The FFVII Mobile Game Initiative (2004-2008 Era)

[NaoyaShinota]

Mad House loves FFVII from what I remember. With my research on Before Crisis and the BREW game that we should have gotten, I wonder if it will have more data than a Docomo version of the game. I found another W51H, no battery, but a SIM card. So hopefully that has something. W51H is still being looked into for extraction. However it may take time due to lack of interest people have in wanting to help me. Out of the three W51H I have found I have only been able to find 3 of them. Such a rare phone.

 

[Naga]

I know that the JP version of Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode cant be played anymore but, Is there anyway to still purchase and play US version of Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode if I get a compatible phone off of ebay?

 

[Shademp]

There is no way to purchase any version of DCFFVII Lost Episode, be it the JP or US version.

Although it's not a guarantee, if we had the game files for the US version of Lost Episode it might be possible to transfer those to a compatible phone and get the game playing. But the game data has not been preserved so we can't test this out.

 

[sereny4]

I KNOW, PLEASE DON'T HATE ME. I'M NOT A FF FAN AND I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, but I really had to register and comment and cheer you up on the level of commitment you put throughout this. Thank you so, so, so much. Hope we could manage to somehow help you and support you for all of this. As a phone collector, I own 5 keitais just for fun. Wish that I had read some of this information before diving in, thinking Japanese mobile industry was an easy target as we all know here overseas with our phones, but guess I was w-r-o-n-g.
I know this has nothing to do at all, but I own three FOMA's:
- Two P902i with the Sonic The Hedgehog's rom
- a FOMA F904i
- a Vodafone/Softbank 904t that I still cannot use because I bought it without a SoftBank USIM (and wish that I can do anything at all with it when my UIM arrives)
- and now a DoCoMo P-05c that I'm loving because it has Wi-Fi I can play around with it although I cannot dowloand any games at all, haha.

I don't know, just wanted to say that if you need any $$ support at all, tell me and I'm willing to give my coins to you, sir, hahaha.

XOXOXO, love y'all amazing people.

P.S: if someone has a little information on the 904t (games, unlocking methods, or any software that I can use to dump data such as jar files, etc.) would be really appreciated.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

I know that the JP version of Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode cant be played anymore but, Is there anyway to still purchase and play US version of Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode if I get a compatible phone off of ebay?

Sadly no. Because nobody ever archived the game. And I think it had a very short run.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

W51H progress
Recently I have acquired another W51H and it did have another Before Crisis Demo. This inspired me into trying new things to do to retrieve this lost game from the phone. I have kind of stopped due to the fact that well with someone like me, someone who isn’t this skilled in this stuff and with the way the W51H is, we ran out of ideas on what to do and help. So someone suggested a new idea and that is where we tried using a program called RevSkills but that didn’t seem to work. And then I was asked to use Portmon.
Portmon is a utility that monitors and displays all serial and parallel port activity on a system. It has advanced filtering and search capabilities that make it a powerful tool for exploring the way Windows works, seeing how applications use ports, or tracking down problems in system or application configurations.
When transferring Brew games to phones or in this case EZアプリ to a phone, you need a MySync cable. These cables are rare and they aren’t available to buy in stores anymore. But Buyee will rarely have them and the fact I found one is rare to begin with. With the MySync cable and Portmon to monitor the activity when using a program called MySync Biz.
MySync Biz is a program that can transfer various files such as images, movies and documents to the AU phones. I recently found this program and archived it as you can only get it by purchasing a CD copy of it.

https://archive.org/details/my-sync-biz

So we tried using MySync Biz with Portmon and with the results we have determined this

“”it might be so that the phone doesn't validate the paths that are passed this way and it might be possible to read file from some path like ../../brew/mod/...””

Results for Portmon monitoring MySync Biz and W51H data extraction


So we tried using the Brew AppLoader and Portmon to read the file path for W51H. However Portmon couldn’t pick up anything. Brew App Laoder couldn’t even open the W51H brew folder. Not sure if this is due to me making a mistake or it’s something to do with the device itself. I don’t have experience in brew stuff.
So this is the so far progress in trying to save this game from the phone so far. With Ever Crisis coming I hope we get the original Before Crisis somehow (let me dream).

TLDR: Brew App Loader might give us access to the folder where Before Crisis is but not sure if the program AppLoader is the issue or it’s the W51H

Our problem so far: BREW App Loader doesn’t seem to detect the phone? Will test this on multiple AU devices first

 

[sereny4]

W51H progress
Recently I have acquired another W51H and it did have another Before Crisis Demo. This inspired me into trying new things to do to retrieve this lost game from the phone. I have kind of stopped due to the fact that well with someone like me, someone who isn’t this skilled in this stuff and with the way the W51H is, we ran out of ideas on what to do and help. So someone suggested a new idea and that is where we tried using a program called RevSkills but that didn’t seem to work. And then I was asked to use Portmon.
Portmon is a utility that monitors and displays all serial and parallel port activity on a system. It has advanced filtering and search capabilities that make it a powerful tool for exploring the way Windows works, seeing how applications use ports, or tracking down problems in system or application configurations.
When transferring Brew games to phones or in this case EZアプリ to a phone, you need a MySync cable. These cables are rare and they aren’t available to buy in stores anymore. But Buyee will rarely have them and the fact I found one is rare to begin with. With the MySync cable and Portmon to monitor the activity when using a program called MySync Biz.
MySync Biz is a program that can transfer various files such as images, movies and documents to the AU phones. I recently found this program and archived it as you can only get it by purchasing a CD copy of it.

https://archive.org/details/my-sync-biz

So we tried using MySync Biz with Portmon and with the results we have determined this

“”it might be so that the phone doesn't validate the paths that are passed this way and it might be possible to read file from some path like ../../brew/mod/...””

Results for Portmon monitoring MySync Biz and W51H data extraction


So we tried using the Brew AppLoader and Portmon to read the file path for W51H. However Portmon couldn’t pick up anything. Brew App Laoder couldn’t even open the W51H brew folder. Not sure if this is due to me making a mistake or it’s something to do with the device itself. I don’t have experience in brew stuff.
So this is the so far progress in trying to save this game from the phone so far. With Ever Crisis coming I hope we get the original Before Crisis somehow (let me dream).

TLDR: Brew App Loader might give us access to the folder where Before Crisis is but not sure if the program AppLoader is the issue or it’s the W51H

Our problem so far: BREW App Loader doesn’t seem to detect the phone? Will test this on multiple AU devices first

How hard was to find a w51h for you?

 

[sereny4]

W51H progress
Recently I have acquired another W51H and it did have another Before Crisis Demo. This inspired me into trying new things to do to retrieve this lost game from the phone. I have kind of stopped due to the fact that well with someone like me, someone who isn’t this skilled in this stuff and with the way the W51H is, we ran out of ideas on what to do and help. So someone suggested a new idea and that is where we tried using a program called RevSkills but that didn’t seem to work. And then I was asked to use Portmon.
Portmon is a utility that monitors and displays all serial and parallel port activity on a system. It has advanced filtering and search capabilities that make it a powerful tool for exploring the way Windows works, seeing how applications use ports, or tracking down problems in system or application configurations.
When transferring Brew games to phones or in this case EZアプリ to a phone, you need a MySync cable. These cables are rare and they aren’t available to buy in stores anymore. But Buyee will rarely have them and the fact I found one is rare to begin with. With the MySync cable and Portmon to monitor the activity when using a program called MySync Biz.
MySync Biz is a program that can transfer various files such as images, movies and documents to the AU phones. I recently found this program and archived it as you can only get it by purchasing a CD copy of it.

https://archive.org/details/my-sync-biz

So we tried using MySync Biz with Portmon and with the results we have determined this

“”it might be so that the phone doesn't validate the paths that are passed this way and it might be possible to read file from some path like ../../brew/mod/...””

Results for Portmon monitoring MySync Biz and W51H data extraction


So we tried using the Brew AppLoader and Portmon to read the file path for W51H. However Portmon couldn’t pick up anything. Brew App Laoder couldn’t even open the W51H brew folder. Not sure if this is due to me making a mistake or it’s something to do with the device itself. I don’t have experience in brew stuff.
So this is the so far progress in trying to save this game from the phone so far. With Ever Crisis coming I hope we get the original Before Crisis somehow (let me dream).

TLDR: Brew App Loader might give us access to the folder where Before Crisis is but not sure if the program AppLoader is the issue or it’s the W51H

Our problem so far: BREW App Loader doesn’t seem to detect the phone? Will test this on multiple AU devices first

I'm asking this because I want to find one, as I've got a friend that is a developer and has a lot of knowledge in unlocking phones and Java applications and etc., and that actually agreed to investigate ways to maybe put in or out stuff off these phones. I've been trying to find one in Yahoo Auctions or Mercari or somewhere else but it's annoyingly impossible. I know I can buy literally any other phone, but maybe I can contribute to this whole cause.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

I'm asking this because I want to find one, as I've got a friend that is a developer and has a lot of knowledge in unlocking phones and Java applications and etc., and that actually agreed to investigate ways to maybe put in or out stuff off these phones. I've been trying to find one in Yahoo Auctions or Mercari or somewhere else but it's annoyingly impossible. I know I can buy literally any other phone, but maybe I can contribute to this whole cause.

I just search on Mercari and Yahoo Auctions everyday. Nothing special other than waiting. W51H is possibly the most rarest phone to pop up for sale. 3G for AU has officially ended so you would think we would get more W51H for sale but I guess we will have to wait. Also Java games can’t be installed unless you download from the internet for the W51H. But I think it’s possible through hacking.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Before Crisis is an unusual game. Especially for a imode game, where imode is very limited. But that didn’t stop Square Enix. The released chapters over the corse of time. Together with the help of others we were able to determine the release dates of each chapters

Here's the finished list:
Beta: August 31, 2004
Chapter 1: September 24, 2004
Chapter 2: October 10, 2004
Chapter 3: November 2, 2004
Chapter 4: November 24, 2004
Chapter 5: December 16, 2004
Chapter 6: December 24, 2004
Chapter 7: January 28, 2005
Chapter 8: February 18, 2005
Chapter 9: February 28, 2005
Chapter 10: March 31, 2005
Chapter 11: April 25, 2005
Chapter 12: May 13, 2005
Chapter 13: May 31, 2005
Chapter 14: June 16, 2005
Chapter 15: June 30, 2005
Chapter 16: July 22, 2005
Chapter 17: August 19, 2005
Chapter 18: August 31, 2005
Chapter 19: September 15, 2005
Chapter 20: October 14, 2005
Chapter 21: November 18, 2005
Chapter 22.1: December 22, 2005
Tseng: December 22, 2005
Chapter 22.2: January 30, 2006
Chapter 23: February 28, 2006
Chapter 24: March 31, 2006
Legend: December 25, 2006
Reno: September 12, 2007

 

[NaoyaShinota]

This person who uploaded a play through of KH V Cast also has Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode (Western Port). The Docomo version paid and full have already been found by Shademp. But the western port hasn’t been found or dumped. Here is our source and it is getting some attention. We hope that this individual will lend a hand in preserving these two lost games. You can the game listed in the beginning of the video.

 

[Shademp]

The Japanese version of Lost Episode is technically the port, since the game was originally made- and released in English.

The person who uploaded the KH footage, "Negative Space" on YouTube, is now on the KH Insider forum (username "Scrooge McDuck") and is getting help with retrieving data from the phone.

In the YT comment section, Negative Space writes:

"Sadly the DoC game is wiped. Back when I tried to finish the 2 games before updating my phone, Kingdom Hearts was able to download the last episodes, but DoC must have been removed from the V-Cast store early, cause I couldn't download the next stage for it. ): "​

I would say there is still the possibility that game files are left on the phone, even if they are inaccessible to the user. Fingers crossed.


Half a year ago, kraze found another person who had Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode on their English phone. kraze made a tutorial to help the person extract the data but we are yet to get any results from this.

 

[Shademp]

Negative Space, aka Scrooge McDuck, uploaded a YouTube Short showing the English DCFFVII: Lost Episode main menu. Absolutely wonderful.



When selecting "Continue" the game tries to download the "Chopper Transport" section. In WarMECH's video, reuploaded by Grimoire, we see the same "Chopper Transport" message for what is actually a "New Game". I don't know if there were more than one "Chopper Transport" section.



It's looking less likely that Negative Space's phone contains more than the basic shell of DCFFVII: Lost Episode. But who knows how much the "basic shell" actually contains? We won't know for sure until the data is extracted.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

I just want to say I’m glad to see that Kingdom Hearts fans seem to be close to getting the lost Mobile games they want. And seeing Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode on a cell phone that isn’t from Japan is really interesting. And I do have some updates on W51H dumping.
I recently purchased a JTAG device called Riff Box2. This device allows me to JTAG and several other things. Through my endless search of finding some way of trying to extract Before Crisis FFVII, I was told this could possibly work. The W51H does have a Qualcomm MSM6550 processor. A processor not known to many and seems to not be as popular for hacking. According to the data sheet for MSM6550, it does have ARM926JES core.
And one thing to keep in mind when reading this. I am a noob when it comes to this type of thing. I am not an expert in this field. I don’t know everything about these things and still am searching for help on how to do this.
And thanks to Kraze who has already identified the jtag pin locations, I am able to do my own jtag experiments. Now I am able to dump, but, the sad part is that It seems to be unsuccessful. In hex editor it’s just a bunch of ???????? signs. Not sure as I am not as skilled and don’t have as much helping me. I do and I am thankful to them for helping me. I have not tried the method Kraze used cause I don’t know how to. So I am still trying. but i have been told that their might be a W51H dll file for this type of thing.
So that is my progress so far. It takes time to do all of this. I really want to dump this game. Even if our only way of emulating BREW games is through a emulator known as Melange which does not support Japanese text and music….yet. The photo is what my results are. But Kraze’s dump is 66MB. Mines is 128mb so maybe that is good.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Ever Crisis is planned to be released sometime in September

https://gamebiz.jp/news/348292

 

[NaoyaShinota]

2006 E3, Square Enix announces Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII for North America. Info on this game's localization remains a mystery. But here is proof. From the E3 2006 Square Enix catalog. enjoy and please share however you would like to.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Tomorrow we will get to see what the FFVII 25th anniversary will give us. Hoping for Ever Crisis and the before crisis part of it as that is sadly our only way to play Before Crisis. Square Enix seems to be hyping this. I know that it’s sadly to be more likely a Crisis Core thing, but what can you do. I have nothing against Crisis Core. I just want Before Crisis cause of its current state. But hey, let’s hope we all get what we want. Why? Cause why not? So here is the link.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

After the stream, you have no idea how much more I want to dump the game. Still looking but still need data sheets for the phones

 

[NaoyaShinota]

in honor of TGS. Someone decided to drop this beautiful picture on my Twitter.
a gift from Twitter user UFinalfantasyxv
I love it. Let’s hope we get some Before Crisis stuff for TGS

 

[NaoyaShinota]

More ads for Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII that I was able to get my hands on. So glad I got this. I missed my chance with a different booklet a year ago. But not this time. Always looking for things like this. My assumption is that this was given out during TGS 2004 at the Square Enix booth. Enjoy

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Search for the Before Crisis SoftBank version?

There are 3 cell phone comapnies in Japan that distributed Before Crisis.

Docomo’s iMode Service supplied DoJa. This was a special type of J2ME made by Docomo

AU KDDI had EZ Web Store which let you download Java and BREW games. But Before Crisis from AU is a BREW game.

SoftBank’s Yahoo Keitai service supplied S!アプリ (appli). Which is actually MIDP 2.0

MIDP is used to make J2ME games. One can easily make J2Me games with MIDP and transfer it to a western j2me phone via Bluetooth to this day. And the upside is that no hacking is required. SoftBank requires 3G service (stupid) to download the games. But from what I have seen and learned is that SoftBank games (some, not all), can run on western phones and J2ME loader. It should also be noted that the S!アプリ games can be moved to SD card. A theory does exist that one can easily rename the file extension of the SoftBank game on the SD card and read it’s contents. However this should be taken with a grain of salt. As this is something I have only read on Japanese forum boards and have yet to see in person. I am not sure about this feature at times. Cause Sodtbank is restricted to the SIM card. I have yet to get my hands on a SoftBank phone that lets me do this. I’ll look and try but it will take some time.

 

[w______roy]

I’m experimenting with the encrypted files. Here is FFVII Dirge Of Cerberus Lost Episode “Demo” from the P903i phone. P903i supports up to 2GB microSD card.

1. Create a folder and name it “SD_BIND” on the root of the SD card.
2. Drag and drop content directly into the the “SD_BIND” folder

This is for P903i devices. Docomo has made it so that you can’t view on computers but let’s see what others can do with this. Oh yeah Puyo Puyo Colums is in their. Have fun. Let me know if you are able to move it to your P903i.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/xdcclts1kue2bwh/DOC_%26_PuyoPuyo.rar/file

According to this document you'd need the cryptographic key that's stored in the "hidden" area of the SD card (likely raw data outside of the partition itself). It's spelled out pretty clearly in that document and if you have the phone and the card it should be a fun little decryption project.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

According to this document you'd need the cryptographic key that's stored in the "hidden" area of the SD card (likely raw data outside of the partition itself). It's spelled out pretty clearly in that document and if you have the phone and the card it should be a fun little decryption project.

I do not know much about this subject myself, but I remember someone who has tried that before stating that we need the keys from the phone. I could be wrong.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Update on the Status of Before Crisis
Blitz a well known youtuber for FFVII related content is bringing some attention to Before Crisis Final Fantasy VII and the recent interview that Nomura. At this point we will need as much help as much as possible if we ever want to play this game. Nomura states that they have no plans because they don’t see any overseas demand for it. There is some but I think that everyone is just silent on it due to many reasons. I think we have our answer. From what I have seen, if we are polite (I hope we will be) voice to them that we do want this game on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram than in time we can hopefully get it. At least that’s the only way that I can think of. I really think that this is a time where Nomura is looking. So let’s give him something to look at. Do not let the negative people discourage you. If you really want the game, start asking. Tag Square Enix in any way possible.

 

[w______roy]

I do not know much about this subject myself, but I remember someone who has tried that before stating that we need the keys from the phone. I could be wrong.

Yes, but if that's the case they could be obtained from the phone, either in flash memory somewhere or a CPU register or the register of some other chip. The OMAP 1611 does have hardware encryption, but I can't find a datasheet for it.

I have two P900iv phones (one black, one champagne) but neither came with a MiniSD card or any games other than the preloaded ones on the internal memory. It seems like my Y screwdriver is slightly too big, but I may buy a smaller one to see what kind of flash chip this has. If I knew that I could just dump the contents (this part is really easy) and hunt for an encryption key (this part is really hard, and I'm hesitant to pursue it without knowing for sure where the key is stored).

But it's impractical to dump the flash of every phone with a cool game on it, so maybe better to try and use the SDK to write something that can invoke machine code to do something. I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more work on SD CPRM decryption, considering it's been conquered in the DVD world for some time.