Gold Chocobo and Gameshark odditity.

[NERV Agent]

So I've been messing around with the debug code for the US PSX FF7.

I used the debug code to go the scene where Cloud and Tifa get out of the Lifestream (Room 10/For those in a hurry/To the Spirit World again!), and when I get to the Highwind and the scene finishes, I immediately go to the Chocobo Farm and rent a stable. Also, I switch from Disc 1 to Disc 2 right before selecting the option that takes me to said scene.

Then I use the debug code to go to acquire the Desert Rose and exchange it for the Gold Chocobo from the Kalm Traveler (Room 7/Fat guy/After Armagedon/Yes/get DESERT ROSE/event start).

However, once I go back to the Chocobo Farm and talk to Choco Billy, the dialogue is from early in Disc 1, and he won't let me ride the Chocobo.

So I re-enter the debug room and go back to the Lifestream scene mentioned earlier. When the scene is finished, my Gold Chocobo is in it's stable.

Seems everything is okay, right?

Now this is where it gets buggy. I use Black Chocobo to convert the save to a Japanese FF7 PSX save. But once I load up FF7 PSX (J), the save does not appear! Like it doesn't recognize it! Is there a way around this?

Otherwise, is there a GameShark code (either for the US or Japanese version), that gives you a Gold Chocobo?

 

[Shademp]

Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge to help, but I'm curious about the save file convertion. Does it convert your US save into a save file for the original Japanese release or for FFVII International which is the second Japanese version? Save files from the second Japanese version does not work for the first JP release, but they work the other way around. Maybe if you load up FFVII International your US -> Japanese save file will be recognized?

 

[DynamixDJ]

Coincidentally I myself was messing around with the Japanese version today, as I wished to fight the test subject in Corel Prison's well. I definitely have the original Jap version, as the save file was not recognized when I switched the save file to the Jap international version. I was successfully able to switch a NTSC PSX save file over to a JAP original save file, with no problems.

What's curious is the fact the the normal battle formation played out (#520... or... 208h) which is 4x 2-Faced (2 from both sides). Why can't I fight the test subjects? Even Makou Reactor confirms this. The other reason I'm sure it's the original and not the International version is the fact that Ruby and Emerald aren't present.

 

[Shademp]

Coincidentally I myself was messing around with the Japanese version, as I wished to fight the test subject in Corel Prison's well. I definitely have the original Jap version, as the save file was not recognized when I switched the save file to the Jap international version.

What's curious is the fact the the normal battle formation played out (#520... or... 208h) which is 4x 2-Faced (2 from both sides). Why can't I find the test subjects? The other reason I'm sure it's the original is the fact that Ruby and Emerald aren't present.

I don't remember the exact likelihood but getting the Test Battle can take quite a while. I think the probability of getting that battle is something like 1/10 so you just have to keep at it, fighting battle after battle until you get lucky. Also unless you have already cheated yourself into being overpowered, make sure that you have learned Laser so you can defeat the Test Battle enemies within a reasonable amount of time. The massive amount of HP they have can be quite annoying for this early in the game.

 

[DynamixDJ]

Ah, of course! Looking into Makou Reactor, I can see battle formation #1 is set to have an 8/64 chance of occurring. I turned this value up to 63/64, and I was able to fight the test subjects.

 

[NERV Agent]

Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge to help, but I'm curious about the save file convertion. Does it convert your US save into a save file for the original Japanese release or for FFVII International which is the second Japanese version? Save files from the second Japanese version does not work for the first JP release, but they work the other way around. Maybe if you load up FFVII International your US -> Japanese save file will be recognized?

I converted my US save to the original Japanese version (not the International version). Also, how do I create paragraphs on this forum? Reading my post as a huge continuous chunk of text is hard to read.

 

[Shademp]

Also, how do I create paragraphs on this forum? Reading my post as a huge continuous chunk of text is hard to read.

Press Enter in the message window where you want a break in the text. Press Enter again to create another row of space and there you will have your new paragraph.

Are you using TLS via a cellphone? If so, what type? It seems very odd to me that you are unable to create paragraphs via the most basic method.

 

[NERV Agent]

Well unfortunately, the moderators still need to approve my posts. Also, I am using Firefox in Windows 7.

Back on topic, I've run into a dilemma.

So I've been using the debug room to jump around the game. I jumped to the part where Cloud and Tifa emerge from the Lifestream (Room 10/For those in a hurry/To the Spirit World again!), and I've begun breeding Chocobos. At some point, I used the Black Chocobo program to change the save to Disc 2, since it originally kept asking for Disc 1.

I used the "No-Race-Require" Method mentioned in the Chocobo Breeding Guide at GameFAQs. This is because whenever I go to the Gold Saucer, the game freezes, so I can't race.

I still get my Gold Chocobo and everything seems fine, but whenever I get into a fight, or whenever I enter an area (like a Materia Cave) and re-emerge on the world map, my Gold Chocobo is suddenly transported to the upper left most portion of the World Map.

You can imagine my frustration, getting the Knights of the Round summon materia, only to come out of the cave and find my Gold Chocobo nowhere in sight, leaving me stranded on that island.

How do I fix this?

 

[DynamixDJ]

OK, I'm happy to look at this, but first I need to know the exact point where you were in the game before you warped to the debug room. Also, I've been spending a little bit of time with the debug rooms as of late, so I know that using the "To the Spirit World again!" jump will change the Game Moment variable. All progression flags however remain as they were at the point you jumped.

Can I assume that you hadn't unlocked the Tiny Bronco when you warped to the debug room?

 

[NERV Agent]

Unfortunately, the Tiny Bronco was unlocked before going to the Lifestream event.

I'll try to recall as best I can what I did. I will be referring to the Debug Room Guide by scrwdrvr on GameFAQs.

I went to "8/Yuffie(3)/item iroiro" to get all the good stuff. The I selected "8/Yuffie(3)/member zenin" to get all the characters.

I needed to escape Room 8, so I went to "Cloud(2)/tojikomerarechatta" to go to the ending of the first level, then re-activate the debug code to return to the debug room.

At some point, I enable PHS by talking to Yuffie in the Starting Room and selecting "MENU ON". I also asked that Yuffie for more materia, too.

I wanted to level up my characters and materia, and I read that the best way to do that (without blatantly cheating, how contradictory of me) was to go to Junon (before the cannon is removed) and go to that tunnel intersection and activate the alarm to fight tough enemies.

I did this by going to the scene where the Tiny Bronco crashes, "Room 1/Red XIII/jairo sky".

I also warped to get Aeris's ultimate weapon, Princess Guard, since Yuffie didn't give it to me. I went to "Room 5/Temple Sage/The Hole of Time" to get it, then used the debug code to warp back to the debug room. I cannot recall if I did this before or after going to the scene where the Tiny Bronco crashes. Probably before.

I rode the Tiny Bronco all the way to the Junon area and entered Junon. For some reason, I had to do the "marching" event even though that was supposed to happen before the Tiny Bronco crashes.

I completed the "marching" event and proceeded to level up my characters, alternating between that tunnel and the Mithril Mines. At some point I noticed that Vincent was "Sephiroth" and Cait Sith was "Young Cloud", and both kept dying immediately when a battle starts. I used the Black Chocobo program to fix this, and continued leveling up my characters and materia.

Then I warped to Aeris's house because I wanted to see the hidden Wall Market scenes that Shademp discovered. So I went to "Room 8/Aeris(2)/2F nigeru", saved in front of her house, then converted that save to the Japanese version with the Black Chocobo program.

I did the cross-dressing adventure, and would soft reset whenever I was stuck in those dummied out rooms.

Eventually Cloud was chosen, I had to fight Aps, and I saved in the Train Graveyard. Then I converted that save back to the US version with the Black Chocobo program.

Then I went to "Room 10/For those in a hurry/To the Spirit World again!" and the rest is described in previous posts.

 

[DynamixDJ]

Wow, you've done a lot, but what I need to know before I can look into anything is how far into the game had you progressed before altering the games natural course of events?

I'm not sure if unlocking the Tiny Bronco is a good thing or a bad thing, but it certainly plays a part as the Tiny Bronco shares a similar flag to a Chocobo that you're riding from the stables (which is a different flag from a caught Chocobo). I've just thought, you say the Chocobo warps to a different location, is this location by any chance the place where you had parked the Tiny Bronco last?

 

[NERV Agent]

I initiated my "quantum leap" at the very beginning. Activated the code and selected "NEW GAME" and I was off.

The Chocobo does not warp to the same location where the Tiny Bronco was previously parked. It strangely warps to the very top left corner of the world map.

The last place I parked the Tiny Bronco was around the Junon area, which leads to another oddity. The Tiny Bronco appears on "radar" (the mini map you see in the corner), but when I get to the "signal" the Tiny Bronco is nowhere to be found.

 

[DynamixDJ]

I'd had a feeling you'd started warping early on, as you can only do the whole Wall Market thing once. If you try to warp back there, regardless of Game Moment, you won't be able to progress through Don's mansion as it will be empty, unless the progression flags are reset.

I'm going to bed now, but what I'd like you to do is to open up the save file in Black Chocobo, go into the Hex Editor tab and copy and paste the whole lot. I suggest copying into http://pastebin.com/
I'll have a look when I get home from work tomorrow

 

[NERV Agent]

Alright. It's gonna be up for 1 week. I hope I can post links now.

http://pastebin.com/uV6C8z80

Thanks.

 

[DynamixDJ]

Excellent excellent excellent.
I shall go digging when I get home from work tonight

 

[DynamixDJ]

OK then, I fixed it. It really wasn't too hard, either. I was hoping for a complex mess of flags that need to be looked at and fiddled with and an evenings worth of work, but unfortunately I was done on about half an hour! I want another challenge

The first thing I looked at was the Gold Saucer. My assumption was correct - the game tried to play out the sequence at the base of the ropeway, but because Barret is not present the game soft-freezes as there is no command to execute. All I had to do was toggle the flag that is set after Barret has given his flashback, and this prevented the game from freezing. Esther is in the Chocobo Square, and the Snowboard game is playable, but not the Submarine game.

So then, to fix your Chocobo problem, I looked at the flag that deals with the Tiny Bronco. Just after the bitch slap fight on the Cannon on Disk 2, the game toggles OFF the flags that display the buggy and the Tiny Bronco. I looked at this bitmask, and the Tiny Bronco's visibility was ON, as way the Highwind's. All I had to do was toggle the Tiny Bronco visibility flag, and that fixed the problem.

By sheer and utter amazing coincidence, the offset address that deals with the Ropeway events (0x0C24 bit0) is but one address after the address which deals with the Tiny Bronco's visibility (0x0C23 bit2)

Here is your save file:

http://pastebin.com/z7PD3YYu

 

[NERV Agent]

Thanks DynamixDJ. However, I have another favor to ask.

I have a keen interest in game hacking, and would like to know how you went about fixing this save file. Can you detail the steps on how you went about fixing this? I'd like to replicate what you did on my own and gain hax0r experience points.

Additionally, it may also help others who run into this kind of glitch.

UPDATE: Okay, so I figured out how to fix my Gold Chocobo problem. Using the Black Chocobo program, go to:

Location --> Worldmap Location

Uncheck the "Tiny Bronco" box, save, and the Gold Chocobo problem is fixed!

But how exactly did you fix the Gold Saucer problem?

 

[DynamixDJ]

As much as I'd love to go into detail now, you're going to have to wait roughly 9 hours when I get home from work

 

[NERV Agent]

No rush!

 

[DynamixDJ]

How to look into FFVII's scripting

OK then, there's a lot ground to cover, and I don't want to go into too much depth on this post, just in case you are already familiar with certain things, but I am more than happy to clarify any uncertainties you may have later on.

The very first thing you need to know about is Hexadecimal and binary numbering systems. You don't need to be a mathematician to understand Base 16 and Base 2, you just need to have a good head for basic maths. I have only recently started looking into coding over Christmas just gone, and it was this video that sent me down the rabbit hole. This video helped also.

So, you need to know that one byte of data consists of 8 binary 'bits', and can hold a value range of 0 ~ 255 (if unsigned, -128 ~ +127 if signed). So, plucking a random string of binary, 0110 0100 is equal to 100 in decimal, and 64 in hexadecimal (i honestly did pluck that binary sequence at random; I didn't intend for it to be 100 ). Let's say that that byte was bitified. The binary sequence is registered slightly different; each 1 or 0 represents a flag - this could be for a collectible item, or a progression flag, such as a one-time only dialogue. In the above sequence, Bits 2, 5 & 6 are ON, the rest are OFF.

These 8 bits are called upon as Bit 0 ~ Bit 7; Bit 0 being the right-most, or least significant bit (LSB), and Bit 7 being the left-most, or most significant bit (MSB). This chart should help:

+---------------------------------+
| [COLOR="lime"]BIT:[/COLOR]  | [COLOR="Magenta"]Hex:[/COLOR] | [COLOR="Yellow"]Dec:[/COLOR] | [COLOR="MediumTurquoise"]Binary: [/COLOR]  |
|-------+------+------+-----------|
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 0[/COLOR] | [COLOR="magenta"]0x01[/COLOR] |  [COLOR="yellow"]01[/COLOR]  | [COLOR="MediumTurquoise"]0000 0001[/COLOR] |
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 1[/COLOR] |[COLOR="magenta"] 0x02[/COLOR] | [COLOR="yellow"] 02[/COLOR]  |[COLOR="mediumturquoise"] 0000 0010[/COLOR] |
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 2[/COLOR] | [COLOR="magenta"]0x04[/COLOR] | [COLOR="yellow"] 04 [/COLOR] | [COLOR="mediumturquoise"]0000 0100[/COLOR] |
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 3[/COLOR] | [COLOR="magenta"]0x08[/COLOR] |  [COLOR="yellow"]08[/COLOR]  | [COLOR="mediumturquoise"]0000 1000[/COLOR] |
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 4[/COLOR] | [COLOR="magenta"]0x10[/COLOR] | [COLOR="yellow"] 16[/COLOR]  | [COLOR="mediumturquoise"]0001 0000[/COLOR] |
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 5[/COLOR] | [COLOR="magenta"]0x20[/COLOR] |  [COLOR="yellow"]32[/COLOR]  | [COLOR="mediumturquoise"]0010 0000[/COLOR] |
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 6[/COLOR] | [COLOR="magenta"]0x40[/COLOR] |  [COLOR="yellow"]64[/COLOR]  | [COLOR="mediumturquoise"]0100 0000[/COLOR] |
| [COLOR="lime"]Bit 7[/COLOR] | [COLOR="magenta"]0x80[/COLOR] | [COLOR="yellow"]128[/COLOR]  | [COLOR="mediumturquoise"]1000 0000[/COLOR] |
+---------------------------------+

Play around with the Windows calculator set to "programmers"; it'll be your best friend. You can manually toggle the binary bits on and off by clicking on them, which automatically adjusts the hex or dec figure (if set to hex or dec, respectively).

That's enough about binary, now let's talk about Makou Reactor. If you want to learn about hacking, start here. Again, I'll go into as much depth as you need me to if and when you have queries on how to understand it, but it really is the best tool for looking into the field scripts of Final Fantasy 7. For some bizzare reason, the creator of Makou Reactor decided to use decimal instead of hexadecimal, so you'll end up spending a lot of time with your best friend, Mr Calculator, converting numbers from one to the other. You'll alsdo need to load up the flevel.lgp file found within the data file (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\field), but for God's sake make a backup first!.

The only way to make heads or tails of MR (Makou Reactor) is to spend time with the Savemap. This will be your bible, however it is not completely mapped out yet, and I am currently undergoing the lengthy process of mapping out every single bit of every single byte within the variable manager within MR. This is no small task, and it's because of the fact that I have spent so much time with cross-referencing the Savemap with MR that I was able to have a good idea of the cause of the problems that you have encountered. Might I also add, MR is the most exciting thing to happen to my walkthrough, as I can now be more accurate and sure than I have ever been regarding.... well whatever really! I am no longer the one who asks the questions; I am the one who answers them!! (slight Heisenburg reference there )

Now then, onto the Tiny Bronco. Yes, I could have just unticked the box that shows the Tiny Bronco's visibility, but where would the fun be in that??? Look at the Savemap, and search for 0x0C23. This is the byte of data that deals with "transport visibility" (only 5 bits are used... that we know of). The Tiny Bronco is bit 2, and the Highwind is bit 4. Now then, open up Black Chocobo, load up the exact same save file that you sent me (if you still have it, if not just copy and paste your pastebin data) and go into the hex editor. Search for line 0C20. The line should look like this:

0C20  00  01  00  14  00  00  00  00  00  00  01  00  00  00  00  00

What you're actually looking at is 16 address, ranging from 0x0C20 to 0x0C2F:

     C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C2A C2B C2C C2D C2E C2F
0C20  00  01  00  14  00  00  00  00  00  00  01  00  00  00  00  00

See how the address of C23 is set to 14 (hexadecimal)? Type 14 into your calculator whilst in Hex mode, and notice the binary placement: 0001 0100 - bit 2 and bit 4 are ON (Tiny Bronco and the Highwind's visibility). On the calculator, turn bit 2 off by clicking on the right-most 1, and notice how the hex value changes from 14 to 10. Go back into the hex editor in Black Chocobo, and change 0C23 from 14 to 10 (remember to count the first value in the sequence as 0 and not 1 - there are 16 values ranging from 0~15, or 0h~Fh). Now go into the world map tab, and notice how the Tiny Bronco has been disabled

Now then, to finalise the mega-post by answering your question directly - the very next address along, 0C24 is the bitmask that deals with some of North Corel's progression flags. On your save file, this was set to 0. In Makou reactor, 0x0C24 is variable [1] [128], and bit 0 is the "Barret's speech at the base of the ropeway" flag. You can see this variable in action within scripts "ropest #457" "drctr #1" "S0 Main" "line 43". Line 49 is the script that turns this flag on. You don't need a calculator to work this one out, turning Bit 0 ON, the LSB, is quite simply a value shift from 0 to 1. I changed the value of address 0C24 from 00 to 01, which turned on Bit 0, which means that when you enter the ropeway, the game's scripts reach label 9, then jumps straight to label 10 as the Bit check would now fail, thereby registering that the event has already happened.

Come to think of it, Label 8 is a check to see if game moment is higher than 433. If it is higher tan 433 (which on your save file it is), then the other members of the group will not appear. This is where your problem occurred. When Cloud runs over an "event" line ("#4 evline2" "S2"), the game triggers the ropeway scenes to occur, as Bit 0 is off, but due to the fact that the game failed the Game Moment check, there are no other characters set. Possibly. I haven't explored this scene as thoroughly as I could have done, so I may be wrong about it, but it's not really necessary to fully understand why, as this problem isn't common one given your debug room explorations. It does stand a good chance however that that's why your game was freezing.


Hope all this helps!!!

 

[NERV Agent]

Whoa! It worked! I can race my Gold Chocobo now!

This has been an interesting endeavor.

 

[DynamixDJ]

Have you tried out Makou Reactor yet? How you finding it?

There's another program you could try looking out for bonus hax0r points - Cheat Engine..... But it's not the most straight forward piece of software to use. It's an extremely powerful tool that allows you to assign raw addresses, to be able to view and manipulate values live. I.E. I could find the address that stores Party gil, and edit it live if I wish. I can also see value changes live in real time, as they occur, which massively helps me figure out what is going on on certain scenes.

For example - when I breed Chocobos, I can see the newborn's raw stats - all of them, as soon as the Chocobo is born. I can also see the field RNG value, and what affects it. This is crucial for me, as I spend a lot of time with the Chocobo mechanics.