32x ROM Editors

[Tony H]

I could never beat Shadow Squadron on the console, so thought I would make an editor to make the game a little easier. Should work on any version and any region.





Here's a link for the download and a little more info: https://gamehacking.org/vb/forum/vid...769#post212769

[Tony H]

An editor for Knuckles Chaotix 32x. This editor will remember your previous settings for Knuckles' jump height and his glide path, and will display them for you. This will make it easier if you want to make adjustments to your previous settings (you won't have to try and remember what values you used).




Go here for the download and a little more info: https://gamehacking.org/vb/forum/vid...819#post212819

[goldenband]

Hey Tony, if you're doing spelunking into 32X ROMs, could you look into these two unsolved mysteries? They are:

1) In Cosmic Carnage, what are the exact conditions necessary to get the "best" ending when beating the game?

2) In Metal Head, what do the medals you receive at the end signify? I believe there are up to six; I've gotten five, with room left over for the sixth (there's a blank spot in the line-up of medals).

(Ignore the linked thread otherwise, BTW, it's mostly tiresome console-wars/speculation/"What if?" stuff of the kind that used to be endemic here.)

[Tony H]

Hey Tony, if you're doing spelunking into 32X ROMs, could you look into these two unsolved mysteries? They are:

1) In Cosmic Carnage, what are the exact conditions necessary to get the "best" ending when beating the game?

2) In Metal Head, what do the medals you receive at the end signify? I believe there are up to six; I've gotten five, with room left over for the sixth (there's a blank spot in the line-up of medals).

(Ignore the linked thread otherwise, BTW, it's mostly tiresome console-wars/speculation/"What if?" stuff of the kind that used to be endemic here.)

Both of those sound like there would be too much time involved to figure them out. I do have a question though about the Metal Head medals. When/how do you get the medals? When you finish a level, or something else?

[goldenband]

Both of those sound like there would be too much time involved to figure them out. I do have a question though about the Metal Head medals. When/how do you get the medals? When you finish a level, or something else?

They happen at the end of the whole game -- you're given an array of medals, presumably indicating something good you've done, but it's totally unclear as to what and the manual says nothing. I'm guessing it's got to do with points, number of continues, and so forth, but that's only speculation.

Totally understandable if these things are too involved. For both of these, it must be that the assembly code jumps to the ending sequence and checks certain RAM values to see which ending to use or which medals to render, but I simply don't know how to audit that code.

[Tony H]

If I get enough motivation, I will see if I can make a level select code for Metal Head to make it easy to get to the end of the game. I'll try and use the PCM Test or PWM Test in the Option menu and make it so that the number you select to listen to those sounds will instead decide what level you start on. If that works and I get to the last level, will see if I can figure anything out. I think I've finished the game before, but don't remember the medals.

[Tony H]

Got the level select stuff working on Metal Head. Will post the raw codes here in case anyone wants to play around with it. It lets you select any stage or mission to start on.

Here's how it works: If you're entering the codes into an emulator (have only tested this on Kega Fusion and Gens), just enter these 3 codes individually exactly as shown. They are Game Genie codes, but unencrypted. If you want to patch this into a ROM, you'll need two additional codes (will post those if anyone needs them).

Metal Head 32x

38F0:11F8
38F2:B0FC
3FD8:0010
Level select. Go to the Option Menu and use the PCM Test number to select which stage and mission you want to start on, then exit the Option screen and start the game. Here's how it works: If you select PCM number 1, you will start on Stage 1, Mission 2. If you select PCM number 2, you will start on Stage 1, Mission 3. If you select PCM number 3, you'll start you on Stage 2, Mission 1, and so on. The PCM Test number will now only go up to number 0F (hex), which is the last mission in the game (Stage 6, Mission 3).

Sometimes games will have unfinished or hidden levels after the normal ones. The third code above (3FD8:0010) is what limits how high you can go with the PCM numbers. If you turn that code off, you can try numbers higher than 0F and see if you can find any new or hidden levels. I only tried going one number above that and the game kind of hangs when you press Start. Didn't try anything above that.

[Tony H]

goldenband, I started on the last mission (Stage 6, Mission 3) and finished it, but there was nothing showing any medals of any kind. It just added up my points and then went to the credits. Where does it show you the medals exactly?

[goldenband]

Awesome, Tony, thanks so much! This will be a real help.

I'd love to know the hard-patched ROM codes, actually -- I tend to do hard patches a fair percentage of the time, especially for playing on real hardware.

...cross-posted with your most recent post! OK, here's a video with the ending of the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqwxQPfcRPE

Right at the very end, you can see that the player in question earned one medal. This person also gets a medal, but it's a different one (about 15 seconds before the end):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tieEBMCQ37Y

On another run, he gets three medals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wShy-QjqL5k

And this person gets two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBdbuXwVIa4

So as you can see, there's some sort of reward system happening, but it's totally opaque. I got five out of, I believe, six medals on my winning run on Hard difficulty, and my guess is that three of them probably correlate with:

- Playing on Hard difficulty
- Not using a continue
- Meeting a score threshold

But I simply don't know, and it would be fun to know for sure.

[Tony H]

I'll check out those videos and see if I can figure something out. Thanks.

Here are the two extra codes you'll need to patch into your Metal Head ROM to get it working. This is for the Japan/USA version. It *should* work on real hardware, but I don't have any way of confirming that, so let me know if it works.

00018E:0000
00083C:4E71

[Tony H]

Will post what I've figured out so far on Metal Head medals. Working on the rest. And you are right, it looks like there should be 6 medals.

First medal: Gold (octagon), awarded when you have at least 150 enemies eliminated.
Second medal: White & brown with blue center (hexagon), awarded when you have at least 800 remaining power.

[goldenband]

^You are the best! As far as I know, no one knows anything about any of this at all -- until now. Excited to see the other four!!

EDIT: I just found this on my hard drive, though I have no idea where it came from:

[Tony H]

Got all of it figured out except one. The only medal you were missing is the one for points (you needed 8,000).

First medal: Gold (octagon), awarded when you have at least 150 enemies eliminated.
Second medal: White & brown with blue center (hexagon), awarded when you have at least 800 remaining power.
Third medal: Gold (star), don't know what this one is yet, but RAM address FFB0D4 has to be greater than zero to get the medal.
Update: the third medal appears to be awarded when you beat the last mission (Stage 6, Mission 3) without dying.
Fourth medal: Red with gold center (round), Awarded when you used zero continues.
Fifth medal: Gold (with eagle), Awarded when you have at least 8,000 total points earned.
Sixth medal: Brown (round), Awarded when you played in the hard mode.

I used some codes to force all of the medals to show up...

[goldenband]

Fantastic!!

BTW the earlier picture isn't a screenshot from my playthrough -- I'm guessing it's a still shot from a YouTube video that I can't find anymore. I wish I had a picture of my run from 2011 (I think it was).

I assume the ending didn't otherwise seem to vary? Weird that they put in all these medals, and the underlying functionality, and didn't bother to document it. But all things 32X were rushed.

I wonder what #3 will turn out to be?

[Tony H]

Getting all of the medals does give you a reward. When you start the game over again after getting all of the medals, the Anime option becomes available in the "Your Team" part in the Option menu. Interesting.