"Fixing" Shadowrun on the Genesis

[Tony H]

When I get home from work, I'll run FF0157 through a memory trace log and see if it's the right address. If it is, then I'll make an asm trace log and see what we can figure out. Nice work MethidMan.

[MethidMan]

Glad I could be of help~ Considering that there seem to be other addresses involved in determining what attack is currently equipped in the slot, I have a feeling more than one line of code may be necessary to fix this... I'll see if I can look to the other offsets in the hex editor to see which address(es), if there are any, controls whether the equipped attack is a spell or weapon.

[Tony H]

Anything else you can figure out would be great. Just got home from work (got off 2 hours early, yea!), so should be able to start on it soon.

[Tony H]

Give this a try. This stops the AI from changing whatever you have equipped, but don't know if it will have any side effects.

AJ7T-CA66

EDIT: When I get more time tonight, I'll see if I can figure out how the AI determines which item to equip.

[MethidMan]

Okay, I've tested the code a little, and there are a few shortcomings: First, while it does prevent magic users from switching from melee to spells, it doesn't seem to stop them from switching from guns to spells (Edit: it seems to work every other way, just not when the characters have guns; then again, I haven't had much of an opportunity to test it). Second, it causes the attack rating of this one character to look glitchy. So far I've only seen this with the character Ricky. Still have to check other characters though. I've only spent a few minutes so far so I still have some testing to do (I was in a long car ride up 'till now)

I actually had a post written out a few hours ago, but for some reason it didn't go through. I was going to post that I've been tinkering around with the search code feature and equipping different weapons and spells to observe the behavior of some RAM addresses. I've noticed some of them have a certain pattern to their values as I do so: FFFF0E, FFFF13, FFFF15, FFFF16, FFFF17, FFFF1D, FFFF7F and FFFFBD.

I especially notice something peculiar about the values for FFFF0E... Also, whenever FFFF7F and FFFFBD have a value of FF (or 255) that seems to tell the game that the character is supposed to have a spell and not a weapon. I dunno if any of this info will help you but I thought I'd bring it up just in case.

BTW, I'm going to be away somewhere over the weekend for a project so I might be a little busy for the next two days, but I've taken my laptop with me so I may still be able to check on things late at night. Just thought I'd give you a heads up.

[jpgilyard]

digits

i was playing with shadow-run awhile back (Jan\Feb i think?)
and never got a lock on the items\weapon equipped\spell digits

they change, or, at least are not consistent throughout the game
it could change based on

(whether you are human\orc\dwarf, etc)

or maybe if you are a decker\mage etc

couldn't even get the weapon equipped for main character, much less all item digits for all three characters like i was wishing.

(did manage to get health for players 2 and 3)

[MethidMan]

Sorry for another sudden absence, I've been busy over the weekend and then got sick with a crappy flu... Will get back in the game when I recover.

[MethidMan]

Hello again. I've finally recovered from my illness. I had a bad combination of the flu and bronchitis.

Anyway, I've tested the code (AJ7T-CA66) a little further and yeah, it has its problems. It prevents switching from melee attack to anything else, that part works, but when the character has either spells or guns equipped, they still switch to other stuff. Either we need a different code or maybe a couple extra codes to supplement the AJ7T-CA66 code.

In case it helps, I came up with a list of different RAM addresses and their values that correspond to different equipped attacks. As I mentioned in my post on the last page, I notice something peculiar about the values for address FFFF0E but I can't quite put my finger on it. Could any of this info be of any use?

(Feel free to erase whatever's in parentheses if it makes it easier to read)

FF0157 - 07 (Predator pistol) > 08 (blue/white flame spell) > 03 (American L36 pistol) > 00 (claws/melee) > 0C (medkit spell) > 08 (blue/white flame spell)

FFFF0E - D0 > 01 > 00 > 00 > 02 > 00

FFFF13 - B0 > 00 > FF > 0D > 00 > 0D

FFFF15 - FF > 00 > 86 > B0 > 00 > B0

FFFF16 - D9 > FF > 00 > 00 > FF > 00

FFFF17 - 7E > FF > 0D > 00 > FF > 00

FFFF1D - 0C > 0D > 00 > 00 > 0D > 00

FFFF7F - AC > FF > 2C > 2C > FF > FF

FFFFBD - 00 > FF > 2C > 2C > FF > FF

If you need any other info, let me know.

[Tony H]

If you can get me 2 save states (one with a spell being changed, and one with a weapon being changed), we'll be all set.

EDIT: Glad to hear you've recovered.

[MethidMan]

What if I use one save state where both instances occur at the same time with two different characters? The second character switches from a spell to fists while the third character switches from a gun to a spell. Keep in mind, though, since these AI characters are in the second and third slots, you would have to use addresses FF0257 and FF0357 respectively; FF0157 is only for the character in the first slot.

Would that be okay? Or do you still want two separate save states?

[Tony H]

That should work. I have a 3 day weekend, so should have plenty of time to look at it.

[Tony H]

OK, I made a couple codes to try out. One of the codes prevents the AI from switching whatever the 3rd character has equipped. The other code lets you decide what the AI is going to give the 2nd character, even if he doesn't have it in his inventory. That means the 2nd character can equip any spell, weapon, armor, etc when the AI is controlling him.


EA7T-CA58
3rd character won't have his spell/weapon changed when the AI is controlling him.


BKAT-CAD8
2nd character will have the Mach 22 SMG equipped when the AI is controlling him.


EKAT-CAD8
2nd character will have the Mana Storm equipped when the AI is controlling him.


DKAT-CAD8
2nd character will have the Flame Bolt equipped when the AI is controlling him.


Here's how to get whatever spell/weapon/armor you want for the 2nd character when the AI is controlling him...

Convert the Game Genie code into a raw format with any code conversion program:

DKAT-CAD8 = 1417E:001A

This code lets you get the Flame Bolt spell. The last 2 digits at the end of the raw code determines what you're going to get. "1A" means you're going to get the Flame Bolt spell. Here's a list of all the different items:

00- Nothing .... 19- Flame Dart SF
01- Streetline Special .... 1A- Flame Bolt SF
02- Model 101T LP .... 1B- Hellblast SF
03- American L36 LP .... 1C- Invisibility SF
04- Security 500 LP .... 1D- Sleep SF
05- Warhawk HP .... 1E- Stink SF
06- Max-Power HP .... 1F- Super Barrier SF
07- Predator HP .... 20- Mana Zap SF
08- AK-97 SMG .... 21- Mana Blast SF
09- HK227-S SMG .... 22- Mana Storm SF
0A- Mach 22 SMG .... 23- Rockskin SF
0B- Allegiance Shotgun .... 24- Heal Wounds SF
0C- Roomsweeper Shotgun .... 25- Confusion SF
0D- Frag Grenade .... 26- Barrier SF
0E- Scatter Grenade .... 27- Protection Talisman
0F- Concussion Grenade .... 28- Combat Sense Spell Lock
10- Medkit .... 29- Rat Totem
11- Stim Patch .... 2A- Gator Totem
12- Trauma Patch .... 2B- Bear Totem
13- Fetish .... 2C- Armor Vest
14- Maglock Passkey .... 2D- Armor Clothing
15- Electronic Kit .... 2E- Armor Jacket
16- Smart Goggles .... 2F- Vest With Plates
17- Enchanted Dagger .... 30- Lined Duster
18- Power Focus .... 31- Light Combat Armor
32- Heavy Combat Armor

EDIT: Looks like the format isn't quite right for the item list, but you can figure it out. Here's where I got the list from: http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/3668...run/faqs/23882

[MethidMan]

Here are my findings:

The EA7T-CA58 code works with almost every magic-user, though for some reason it doesn't work for Ricky (the bald guy). The other codes seem to only work for Ricky.

I also notice that AI-controlled magic-users refuse to use guns or melee to help the human-controlled character in battle; they only attack when they have spells equipped, otherwise they just stand there doing nothing. I'm not sure if this is a side-effect of the code or if that's how they really act.

If it's the latter, then this could mean that the reason the AI switches to spells at all is because it's the only thing AI-controlled magic-users are programmed to attack with. If so, then this is a major AI design flaw and it would probably take more than just game genie codes to fix this problem.

I'll do some more testing to see if I can find anything else but it looks like I may have to seek additional help from those who specialize in hacking, particularly AI hacking.

BTW, I figured out how you came up with the AJ7T-CA66 code. I followed your tutorial and realized where you got 013B9C from. I did some of my own tinkering around but couldn't come up with anything useful. Still, I'm quite impressed with myself on how much I've been able to learn.

[Tony H]

Learning assembly is the key to making good codes. Once you understand one assembly language, others are much easier to pick up.

[MethidMan]

Which assembly language would you recommend I start with?