WIP Again (continued)

This forum is for making announcements about updated cheat files (for any emulator), updated web pages and of course about improvements to the MAME/MESS cheat engine.
Bugfinder
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Great! Now it works.

Post by Bugfinder »

This cheat is to fix "The Glitch" in ddsom. You choose a character with 6 letters in his name (main thief, alternate fighter or alternate dwarf), when choosing his name you put over "name", press button 1 then go to letter A or B and keep pressing button 1 for a number of times. This will overlap some areas that control character's abilities such as invincibility. Depending on the letter you use (A or B), different bits are set and might work better for one character or another - so says the legend...

After trying a bit, here comes the solution:

:ddsom:39000000:000C988A:00000007:FFFFFFFF:Fixes "The Glitch"!

39 = 001-11001

type 001 (memory region)
parameter 11001 (since type = 001, this is region offset region_xxx)

0b11001 = 25 decimal, because USER1 is at position 25 in the list of regions.

It's so good when you understand things! Thanks Ian! Waiting for that new source update right from the oven, yummm :-)
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Pugsy
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Post by Pugsy »

Thanks for all the fixes :)
ianpatt wrote:
Pugsy wrote:PS: Have you had a chance at looking at making the cheat engine utilise the MESS crc32s yet?
No; procrastinating. I'll do it soon, really I will.

Where do I get the checksum from?
The crcs are stored in the \crc folder by system name. Eg nes.crc looks like:-

Code: Select all

# Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom Cartridge CRC List
# Compiled by Chris Henry
# Thanks to Joshua Mallory and Xgebken
# Note: This list is provided as a record of known dumps for this system.  
# These checksums have not been validated and cannot be assumed correct.  
# They are provided here as a database to help the emulation of this system.  
# Send corrections/submissions to: battlepriest@hotmail.com

# Notes for this file: Chances are, if you possess a .nes image of a game
# listed, but the checksum dosn't match,it is most likely in need of header repair 
# and/or resizing. For DOS users, the commonly available NesToy is recommended.

# crc = Game Name/Version | Year | Manufacturer | Emulation Status

[nes]
220d5deb = 100 Man $ Kid: Maboroshi No Teiou Hen (J) | 1988 | Sofel
eee75e94 = 100-in-1 Contra Function 16 (UNL) | 19?? | Unknown
08f0d1bd = 10-Yard Fight (J) | 1985 | Irem
c38b62cb = 10-Yard Fight (U) | 1985 | Nintendo
e9cf747f = 1942 (JU) | 1985 | Capcom
d131bf15 = 1943 (U) | 198? | Capcom
46249d57 = 1944 (UNL) | 19?? | Unknown
How you read the crc and check the loaded file too is beyond me... I know Steph has had it working with the old botch-up cheat engine so maybe he'll help out. I'll ask Cowering for some pointers next time I see him active on IRC...
Pugsy

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Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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ianpatt
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Post by ianpatt »

New source/binary:
source
binary
mame32 binary
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ianpatt
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Post by ianpatt »

Pugsy wrote:How you read the crc and check the loaded file too is beyond me... I know Steph has had it working with the old botch-up cheat engine so maybe he'll help out. I'll ask Cowering for some pointers next time I see him active on IRC...
OK, I think I see how this works based on code in the old engine. Will implement special-case code (grrr) for MESS.

edit: OK, added. Testing now.

edit again: looks like it works
Bugfinder
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Special-case is bad?

Post by Bugfinder »

ianpatt wrote:OK, I think I see how this works based on code in the old engine. Will implement special-case code (grrr) for MESS.
So you didn't like adding special-case code... I'm sorry, was willing to see that special feature added to that special MAME version :-\
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Post by Pugsy »

Thanks Ian. At least it will allow work to start on some MESS cheat files now 8) Hopefully, there will be volunteers to look after them - I'll have a go at some of the systems with not so many games to start with. I take it will be included in the next cheat source download...?


And Bugfinder......?????? What are you talking about?
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
kelvSYC
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Post by kelvSYC »

Cool! With support for multiple cheat files, a MESS cheat file would be easier for systems not named sfzch...

I'd volunteer to add a couple of cheats for Game Boy, but I wouldn't want to be the maintainer for it...

One thing about MESS though. Is it that NG roms are always set to Arcade mode in MAME and home mode in MESS, thus making NG roms playable in both? To me it makes sense that way.
kelvSYC's Guide to the Cheat Engine - http://members.shaw.ca/kelvsyc/cheatguide.html

The New Move List Cheat Collection - http://mamecheat.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=6469

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Bugfinder
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I was talking about AdvanceMAME

Post by Bugfinder »

Pugsy wrote:And Bugfinder......?????? What are you talking about?
Hehe... Curiosity killed the cat :lol:

Ian was very kind to provide a cheat engine version to work with AdvanceMAME; it was the first time that cheats were automatically activated right after loading. Now the soon-to-be official cheat engine will have this feature for all MAME versions. So you can always have sfa3 in light blue time, Mai's boobs bouncing in kof2000 (great job, Paul) etc. without having to manually activate these cheats. This IS cool!

The main difference though, is that cheats for some games can't be activated right after loading. That's where AdvanceMAME kicks in: there's an option called "misc_startuptime" with one integer argument. This is the time in seconds measured for the game actually be ready to receive coins. In other words, the time that game needs to boot. So cheats can only be applied after that time.

The option "misc_startuptime N" makes the emulator work at maximum speed possible (automatically sets frameskip 11 and throttle) during that time, so you can have nrallyx booting insanely fast on an Athlon for example! After that "turbo time" is over, the cheat engine needs to be warned it can now activate cheats assigned as "auto activate".

The special-code is necessary for this type of integration with AdvanceMAME since it's compiled as a different port so Ian would need to check how things interact in this version to be sure it will work fine with a minimum of change to both AdvanceMAME and cheat engine sources. So he asked me to wait until the new engine is ready, mainly for development purposes.
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ianpatt
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Re: I was talking about AdvanceMAME

Post by ianpatt »

Bugfinder wrote:
Pugsy wrote:And Bugfinder......?????? What are you talking about?
The special-code is necessary for this type of integration with AdvanceMAME since it's compiled as a different port so Ian would need to check how things interact in this version to be sure it will work fine with a minimum of change to both AdvanceMAME and cheat engine sources. So he asked me to wait until the new engine is ready, mainly for development purposes.
Sorry, I was talking about special-case code in the official version of the cheat engine. I have no problem with making a *different* version which has the delayed activation stuff; I just don't like having to put

Code: Select all

#ifdef MESS
// do special case stuff for MESS
#else
// do what everything else does
#endif
in the code. Looks bad.

No offense intended...
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ianpatt
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Post by ianpatt »

Pugsy wrote:Thanks Ian. At least it will allow work to start on some MESS cheat files now 8) Hopefully, there will be volunteers to look after them - I'll have a go at some of the systems with not so many games to start with. I take it will be included in the next cheat source download...?
Yes.

Added MESS stuff and auto-save cheats option.

New source/binary:
source
binary
mame32 binary
mess

If there are no problems, I'd like to make this version the "1.0 release" and submit it to the dev list.
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Post by ianpatt »

kelvSYC wrote:One thing about MESS though. Is it that NG roms are always set to Arcade mode in MAME and home mode in MESS, thus making NG roms playable in both? To me it makes sense that way.
I don't think MESS includes neogeo games, even set to console mode. Not sure why, but I would guess they want to keep a low profile and not have lame questions like "d00d where do I get the neogeo rOmZ?!?!!!!1!!"
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Post by Tourniquet »

ianpatt wrote:
kelvSYC wrote:One thing about MESS though. Is it that NG roms are always set to Arcade mode in MAME and home mode in MESS, thus making NG roms playable in both? To me it makes sense that way.
I don't think MESS includes neogeo games, even set to console mode. Not sure why, but I would guess they want to keep a low profile and not have lame questions like "d00d where do I get the neogeo rOmZ?!?!!!!1!!"
They'd have to use AES dumps instead of MVS as well.
It'll be interesting to see if they adapt Aaron's CoJag driver into a Jaguar one.
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Post by stephh »

Pugsy wrote: Thanks Ian. At least it will allow work to start on some MESS cheat files now 8) Hopefully, there will be volunteers to look after them - I'll have a go at some of the systems with not so many games to start with. I take it will be included in the next cheat source download...?
The first one that should be easily created is the one for 'sfzch' : you should only have to put 00000000 for the CRC ...

I can try to convert my old MESS Coleco cheat database (it should still be somewhere on the 486SX-25), but I won't be able to test it as there is no more DOS build of MESS :cry: I just hope that the CRC haven't changed ...

Steph from The Ultimate Patchers

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Bugfinder
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Re: I was talking about AdvanceMAME

Post by Bugfinder »

ianpatt wrote:No offense intended...
That's OK, I'm not offended. I was worried about you not feeling comfortable to do what I asked, is all. And I feel sad when I find out I'm (kind of) pushing somebody to do something he/she really doesn't like doing.

If that's not the case, I'm happy :lol:
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ianpatt
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Re: I was talking about AdvanceMAME

Post by ianpatt »

Bugfinder wrote:If that's not the case, I'm happy :lol:
It's not the case at all. I just don't like having to #ifdef up the code. Most of the other programming work I do is in C++, which makes me think a certain way about solving problems. For example, what I think a "clean way" of solving this problem would be (if MAME were written in C++) a base class named CheatLoader (which would provide support for the basic MAME stuff. Then, I could inherit another class from this called, say, MESSCheatLoader which would implement just the changes needed to support MESS. Then there would be only one #ifdef: the one instantiating the entire cheat engine.
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Post by ianpatt »

Fixed bugs in stephh's mail.

All uploaded now.

New source/binary:
source
binary
mame32 binary
Bugfinder
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Bug in cheat engine?

Post by Bugfinder »

This was tried in classic mode: I select a cheat search for Lives, then when I continue search the same value is displayed on Timers - it used to stay in 0 until this specific option was changed. Also the automatic speed increasing doesn't seem to work in this case.
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Post by Tourniquet »

Noticed a small bug.

With cheats that prompt the user for a value, you can ignore the range imposed on it by just typing a different value using the num keys.

Bug, or feature?
Bugfinder
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Using numeric keys?

Post by Bugfinder »

I tried with cheat 073 and also the arrows goes beyond the range. 071 goes only until the end then returns to the first value.

Suggestion: now the engine wraps around when you reach the last value only. Can you make it wrapping around when moving arrows to the left (hit first value, go to last value) as well?

Also auto speed increasing doesn't work there either.
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ianpatt
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Re: Bug in cheat engine?

Post by ianpatt »

Bugfinder wrote:This was tried in classic mode: I select a cheat search for Lives, then when I continue search the same value is displayed on Timers - it used to stay in 0 until this specific option was changed.
Didn't think this was a problem. Easy to fix anyway - fixed.
Bugfinder wrote:Also the automatic speed increasing doesn't seem to work in this case.
It does increase, just it increases slowly. Speed increased. (kHorizontalSlowKeyRepeatRate -> kHorizontalFastKeyRepeatRate)

edit: OK, it actually wasn't repeating. Apparently code_read_hex_async screws up auto-repeat. Fixed again.
Last edited by ianpatt on Wed Apr 10, 2002 1:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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