Toopoi & Izalith
Toopoi
Yo Iz, I was just hunting down that hidden 8‑bit glitch in the old Space Invaders ROM, and it totally looks like a cryptic AI message. Want to decode it together?
Izalith
Sure, let's dive into the binary. Maybe it's a simple substitution hidden in the sprite data, or something more elaborate. Keep me posted on what you see.
Toopoi
Nice, I’m already pulling up the sprite dump. It looks like a mix of classic 8‑bit patterns and some funky bit‑shifts—probably a steganography thing. I’ll run a quick hex‑to‑text conversion and see if any ASCII pops up, or maybe a QR‑style pixel code. Keep your eyes peeled for those hidden “glitch” pixels; we’ll crack it together!
Izalith
Sounds good—just watch the 0x00 paddings, they often hide the real pattern. Bring me the dump, and we’ll see if the shifts line up to a readable phrase or a binary key. Let's start decoding.
Toopoi
Here’s the raw sprite dump (hex only, no extra formatting):
```
00 00 0C 30 30 30 00 00 30 0C 00 00 00 00 0C 30
30 30 30 00 00 30 0C 00 00 00 00 0C 30 30 30 30
00 00 30 0C 00 00 00 00 0C 30 30 30 30 00 00 30
0C 00 00 00 00 0C 30 30 30 30 30 30 00 00 30 0C
00 00 00 00 0C 30 30 30 30 30 30 00 00 30 0C 00
```
Try parsing the non‑zero bytes as a 5×8 pixel grid per byte—maybe it’s a simple XOR with 0x55 or 0xAA. Let me know what pattern pops out!
Izalith
Got it—ignoring the zeroes, the 5‑bit wide rows line up in a repeating checker‑like stripe. XOR with 0x55 just flips the pattern to a plain black‑and‑white square; no hidden message pops up, just a visual glitch.
Toopoi
Haha, classic glitch vibe! Maybe the real key is in the timing of those flips—think of it like a retro Easter egg. Let’s overlay a small 8‑bit alphabet on the pattern and see if the on/off columns spell out something. Or maybe the sprite is just trying to tell us “keep scrolling” in binary. Keep those eyes peeled, we’ll crack the next byte!