The Charsnooper is a little hack for the 64 written for the purpose of stealing character sets from games and other programs.
To steal a character set, load and run the game you want to steal from. Then reset the computer and load the Charsnooper in 64 mode using the command 'load "5120*",8,1' then activate it using the command 'sys 5120'.
As you see, the strange name has been chosen to remind you of the execution address. The execution address has been chosen because, as the charsnooper has to be loaded somewhere, it's the least likely place for a character set to reside. The VIC chip can't see computer RAM in that area, only the default ROM character set. The Charsnooper program itself is is 1023 bytes long.
Once the program is started, you'll notice the memory display window in the bottom half of the screen. What you see is the memory space of an entire character set, 2048 bytes. Now, you'll probably see nothing but garbage. Press F1/F2 to shuffle the display around to view the entire computer RAM. Even RAM under ROM & I/O will be displayed. With a little luck, a character set will show up in one of the 2048 byte areas. If a character set do appear as soon as the Charsnooper is started, you should save it AT ONCE if you want to keep it. The first memory area is used as a buffer and will be overwritten as soon as you move to another memory area.
You can now save the character set to disk. If you wish to use the character set in your own programs, the reload address might be important. F3/F4 will let you change the reload address in 256 byte steps.
You may want to save only part of the character set displayed, especially if some on the memory area is just garbage anyway. On default, the whole memory area as you see it will be saved; from screencode 0 through 255. By pressing F5/F6 you may limit the number of characters you want to save in 32 character steps. Each line of display is 32 characters, so each time you press F5/F6 represent one whole line. You'll not be allowed to save a character set where the end character is lower than the start character.
Now, press F7 to save the character set. To abort, press RUN/STOP. Enter a name, and press return.
If you want to watch previously saved character set, you can load it by pressing F8. Enter a name, and press return. To abort, press RUN/STOP.
To exit the program, press SHIFT/Q. This will reset the computer.
