Request for infinite ammo ROM hacks in Battlecorps

[Saturn025]

I messed with this one for quite a while and can't find the ROM hacks for ammo. I can find the usual using Cheat Engine, freeze it, then find a 'hidden' value dropping elsewhere as I keep firing. Freeze that one as well and find out what accesses or writes to it and it's the same address as the initial find. Tried changing a number of instructions but nothing works.
Any help is appreciated

Battlecorps Sega CD

https://youtu.be/-ocl6SnuRvs

[ReyVGM]

What's Battlecorps?

[Saturn025]

My bad, it's a game for the Sega CD lol

[ReyVGM]

Use Bizhawk emu's cheat search engine.

Search in these ranges and one should give you the address you need:
68K RAM
CD Prog RAM
CD Word RAM (0) 1M
CD Word RAM (1) 1M
CD Word RAM 2M

[Saturn025]

Thanks for the help. I'll have to figure out how to use Bizhawk before I can do anything with the info, though.
Know of a quick tutorial pertaining to what you've instructed, by chance?

[ReyVGM]

Bizhawk is a regular emulator. http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk.html

Just select the bios and open the iso like you do on whatever emulator you are using.

Go to Tools -> RAM Search to search for cheats.

The problem with Sega CD is that it uses different memory domains, basically, one chunk of addresses is contained in one domain and another chunk in another domain. So for example, the address for infinite lives could be in one domain, and the address for invincibility in another one. In other words, you can't just search and expect to get results like you would with Cheat Engine.

So, once you have the RAM search open, from the menu on top, pick one of the memory domain from the ones I mentioned before. Do you search just like you would on cheat engine, and if you don't get any results, pick another domain. Repeat until you find the one with what you're looking for. It's tedious, but that emulator is the only one that has accurate and specific cheat search for Sega CD.

Also remember, just like it happened to you with Cheat Engine, some addresses that look correct are actually fake. So instead of doing a decreased/increased search for ammo, do a changed/unchanged search. That usually nets you the real address, but it can take several searches until the list of results gets small enough so you can tell which is the address you want.

If none of that works, then your only hope is learning ASM language and hack the game that way.

[Saturn025]

Great, thanks for that. Ironically, I'd done exactly as mentioned (up to moving to another/2nd domain) w/ the M68 search, found a hit, froze it but it kept changing anyway. I didn't know about the chunks possibly being in different domains. Valuable info. Bizhawk can trace this back to the ROM address too like Cheat Engine?
I'll get back on it and familiarize myself with the process.
Much appreciated.

[ReyVGM]

Great, thanks for that. Ironically, I'd done exactly as mentioned (up to moving to another/2nd domain) w/ the M68 search, found a hit, froze it but it kept changing anyway. I didn't know about the chunks possibly being in different domains. Valuable info.

M68? I don't know what that is.

Bizhawk can trace this back to the ROM address too like Cheat Engine?

I don't understand this either. Maybe you can find a way to "convert" the codes to cheat engine, but I wouldn't know how.
But notice how all the Sega CD domains are RAM, not ROM.

[Saturn025]

M68? I don't know what that is.

Yeah this was meant to be 68K RAM search, the initial domain in your list, not M68. I had too many emulators open at once..

I don't understand this either. Maybe you can find a way to "convert" the codes to cheat engine, but I wouldn't know how.
But notice how all the Sega CD domains are RAM, not ROM.

Well, from my understanding, with CE I can find a RAM address for an amount, say infinite ammo. Then I can run 'Find out what accesses this address' or 'Find out what writes to this address' and Browse the memory area which is ROM-where I make modifications to jump over the instruction that makes the RAM address change.
Being unfamiliar with Bizhawk I'm asking if it has a similar process. Once the RAM address has been located, can Bizhawk provide a similar means of finding the address in the ROM to jump over the instruction?
If my understanding is wrong thanks for trying help anyway. I'll move on to the next game. Just thought it'd be cool to have this hack


Edit; found a RAM address searching CD PRG RAM for missiles that I froze and that works great. Fired off double the amount shown on screen to test if there was a hidden amount decreasing and it stayed at the original #. Assuming this is the correct RAM address w/ no alternate, hidden, amount draining surprises, now I need to find where this is in the ROM to jump the instruction. Doing the same thing in Cheat Engine, which easily provides a/the ROM address controlling the changing amount only loops to an address I'm unable to hack, but in Bizhawk I can't find any way to do similar.

[ReyVGM]

Yeah this was meant to be 68K RAM search, the initial domain in your list, not M68. I had too many emulators open at once..

Remember the 68K is Genesis domain. Not all SCD games will have what you're looking for there.

Edit; found a RAM address searching CD PRG RAM for missiles that I froze and that works great. Fired off double the amount shown on screen to test if there was a hidden amount decreasing and it stayed at the original #. Assuming this is the correct RAM address w/ no alternate, hidden, amount draining surprises, now I need to find where this is in the ROM to jump the instruction. Doing the same thing in Cheat Engine, which easily provides a/the ROM address controlling the changing amount only loops to an address I'm unable to hack, but in Bizhawk I can't find any way to do similar.

Sorry but I don't know what you're saying about turning it into a ROM. I'm not really an advanced hacker, so I don't know if what you're saying is something that can be done or not. It is my understanding that if an address is in the RAM area, then that's where it's going to stay. You can't turn it into the ROM area. Maybe with ASM you can do it, but I wouldn't know.

Now.

Why would you even want to do that? I mean, why are you making cheats in the first place exactly? Sega CD didn't have game genie/action replay, so any cheats made will be for emulators, and if Bizhawk already has a native and accurate cheat search, then why bother with anything else? The emu also has RAM watch, trace logger, and a debugger, which probably gives you enough tools to do anything you want, so you really don't need to mess with any other SCD emulator anymore or an external cheat engine.

If you are just making cheats because you like it and want to contribute here, then post the bizhawk cheats (which would work on any other emulator, taking into account they have an accurate cheat dialog too). The cheats will definitely be cleaner, and much much easier than what you've been doing so far, for both the user and yourself. I've seen your cheats in that SCD thread, and while I appreciate your efforts, they kinda give me a headache just looking at those huge numbers.

I know you're not familiar with Bizhawk, and maybe are wondering why no one else has done SCD cheats with it. The reason is because they added cheat search support for SCD just 2 or 3 versions ago, so not too many people know about it (and it's worse considering very few people care about SCD anyways). I don't know if you've noticed but Bizhawk plays over 15 consoles, so SCD is not something people use the emulator for.
Any cheat you make with Bizhawk will work with any other emulator that accepts RAW codes (action replay).

As for why Bizhawk is not that known? It is known, if you hang in emulator or speedrun circles, but also because people tend to use what they are most familiar with, so there are still tons of people using the shitty ZSNES, ePSXe, etc.

[Saturn025]

I'm no advanced hacker either that's why I was asking if someone else could do it lol
I hack these bc they can be burned to cdr and played on real hardware.
The long numbers in the scd thread is used as a means of finding a particular string, then 2 bytes to change. I've added an address recently for those who prefer but it's still only 2 bytes that matter.
And ram address freezing is easy but I'm looking for ways to change rom, the whole point of this thread, for real hardware and various other reasons. So biz hawk is not useful for what I need but thanks anyway.

[ReyVGM]

Ah, now I see. You want to play it on the real console. Well, I only know about hacking for emulators.

[Saturn025]

Yep, have a young niece I do this for on a spare jvc x'eye