diff --git a/engine/Age.Cli/Program.cs b/engine/Age.Cli/Program.cs
index 83fa4f4..f86a0f6 100644
--- a/engine/Age.Cli/Program.cs
+++ b/engine/Age.Cli/Program.cs
@@ -1,2 +1,37 @@
-// See https://aka.ms/new-console-template for more information
-Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
+using System.Text.Json;
+using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
+using Age.Engine.Hosting;
+using Age.Engine.Sys4;
+using Age.Engine.Vm;
+
+var table = OpcodeTableJson.Load(Paths.OpcodesJson);
+
+if (args.Length == 0) { Console.WriteLine("usage: run <file> | trace <out.json>"); return 1; }
+
+if (args[0] == "run")
+{
+    var script = Sys4Loader.Load(args[1], table);
+    var vm = new VirtualMachine(script, table, new CaptureHost());
+    vm.Run();
+    Console.WriteLine($"{Path.GetFileName(args[1])}: {vm.Steps} steps, {vm.Emitted.Count} show-text (halt: {vm.HaltReason})");
+    foreach (var (off, text) in vm.Emitted.Take(20)) Console.WriteLine($"  [{off:x}] {text}");
+    return 0;
+}
+
+if (args[0] == "trace")
+{
+    var scene = new Regex(@"^S[CP]\d{4}\.BIN$");
+    var scripts = Paths.Scripts();
+    var trace = new SortedDictionary<string, object>(StringComparer.Ordinal);
+    foreach (var name in scripts.Keys.Where(n => scene.IsMatch(n)).OrderBy(n => n, StringComparer.Ordinal))
+    {
+        var vm = new VirtualMachine(Sys4Loader.Load(scripts[name], table), table, new CaptureHost());
+        vm.Run();
+        trace[name] = new { offsets = vm.Emitted.Select(e => e.Offset).ToArray(), halt = vm.HaltReason, steps = vm.Steps };
+    }
+    File.WriteAllText(args[1], JsonSerializer.Serialize(trace,
+        new JsonSerializerOptions { Encoder = System.Text.Encodings.Web.JavaScriptEncoder.UnsafeRelaxedJsonEscaping }));
+    Console.WriteLine($"trace: {trace.Count} scenes -> {args[1]}");
+    return 0;
+}
+Console.WriteLine("unknown command"); return 1;
diff --git a/engine/Age.Engine.Tests/TraceDiffTests.cs b/engine/Age.Engine.Tests/TraceDiffTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a326e0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/engine/Age.Engine.Tests/TraceDiffTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+using System.Text.Json;
+using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
+using Age.Engine.Hosting;
+using Age.Engine.Sys4;
+using Age.Engine.Vm;
+using Xunit;
+
+public class TraceDiffTests
+{
+    private static readonly Regex Scene = new(@"^S[CP]\d{4}\.BIN$");
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void CsTraceMatchesVm0PerScene()
+    {
+        string refPath = Path.Combine(Paths.Build, "vm0-trace.json");
+        Assert.True(File.Exists(refPath),
+            "prerequisite: run `py -3.11 -X utf8 tools/vm0.py --trace build/vm0-trace.json`");
+
+        using var doc = JsonDocument.Parse(File.ReadAllText(refPath));
+        var expected = doc.RootElement;
+        var table = OpcodeTableJson.Load(Paths.OpcodesJson);
+        var scripts = Paths.Scripts();
+
+        var mismatches = new List<string>();
+        foreach (var name in scripts.Keys.Where(n => Scene.IsMatch(n)).OrderBy(n => n, StringComparer.Ordinal))
+        {
+            var script = Sys4Loader.Load(scripts[name], table);
+            var vm = new VirtualMachine(script, table, new CaptureHost());
+            vm.Run();
+            var offsets = vm.Emitted.Select(e => e.Offset).ToArray();
+
+            if (!expected.TryGetProperty(name, out var exp)) { mismatches.Add($"{name}: absent in vm0 trace"); continue; }
+            var expOffsets = exp.GetProperty("offsets").EnumerateArray().Select(x => x.GetInt32()).ToArray();
+            string expHalt = exp.GetProperty("halt").GetString() ?? "";
+            long expSteps = exp.GetProperty("steps").GetInt64();
+
+            if (!offsets.SequenceEqual(expOffsets))
+                mismatches.Add($"{name}: offsets differ (cs {offsets.Length} vs vm0 {expOffsets.Length}; first diff at {FirstDiff(offsets, expOffsets)})");
+            else if (vm.HaltReason != expHalt) mismatches.Add($"{name}: halt cs='{vm.HaltReason}' vs vm0='{expHalt}'");
+            else if (vm.Steps != expSteps) mismatches.Add($"{name}: steps cs={vm.Steps} vs vm0={expSteps}");
+        }
+        Assert.True(mismatches.Count == 0, "scene mismatches:\n" + string.Join("\n", mismatches.Take(20)));
+    }
+
+    private static int FirstDiff(int[] a, int[] b)
+    {
+        int n = Math.Min(a.Length, b.Length);
+        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) if (a[i] != b[i]) return i;
+        return n;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tools/vm0.py b/tools/vm0.py
index b7de699..9546386 100644
--- a/tools/vm0.py
+++ b/tools/vm0.py
@@ -410,6 +410,22 @@ def run_sweep(limit=None):
     return 0
 
 
+def run_trace(out_path):
+    """Dump per-scene emitted show-text offsets + halt + steps for the differential test."""
+    oracle = load_oracle()
+    scripts = paths.scripts()
+    names = sorted(n for n in scripts if SCENE_RE.match(n))
+    trace = {}
+    for name in names:
+        r = run_scene(name, scripts[name], oracle)
+        vm = r["vm"]
+        trace[name] = {"offsets": [off for off, _ in vm.text],
+                       "halt": vm.halt_reason, "steps": vm.steps}
+    Path(out_path).write_text(json.dumps(trace, ensure_ascii=False), encoding="utf-8")
+    print(f"trace: {len(trace)} scenes -> {out_path}")
+    return 0
+
+
 def main(argv=None):
     argv = argv if argv is not None else sys.argv[1:]
     if not argv or argv[0] == "--test":
@@ -418,6 +434,8 @@ def main(argv=None):
         return run_sweep(limit=int(argv[1]) if len(argv) > 1 else None)
     if argv[0] == "--scene":
         return run_one_scene(argv[1])
+    if argv[0] == "--trace":
+        return run_trace(argv[1])
     return run_file(argv[0])