The FFVII Mobile Game Initiative (2004-2008 Era)

[Shademp]

i don't know if it's a dumb idea, but would doing a factory reset restore the preinstalled apps?

Possibly but probably not.

There is a *sort of* precedent at least. The manual for the P903i, the phone that contains the Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode demo, reveals that a factory reset will restore the demo so long as it wasn't deleted by the user. As for why the i-appli game demo would disappear on its own I have no idea. The "Cloud" phone, the P900iV, notably does not have a factory reset available to the user.

So it's possible that either of the two W51H manuals might refer to the same type of reset-and-restore function that the P903i has.
- W51H basic user manual
- W51H instruction manual (containing the aforementioned images of the Before Crisis demo)

If either of these refer to a factory reset that restores pre-installed applications, there *might* be hope.

Immediately beyond this issue is that a factory reset will probably make the SIM card invalid. I'd need confirmation from either of the two manuals that a factory reset will not also invalidate the auIC card.

The rarity of having a W51H with a functioning SIM card is conflicting. On one hand I don't want to disrupt it, in case somebody finds a way to use my W51H+auIC to reverse engineer how SIM cards work in conjunction with the phone. If we could trick any W51H into believing it had a valid SIM card then anyone with a W51H could check the EZappli menu and look for the Before Crisis demo.

Yet if a factory reset could restore the demo, albeit hide it away behind the EZappli menu, that'd also be a victory.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Have you tried any phones that used the Softbank & EZWeb version of the game?

I ask because this is akin to the issue Kingdom Hearts fans had with trying to ensure there was a working cell phone that had all the episodes of Kingdom Hearts Coded on it. They were released on the same system back in 2007, and a user was able to find a phone with all the episodes downloaded. I can't remember what their name was, but it had Xehanort in it... I'm sure if someone was able to back up Coded, they may have had Before Crisis too. Someone out there...

 

[Strangelove]

i searched the longer manual for 初期化 (initialising), there's something about the sd card but that might just be formatting the cards. i've seen mentions of EZアプリリセット (ex app reset) and オールリセット (all reset) which might just be the data? i haven't read into them because i am currently cleaning a window

 

[Shademp]

Other than DoCoMo phones, the W51H phone is the only "EZweb"-type that I've acquired and checked. I have not acquired any Yahoo/Softbank phones. The W51H phone is the only one known to have come with a Before Crisis demo pre-installed.

The case you are thinking about Mako is indeed the one where a portion of Kingdom Hearts Coded was retrieved from an SD card.

Way back in December 2017 I looked into whether any version of Before Crisis could have its contents moved onto an external card. The conclusion based on the Square Enix support page (I am surprised its support pages for Before Crisis still stand!) is that only the Yahoo/Softbank version allowed transfer of game data to an external memory card. Apparently the security was tighter for i-mode and EZweb.

Our best hope in this context would be to find a miniSD or microSD with data from the "Yahoo! Keitai" version of Before Crisis.

On the topic of memory cards for cell phones, you needed a microSD with at least one megabyte free space to download and play the full version of Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode, plus several megabytes of space on your phone's internal memory. The hunt for the full version of that game is thus also a hunt for microSDs and the accompanying cell phone.

While I am willing to sometimes hunt for cell phones, I am not willing to buy hundreds and hundreds of microSDs in the tiny hope that they might contain rare game data.

 

[Kuraudo.]

Thanks Shademp for the updates... unfortunately you are right, japanese are kinda of following the "not-sharing" policy.

But really, I feel it's unbelievable that nobody still shared anything with western audience.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Hi. I’m new here and I want to say that I love the research that has been done for all of this. I would love to help in anyway possible. Not to get anyone’s hope up but I have a friend in Japan who might be able to help me make an account so I can communicate with Yahoo auctions sellers who are in Japan and ask if the cell phones have BCFVII installed before dropping thousands of dollars on random certain phones with as so much as a grainy of salt of chance of finding what I need.I know Japanese, I have also been using a service called Buyee to buy from places like Mercari, Yahoo Auctions Japan and others.
I am also to receive a textbook based off of i-appli development. Most likely Friday I should get it. Hoping this will go into detail on how to make applications for p900i phones and up. I can’t give much detail on what the book is about cause I have yet to find any. Maybe in theory we can develop a i-appli file that can moves files to SD cards? I will share info on when I will get the book. Maybe with this we won’t have to take a phone apart to transfer files. But we will see.

 

[Strangelove]

it's sad that this kind of archival effort is largely the domain of amateurs and fans rather than the actual creators themselves

 

[Shademp]

@NaoyaShinota
Thank you for your post.

DoCoMo used to host some i-appli development tools on their official website. Fortunately sheepytina downloaded these files before the page was taken down. They shared with me those files, including an i-appli archive and a JDK for iappliTool. These resources might already be known to you but I'm linking them here now just in case.

- i-appli archive + i-mode development tools + JDK for iappliTool (199MB zip)

The tools include a limited i-mode emulator, if memory serves me right. I have personally never tried to use it, but sheepytina (who originally posted these resources on the now defunct Assembler Games website) can still be found on Twitter if you're looking for help on getting the emulator running.


One of the big walls when searching for these needles in a haystack is the difficulty to keep up the energy and continue asking around. I've sent hundreds and hundreds of emails to different sellers on eBay, asking around for English versions of lost Square Enix mobile games. Only a few ever replied back and none ever led to lost games being unearthed. Eventually it just got too tiring and it's been a long time now since I sent such inquiries. But if you can perform the same task on JP auction sites, even if only for a little while, then that's way better than doing nothing at all. Good luck.

 

[RaichuBender]

Spoiler: Hitachi W51H images

The phone arrived! Now the next challenge; trying to access the EZ appli folder...
Whoo boy! Where am I gonna get an au CDMA UIM card from?

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Shademp I didn’t know that. I’ll download when I get home. I’m also working on unlocking the P900iV. Nor promises but so far making progress. If my theory is true than I can have an unlocked P900iV. I’ll update when I find out.

RaichuBender I’m sure that UIM is basically a SIM card. You need to check that phones band, see if it is compatible with your area and look into an unlocking SIM card. I’m currently doing that and making progress.

 

[RaichuBender]

RaichuBender I’m sure that UIM is basically a SIM card. You need to check that phones band, see if it is compatible with your area and look into an unlocking SIM card. I’m currently doing that and making progress.

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, it doesn't recognize my SIM card (gives an invalid card error). The au website mentions that it can use other SIM cards, but the au KDDI services might not operate on the phone properly. Also, from forum posts it appears these phones don't support GSM, so a standard SIM card wouldn't work at all sadly...
No clue if it is possible to import a Japanese UIM card (of any specific service provider) and insert it to access the apps folder.
I don't even know where to get such a card from without getting in trouble with customs and personally bound authentication stuff...

But I'm not giving up hope of finding the game. I'll try to dump the contents of the flash and analyze it on my PC. Need to figure out how, first.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Update: I got the textbook. And it’s everything I imagined. It has coding. It tells you how to do a lot. I’m freaking out cause this is amazing. I will do my part as you all have. I will scan and upload this for backup purposes. Also so you guys can develop your own games for this too.

 

[RaichuBender]

I ordered another W51H via Buyee. While the one I showed in the images above looks brand new, the one I just ordered looks like it has been heavily used (the owner decorated the outside shell).
While there is a bigger chance that this one won't have the BC demo on it, there is an equal chance that the owner bought the game back in the day, and there might be leftover chapter data on it. I'm really just trying to find a needle in a haystack at this point, but you never know what you're gonna get. :3
In the meantime I'll see if I can access the apps on the one I currently have, preferably without destroying it to dump the flash. If anyone could help me with this, you're more than welcome to get in contact with me, either via this site, Twitter (my username is the same) or Discord (I'm in thelifestream Discord server as well).

(Also, could a moderator perhaps put the images from my previous post in a spoiler tag? Thanks )

 

[NaoyaShinota]

What do we know about P900iV/ or some other FOMA phones data transferring?
There are four methods

1. Infrared
2. Internet
3. USB
4. MiniSD

1. Infrared seems to be easy but you can’t send i-appli from what I can tell. If you try, it will get deleted

Source: page 398
https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/binary/pdf/support/trouble/manual/download/P900iV_E_AP_All.pdf

2. Internet can only be accessed if you have a UIM/SIM card of some kind that can connect to a network like our phones do. This is seems to be the only way to transfer i-appli from computer to phone. Maybe their is a way to upload from phone to computer during this method



3. USB drivers exist for FOMA phones. I haven’t looked for others than P900iV. But they can be obtained from CD that comes with the corresponding phone.
MiniSD can be used to transfer videos and movies. But I think their is a way to transfer i-appli to computer and back to phone.

4. MiniSD can be used to transfer videos and movies. But I think their is a way to transfer i-appli to computer and back to phone. But some hacking to the phone may be required. I hope I’m wrong.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

I found a link to the P900iV drivers. These drivers seem to only work on Windows XP home edition and 98 as far as I remember. I’ve tried XP professional and for some reason I had a lot of trouble. Others may have better luck but I’m not sure. But with home it worked once and it stopped working. Their are different versions of XP that I need to try.

Thanks to Joey Wheeler on YouTube he provided P900iV drivers. Ones you can obtain from the CD. I believe that’s all from the CD. I can’t confirm for sure since I don’t have it but I’m assuming it’s all from the CD.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/iex33e3sedv316o/P900iV_USB_Driver.rar/file

The CD that comes with the phone comes with 2 things:
Drivers for your phone
FOMA設定ソフト

But what is FOMA設定ソフト? It’s a program that lets you connect the P900iV and some other phones to the internet through your usb cable. I still have yet to figure out if anything else is needed to do this. Pages 420 of the manual and up can give you more detailed info.
Source :https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/binary/pdf/support/trouble/manual/download/P900iV_E_AP_All.pdf

I have already purchased the CD for the P900i even though I have a P900iV but this CD is the only one I could find if I wanted to obtain FOMA設定ソフト. I’ve searched everywhere and it seems to be the only way to get the Program. I will make an archive of it when I get it and the drivers as well.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

P900iV unlocking progress and how far I’ve made it

I’m using the iSmart Hyper Sim and T-mobile SIM card. I am currently on the lookout for a SIM card from 2004 or 2006 basically an old one. Not the new nano. Otherwise the phone just constantly reboots. As of now t-mobile supports the band for p900iv. So far the phone seems to recognize it at first and then shuts down. Boots back up and says unable to recognize UIM. So it seems as if it’s trying to unlock it but is having trouble. My theory is that the older phones are not built to recognize newer sims. Which makes sense.

But what would this have to do with the search for BCFFVII? If we can get a Japanese cell phone unlocked, we can hopefully have an easier way of transferring files to computer for backup.

Here is where I bought the SIM card
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-iSmart...-/122471158508?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

But I would prefer to have this one from the video

Despite the terrible quality it seems as if he has had success. I don’t know if it’s the SIM card he used cause that would make a difference or the unlock sim that is different then mine.

 

[RaichuBender]

Asking just in case anyone knows more:
1. Does anyone happen to know of any product/peripheral for Windows/Linux PCs that can transmit and recieve CDMA cellular signals and act as a sort of hotspot for these Japanese cellphones?
2. And is there a way to spoof the phone into thinking a legit au UIM card has been inserted?

I'm basically asking if anyone has laid the groundwork for hacking this phone yet. xD
But Googling this stuff is pretty much impossible, since it seems no one has attempted anything crazy and specific like this yet...

 

[RaichuBender]

https://helmet.kafuka.org/bboard/thread.php?pid=2830#2830
^ some details about EzWeb/BREW and i-mode that might be of use.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

RaichuBender as of now there is not way to hack it. the only way to transfer i-appli files to P900iV is through downloading it from a website. That means you would host your own server of some kind, and have the phone download it. I however would love to put some effort into upgrading the drivers for this. But I don’t know where to start.

I’m working on unlocking my P900iV as of now. If you read my posts, I am making some progress.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Interesting that I found this. For P900iV
It talks about Unlock SIM for the phone. It may have other phones listed too.
https://mobilespecs.net/phone/codes/DoCoMo/DoCoMo_P900iV.html

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Does this indicate some further progress? Has anybody ever been able to get 圏外 (けん・がい Kengai) on the front part of their Docomo Phone?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1354649523918753794

Please respond I need to know if I’m making progress.

 

[RaichuBender]

RaichuBender as of now there is not way to hack it. the only way to transfer i-appli files to P900iV is through downloading it from a website. That means you would host your own server of some kind, and have the phone download it. I however would love to put some effort into upgrading the drivers for this. But I don’t know where to start.

I’m working on unlocking my P900iV as of now. If you read my posts, I am making some progress.

Yeah, I'm reading up on what you are doing. Interesting stuff! I'll be sure to let you know if I have any details/questions about the i-appli version as well!

Right now trying to install the BREW SDK to see what I can grasp and analyze from it. Though, to run BREW apps on EZWeb phones, you need to sign them (with the DRM stuff) and publish them. I think the signing happens server-side, so unfortunately no chance to analyze that as of now.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Yeah, I'm reading up on what you are doing. Interesting stuff! I'll be sure to let you know if I have any details/questions about the i-appli version as well!

Right now trying to install the BREW SDK to see what I can grasp and analyze from it. Though, to run BREW apps on EZWeb phones, you need to sign them (with the DRM stuff) and publish them. I think the signing happens server-side, so unfortunately no chance to analyze that as of now.

So basically someone needs to develop a hack for this. I want to so bad. I’m going to look into this more.

 

[RaichuBender]

After two hours of Windows compatibility headaches, I got the BREW SDK and Simulator installed.

It looks quite similar, though not identical to Shademp 's post. I think I'm on the right path. This might make it possible to emulate the EZアプリ further down the road if everything goes well and I get the emulator part of it installed.

 

[NaoyaShinota]

Also I don’t know if anyone knows this but if you are on the mobile app for Buyee, you can have them ask sellers question of your choice. I’m going to try it tonight. Granted it will be a pain cause I have to wait for Buyee and then wait for the person in Japan to message Buyee to message me back. I wish I had instant messaging but man Japan really doesn’t want you to have an account for Mercari and other stuff unless you have a Japanese cell phone number. Another reason why I love Amazon and eBay (sometimes). Now this may be a long and tedious process but it’s still a small chance we have to find small stuff of BCFFVII. Best of luck to all of you on this search.