Asghan: The Dragon Slayer (demo)

Silmarils, 1998. Fixture: test/binaries/win98-games-a-d/Asghan-demo-SW-D3D-Glide.exe (13 MB), a WinRAR self-extractor (RAR 2.x payload: readme.txt, _setup.exe, _start.exe, *.IO data, sst1init.dll, DirectX setup DLLs).

• Host-side unpacking fails: this p7zip has no RAR codec ("Unsupported Method" on every entry); no unrar/unar on the box.
• In the emulator the SFX reads its own head (c:\asghan.exe 0x0..0x20000, 0x11600), shows its "Destination folder: C:\ / Extract / Cancel" dialog (resource "MAINDLG", DialogBoxParamA, dlgproc exe+0x4031cc), and needs --stuck-after=0 (idle detector ends the run at the dialog otherwise).
• A mouse click on Extract (241,270) never produces WM_COMMAND: the press resolves to the dialog itself ([input-route] down ... candidates: 0x10002 dlg), not to the button. dlg-cmd:1 does reach the dlgproc's WM_COMMAND arm (exe+0x403219 -> exe+0x40329c), but the SFX then ends the dialog, closes its archive and exits without opening any output file.

Next: why the Extract press does not hit the child button (hit-testing of WAT-native dialog children created from this template), and what exe+0x40329c checks for IDOK (it starts with call 0x40d246 and returns 0 when that fails). Alternatively unpack the RAR host-side once a RAR-capable extractor is available.

Status 2026-10-06: parked (claude:d10ba697); TODOS NEW-GAME-ASGHAN-DEMO-20261006.

Un-parked: install, setup and gameplay (claude:202b4b39, 2026-10-06)

• Unpack host-side with node-unrar-js (the box's 7z has no RAR codec): the RAR marker is at 0x11600 in the SFX; 117 files, 28.9 MB into test/binaries/win98-games-a-d/Asghan-demo-installed. The in-emulator SFX Extract click is filed separately (SFX-DIALOG-BUTTON-HITTEST).
• Install and configure in the emulator: _setup.exe (Borland, --dll-seed=CW3220.DLL,BWCC32.DLL) offers C:\ASGHAN.DEM / Standard; Install copies all files, asks about a desktop icon (No), then opens its setup window; Save setup writes _start.stp (and _start.cdp, app.exe = a copy of _setup.exe). Without _start.stp the game does nothing. The registered tree is the extract plus those three files.
• The blocker was a 16-bit file handle. The game's Borland I/O layer stores CreateFile's result as a WORD (movzx ebx, word [0x44e304] at 0x401fd8) and reads with 0xb for our 0x7000000b. Every read of main.io failed, sprite headers stayed zero, and the cursor blit at 0x441d9e (lodsb/test/jz/stosb/loop, width from [0x44e810]) ran with ECX=0 for 2^32 iterations: 309 API calls, then a grey screen. Fixed in the VFS (636ffe63): a missed handle below 0x10000 aliases the Win32 handle with the same low bits.
• Route: node test/run.js --app=asghan_demo --quiet-api --quiet-blocks --stuck-after=0 --input=25000:keydown:13,25100:keyup:13,35000:keydown:13,35100:keyup:13 -- title by ~20,000 batches, Enter -> menu (NEW GAME), Enter -> the pier level; Up (VK 0x26) runs the hero off the pier towards an orc (scratch/runs/20261006T2110Z-asghan-demo-gameplay). Space/Escape do nothing on the menu.
• Software renderer only so far; _st_dx3d.exe / _st_3dfx.exe, audio ("No AudioCD device" is logged and ignored), FPS and the browser are separate.

Correction: the SFX Extract click works (claude:202b4b39, 2026-10-06)

The in-emulator WinRAR SFX extracts the whole archive; the earlier "Extract never produces WM_COMMAND" reading was a budget artifact. A held click on Extract (241,270) does reach the button (it takes focus, and readme.txt, _setup.exe and _start.exe are written within 6,000 batches). The [input-route] down ... candidates: 0x10002 dlg line only names the top-level window the press routes to; the child is resolved after it. RAR decompression is CPU-heavy: all 117 files are out after ~310,000 batches (7.5 s here) and the SFX then exits. 116 are byte-identical to the host-side node-unrar-js extract (_start.cdp differs only because the registered tree holds the post-setup copy). A 40,000-batch run stops after ~13 files with no .IO data, which is what looked like a failed click.

node test/run.js --exe=test/binaries/win98-games-a-d/Asghan-demo-SW-D3D-Glide.exe \
  --exe-guest-path='c:\asghan.exe' --quiet-api --stuck-after=0 \
  --max-batches=400000 --input=700:mousedown:241:270,720:mouseup:241:270 \
  --save-vfs=OUT --save-vfs-prefix='c:\'