I have no idea what the hell I am doing.

So the string of code I found earlier this week which I thought was the passcode algorithm seems to have been just a screen draw algorithm. Or something. The more I traced the code, the more it appeared to my inexperienced, weary eyes to be handling drawing (the AND and CMP operations were too high to seemingly be of any other use).

I did locate the actual password, though, at the point it is generated. The password itself (note I said "password" this time) is comprised of 10 bytes. What this means is there can only be at most 10 icons in the passcode. I have yet to figure out how each byte is assigned, but the value of each byte determines what icon is shown. The passcode grid is broken down as follows:

00 04 08 0C
10 14 18 1C
20 24 28 2C
30 34 38 3C

Each icon has a specific value: Whip=1, Cross=2, Heart =3. When an icon is assigned to the grid, its value is added to whatever cell it is placed in. So putting a heart in 00 would yield 03. Putting a whip in 2C would yield 1D. It was important to know this in order to find where the password is actually located when it is created.

The reason passcodes usually only have 4, 5 or 6 icons even though the password itself is 10 bytes is that some bytes have a value that is equal to the cell value itself, which corresponds to a blank cell. Of course, therein lies a problem: how does the game know if a blank cell is just a blank cell and not related to the actual password?

I haven't figured that much out yet. One step at a time.