Shining Force Sound Test

Hendricks266 · Oct 20, 2006

I have a question that has been bugging me for years. Have a look at this image:

This screen is supposedly from a game called Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, which has quite a few sequels.

The picture itself came from a Japanese guidebook for the game, with the following text:

Translation by someone named "Ed" who is not me said:

What is this screen?
This sound test screen cannot normally be seen in the game. However, we begged a normally reclusive developer who, just for us, accessed the screen for us. Unfortunately, he didn't tell us exactly how to access the sound test. He did say that this was a special treat for those who finished the game. So, it seems that you can't access the sound test unless you finish the game. Darn.
Click to expand...

My question is: How would someone go about the ROM looking for this? The logical first step for me is to look for the graphics, and then the data & code itself.

In the end, I would like to know how to access it, either with a save state, PAR code, push button code, or flat out ROM hack.

drx · Oct 20, 2006

Welcome.

I have looked briefly at the game's code, and so far, I can tell you, that some sort of game mode/level? is stored at addresses FF9C00-FF9C03. It's sorted like:

FF9C00 - main mode
FF9C01 - sub mode
FF9C02 - sub-sub mode
FF9C03 - additional options?

It's mostly my humble assumptions, because I can't play much of the game (it's in japanese). So you could try PAR codes like FF9C00:00xx (FF9C00:0007) etc etc.

I'm quite tired at the moment, but maybe I could take a closer look at the game tomorrow.

Hendricks266 · Oct 20, 2006

Shining Force came out in the J, U, E, and B regions (AFAIK). I have the U(E?) ROM personally. It is in English 100%, although with most translations, there are a few errors and censorings. I will edit my post later with results of the PAR codes.

EDIT: Where am I supposed to activate these codes? I had one on, and after I got through the save select screen, the screen turned white. :wtf:

Rosiero · Oct 20, 2006

Maybe it normally gets unlocked if you beat the game under special circumstances. Maybe it was just removed from the US/EU version for some reason. I'll give the codes a try.

EDIT: Okay, the first one just sends you to whatever chapter you fill in as XX.

The second one (FF9C01:0001) I used does something strange. The intro text becomes a summary of what it normally is for some reason. Then, the game starts up with Varios yelling at you for passing out as usual, but when the screen fades in, you get surrounded by soldiers, saying "Who are you? Go back to where you came from!" in some town (I think Alterone, but I'm pretty sure that never happened It does happen, but after all these years I never tried going to Alterone before you're supposed to.). Then, you get kicked out of the town onto what I thought is a scrambled world map, but it is actually the first battle map. The same happens for other XX's, it seems, save for the fact that 01 and 02 (the only others I tested) send you back to the same map instead of the scrambled one. But if you buttonmash, you can open the menu. Not that it matters, because there's nothing to do.

Any FF9C02 and FF9C03 codes don't seem to do anything as far as I can see.

EDIT2: The GBA version just has the sound test menu in plain ASCII, but the text is different than in the screen shot.
EDIT3: There's an entire fucking debug menu too. Just search for 'sound'

Hendricks266 · Oct 22, 2006

I searched for the text "sound" with Cyan Helkaraxe's Text Cracker and I came up with this:

Code (Text):

ADDRESS OFFSET

123419 -96

-END OF FILE-

Perhaps some data for it is there.

Hendricks266 · Nov 26, 2006

I extracted the palette and discovered that there is no uncompressed art whatsoever. Big help that was…

Also, the series in general is known for things that have been left behind from the conversion to English due to size constraints, like certain cheats and minor features, such as being able to search in battle if there is an object to be found. I wouldn't be surprised if the sound test is only in the Japanese version.

I do have some save states and SRAM that are around the final boss of the game, although they are for the US\EU region. I just have to dig for them.

JcFerggy · Nov 26, 2006

Shouldn't this be moved to General Rom Hacking now?

Hendricks266 · Nov 26, 2006

JcFerggy said:

Shouldn't this be moved to General Rom Hacking now?
Click to expand...

Either you're thinking of General Sonic Games, or a forum that Trial Members\Guests cannot visit.

JcFerggy · Nov 26, 2006

Ah, that's right, never mind then.

Hendricks266 · Dec 3, 2006

I have done more research into drx's PAR codes. Here is what I found:

Code (Text):

FF9C00 = Battle\Town\Area?

FF9C01 = Chapter

In my research, I got the same effect that ThunderPX did about starting out in Alterone. If I messed around with other values, I could have the main character exit Alterone and reappear there.

I also seemed to have garbled some text. Here is some that appear when the main character reached the destination in battle mode before all enemies were killed.

Correct Text said:

<main character's name>! You've reached
your destination, but some
enemies remain.you have to press a button to continue>
Will you leave them?
<you choose between “Yes” and “No”>
<if you choose “Yes”, you will continue to the next area>
<if you choose “No”, you will go back to battle mode>
Click to expand...

Garbled Text said:

HPll te
Geme <random item> werkingop
an trsearkimowis angaopeakiqu
d ore
Tan'r.<you have to press a button to continue>Hit thiares hailene my yo
vaun'veukan'rkimpllls yovucan,
ukan'rkim.. whagrkime
Geme fr,492.
llowhagrkifovingeds I ofrthes u
ksors y.
meandure
s heds foou the
l thedeandupt ovushe!<you have to press a button to continue>
s m
meanduyostheman're Hatre cke
ts hthe ou m
mean'the
thef shenge
llllin'r <main character's name>,4, t
th
pp,
OKakeu
Lat mellllllyow ovu
n<you have to press a button to continue>He t.<you have to press a button to continue>He ovulancimimo the!
<you choose between “Yes” and “No”>
<no matter what you choose, you cannot move any longer>
Click to expand...

Rosiero · Dec 9, 2006

Looks like something that wasn't translated. We'd have to try getting the same effect in the Japanese version and have someone that knows Japanese translate it. Perhaps it wasn't even in the Japanese version, and just a leftover.

Also, I swear I had a program to edit savestates for SF1 once. If it works on the Japanese version, we could just edit a savestate to be at the final boss.
I'm not sure all you have to do is beat the game in Japanese, though, or the strategy guide makers would've found it.

Hendricks266 · Dec 9, 2006

ThunderPX said:

Looks like something that wasn't translated. We'd have to try getting the same effect in the Japanese version and have someone that knows Japanese translate it. Perhaps it wasn't even in the Japanese version, and just a leftover.

Also, I swear I had a program to edit savestates for SF1 once. If it works on the Japanese version, we could just edit a savestate to be at the final boss.
I'm not sure all you have to do is beat the game in Japanese, though, or the strategy guide makers would've found it.
Click to expand...

I have quite a few SF savestate editors, and in fact I am working on documenting save states for SFCD now that Gens has them (and they work).

The only things I don't have (as of this post) are Japanese versions of the Genesis games. I will look for them.

Rosiero · Dec 10, 2006

Eh, they're not that hard to find. First hit for "Shining Force (J)" on Google worked for me.

Shining Force Sound Test

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