Final Fantasy VII community relay

[Flintlock]

This was originally Fangu's idea. Here's what she wrote about it:

With PC's today, anyone can play VII in an emulator. You no longer need a physical memory card to store your game, it's just a file on your computer. And said file can easily be sent to anyone else over email etc.

So I was thinking, what if we divide the game into parts, and then take turns playing on the same game? It would be kind of a fun challenge too, because you will have to take what you get - you might not have the exact same equipment you usually do in you own playthrough.

Structure

I've divided the game into chapters, primarily based on the ones we used in our community playthrough a couple of years ago, but with a few changes. Each chapter's title, target save point and boss fights are listed below.

Chapter 1: This your first time in a reactor? - Beginner's Hall (Guard Scorpion)
Chapter 2: You're so cute, Miss Cloud - Train Graveyard (Air Buster, Aps)
Chapter 3: Golden shiny wire of hope - Shinra Building, 67th floor after rescuing Aeris (Reno, Sample:H0512)
Chapter 4: The real crisis for the planet - World Map after Kalm Flashback (Hundred/Heli Gunner, Rufus, Motor Ball)
Chapter 5: Crossing the marshes - Upper Junon after Cloud changes into a Shinra uniform (Bottomswell)
Chapter 6: What the hell was that soldier doing? - World Map after Costa del Sol (Jenova BIRTH)
Chapter 7: We're gonna go play - World Map after Corel Prison (Dyne)
Chapter 8: The cries of the planet - World Map after Cosmo Canyon (Gi Nattak)
Chapter 9: Hold on to your drawers, an' don't piss in 'em - World Map after getting the Tiny Bronco (Materia Keeper, Palmer)
Chapter 10: I still don't know what the hell's goin' on - World Map after getting the Keystone
Chapter 11: Ultimate destructive magic - World Map after Cloud wakes up in Gongaga (Red Dragon, Demon's Gate)
Chapter 12: Beacause you are a puppet - End of disc one (Jenova LIFE)
Chapter 13: Over the snowy fields - Holzoff's Cabin
Chapter 14: Only a failure made it here - First save point encountered in Junon as Barret (Schizo, Jenova DEATH)
Chapter 15: Quit slapping me, you old wench - Mideel after Tifa leaves the party
Chapter 16: Don't push your luck - World Map after Lifestream sequence (Ultimate Weapon)
Chapter 17: I never even got to do my special victory dance - World Map after getting the Submarine (Carry Armor)
Chapter 18: Hope may be inside - World Map after beating Diamond Weapon (Rude, Diamond Weapon)
Chapter 19: What are we all fighting for? - End of disc two (Proud Clod, Hojo)
Chapter 20: The settling of everything - Complete the game! (Jenova SYNTHESIS, Bizarro Sephiroth, Safer Sephiroth, Sephiroth)

You may have noticed that I haven't listed optional bosses and that I haven't set aside any chapters for side quests. The reason for that is because I don't want to put any constraints on what players do with their chapters. If you're playing chapter 8 and don't feel like fighting Reno and Rude in Gongaga, you are completely free to skip it. The next two players will still be able to fight them if they wish, but it's also completely fine if nobody does it.

That's really the whole point of this event - you will have to live with whatever choices the previous players have made. In the extremely unlikely event that someone manages to "soft lock" the save file, leaving the next player in an impossible situation, we will just roll back to the previous save and replay the last chapter.

How to take part

You'll need to be able to emulate the original Playstation version of Final Fantasy VII. A step-by-step tutorial for using PCSX is available here. You can also use ePSXe.

The first player will play to the chapter 1 target, save the game just as they would on a real Playstation, and then upload the .mcr file containing that save. The next player will download the .mcr file, load the save, play their chapter and repeat the process, ideally saving in the next slot on the virtual memory card.

If you want to take part, make a clear "I'm in"-style post in this thread. The first 20 players will be guaranteed a chapter. If we get more than that, the extra players can contribute by completing side quests, particularly between chapters 19 and 20. They'll also be on call in case anyone has to drop out.

I've drawn the playing order for the first nine chapters, and it looks like this:

1. Doran Martell
2. Fangu
3. Arya Stark (played by Lex)
4. Lex
5. Flintlock
6. ForceStealer
7. Dragonslayer Ornstein (played by Doran Martell)
8. Teiocho
9. Kuroto
10. Dragonslayer Ornstein (played by Flintlock)
11. Airling
12. Kuroto
13. Fangu
14. Dragonslayer Ornstein (played by Airling)
15. Airling
16. Teiocho (played by ForceStealer)
17. ForceStealer
18. Flintlock (played by Teiocho)
19. Doran Martell
20. Lex

If you're unhappy with your randomly drawn chapter, you can offer to trade it with someone else. Both players involved in the trade should post in this thread to let me know about it.

When it's your turn to play, I will post in this thread and send you a PM to make sure you're aware of it. You will then have three days (72 hours) to complete your chapter. You must confirm your intention to play it within the first 24 hours, however, or I will ask the next player on the list to play. If that happens, you'll go to the back of the queue, so if there are any unclaimed chapters left, you'll get the first one. Nobody will get to play a second chapter until everybody who wants to take part has played one.

If you have any questions, please ask them sooner rather than later!

 

[Lex]

I'm in

 

[Roger]

I'm down.

 

[Kuroto]

I'm in. However I'm really busy at least the next two weeks so I'd rather not have my chapter during that time, if that could be arranged. ^^'

 

[Flintlock]

It shouldn't be a problem to give you a later chapter. I hope we get a few more than four participants though.

 

[Fangu]

I'm in

 

[Carlie]

I'm in. Can I take chapter 2? That's as far as I've been to in the game.

 

[Flintlock]

Yeah, alright. I wasn't planning to let people choose their own chapters but I'm willing to accommodate special requests. With that said, are you sure you don't want chapter 3 so you can see the next part of the game?

 

[Carlie]

........

That works too.

 

[Lex]

You know Carlie, when you've passed on your save you could always just... keep playing the bloody game

 

[Carlie]

That's just crazy talk.

 

[ForceStealer]

Sign me up

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

I'm in. I'm pretty good at symbolically/psychologically analyzing characters so a dramatic scene or something Midgar would be nice, but I'll take anything.

 

[Teioh]

I'm in as long as I can get the emulator to work. I've never emulated anything before so we'll see.

 

[Flintlock]

Setting up an emulator for playing Final Fantasy VII

I originally mentioned ePSXe, but I have since discovered that a) there's no OS X version and b) it doesn't run on newer Linux distributions. The only really cross-platform emulator I've found is PCSXR (also known as PCSX-Reloaded or just PCSX), so that's what we're going with. The good news for those of you who use ePSXe is that the virtual memory cards are cross-compatible, so you don't need to get a new emulator.

Step one: visit the PCSX-Reloaded website and download the emulator for Windows or OS X. Unzip the resulting file, and you're done. That's all there is to the installation process. If you're on Linux, use a package manager.

Step two: download a Playstation BIOS. PCSXR actually has an simulated Playstation BIOS built in, so you can skip this step if you want. Using a real BIOS is just supposed to be more accurate. You can get one from Emuparadise, amongst other places. It doesn't really matter which one you use, but "Scph7502_BIOS.zip" is fine. Unzip it and place it in PCSXR's "bios" folder.

Step three: download a Final Fantasy VII disc image. One place to do that is DopeROMs. Make sure you get the right disc for your chapter: chapters 1-12 require disc one (linked above), chapters 13-19 require disc two and chapter 20 requires disc three. The files are compressed in quite a stupid way: inside the zip file is a .7z file, for which you'll need 7-zip, and inside that is a .ecm file, for which you'll need ECM Tools. Don't worry too much about having to get those programs: 7-zip is by far the best archive manager you can get and ECM Tools is a tiny program that doesn't require installation. Just drag the .ecm file onto unecm.exe and it will decompress it for you (on Linux, use the command ecm unecm [file]). Put the resulting file(s) wherever you want - the PCSXR directory, for example.

Step four: configure PCSXR. Launch the emulator (just double click pcsxr.exe on Windows). The config window should appear straight away, but if it doesn't, click "Configuration -> Plugins & Bios...". The first plugin is graphics. You don't have to change anything, but you might want to adjust the resolution or put the emulator into windowed mode, so press "Configure..." to see further options. If you want nicer graphics, you can try selecting the OpenGL driver from the drop-down list in the Plugins & Bios window. It has a lot more configuration options, so you'll have to figure out what works best with your graphics card on your own. Make sure "Special game fixes" is ticked and that "Adjust framebuffer access" is selected in the game fix list, else the battle swirl won't work properly.

On the right of graphics is sound. You don't need to change anything here.

Next up is "First Controller". Press "Configure" and you'll see the standard Playstation controller inputs. If you're using a game controller on your PC, you can configure it by clicking on each input and pressing the appropriate button on the controller. If you don't have a controller, you can just use your keyboard. Final Fantasy VII doesn't accept analog input anyway, so you'll be able to play just fine.

We can ignore "Second Controller, "Cdrom" and "Link cable". Finally, If you downloaded an original BIOS, you can select it from the "Bios" drop-down list.

Step five: load the memory card. Open "Configuration -> Memory cards..." from the PCSXR menu. On the left side is "Memory Card 1". Click "Select Mcd" and navigate to the .mcr file which you will have downloaded. Once you've chosen it, you can close the "Memcard Manager" window by pressing "OK".

(To the first player: this step obviously doesn't apply to you, but please make sure that the memory card you use to create the first save has an .mcr extension rather than an .mcd. In my testing, I found that the preset memory cards in PCSXR are .mcr on Windows but .mcd on Linux. If you're using ePSXe, it will be .mcr by default.)

Step six: play Final Fantasy VII! Select "File -> Run ISO..." from the menu and choose the Final Fantasy VII disc image you downloaded, which will probably have a .bin, .iso or .img extension. Select it and press "Open" to start the game.

Step seven: when you're finished, save the game just like you would on a real Playstation (preferably onto a new slot on the memory card) and close the emulator. Then you only need to send me the .mcr file and post your chapter report in this thread - I'll send you more detailed instructions on how to do that when it's your turn.

Playing order

I used Random.org to generate a random sequence of integers, with one number assigned to each player. I then made adjustments based on Kuroto's and Arya Stark's special requests. I didn't take Dragonslayer Ornstein's desire for a dramatic scene into account since almost all the chapters contain at least one of those. And I suppose it was fate that determined ForceStealer should play the sixth chapter.

1. Doran Martell
2. Fangu
3. Arya Stark
4. Lex
5. Flintlock
6. ForceStealer
7. Dragonslayer Ornstein
8. Teiocho
9. Kuroto

Doran Martell is up first and has been alerted by PM. I'm allowing four days instead of three for the first chapter in case there are any complications with getting the emulator set up, so it should be ready by Saturday the 25th of April. I've asked Doran to make a confirmation post here no later than Thursday the 23rd.

 

[ForceStealer]

Oh geez, now the pressures on to GET that Force Stealer. I usually do, of course (although, the HP Plus is arguably the better prize), but still

 

[Roger]

Setting up an emulator for playing Final Fantasy VII

I originally mentioned ePSXe, but I have since discovered that a) there's no OS X version and b) it doesn't run on newer Linux distributions. The only really cross-platform emulator I've found is PCSXR (also known as PCSX-Reloaded or just PCSX), so that's what we're going with. The good news for those of you who use ePSXe is that the virtual memory cards are cross-compatible, so you don't need to get a new emulator.

Step one: visit the PCSX-Reloaded website and download the emulator for Windows or OS X. Unzip the resulting file, and you're done. That's all there is to the installation process. If you're on Linux, use a package manager.

Step two: download a Playstation BIOS. PCSXR actually has an simulated Playstation BIOS built in, so you can skip this step if you want. Using a real BIOS is just supposed to be more accurate. You can get one from Emuparadise, amongst other places. It doesn't really matter which one you use, but "Scph7502_BIOS.zip" is fine. Unzip it and place it in PCSXR's "bios" folder.

Step three: download a Final Fantasy VII disc image. One place to do that is DopeROMs. Make sure you get the right disc for your chapter: chapters 1-12 require disc one (linked above), chapters 13-19 require disc two and chapter 20 requires disc three. The files are compressed in quite a stupid way: inside the zip file is a .7z file, for which you'll need 7-zip, and inside that is a .ecm file, for which you'll need ECM Tools. Don't worry too much about having to get those programs: 7-zip is by far the best archive manager you can get and ECM Tools is a tiny program that doesn't require installation. Just drag the .ecm file onto unecm.exe and it will decompress it for you (on Linux, use the command ecm unecm [file]). Put the resulting file(s) wherever you want - the PCSXR directory, for example.

Step four: configure PCSXR. Launch the emulator (just double click pcsxr.exe on Windows). The config window should appear straight away, but if it doesn't, click "Configuration -> Plugins & Bios...". The first plugin is graphics. You don't have to change anything, but you might want to adjust the resolution or put the emulator into windowed mode, so press "Configure..." to see further options. If you want nicer graphics, you can try selecting the OpenGL driver from the drop-down list in the Plugins & Bios window. It has a lot more configuration options, so you'll have to figure out what works best with your graphics card on your own. Make sure "Special game fixes" is ticked and that "Adjust framebuffer access" is selected in the game fix list, else the battle swirl won't work properly.

On the right of graphics is sound. You don't need to change anything here.

Next up is "First Controller". Press "Configure" and you'll see the standard Playstation controller inputs. If you're using a game controller on your PC, you can configure it by clicking on each input and pressing the appropriate button on the controller. If you don't have a controller, you can just use your keyboard. Final Fantasy VII doesn't accept analog input anyway, so you'll be able to play just fine.

We can ignore "Second Controller, "Cdrom" and "Link cable". Finally, If you downloaded an original BIOS, you can select it from the "Bios" drop-down list.

Step five: load the memory card. Open "Configuration -> Memory cards..." from the PCSXR menu. On the left side is "Memory Card 1". Click "Select Mcd" and navigate to the .mcr file which you will have downloaded. Once you've chosen it, you can close the "Memcard Manager" window by pressing "OK".

(To the first player: this step obviously doesn't apply to you, but please make sure that the memory card you use to create the first save has an .mcr extension rather than an .mcd. In my testing, I found that the preset memory cards in PCSXR are .mcr on Windows but .mcd on Linux. If you're using ePSXe, it will be .mcr by default.)

Step six: play Final Fantasy VII! Select "File -> Run ISO..." from the menu and choose the Final Fantasy VII disc image you downloaded, which will probably have a .bin, .iso or .img extension. Select it and press "Open" to start the game.

Step seven: when you're finished, save the game just like you would on a real Playstation (preferably onto a new slot on the memory card) and close the emulator. Then you only need to send me the .mcr file and post your chapter report in this thread - I'll send you more detailed instructions on how to do that when it's your turn.

Playing order

I used Random.org to generate a random sequence of integers, with one number assigned to each player. I then made adjustments based on Kuroto's and Arya Stark's special requests. I didn't take Dragonslayer Ornstein's desire for a dramatic scene into account since almost all the chapters contain at least one of those. And I suppose it was fate that determined ForceStealer should play the sixth chapter.

1. Doran Martell
2. Fangu
3. Arya Stark
4. Lex
5. Flintlock
6. ForceStealer
7. Dragonslayer Ornstein
8. Teiocho
9. Kuroto

Doran Martell is up first and has been alerted by PM. I'm allowing four days instead of three for the first chapter in case there are any complications with getting the emulator set up, so it should be ready by Saturday the 25th of April. I've asked Doran to make a confirmation post here no later than Thursday the 23rd.

My god, your method is overly complicated. Luckily, I have epsxe alreay set up and ready to go. If it makes mcr. by default there shouldn't be problem

BTW: I'm naming them us, in the play order provided.

Also I didn't know they made you go back for Jessie if you left her behind, I was walking out of the Mako Reactor and was short on time when Biggs wouldn't let me through.

I spammed Bolt quite a bit, so maybe if we keep it up we could get Bolt 2 quick enough to make things a little easier. I fought a little in the Graveyard after dismounting the train but the guy that drops Aeris' weapon ain't showing up for me, so I'll leave that for Fangu to do or not do. All in all, the bickering adventures of Doran and Fangu were quite entertaining.

 

[Fangu]

Awrite, let me know where I can find the memcard when you're done I'll be streaming my part in one or several segments, hopefully I'll be done within 3 days - although Thursday and Friday this week is kind of off limits for me.

 

[Flintlock]

I've got the memory card file and will send it to you when I get home this evening, but if you want to get started straight away, I don't mind if Roger sends it to you directly.

 

[Roger]

I don't have Fangu's email tho.

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

Cosmo Canyon's godlike so I'm totally ok with this. There's a lot of the stuff I like with character drama and them sharing the campfire, plus the underground leading to the Gi boss is delightfully dungeon crawler esque.

You avoided me calling Aeris Bull so Cloud is like Bulls eye when Sephiroth stabs her, so you're lucky.

 

[Roger]

People better not squander our hardearned gill in the Gold Saucer when it becomes available.


Cause I really want to be the one to do that on my next turn.

 

[Flintlock]

I'm home now so I can write in a bit more detail.

My god, your method is overly complicated. Luckily, I have epsxe alreay set up and ready to go. If it makes mcr. by default there shouldn't be problem

Setting up PCSX is no more complicated than setting up ePSXe - it might even be easier since it has an in-built BIOS. I just gave very thorough instructions because I don't want anyone to feel like having to use an emulator would prevent them from playing. You have to do these things when you're a king community manager, you know.

BTW: I'm naming them us, in the play order provided.

Nice idea, I wonder if everyone else will follow suit?

I spammed Bolt quite a bit, so maybe if we keep it up we could get Bolt 2 quick enough to make things a little easier.

The number of times you use a spell does not affect how quickly the associated materia levels up.

Awrite, let me know where I can find the memcard when you're done I'll be streaming my part in one or several segments, hopefully I'll be done within 3 days - although Thursday and Friday this week is kind of off limits for me.

I'll send you instructions on how to get the memory card file by PM. I'm glad to hear you're going to stream it, too.

Cosmo Canyon's godlike so I'm totally ok with this. There's a lot of the stuff I like with character drama and them sharing the campfire, plus the underground leading to the Gi boss is delightfully dungeon crawler esque.

I agree about the story in Cosmo Canyon being great, but that's not your chapter.

To everyone: I'm not asking for detailed write-ups, so you can write as much or as little as you want once you've finished your chapter. It would be nice to hear if you did anything unusual, though. Feel free to take screenshots!

 

[ForceStealer]

I was wondering what exactly I should be doing after the completion of my chapter(s).

I'd be willing to stream...although I'd have to learn how to do so. Also all you europeans wouldn't be able to see anything I did in the evening, so it would have to be a weekend or something that I could do during the day.

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

I'm perfectly willing to stream it too. I've got a killer rig, killer mic, killer voice. So whatever's preferred is alright to me too.