FFVII Research & Resources Thread

[Shademp]

The English video titles have now been changed and include the "FFVII Unlocked" heading. Playlist also has this extra heading and is now called "FFVII Unlocked - Unused Scenes Playlist". I will get Kusabi's help to change the Japanese titles as well.

Naming future videos will be much easier now. Hopefully these new titles may at least marginally increase the views, as well. =)
To apologize for these spam-esque posts of mine, I can inform that there will be new video uploads before the end of the week. Stay tuned.

 

[koolaidman]

Whoops, I forgot to respond. Sorry about that

You are seeing shards of the field script there. MD1STIN contains script from one of the debug rooms, hence the "Transport to Event" options you can see. It is better if you use a program like Makou Reactor or Hack7 to view each piece of text.

Ah, I forgot about Makou Reactor's ability to see the unused text. I didn't use the program too much so I just wanted to take a peek with my hex editor instead. My mistake.

I can tell you right now that there are no hints of this. No doubt you are wondering about Aerith's presence in the Great Glacier, but I believe this to be no more than an oversight. Just like Cid shows reactions to Nibelheim still standing, despite him not being recruited until after your visit to Nibelheim.

The scenario writers simply were not fully aware of the game's continuity when writing the party member dialogue.

EDIT: Without a doubt, I am NOT the first person to imagine what it would be like if Aerith was there to see the recordings of Gast, her father. Unfortunately, no unseen reactions to this by Aerith exists in the game script.

No no no no, I wasn't referring to this at all. Well, not really anyway. I was just curious to know if the developers had any other plans for the village besides getting the snow board, running into the Turks, and the Gast stuff which might refer to a point in development where you could go to that village earlier in the game. I always felt that the existence of the village just had a useless vibe to it. But I guess you probably looked into the script already and didn't find anything interesting...

But anyway, I don't think I mentioned this earlier but I was looking into how different the Tobal demo's treatment of the map files in comparison to how the final game treats the data and I noticed that the types of map data you can find in the demo are basically just sections of the .DAT files used in the final version broken down into individual files. If you were to try and combine the files into one file so that all the parts are in one uncompressed .DAT file, the order which you would combine the files should be this:

CA (?) -- not sure if compressed or not, decompressing makes the file smaller so maybe not?
ATE -- LZSC compressed
ID -- LZSC compressed
MAP (?) --LZSC compressed

Like I said before, the combined/compressed file doesn't seem to work with Hack 7 or Makou Reactor (results in a crash). I noticed that there is some more data near the end of a standard .DAT file that I can't seem to find the equivalent for in the demo so maybe that's the problem. I'm not familiar with the header of .DAT files but maybe they changed the format of the header between versions, which is a good possibility.

I wish someone would look into making the .ATE file (which is most likely where the script is) readable. Since you mentioned that most of the field maps carry data from other field maps it'd be interesting to see what text strings might be referenced in the files included in the demo. I'm more curious about any references to the debug rooms in the demo because that means we might be able to get an idea of what they were working on/implementing during the time the demo was being created. I think the demo was created about 6 months before the final release in Japan so that would be interesting.

 

[Shademp]

@koolaidman

As always, you think about possibilities that do not even occur to me. I did not consider that there might be some duplicate text in the demo. I know there is some duplicate text in the English demo from 1997, with some parts not yet translated, but that demo is an excerpt from a more complete version of the game and even have debug rooms that one can visit via cheat codes.
The only field files in the older demo are the ones you can visit but this of course does not eliminate the possibility of duplicate text, or unused entries in general.

I made an attempt to locate the adress for Text IDs in the (English) 1996 "Tobal" demo, but to no avail. At most, I was able to cause some graphical glitches in MD1_1.

Spoiler

Spoiler

My method was to search for 1-byte values (using the psx emulation cheater hacking tools) in the value interval of 0-255, because it is in this value type the game stores text in the final game.
The point was to make the game either trigger only one text entry during a scene, or cause one unexpected entry to appear. Again, I sadly failed.

BrutalAl was able to create cheat codes for the final game in which he could trigger any text ID. Maybe he can do the same for the demo. I will ask him about it.


EDIT: If you view the MD1_1 field in for example Makou Reactor 1.4 and remove one layer of the image, this is what you'll see:

Spoiler

As you can see, almost identical to the graphical glitch I caused.

 

[Shademp]

BrutalAl saves the day YET AGAIN! A round of applause for my fellow Swedish FFVII researcher.

He used a Hex Editor to find and unveil the text of the English 1996 demo. Unfortunately, there was not much to be found. First of all, yes, all ten accessible fields are part of a duplicate group and all contain the same text.
Only two unused entries were found.

Barret: “Now let's enter the Makoro!{EOL}
From here on I'm gonna to need ya to stick with me.“{END}
&
Cloud: “The alarm!“{END}

You will recognize these from Unused Text Part 1. The final game has Barret's unused line followed by additional unused pieces, but these are nowhere to be found in the game code of the English demo.

Other details noticed by BrutalAl:
- The elevator field, ELEVTR1, for some reason has 2/3 of the entire script appear twice.
- Each field has a limited number of encounters. So after X number of battles, no more battles will be triggered there.
- While Fire, Bolt and Ice have both their Level 1 and Level 2 spells available, Level 3 does NOT EVEN EXIST as an unused text piece in the battle menu.
- The demo only uses three item IDs.
ID#0: Potion
ID#1: Hi-Potion
ID#3: Ether

ID#2 is empty. Presumably it was there for X-Potion, as it is in the final game.


I've sent the Japanese version of the demo to BrutalAl. While he may research it later, it will be difficult for him to unlock and check the text there because he may not know the Japanese symbols well enough. We'll see how that goes. Maybe the Japanese demo has more stuff than the English one. At this time, we simply do not know.

Again, a big thanks to BrutalAl.

EDIT: I should note that while he found the text in the game code, we can not read the OpCodes (Operation Codes) like one can do in the final game with Makou Reactor. Without such tools, we can't confirm 100% if Barret's unused line “Now let's enter the Makoro! From here on I'm gonna to need ya to stick with me.“ exists as only a text piece, or if it is associated with a dialogue window and animations by Barret.

 

[Shademp]

BrutalAl has managed to dump the Japanese text file of the JP 1996 demo into an Excel sheet, but it is mainly still in raw hex-data.

Excel File Download Link

Someone who is accustomed to Japanese symbols must write which symbol a certain hex-value represents in the "Character Filter" tab. (In the column between the two "dec" columns in the aforementioned tab)
00 --> ??
01 --> ??
02 --> ??

?? representing the correct symbol. Hopefully there is some logic to how the symbols are ordered in the game code. Maybe there is some standard for how symbols are listed?
Once the symbol is written out in the Character Filter tab, it will automatically be written out in the "Data Dump" tab. Little by little, the Japanese text will be revealed to us then.
Do not write anything into the Data Dump tab. It is only for looking at.

Research can be helped by using in-game screenshots. Check the value they probably represent in Data Dump, then write it in the Character Filter tab. For this part, all you need is to know how to find the symbols written in the game.

Spoiler: Image1

Spoiler: Image2

Spoiler: Image3

Spoiler: Image4

This is how BrutalAl managed to decipher the English text. Knowing the alphabet, this stuff was straightforward to do for the English game.


So..anyone feel like helping?

 

[Strangelove]

「
{FA}
{65} 行
{4F} く
{1B} ぜ
{FB}
{06} 新
{FA}
{66} 入
{89} り
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FB}
{05} 俺
{75} に
{63} つ
{23} づ
{51} け
」

I tried but I'm not sure if I'm smart enough because I have little clue what is going on.


「
{55} さ
{59} す
{0B} が
。
{FA}
{7B} 元
{5C} ソ
{8A} ル
{16} ジ
{9E} ャ
ー
!
{EOL}
{SPACE}
…
…
{57} し
{4B} か
{57} し
,
{FA}
{7A} 反
{FA}
{72} 神
{FA}
{73} 羅
{7B} の
{0E} グ
{8A} ル
ー
{2D} プ
【
{6A}　ア
{00}　バ
ラ
{98}　ン
{60}　チ
】
{75}　に
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FA}
{7B}　元
{5C}　ソ
{8A}　ル
{16}　ジ
{9E}　ャ
ー
{0B}　が
{FA}　
{7C}　参
{FA}
〜　（D1 = 加？）
{59}　す
{8B}　る
{73}　な
{99}　ん
{65}　て
{73}　な
{A5}　ぁ
」



「
{5C}　ソ
{8A}　ル
{16}　ジ
{9E}　ャ
ー
?
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{5C}　ソ
{8A}　ル
{16}　ジ
{9E}　ャ
ー
{9D}　っ
{65}　て
{FA}　
{8C}　言
{9D}　っ
{5F}　た
{87}　ら
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FB}
{07}　私
{FC}
{1B}　達
{7B}　の
{FA}
{4D}　敵
{17}　じ
{9F}　ゃ
{73}　な
{6D}　い
」


「
{FA}
リ　（88 = 何?）
{25}　で
{5D}　そ
{7B}　の
{5C}　ソ
{8A}　ル
{16}　ジ
{9E}　ャ
ー
{0B}　が
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FB}
{07}　私
{FC}
{1B}　達
{6A}　ア
{00}　バ
ラ
{98}　ン
{60}　チ
{75}　に
{6D}　い
{8B}　る
{7B}　の
{95}　よ
?
」


I think I'm starting to get the hang of that. FB/FC seem to signal that the following code is for a kanji character? (I guess FB/FC are the databases for those characters or something.) Some of the characters that were already done in the one I downloaded seemed off, but I noted them above.

 

[Shademp]

From BrutalAl:

The symbols which take up two hex-values won't be shown correctly in Data Dump. You are correct in that some symbols take up two hex values. I encourage you to write the two-hex symbols in addition to the main list, so that I (BrutalAl) can implement them later.

 

[Strangelove]

I tried to fill in the character filter, but I think I better not as I don't know what I'm doing with the ones that have the same values but two different characters (like 7B or 73).

「
{FA}
{AD}　早
{67}　と
{61}　ち
{89}　り
{59}　す
{8B}　る
{73}　な
,
{16}　ジ
{AA}　ェ
{56}　シ
ー
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FA}
{7B}　元
{5C}　ソ
{8A}　ル
{16}　ジ
{9E}　ャ
ー
{1F}　だ
。
{FB}
{13}　今
{41}　は
{FB}
{05}　俺
{FC}
{1B}　達
{7B}　の
{FB}
{6E}　仲
{FB}
{01}　間
{55}　さ
」




「
{7D}　ま
{1F}　だ
{FA}
{7E}　名
{FA}
{68}　前
{FA}
{81}　聞
{6D}　い
{65}　て
{73}　な
{4B}　か
{9D}　っ
{5F}　た
{73}　な
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FA}
メ　（82 = 教？）
{6F}　え
{65}　て
{4F}　く
{8D}　れ
」


「
…
…
{4E}　ク
ラ
{68}　ウ
{26}　ド
{1F}　だ
」

「
{4E}　ク
ラ
{68}　ウ
{26}　ド
{4B}　か
。
{71}　お
{8D}　れ
{41}　は
…
…
」




「
{6B}　あ
{99}　ん
{5F}　た
{5F}　た
{61}　ち
{7B}　の
{FA}　
{7E}　名
{FA}
{68}　前
{73}　な
{99}　ん
{65}　て
{FA}
{8A}　興
{FA}
{8B}　味
{73}　な
{6D}　い
{79}　ね
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{27}　ど
{69}　う
{5B}　せ
{53}　こ
{7B}　の
{FA}
モ　（84 = 仕？）
{FA}
{85}　事
{0B}　が
{FA}
ラ　（86 = 終？）
{97}　わ
{9D}　っ
{5F}　た
{87}　ら
{71}　お
{FA}
{87}　別
{8D}　れ
{1F}　だ
」


「
{73}　な
{75}　に
{91}　や
{9D}　っ
{65}　て
{99}　ん
{1F}　だ
{70}　オ
{7C}　マ
{6E}　エ
{5F}　た
{61}　と
!
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{4B}　か
{5F}　た
{7D}　ま
{9D}　っ
{65}　て
{FA}
{65}　行
{FA}
{2A}　動
{59}　す
{8B}　る
{73}　な
{9D}　っ
{65}　て
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FA}
{8C}　言
{9D}　っ
{65}　て
{99}　ん
{1F}　だ
{8F}　ろ
!
」




「
{5E}　タ
ー
{10}　ゲ
{9C}　ッ
{66}　ト
{41}　は
{FA}
{79}　北
{FA}
{0B}　魔
{FA}
{74}　晄
{FA}
{75}　炉
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FA}
{0B}　魔
{FA}
{74}　晄
{FA}
{75}　炉
{FA}
{68}　前
{7B}　の
{04}　ブ
リ
{9C}　ッ
{16}　ジ
{75}　に
{FA}
{8D}　集
{FA}
{8E}　合
{1F}　だ
{1D}　ぞ
」



「
{FA}
{7B}　元
{5C}　ソ
{8A}　ル
{16}　ジ
{9E}　ャ
ー
…
…
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{60}　チ
{9C}　ッ
,
{FA}
{91}　信
{FA}
{63}　用
{25}　で
{4D}　き
{79}　ね
{6F}　え
{73}　な
」


I got lost in the code at this point, since there seems to be another character's dialogue I don't have reference for.　I also seem to have forgotten to do the characters names, since I didn't realise those bits before the quote marks were the names.

 

[Strangelove]

From BrutalAl:

The symbols which take up two hex-values won't be shown correctly in Data Dump. You are correct in that some symbols take up two hex values. I encourage you to write the two-hex symbols in addition to the main list, so that I (BrutalAl) can implement them later.

I'm a bit confused about what this means, but this is all something I have little experience with.

 

[Shademp]

I'm a bit confused about what this means, but this is all something I have little experience with.

I'm confused too, partially because I am too tired to think at the moment. But the sum of it is that he looked at your work and you appear to be doing it correctly.

Here is an album with the remainder of the dialogue that can be triggerd in the JP demo. The order in which lines are triggered is generally the same as their placement in the Text File, but not always.
Image Album

I think I took duplicates of the "code deciphered" line at the end.


The unused line by Barret, found in the English text file, reads like this in the final Japanese game data:
バレット
「さあ、魔晄炉（まこうろ）の中へ！
　ここからはオレのそばに
　　いてもらうぜ」

Again, Cloud's line "The alarm!" is unused and reads like this in the final JP game:
クラウド
「警報か？」

Maybe the JP text in both the demo and the final game are the same, maybe they are different. Anyway, I post these from UT-Part1 in case it might help.

 

[Strangelove]

I want to get something else finished off today, so am leaving it here for now. I don't know if what's there is enough to start updating the file to make it a bit easier to decode and figure out which line is being spoken in the data, or if that could even be done. As I said, my attempts seemed to end in mistakes and errors mostly. But maybe someone with more knowledge will be able to get it to work out better.

 

[Shademp]

I don't know if what's there is enough to start updating the file to make it a bit easier to decode and figure out which line is being spoken in the data, or if that could even be done. As I said, my attempts seemed to end in mistakes and errors mostly. But maybe someone with more knowledge will be able to get it to work out better.

I wish I could explain the technical details, but BrutalAl made a new documents which accounts for some perks with the codes. He has filled in the majority of the work you already did, but could you take another try with this new and improved document?

Excel File Updated

I believe we are almost there. Fortunately, there is no rush. =)

 

[Strangelove]

Trying to sort out the names (except Jessie and Cloud who have appeared in the dialogue already):


バ
{8C}　レ
{9C}　ッ
{66}　ト

{02}　ビ
{9C}　ッ
グ
{58}　ス


{68}　ウ
{AA}　ェ
{9C}　ッ
ジ

If I had to give priority to certain numbers, I would pick the grammatical characters like:
41 = は
9B = を
0B = が
1F = だ
Those would help identifying dialogue.

More dialogue:

「
{FUNC_FB}
俺
{41}　は
{FUNC_FC}
{FCAE}　脱
{FUNC_FA}
{FA12}　出
{FUNC_FB}
{FBD8}　口
{9B}　を
{FUNC_FA}
{FA16}　確
{FUNC_FB}
{FBD2}　保
し
て
{71}　お
く
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{4E}　ク
ラ
{68}　ウ
{26}　ド
{41}　は
{7E}　ミ
{9C}　ッ
{56}　シ
{A2}　ョ
ン
に
{5B}　せ
ん
{79}　ね
ん
{EOL}
{SPACE}
し
て
く
{8D}
。
」


「
し
っ
か
し
{53}　こ
の
{FUNC_FA}
{FA00}　大
{4D}　き
な
{4A}　カ
{7C}　マ
{9B}　を
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA4}　爆
{FUNC_FA}
{FAAA}　発
さ
{5B}　せ
る
な
ん
て
な
ぁ
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{7F}　み
{85}　も
の
{1F}　だ
ぜ
!
」



Guessing here a little, but:

{58}　ス
{6C}　イ
{9C}　ッ
チ
{70}　オ
ン



「
さ
{SPACE}
そ
{53}　こ
の
{08}　ボ
{5E}　タ
ン
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{9B}　を
{FUNC_FC}
{FCC7}　押
し
て
!
」




「
…
…
{71}　お
い
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{71}　お
{7D}　ま
{6F}　え
{FUNC_FA}
魔
{FUNC_FA}
{FA74}　晄
{FUNC_FA}
{FA75}　炉
{41}　は
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{41}　は
じ
{83}　め
て
じ
ゃ
な
い
ん
{1F}　だ
{8F}　ろ
?
」



「
{7D}　ま
{6B}　あ
な
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
ソ
ル
ジ
ャ
ー
…
…
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
神
{FUNC_FA}
羅
の
{FUNC_FA}
{FA90}　人
{FUNC_FB}
間
{1F}　だ
っ
た
か
ら
な
」





「
{53}　こ
の
{FUNC_FB}
{FB02}　星
{41}　は
{FUNC_FA}
魔
{FUNC_FA}
{FA74}　晄
{6E}　エ
{78}　ネ
ル
{0C}　ギ
ー
に
{FUNC_FB}
{FB6D}　満
{61}　ち
て
い
る
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{53}　こ
{53}　こ
の
{FUNC_FB}
{FBC9}　住
{FUNC_FB}
{FB83}　民
{41}　は
そ
の
{FUNC_FA}
魔
{FUNC_FA}
{FA74}　晄
{6E}　エ
{78}　ネ
ル
{0C}　ギ
ー
{9B}　を
{FUNC_FA}
{FA0D}　使
っ
て
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
{FA97}　日
{FUNC_FB}
{FB5C}　々
{FUNC_FB}
{FB0C}　生
{FUNC_FB}
{FB92}　活
し
て
い
る
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
で
{85}　も
{FUNC_FB}
{FB27}　誰
{85}　も
{FUNC_FA}
魔
{FUNC_FA}
{FA74}　晄
の
{FUNC_FB}
{FB12}　本
{FUNC_FB}
{FBA4}　質
{9B}　を
{FUNC_FA}
{FA7D}　知
ら
な
い
で
い
る
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{71}　お
{7D}　ま
{6F}　え
{41}　は
{FUNC_FA}
{FA7D}　知
っ
て
い
る
か
?
」




「
{53}　こ
の
{FUNC_FB}
{FB02}　星
{9B}　を
{FUNC_FB}
{FB03}　流
{8D}　れ
る
{FUNC_FA}
{FA94}　血
{1F}　だ
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
そ
{8D}　れ
{9B}　を
{FUNC_FA}
神
{FUNC_FA}
羅
{41}　は
{0A}　ガ
ン
{0A}　ガ
ン
{FUNC_FB}
{FB04}　吸
い
{FUNC_FA}
{FA12}　出
し
て
い
{91}　や
が
る
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{53}　こ
の
{47}　へ
ん
{61}　ち
く
り
ん
な
{58}　ス
{4E}　ク
ラ
{9C}　ッ
プ
で
な
…
…
」


「
{FUNC_FA}
魔
{FUNC_FA}
{FA74}　晄
{FUNC_FA}
{FA75}　炉
の
{5B}　せ
い
で
,
{53}　こ
の
{FUNC_FB}
{FB02}　星
の
{FUNC_FA}
{FA95}　命
{41}　は
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
{FA96}　毎
{FUNC_FA}
{FA97}　日
け
{19}　ず
ら
{8D}　れ
て
い
く
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
そ
し
て
い
つ
の
{FUNC_FA}
{FA97}　日
か
…
…
{1A}　ゼ
{8E}　ロ
{1F}　だ
」


「
{FUNC_FB}
{FB02}　星
が
{FUNC_FA}
{FA1F}　死
ん
じ
{7D}　ま
{69}　う
ん
{1F}　だ
{1D}　ぞ
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{6F}　え
っ
,
{4E}　ク
ラ
{68}　ウ
{26}　ド
さ
ん
よ
!
」




「
{FUNC_FA}
{FA98}　悪
い
け
{27}　ど
{FUNC_FA}
興
{FUNC_FA}
味
が
な
い
な
」



「
{FUNC_FB}
俺
が
{FUNC_FA}
{FA9E}　考
{6F}　え
て
る
の
{41}　は
,
さ
っ
さ
{67}　と
{FUNC_FA}
仕
{FUNC_FA}
事
{9B}　を
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
終
{97}　わ
ら
{5B}　せ
た
い
っ
て
{53}　こ
{67}　と
{1F}　だ
け
{1F}　だ
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
{FA9F}　警
{FUNC_FA}
{FA62}　備
{FUNC_FA}
{FA6B}　兵
{91}　や
{0A}　ガ
ー
{26}　ド
{8E}　ロ
{08}　ボ
{9C}　ッ
{66}　ト
が
{FUNC_FA}
{FA83}　来
な
い
{69}　う
{61}　ち
に
な
」


Bit of a guess again:

「
{52}　コ
ー
{26}　ド
{FUNC_FB}
{FB79}　解
{FUNC_FB}
{FBD1}　除
」




{02}　ビ
{9C}　ッ
グ
{58}　ス
が
い
な
い
{67}　と
{EOL}
{52}　コ
ー
{26}　ド
{FUNC_FB}
{FB79}　解
{FUNC_FB}
{FBD1}　除
で
{4D}　き
な
い



「
{1F}　だ
い
じ
{A3}　ょ
{69}　う
{05}　ぶ
か
?
」




「
{69}　う
か
つ
!
!
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FC}
{FC3C}　足
が
{41}　は
さ
{7D}　ま
っ
て
…
…
」



「
{54}　サ
ン
{4C}　キ
{A0}　ュ
ー
!
」


「
{FUNC_FA}
敵
に
{FUNC_FA}
{FA30}　後
{8F}　ろ
{9B}　を
{67}　と
ら
{8D}　れ
て
…
…
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{93}　ゆ
{1F}　だ
ん
し
た
よ
」


「
{53}　こ
{53}　こ
{9B}　を
{04}　ブ
{9C}　ッ
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA0}　壊
{5B}　せ
{01}　ば
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{53}　こ
の
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA1}　洗
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA2}　濯
{FUNC_FA}
{FA9D}　機
の
バ
{50}　ケ
モ
{7A}　ノ
{85}　も
{EOL}
{SPACE}
た
{1F}　だ
の
{0A}　ガ
ラ
{4E}　ク
{5E}　タ
{1F}　だ
ぜ
」



「
{4E}　ク
ラ
{68}　ウ
{26}　ド
さ
ん
よ
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{53}　こ
の
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA4}　爆
{FUNC_FA}
{FA44}　弾
{9B}　を
{5A}　セ
{9C}　ッ
{66}　ト
し
て
く
{8D}　れ
」




「
{6B}　あ
ん
た
が
{91}　や
っ
た
{49}　ほ
{69}　う
が
{EOL}
{SPACE}
い
い
ん
じ
ゃ
な
い
の
か
?
」




「
{70}　オ
{8C}　レ
?
{SPACE}
{70}　オ
{8C}　レ
{41}　は
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA5}　見
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA6}　張
ら
{5B}　せ
て
{85}　も
ら
{69}　う
。
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{71}　お
{7D}　ま
{6F}　え
さ
ん
が
{71}　お
か
し
な
{7C}　マ
{78}　ネ
{9B}　を
{EOL}
{SPACE}
し
な
い
よ
{69}　う
に
な
」




「
…
…
{FUNC_FA}
{FAA7}　好
{4D}　き
に
し
て
く
{8D}　れ
」




「
{FUNC_FB}
{FB12}　本
{FUNC_FC}
{FC27}　格
{FUNC_FB}
{FB62}　敵
に
{91}　や
っ
て
く
る
ぜ
」


This looks like Cloud's missing line:

「
{FUNC_FA}
{FA9F}　警
{FUNC_FB}
{FB4B}　報
か
?
」



「
さ
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FC}
{FCAE}　脱
{FUNC_FA}
{FA12}　出
{1F}　だ
」




{FUNC_FA}
{FAA4}　爆
{FUNC_FA}
{FAAA}　発
{SPACE}
3
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
{FA2C}　分
{FUNC_FA}
前



{FUNC_FB}
{FB30}　残
り
{SPACE}
2
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
{FA2C}　分



{FUNC_FB}
{FB30}　残
り
{SPACE}
3
0
{SPACE}
{FUNC_FA}
{FA71}　秒


These next two don't have a screenshot, but by deduction I would say:

「
た
の
ん
{1F}　だ
ぜ
ソ
ル
ジ
ャ
ー
さ
ん
よ
!
」



「
バ
{8C}　レ
{9C}　ッ
{66}　ト
{9B}　を
よ
{8F}　ろ
し
く
な
!
」


Barret's missing line, by the looks of it:


「
さ
{6B}　あ
,
{FUNC_FA}
魔
{FUNC_FA}
{FA74}　晄
{FUNC_FA}
{FA75}　炉
の
{FUNC_FA}
{FA92}　中
{47}　へ
!
{EOL}
{SPACE}
{53}　こ
{53}　こ
か
ら
{41}　は
{70}　オ
{8C}　レ
の
そ
{01}　ば
に
{EOL}
{SPACE}
い
て
{85}　も
ら
{69}　う
ぜ
」



Completely worked out from what I have decoded so far:

「
{53}　こ
{53}　こ
{41}　は
{7D}　ま
か
{5B}　せ
{67}　と
{4D}　き
!
」



{24}　デ？？？
モ
プ
{8C}　レ
{6C}　イ
{41}　は
{53}　こ
{53}　こ
{7D}　ま
で
で
す
。

 

[Shademp]

Minor discovery:
If you skip the Titan materia in the Gongaga reactor, but return any time after Cloud leaves your party on disc 2, the summon materia will be visible clear as day.

You still acquire it via picking a dialogue option.

Feels like the type of thing that would elude even speed-runners, since they would have no reason to return here and grab the Titan materia. Many may have known about this detail but I sure didn't.


Speaking of running through the game, a long time ago I noticed the following:
Even if you pass out on the Great Glacier for the first time when on disc 3, the scene with Holzoff AND the party waiting outside will still happen.
The event planners forgot to include a condition to make the scene unavailable after, say, a certain plot progression value. So there you can, on disc 3, trigger these scenes and have them act as though Rufus was on his way to the Northern Crater, Barret will talk about the comfort that Shinra's technology brings etc.

 

[Shademp]

This is the type of thing that will be included in an "Unused Animations" article, but I feel the desire to point out something I just noticed.

Notice the default animation state of the first Gi Tribe Dungeon:

Spoiler

Then compare it with this:

Spoiler

Notice how in the first one, the small caves are shut. They are never shut in the final game (except for the one that leads to the next area). Your task is to spot the right cave with the right trigger that opens your way to the next field. Picking the wrong trigger causes a battle.

The small cave to the far right has no animation state where it is shut. I theorize that originally the challenge in this map was to open each cave one by one, until you reached the final one and could push the trigger to proceed to the next area.



BrutalAl made great advancement in the demo research. He managed to make the dialogue windows in the game display the symbol tables!
Download link to image gallery: http://www.2shared.com/file/zo_tQty6/FF7demo1996_ScriptRIP.html

Other observations by BrutalAl:
- There is functionality for colored text, just like in the final game. Blinking (white/gray) and limit. Limit color scheme is admittedly used in-battle, but I am not sure if the field and the battles use the same table.
- There are no graphical icons for buttons. Unless I missed them, but I'm pretty sure I managed to unlock all the symbols.
- There is a series of "broken" symbols. Values that graphically do not display a complete symbol, but is split between two values.
- 9 normally functional symbols occurred twice across the table. It was at the end of the 1-byte symbols and at the beginning of the 2-byte symbols.
- I can't tell if the symbols that are divided across two values ALSO exist elsewhere, with other values.

 

[koolaidman]

I noticed some weird things in the INSTR.ALL file in the demo version, which is where the instrument samples are stored.

Like I said before, it doesn't seem like they truncated this file for anything that would go unused for the demo version, but there are some instruments that are missing. It's possible they did remove some samples for the demo while in the process of adding the samples for the demo menu screen (that hip hop remix of the prelude). Those samples were added near the very end of the instrument list, which means they must've been added in during development for the demo.

But I think it's safe to assume that at this point in development (about 6 months before release), there were some songs that hadn't been composed yet or have sounded different even during the last stretch in development. From listening to every sample and trying to think where they were used (since most of these samples are actually different in comparison to the instrument samples that ended up in the final), I was able to compile a small list of songs that may/may not have been present during this point of development. The only reason these are on the list is that they stand out for having missing samples:

1.) Aerith's Theme (missing a high note piano sample - this was probably in the game at this point but sounded MUCH different. Maybe it sounded like this after all?: http://kiwi6.com/file/7rxo2t6wxr)
2.) Fiddle de Chocobo (missing fiddle and "yahoo!" sample)
3.) Hurry! (I can't find that wood block sound anywhere for some reason)

There's probably a ton more, but the small samples present are tough to decipher, And most of the samples are different. As a side note, I also noticed samples that aren't used in any song I've ever heard. 0048 in the demo's INSTR.ALL file sounds like a bolt being tightened, but I can't find this sample anywhere in the final version. I noticed that samples for sound effects are usually synthesized and rarely actual samples - so perhaps this was used in some song at one point. I have no idea. On top of different instrument samples, there are also really really cheap on board midi sounding samples that I don't think are used either (0049-0052). I know FFVII's instrumentation is really poor, but these are pretty poor even for it's standards. Perhaps these samples were placeholders?

For fun, I started making a sound font out of these samples. It's not very difficult to do as there aren't any splits for these instruments and they're small enough that loop points can easily be found if needed. Would be interesting to hear what some songs might've sounded like if they were present in this version of the game.

EDIT: Another thing I noticed is that the Continue song that plays when your party is defeated doesn't exist in the demo. I remembered that the list of songs that used to be present in one the debug rooms might be able to tell us when songs were present in the game. This song (along with the Gold Saucer stuff) was marked as "Pending" on the list. http://www.glitterberri.com/final-fantasy-vii/unseen-text/debug-text/

 

[Shademp]

It's not always easy devoting your life to researching one and the same game.

I was hoping to piece together the unused TRAP field better than Myst6re did, since when he last did so Makou Reactor could not properly display PSX maps to begin with.
That is why some ugly dots/smudges appear in his image:

Spoiler: Myst6re's TRAP

My own attempt, which I spent the last four hours trying to compile, ended up like this:

Spoiler: Shademp's TRAP

Why the white lines? Well, my method to unlock the tiles caused some glitches. What I did was delete the TRAP.DAT file, then rename any other DAT file into "TRAP", then open the field in Makou Reactor with this new DAT file. (DAT organizes the tiles, but the tiles are stored in MIM)
This meant that a lot of times I got almost nothing but non-sensical tiles that looked like static.

I was only ONCE able to unlock the tiles for the centre of the rock formation, but one row of pixels were lost for some reason. Ergo the white lines.

I did this my method because
1) I wasn't sure if this image by Myst6re contained all the tiles, but it looks now like it truly does. EDIT: Myst6re confirmed now that those are indeed all the tiles present in the MIM file of the TRAP field.
2) I was hoping one DAT file would, by pure coincidence, manage to connect the tiles correctly. As expected, this did not work out too well. Then again, I still have about 650 more DAT files to try out.


We still do not know the exact dimensions of this field but it looks very likely to have consisted of two layers. We can tell this by looking at the red spots, which represent places that might have obscured/hidden the playable character. Some black and green tiles may have been used to represent this too.


On a simpler note, a few days ago I looked around the "DUMMY" field. It is another one of those "black background" fields, similar to the debug rooms, except with a top-down perspective.
I unlocked the field models that exist within. One of these were Jessie of AVALANCHE. She continuously did a "shrugging/I-don't-know" animation, but for one frame her model would seemingly glitch before the animation cycle restarted.

Only by taking a snapshot did I notice that it was NOT a glitch.

Spoiler

Jessie is laying back and simply not giving a f*ck. The field signature is that of FFVII's famous pervert, Motomu Toriyama. However since this is the PSX version, I can't read if Jessie's animation was made by Toriyama or not. If it was, I am more inclined to believe that this is intended as a "sexy pose" and not just Jessie relaxing.

 

[Shademp]

After some help from the qhimm forums I can now view the WINDOW.BIN from the Japanese 1996 FFVII demo. Some of you may recall koolaidman trying to view this file but he got the wrong colors due to the software not being adapted for the PlayStation.

By extracting the graphics from the WINDOW.BIN with Hack7, then viewing those graphics with a TIM viewer, I can now see the graphics in a total of 16 settings.

Spoiler: Set 1

Spoiler: Set 2

So you can't see all the icons and symbols in their correct colors all at the same time, using only one set. Setting #14, #15 and #16 reveals the true look of Cloud, Barret and Aerith respectively.

Here are the character chibis, in their default small sizes and black background versus transparent.

EDIT: Reuploaded because I noticed some errors with my saves.

Spoiler: Enjoy

Forced double size, all three in the same pic.

F*cking FINALLY we have clean rips of the chibis seen in the "Bonus Disc Making Of FFVII" feature.

 

[Sprites]

I quite like the chibi models, they kinda remind me a little bit of the Chrono Trigger models

 

[Ryushikaze]

Bahamut Lagoon is closer overall, I think, though that's down to the color transitions and the lack of borders for a lot of the areas.

 

[Shademp]

HOLY F*CKING SHIT MY MIND IS BLOWN! How did I not see this before?

Recall this shot from when the Sector 7 plate falls:

What does it remind you of?

Spoiler: OFF COURSE

ONNA_6, the unused "Employee Room" in the Honey Bee Inn. The wall textures around the window are identical to the FMV shot. Differences exist with the wall behind the television, as it lacks the blue part in the FMV, but this is clearly an attempt to recreate the HBI room in 3D graphics.
I never paid much attention to this shot, thinking that it was a room in Sector 7. But no, this is in the Sector 6 slums.

Somebody must have noticed this before me but the connection completely slipped my mind until now. HOLY SHIT

 

[Ite]

Holy shit! Epic find!

 

[Shademp]

Courtesy of GlitterBerri, here is another Honey Bee Inn related observation.

The art for the Tissue item, gained in the Battle Arena, shows a Honey Bee Inn ad:

Spoiler: ZOMG

Which makes sense, since in Japan, people stand on street corners handing out packs of tissues with ads on them since Japan's public toilets often don't have toilet paper
Often ads of an adult nature

 

[Octo]

We'll we'd always had our suspicions about it.....but this confirms it.

 

[Lex]

That is fantastic. Also hilarious.