MagicEngine

[GameMasterZer0]

How To Find Level Act/Area/Level/Stage/Round Modifiers with Save States
Written by GMO/GameMasterZer0 from Team CMP/Codemasters-Project

In today’s lesson we are going to learn some quick tricks to find some level/stage/round modifier or you can say, “Start On Level XXX” using MagicEngine’s built-in Save States. Now here are a couple of notes I want you to keep in mind.

Note 001: Not all games are simply zero through nine or 00-0F. Some games have sub-levels to them. What I mean if the game literally loads another map or area like a two to three second loading screen. Each loading screen could act as in increase in your level code and we could refer to them at Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part Etc. For example we can have the following values

01 Level 1-1
02 Level 1-2
03 Level 1-2 Part Two
04 Level 1-2 Part Three
05 Level 1-3

NOTE 002: Some games have both levels and round that require two separate addresses to work
F80001:XX Level Modifier
01 Level 1
02 Level 2
03 Level 2
04 Level 4
05 Level 4

F80002:XX Round Modifier
01 Round 1
02 Round 2
03 Round 3

Today’s first example will be the Bonk’s Adventure!

The first thing we want to do is play the game and take some notes while creating Save States at the beginning of each level, but in this case it’s each Round. We begin the game on Round 1-1.Right click the screen, click on SAVE STATE, and click on the blank FILE 1 slot.


_________________
My Turbo GrafX-16/ PC-Engine Code Database Click HERE
My Turbo GrafX-CD/ PC-Engine CD Code Database Click HERE

[GameMasterZer0]

Clear the round. At the beginning, of Round 1-2, create another save state in FILE 2’s slot. Continue so far until we get to Round 2.






Now that you have four save states to work with

[GameMasterZer0]

Right-click the screen, click on LOAD STATE, then click on FILE1 to load Round 1-1.
Once the Round has loaded, Right-Click the screen, CLICK on MISC, click on CHEAT, and begin an unknown search.


Right-click the screen, click on LOAD STATE, then click on FILE2 to load Round 1-2.


Once the Round has loaded, Right-Click the screen, CLICK on MISC, click on CHEAT, and now click on the + Button to do a greater than search.


You should have received around 576 results

Right-click the screen, click on LOAD STATE, then click on FILE3 to load Round 1-3.
Once the Round has loaded, Right-Click the screen, CLICK on MISC, click on CHEAT, and now click on the + Button to do a greater than search.


You should have received about 15 results.
_________________
My Turbo GrafX-16/ PC-Engine Code Database Click HERE
My Turbo GrafX-CD/ PC-Engine CD Code Database Click HERE

[GameMasterZer0]

Right-click the screen, click on LOAD STATE, then click on FILE4 to load Round 2-1.
Once the Round has loaded, Right-Click the screen, CLICK on MISC, click on CHEAT, and now click on the + Button to do a greater than search.


We got 15 results again.

Right-click the screen, click on LOAD STATE, then click on FILE3 to load Round 1-2.
Once the Round has loaded, Right-Click the screen, CLICK on MISC, click on CHEAT, and now click on the - Button to do a less than search.


We got 15 results, yet again. We can now start the testing phase.

_________________
My Turbo GrafX-16/ PC-Engine Code Database Click HERE
My Turbo GrafX-CD/ PC-Engine CD Code Database Click HERE

[GameMasterZer0]

How would be test this type of code? Since we are working with a Round modifier, will freeze the current value, perform an in-game reset (Hold the Run button and press the Select button), start the game and we should start on Round 1-2.


After two unsuccessful attempts, we finally found a working code


Now if we unfreeze the value and load each save state, we can now get the values for each round

0 Round 1-1
1 Round 1-2
2 Round 1-3
5 Round 2-1

Now if you noticed there are two values missing; 3 and 4. You can go ahead and test those values to see where you load in the game.

We tested the value 3

It loaded the second part of Round 1-3 where you are inside the dinosaur’s stomach

We tested the value 4

It loaded to the Bone Elevator leading to the Round 1 Boss Fight.

If you followed the NOTE 001 I mentioned earlier, you will now have a better understanding of what I meant.

Our current Round Modifier
F82067:??
0 Round 1-1
1 Round 1-2
2 Round 1-3
3 Round 1-3 Part Two; Inside Dinosaur's Stomach
4 Round 1-3 Part Three; Bone Elevator to Boss Fight
5 Round 2-1

Final Value list after completing the game
00 Round 1-1
01 Round 1-2
02 Round 1-3
04 Round 1 Boss Fight
05 Round 2-1
06 Round 2-2
07 Round 2-3
08 Round 2-4
09 Round 2-5
10 Round 2-6
11 Round 2-7
12 Round 2 Boss Fight
13 Round 3-1
14 Round 3-2
15 Round 3-3
16 Round 3-4
17 Round 3-5
18 Round 3 Boss Fight
19 Round 4-1
20 Round 4 Boss Fight
21 Round 5-1
22 Round 5-2
25 Round 5-3
28 Round 5-4
29 Round 5-5
38 Round 5-6 Final Battle
_________________
My Turbo GrafX-16/ PC-Engine Code Database Click HERE
My Turbo GrafX-CD/ PC-Engine CD Code Database Click HERE