Pocket Tanks v1.6 shareware

Local-only app ids pocket_tanks and pocket_tanks_installer. The pinned original installer is test/binaries/candidates/pocket-tanks-installer/ptanks.exe; an optional prepared browser payload lives below that directory at installed/ and remains gitignored.

Provenance and license boundary

• Official page: https://classic.blitwise.com/pockettanks.html.
• Official installer: https://classic.blitwise.com/ptanks.exe.
• Installer SHA-1: 1f10dd5830eecf117bc10daf7e85d29f364dbdc2.
• Installer SHA-256: a3d7da899ab2d3cdd33c6b10747478628175c5a5e0c215eb43a629e6cf98c982.
• The publisher identifies this edition as shareware. That status makes it a valid local compatibility fixture under the candidate policy, but is not by itself an open-source license or an unconditional public redistribution grant. Keep both installer and installed assets out of public deployment until the package terms are reviewed for that specific use.

Native installer path

ptanks.exe is a bootstrap rather than the final wizard. It writes a generated Inno Setup child beneath C:\windows\temp and launches it with a package-specific /SL4 command line. test/test-pocket-tanks-candidate.js uses --capture-launch to snapshot that child and its exact argument string from the guest VFS, then starts the captured child with the original bootstrap mounted at C:\ptanks.exe.

This is not host extraction. Both executable stages run in Wine-Assembly; the host receives an installed VFS only after the guest installer reaches its completion page. The test verifies that the resulting payload contains both pockettanks.exe and ptloader.exe.

The Inno Install button must be delivered through the normal mouse input queue. Calling its window procedure directly from control-channel eval starts the first extraction operation but loses the yielded continuation. A queued click at (515,467) keeps that continuation owned by the guest run loop and completes the installation.

Set PREPARE_POCKET_TANKS_DEBUG_WEB=1 while running the test to copy the emulator-installed game to the ignored installed/ directory and generate its .wine-assembly-browser.json manifest.

Frozen gameplay route

Run the end-to-end candidate gate with the CLI build already present:

node test/test-pocket-tanks-candidate.js

The game phase uses --control-stdin --frozen. It runs short explicit step bursts and blocks on stdin with no emulator work between commands. The route is:

1. Poll screenshots until the Deluxe offer has finished loading, then click Maybe Later.
2. Click Start on the title screen.
3. Capture the mode menu and click Target Practice.
4. Poll for the red PLAYER 1 HUD, which distinguishes the battlefield from the stopwatch loading frame.
5. Capture the battlefield, click Fire, and capture the changed frame.

The two final 800x600 frames must contain substantial game art and differ after the shot. They are written to build/pocket-tanks-candidate/gameplay-a.png and gameplay-b.png; the original installer completion frame is retained beside them.

Pocket Tanks uses the legacy BASS API. Wine-Assembly's compatibility handlers let this shareware build reach visual gameplay when that historical audio DLL is not available, but this gate does not claim working game music or sound effects.