is restored, and discovery on a fresh startup. That permission test uses filesystem mode changes, not the native macOS TCC privacy dialog. GitHub Actions run 38238388059 passed its full Linux, macOS and Windows build/test matrix, including the SDL3 close-request regression on all three operating systems. These results establish scan and launcher behavior, not physical M5 HiDPI rendering, input, or game-specific visual/audio parity.

Latest real-media revalidation

On 2026-10-28, test_m12_main_menu_game_selection_real_media.sh passed against the current working tree and the installed original-media root. It verified keyboard and mouse selection for all five game cards, plus default- root menu handoff for DM1, CSB, DM2, Nexus and Theron. These card and handoff receipts do not claim that every selection reaches a playable runtime: Nexus remains capture-gated at its Saturn title. The 2026-10-27 first-runtime matrix and reproduction details remain in the five-game startup analysis. The SDL dummy run does not establish native-display, audio or physical-input parity.

Recent reports of DM1/CSB input and presentation faults and DM2/FM Towns palette/menu/dungeon faults remain open parity work until they are reproduced against matching original media and resolved with source or capture evidence. A green launch test below is therefore not a substitute for visual, audio, input or campaign parity.

On 2026-10-27, the local startup sweep ran against main snapshot f6c7ad006 before unrelated Theron commits were merged. DM1 passed dm1_v1_pc34_native_cli_boot, dm1_v1_atari_st_archive_cli_boot, dm1_v1_amiga_v20_archive_cli_boot, and dm1_v1_fmtowns_archive_cli_boot for English and Japanese routes. CSB passed csb_v1_atari_stx_native_cli_boot, csb_v1_amiga_native_cli_boot, and csb_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot. DM2 passed dm2_v1_dos_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_dos_fr_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_mac_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_amiga_native_cli_boot, and dm2_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot. The initial Towns invocation skipped because its source-menu RGB helper had not been built in the incremental build directory; after building that test target, the same real-media test passed. The original game archives were read in place and left unchanged. These SDL dummy-driver checks establish the tested CLI/menu startup and bounded runtime routes only; they do not close native display, HiDPI, physical input, audible output, visual parity or complete-gameplay gaps.

On 2026-08-30 the local, non-CI DM2 regression set passed against supplied archives without extracting or modifying them. It covered dm2_v1_dos_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_dos_fr_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_dos_sksave_archive_menu_resume, dm2_v1_dos_sksave_archive_menu_resume_matrix, dm2_v1_amiga_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot, and dm2_v1_mac_native_cli_boot. The matrix proves the stated bounded launch, menu, New Game/first-movement and DOS read-only resume routes only; it does not promote untraced combat, cross-platform save writing, complete GUI or pixel/audio parity to playable status.

The same local revalidation passed the DM1 and CSB native launch matrices against their supplied original media. DM1 covered PC/DOS, Atari ST, Amiga and FM Towns archive routes, including nested original containers. CSB covered Atari ST, Amiga ZIP-to-ADF and FM Towns English/Japanese routes. The FM Towns CSB evidence now explicitly drives the original F31 chain TITLE.ANM → SWITCHTW → CHTWE/CHTWJ → C004 Prison → MINI.DAT, then checks the published live party pose and a source-owned turn. These are bounded real-media launch and first-gameplay checks only; they do not imply full campaign, save, audio or pixel-capture parity.

On 2026-09-01 a follow-up run repeated the maintained real-media startup routes after DM1 viewport ordering work. DM2 passed DOS, Amiga and FM Towns; CSB passed Atari ST, Amiga and FM Towns. The checked tests are dm2_v1_{dos,amiga,fmtowns}_native_cli_boot and csb_v1_{atari_stx,amiga,fmtowns}_native_cli_boot. These results reaffirm native, in-memory startup and bounded first-runtime behavior only.

On 2026-09-05 the CSB Atari ST, Amiga and FM Towns maintained real-media routes were run again on the current tree: csb_v1_atari_stx_native_cli_boot, csb_v1_amiga_native_cli_boot, and csb_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot passed. The FM Towns Japanese selection was also run explicitly against its supplied archive, traversing the same title, switch, prison and MINI.DAT route. This is fresh evidence for in-memory startup and the first source-owned movement; it is not a claim of complete campaign, save, audio or pixel parity.

The same 2026-09-05 revalidation passed DM2’s maintained native launch matrix: dm2_v1_dos_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_amiga_native_cli_boot, dm2_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot, and dm2_v1_mac_native_cli_boot. The Macintosh route specifically covers the retail ZIP’s native title, mirror selection and observed input matrix. As elsewhere in this document, this is bounded startup/runtime evidence rather than a complete parity assertion.

On 2026-09-09 the current native build was revalidated against only supplied, unmodified game containers. dm1_v1_fmtowns_archive_cli_boot reached the FM Towns TMENU → EDM/JDM handoff, entrance, English/Japanese input matrix and a captured F20 frame. CSB passed csb_v1_atari_stx_native_cli_boot, csb_v1_amiga_adf_archive_cli_boot and csb_v1_fmtowns_native_cli_boot; the latter checks the C28 palette with the C002/C003 closed-prison composition and the MINI.DAT map 4, party 22/18/2 bootstrap pose. DM2’s real FM Towns media passed its title, gameplay and corpus gates. Nexus passed real TITLE.CG/MAPD title admission and its startup handoff gates. Theron passed Japanese raw track-02 intake, level-block and later-dungeon gates, plus the Japanese CUE boot route. These are bounded route receipts, not a claim of complete campaign, save, audio or pixel parity.

On 2026-09-29 the authentic startup smoke tests passed for DM1 PC 3.4 DOS, DM1 Atari ST, CSB Atari ST and DM2 Macintosh. The DM1 PC 3.4 normal start-menu route now also records that it selected the source-owned GRAPHICS.DAT C001 intro and completed all 23 TITLE.C F0437 steps before entering runtime. dm2_unsupported_platform_cli passed its PC-9821 alias-rejection checks and, with the supplied Japanese archive present, confirmed that automatic discovery and the start menu do not launch it. These are bounded startup results; they do not establish full presentation, audio or campaign parity.

The focused DM2 Macintosh movie-runtime test also passed against the supplied retail ZIP with the full Title.MooV running at its per-sample QuickTime deadlines. It checks the source-derived total duration and that the startup menu is ready at EOF, closing the prior test gap that fast-forwarded the title after checking only its opening frames. SDL dummy output does not prove native window pacing or audible playback.

The authentic FM Towns CSB EN/JA handoff tests also ran with SDL’s dummy audio driver. Both verified that C0_MUSIC_ENTRANCE resolves to physical CD-DA track 02 and that its selected CUE/IMG PCM reaches an active, unpaused audio stream after the original Game-program handoff. This verifies source selection and queue acceptance, not audible hardware or retail sound parity.

Dungeon Master

Chaos Strikes Back

Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep

DM Nexus

Theron’s Quest

Data and preservation rules

Firestaff reads the original file or container in its supplied form. It may use temporary in-memory decoding during development, but production does not extract game data to a Firestaff-owned directory. A DOSBox save is never treated as a Macintosh save, and a parser or synthetic fixture never upgrades a row to playable. See game-data setup, preservation and verified hashes.