research Gen 3 Event Generation Algorithm Research (10ANNIV, etc)

[Guest]

We definitely need it unevolved. Regarding the other Metang, it's pretty funny. I already stated before that I think it's a hack, it's in my hacks folder since I saw it the first time. I just couldn't remember what the Trash Bytes exactly were. But yesterday we were going through it and like @Sabresite says the case is obvious. Yet you guys still uploaded it without having it checked first.  Reminds me of the Hadou titans which was kinda the same story. Anyways, the good thing is we finally get back to searching for a Rocks Metang. Hope this time successfully.

Edit:

Just to remind you on what we still miss, not for the Gallery, but for the complete the documentation. All as Gen 3 files please and never transferred to COL/XD! As you remove important data by doing so. I can promise that files I receive won't be made public if you don't want them to. Any file I receive is for research only.

Quote

-Missing JPN-
STAMP Absol
STAMP Pichu
Sapporo Pikachu
More Hadou titans (Especially Regirock)
More PokePark Jirachis

- Missing ENG-
ROCKS Metang
We need more PCNYs (Especially PCNY Christmas Day Seviper)
9 of 12 JEREMY (No clue about this as I don't see them as real Events, feel free to clarify)

 

Expand  

Thanks to @Deoxyz who made the list, mine wasn't up to date with the PCNYs. I would recommend to report new files in this or another Thread so that stuff like this won't happen again. 

[Deoxyz]

Actually, I JUST found a single Christmas Day PCNY Seviper buried among the Pokemon Box Promo PCNY Sevipers, while reorganizing Digiex's compilation save for InsaneNutter. So we can update the list, however more are always more than welcome.  Anything PCNY is more than welcome, especially considering how Bulbapedia doesn't even have them all documented.

Edited January 29, 2018 by Deoxyz

[Luca.b]

On 1/11/2017 at 6:19 PM, ajxpk said:

Yep. 10ANNIV. All downloaded from the English European Distribution Rom. 
I messed with the save files data, mainly TID and SID to get the result I wanted and it worked.
It definitely uses data from the save files but in a different way than Wishmaker... about how... I really don't know...
I made some notes but it turned out being wrong when I failed to hit the Seed 0x0008 and others too...
Anti-Shiny would be important to know as well.

Have you discovered anything about how the seed is generated in 10anniv and aura mew roms? I am curious to know how it works!

[Sabresite]

1 hour ago, Luca.b said:

Have you discovered anything about how the seed is generated in 10anniv and aura mew roms? I am curious to know how it works!

They fixed the checksum sometime between wishmaker and GCEA. IIRC, the seed is the xor of every section in the save including the secondary save. Shinies are rerolled.

[Luca.b]

On 25/2/2018 at 11:42 PM, Sabresite said:

They fixed the checksum sometime between wishmaker and GCEA. IIRC, the seed is the xor of every section in the save including the secondary save. Shinies are rerolled.

Thank you! The sections of the save file are the 32 4kB sections?

[Sabresite]

31 minutes ago, Luca.b said:

Thank you! The sections of the save file are the 32 4kB sections?

Sorry I was not clear enough. It is a xor of the checksum of each of the sections. There are 14 per save, and it does both primary and secondary saves.

[Guest]

@Luca.b Yeah, sorry. I thought I already mentioned it, but just noticed that I didn't.
It's like @Sabresite said, all you have to do is XORing each of the 14 save file section checksums together and that will give you the initial seed.

[Guest]

I just confirmed that GW Pikachu has incremented seeds.
This means that it was seeded using RTC data, which could only come from the Distribution cartridge.
This also confirms the existence of GBA distribution cartridges with RTC... just like I guessed before...

[Guest]

On 4/27/2018 at 2:13 AM, ajxpk said:

I just confirmed that GW Pikachu has incremented seeds.
This means that it was seeded using RTC data, which could only come from the Distribution cartridge.
This also confirms the existence of GBA distribution cartridges with RTC... just like I guessed before...

Interesting! Yes, they do exist!

[Sabresite]

5 hours ago, Purin said:

Yes, they do exist

The thing @ajxpk and I are trying to figure out is when (or which?) distributions used the same method as WSHMKR, and which used the same as older events like 5th anniv.

[Guest]

Yeah, so basically there are 4 known types of seeding now.

- Using RTC data, identical to how Ruby & Sapphire seeds.
Used for Pokémon Center 5th Anniversary & Negaiboshi Jirachi.

- Using RTC data from the Ruby/Sapphire cartridges ss + mm + hh (BCD).
Used only for the Berry Program Update (Shiny Zigzagoon) .

- Using save file checksum above Save Data Section 0xD.
Used only for Meteor/Wishmaker Jirachi, Tanabata Jirachi 2004, ANA Pikachu and Yokohama Pikachu.

- Using all Save Data Section Checksums and XOR them.
Used for all the GBA distribution cartridges since and starting with GW Pikachu.

[Sabresite]

Also DS Download Play has clock capabilities IIRC, so Hadou could have been either RTC or checksum! We may never know.

[Guest]

I did some further research and something has come to my mind during this research...
The thing is why would they add an RTC to the Distribution Cartridge just for the seed all alone if XORing checksums is a much better way to ensure a broad variety of seeds? The only answer for this that came to my mind is "Distribution Time Limit". They used cartridges with RTC and eventually decided to use the RTC for the seed. Who the hell knows why... I was taking a closer look to see if I can find something related to it and I did and I would like to reveal this now. What I discovered was a hidden mode inside the Top 10 - 10th Anniversary rom, called "EDIT MODE".

This is what it looks like:



To get access to it, while booting the distribution ROM you have to hold LEFT + L + SELECT simultaneously. 
In the EDIT MODE you can see the CURRENT TIME of the RTC and 6 registers with the start dates and end dates, in this case there's only one being set by default. Which is 2006/01/01 - 2006/08/31, there's an unused function with an "OUT OF DATE" string. If it was in use you probably would not be able to distribute anything if the current time isn't within that period and return the message to inform you.

This brought me to another conclusion, if they used the current time in combination with the set time limit for these distributions, the seed would be linked to that certain time frame because it would come from the same RTC. I think everyone here can imagine what this means... a real nightmare in terms of legality of Gen 3 Event Pokemon. Especially for Events that were only distributed for a short time period. 

[Guest]

Nice find after all these years! I have never seen this menu before.

[ozderya]

ajxpk, is that possible to change something and save? 

I tried change settings, and saved with Start. After rebooting room my edit was gone.   

[Guest]

It doesn't saves anything. It's the same thing with the Distribution Counter. 
It would be useless anyway since the function is unused in Top 10 - 10th Anniversary. Aura Mew does save the Distribution Counter but the RTC stuff was completely removed.

Let's hope a miracle happens and a distribution rom appears with the functionality still intact. 

[3rd Gen Expert]

Hi,

How were 10 ANIV Celebi's distributed? Is it similar to a standard cart with filled PC boxes (like MYSTRY Mew)? Is this Celebi the only released Gen III English Celebi?

 

Thanks

 

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by 3rd Gen Expert

[theSLAYER]

11 minutes ago, 3rd Gen Expert said:

How were 10 ANIV Celebi's distributed? Is it similar to a standard cart with filled PC boxes (like MYSTRY Mew)? Is this Celebi the only released Gen III English Celebi?

Distribution cart

[Guest]

21 hours ago, 3rd Gen Expert said:

How were 10 ANIV Celebi's distributed? Is it similar to a standard cart with filled PC boxes (like MYSTRY Mew)? Is this Celebi the only released Gen III English Celebi?

Distribution cartridge (via multi boot) and there is information that the 10th Anniversary Celebi & Space Center Deoxys were distributed using the same cartridge. Yes, this was the only English Celebi that was distributed at the time.