Jul -- The Cutting Room Floor: Weird Discoveries

Foxhack
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Posted on 08-21-12 04:31:57 PM (last edited by Foxhack at 08-21-12 04:33:07 PM)

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So after stumbling upon the Robocop vs. The Terminator (Genesis) article after Andrew Rae did a bit of cleanup, I went in and added a bunch of info on how to access the debug screen, since I remembered seeing that on a magazine several years ago.

I figured, maybe the prototypes have the debug mode in there... and they did! Sort of.

The earliest prototype I found (Rev 069) has the debug mode enabled by default and the stage select has a scrapped flying level! It resembles Konami's Scramble game since you have to rescue people from flying Terminator drones (I forget their name.) There's also a test level - and it also still has the female enemies and they behave very, very differently from the final.

The second prototype (Rev 122) is weird. The Debug Mode code -does not work-, but other cheat codes still do. And the debug mode's text is still in the rom, just like in the proto and final. So maybe the button code is different or disabled, but whatever turns it on (a value in RAM, maybe?) may still be in the game. The Scramble and Test levels are not in the game anymore, or at least they're not in the stage list from the debug mode text.

I'm going to start working on the first proto since the differences are more noticeable there, but I may need help from someone who has experience with Genesis ASM to figure out how to turn on the debug mode in the Rev 122 proto.

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rabidabid
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Posted on 08-21-12 06:08:59 PM

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On the subject of Robocop vs. Terminator, there's also a crash screen. I saw a video of it a while ago on YouTube but can't find it anymore. They loaded a savestate from a different game to get it to appear (Syd of Valis?).

I searched and found this thread about it on GameFAQs though. I guess they just entered the 54 lives code twice?
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/586429-robocop-versus-the-terminator/42746888

I tried the savestate method and got a couple different screens:

Fuzn
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Posted on 08-21-12 09:44:47 PM

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Originally posted by Foxhack
The earliest prototype I found (Rev 069) has the debug mode enabled by default and the stage select has a scrapped flying level! It resembles Konami's Scramble game since you have to rescue people from flying Terminator drones (I forget their name.) There's also a test level - and it also still has the female enemies and they behave very, very differently from the final.

I've been playing through that prototype some, and outside of the debug modes, there are still plenty of differences I've found. Like octagon-shaped plates that can be collected through the Construction Site level. They don't seem to do anything, but maybe there's a variable.

Even all the way back to Rev 069, Robocop's default gun fires faster on ladders than it does on foot, when no other weapon exhibits the same property.

Truth be told, there's a lot you could write up a page on as far as comparisons to the final go.

I'm curious if the octagon plates you can pick up in the construction stage actually do anything that I'm not seeing.

Peardian

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Posted on 08-21-12 11:55:00 PM (last edited by Peardian at 08-22-12 08:07:21 AM)

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Anybody here good with Python and/or C++? If so, I have some code from Super Mario Strikers here that might be worth looking at. Edit: Now with code tags! Thanks!

tag_elf_region.py

import re import os import sys mapFile = open("MarioSoccerZ.map").read() mapFile = mapFile.splitlines() sbss2Start = 0 regionOffset = 0 regionOffsetRegexp = re.compile(r'(\w+)\s+.*g_Region.*') sbss2StartRegexp = re.compile(r'\.sbss\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+(\w+)') for line in mapFile: line = line.strip() m = sbss2StartRegexp.match(line) if m != None: sbss2Start = int(m.group(1), 16) m = regionOffsetRegexp.match(line) if m != None: regionOffset = int(m.group(1), 16) regionAddress = sbss2Start + regionOffset for arg in sys.argv: print("setting region to:") print(arg) os.spawnl(os.P_WAIT, r'tag_elf_region.exe', 'MarioSoccerZ.elf', str(regionAddress), arg)

tag_elf_region.cpp

#pragma warning(push, 1) #pragma warning(disable: 4701) #include <cstdio> #include <iostream> #include <boost/scoped_array.hpp> #include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp> int main(int argc, char **argv) { if (argc != 3) { std::cout << "not enough arguments for program\n"; return 0; } const char* filename = argv[0]; const int address = boost::lexical_cast<int>(argv[1]); const int region = boost::lexical_cast<int>(argv[2]); std::FILE* f = std::fopen(filename, "rb"); if (!f) { std::cout << "unable to open " << filename << '\n'; return 0; } std::fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END); std::size_t size = std::ftell(f); std::fseek(f, 0, SEEK_SET); boost::scoped_array<char> buf(new char[size]); size = std::fread(buf.get(), 1, size, f); fclose(f); unsigned int r = *reinterpret_cast<unsigned int*>(&buf[address]); if (r != 0xEFBEADDE) { std::cout << "Unexpected sentinel value\n"; return 0; } *reinterpret_cast<unsigned int*>(&buf[address]) = region << 24; f = std::fopen(filename, "wb"); if (!f) { std::cout << "unable to open " << filename << '\n'; return 0; } fwrite(buf.get(), 1, size, f); fclose(f); }

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-Peardian-

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Foxhack
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Posted on 08-22-12 01:06:19 AM

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Originally posted by Fuzn
Originally posted by Foxhack
The earliest prototype I found (Rev 069) has the debug mode enabled by default and the stage select has a scrapped flying level! It resembles Konami's Scramble game since you have to rescue people from flying Terminator drones (I forget their name.) There's also a test level - and it also still has the female enemies and they behave very, very differently from the final.

I've been playing through that prototype some, and outside of the debug modes, there are still plenty of differences I've found. Like octagon-shaped plates that can be collected through the Construction Site level. They don't seem to do anything, but maybe there's a variable.

Even all the way back to Rev 069, Robocop's default gun fires faster on ladders than it does on foot, when no other weapon exhibits the same property.

Truth be told, there's a lot you could write up a page on as far as comparisons to the final go.

I'm curious if the octagon plates you can pick up in the construction stage actually do anything that I'm not seeing.

Oh definitely, but I'm not very familiar with the Genesis version of the game. Mostly because I think it sucks donkey gonads.

I always preferred the SNES version, at least that one doesn't have music that hurts my ears and is ACTUALLY FAIR AND DOESN'T THROW TWENTY BULLETS AT YOU WHAT IS THIS CONTRA HARD CORPS JEEZ

... ahem.

My plan was to create a couple of starter articles and hopefully someone else would do the rest of the stuff.

Sorry, I'm just lazy and / or preoccupied with other stuff...

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Joe
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Posted on 08-22-12 01:52:41 AM

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Originally posted by Peardian
The post doesn't keep the indentation, but it's there. Just quote it to see it.

You can use [code] to keep indentation.

That code is really interesting. It was used to set the region in the game executable after compiling it. It would have originally had a bogus value, and the developers used the Python script (which launches the C++ program) to set it to the correct value. It saved time on compiling because that variable was (and maybe still is) the only difference between different regions of the game.

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Peardian

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Posted on 08-22-12 08:40:54 AM

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Thank you much! Next Level Games continues to impress me.

So, what do I do when one of the unused files in a game is an HTML file? Because Strikers has about a dozen of them. Do I just describe it?

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-Peardian-

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." -Mark Twain
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andlabs
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Posted on 08-22-12 08:13:13 PM (last edited by andlabs at 08-22-12 08:14:32 PM)

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SonicFreak94 found this in the Dreamcast version of Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future. Is it used in that version? He checked the PS2 version's Gallery, but did say he didn't unlock everything yet... Thanks.

Also

[20:11] <SonicFreak94> yeah
[20:11] <SonicFreak94> there's also a clean version of the titlescreen without the logo and crap on it

same question.

Celice
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Posted on 08-23-12 01:01:09 PM

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Unused command in the DS Fire Emblem(s)?

http://www.heroesofshadow.net/2012/07/shadow-dragon-trivia.html

When NTG was helping me insert the tutorial graphics, she was asking me where file 19 is. The tutorial files are numbered 01 to 38 internally, but there's no 19 and instead a weird gap between 18 and 20.

Well it turns out the missing tutorial 19 actually appeared in Shadow Dragon... or didn't appear, would be more accurate. It seems Intelligent Systems were planning to implement the ability to issue orders to units, like in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, but dropped it at the last moment.

....

For those interested, these are the orders that were planned:

Avoid[X] Order units to stay out of enemy range unless otherwise instructed.[X]

Protect[X] Order units to protect Marth unless otherwise instructed.[X]

Attack[X] Order units to attack nearby enemies unless otherwise instructed.[X]

Wait[X] Order units to stay put unless otherwise instructed.[X]

Follow[X] Order units to stay with Marth unless otherwise instructed.[X]

I wonder if the option is actually dormant, and just tucked away somewhere? Oh yeah, that reminds me: debug options from the prototypes of FE7/FE8 survive in their final respective releases. I was glitching around once and got some of the options to appear in a normal game--not all of the options, but a few. Other than a few honest debugging features, there's also a "warning system" that was introduced in FE9 and onwards, which allows you to highlight the attack range of units. This may have been another feature in development that was ultimately cut (problems with less static attack ranges, like staves?), as I can't really see the usefulness of it in a debug menu... but that might be because I played eight of the Fire Emblem games without ever being shown the range :p

TheKins
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Posted on 08-27-12 05:34:04 AM

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I should probably start the DOTA 2 page at some vague point. There's more unused voice actor ad-libs left for snoopers and some stuff from The Internal, Valve's internal tournament for testing the International stuff.

On an off note, everybody's favorite placeholder model has become so popular that he's graduated into a proper in-game courier with lore attached and is getting his own t-shirt! Such bold steps for such a shitty wizard.

Fuzn
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Posted on 08-30-12 06:45:35 PM

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So this is an interesting find.

The R-TYPE series has most of it's tile data facing the way it appears in-game. Player sprites are naturally stored facing to the right, and this goes for most of the player equipment, power-ups and weapons. Except for the 2nd level Force Unit.

In-Game, it normally looks like this when on the front of your fighter:

However, I found that the tile data had it facing the other way around, as if it were mounted onto the back of the fighter and not the front, suggesting it may have looked like this:

Strangely enough, this persists in the tile data of R-Type 2, even though the sprites have been redrawn and re-mapped entirely:

I'm not exactly sure why Irem decided to mirror the 2nd level Force Unit sprites in this manner.

Foxhack
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Posted on 09-05-12 01:12:55 AM (last edited by Foxhack at 09-05-12 01:15:48 AM)

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In my quest to find more useless stuff, The Punisher (PC) contains a lot of leftover configuration data from Red Faction II. Apparently I heard about this years ago and even submitted some trivia about it to MobyGames, but I never remembered it until I actually started to mess around in the game with an extraction program that supported the game's data files. I need to reinstall Red Faction II to compare them all.

Sadly, I couldn't find anything that let me rip graphics... but boy oh boy does it have lots of audio files. 2273 environmental sounds, and 8,281 voice clips. I've found a couple of placeholder voice files, and one of the stand-in clips mentioned in the original TCRF article.

And the main configuration file for the US PS2 version is about 85% the same. The main difference is in the text string regions, Volition removed the Spanish / German / Italian text strings for some weird reason. They may still be in the PAL version of the game. (Edit: Wait, maybe not German. The game's banned over there by the BPjM, so they must've not really bothered to translate it to German.)

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nensondubois
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Posted on 09-05-12 07:51:00 PM

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I am currently looking into the Pagemaster GB debug menu and again and I found something of additional interest. Option setting 1 after EXIT toggles RAM Address DEAA to either 00 or 01 after the initial value of 00. Setting 2 sets RAM addresses DB04, DC02, DC5E from either 00 or 01 from 00. Hidden option for doesn't set anything in RAM. None of modifyable RAM settings have no effect and maybe additional debugging features were planned.

Another item that poked my curiosity is the Save Data Error message that plays the Game Over jingle in all NP Picross volumes. Unfortunately, neither of the eight versions contain a sound test and I couldn't find any other interesting screens aside.

(Image is pretty big)
http://tcrf.net/File:NP_Picross_Vol_1_DATA_ERROR.PNG

Mattrizzle
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Posted on 09-07-12 06:25:08 PM (last edited by Mattrizzle at 09-07-12 06:33:20 PM)

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All of those palettes but the brown-spiked variation of Thwomp are used in the game.

The alternate Froggie/Ribbit Stick palettes are actually the cymbal palettes.
The cymbals' palette is intended for Bowser's Chomp (Shell) and Spiked Link weapons.
After you rescue Peach from Booster and return to the Mushroom Kingdom, she escapes from the castle--using the pink parasol to float to the ground--and rejoins your party.

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Rick
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Posted on 09-09-12 01:46:23 PM

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The people in the stream will love this, but they probably already know!

I think I found some unused text in SNES Clue. I'm going to go visit a friend of mine who also knows this game quite well so I can confirm if it is or isn't unused.

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