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exxos has released version 3.03 of nrvpack, a free online executable compression service for Atari ST PRG/APP/TOS/TTP files. Upload a file and get five compressed variants to choose from, each with different size/speed tradeoffs. 

The packer and all 68000 decompression stubs were written from the ground up using AI. Months of development went into the compression engine — including optimal parsing with dynamic programming, lit-cost sweeps, context-width tuning, and extensive testing of preprocessing transforms and encoding strategies to squeeze every last byte out of typical 68k executables. 

On large real-world programs the best format achieves around 2.75:1 compression ratio. A fast-depack option is also available that decompresses in under a second on a stock 8MHz 68000. All formats support colour-cycling raster bars during decompression and run on any ST/STE/TT/Falcon.

The service is free and requires an exxos forum login.

🔗 https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/nrvpack/
🔗 https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8312

Comments

mikro
Thursday, 30 April 2026 23:03
Nice tool and web frontend, but ...

"the parser, probe-set logic, arithmetic coder, and 68k decompression routine are all original work"

... IMHO would be fair to mention that the tool has been created completely by AI: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=141477#p141477.
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Exxos
Thursday, 30 April 2026 23:28
Quoting mikro:
Nice tool and web frontend, but ...

"the parser, probe-set logic, arithmetic coder, and 68k decompression routine are all original work"

... IMHO would be fair to mention that the tool has been created completely by AI: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=141477#p141477.

So I didn't spend 100+ hours of work on it myself then? *sigh*
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505
Friday, 01 May 2026 09:45
Exxos agreed on adding a text snippet regarding the use of AI. In fact this was transparently written in the respective forum, but not explicitly mentioned here (The focus was on presenting the resulting tool). Anyway, mentioning it surely helps to understand the context. So here you are.
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mikro
Saturday, 02 May 2026 01:06
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against using AI to help development, I do it myself very often, too. It was just the sentence on the forum which made me wonder what the "original" really meant.
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uncle-x would say
Saturday, 02 May 2026 09:28
Lol fuck AI.
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505
Saturday, 02 May 2026 09:56
Quoting uncle-x would say:
Lol fuck AI.

Please use your true name/nickname next time for your contributions. Thanks.
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