Jump to content

Deoxyz

Contributor
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    396

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    26

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Deoxyz

  1. Deoxyz
  2. Deoxyz
    More information about "YOSHIRA Mew Red Distribution Cart Savefile"

    3739 downloads

    This page contains the first ever publicly available savefile that was dumped from an original Pokemon Red cart, which was used to distribute YOSHIRA Mew by direct trade. The distribution took place at Toys R Us stores in the United States from the 8th to 12th of December 1999. The players who were allowed to obtain a Mew were determined among the first 1500 customers at each Toys R Us store on 26 November 1999, where they were able to receive a special "Peel & Win" sticker card (pictured above). 200 of these cards at each store contained the text "Caught Me!" underneath the sticker of Mew. These Mew distribution carts are known to have been either a Red or a Blue cartridge, which were sealed into a GameBoy Pocket with official Nintendo non-tamper security tape. So far only two devices have publicly surfaced on the internet. The first one was a Blue cartridge still sealed into a silver GBP, of which pictures have been on the internet for several years (pictured above). This device is said to have been lost in shipping during ownership change in 2013. The second one is a Red cartridge that has since been cut loose from its GBP, but the Nintendo security tape is still intact on the cartridge (pictured above). This Red cartridge was first seen on Reddit several months back, which is owned by a former Toys R Us employee who personally distributed Mews from the cartridge back in 1999. I recently contacted this Redditor, and offered to ship her my cart dumper in order to get the savefile dumped and safely preserved. As save data in the first two generations rely on a low-power battery, after approximately 18 years it was clear that the savefile would not have survived much longer. Due to this and the extreme rarity of these devices, this may have very well been a one time opportunity to ever preserve save data from one of these carts. Every Mew has identical IV stats: 5 HP, 10 Attack, 1 Defense, 12 Speed, and 5 Special. Every Mew in this savefile has the Original Trainer name of YOSHIRA (none YOSHIRB). I can only speculate that perhaps those on the Blue cartridges contained YOSHIRB Mews. The Trainer IDs are all unique however, and imply the Mews were generated in groups of 5 (eg. 16385, 16386, 16387, 16388, 16389, then 16443, 16444, 16445, 16446, 16447, and so on). My theory is that the Mews were generated with a "Mew machine", which was a quicker method used at other event locations to distribute YOSHIRA/YOSHIRB Mews. We know these machines distributed Mews with TIDs that incremented by 1, so due to the Trainer IDs we see here, we could assume that each savefile had different Mews(or at least that several different savefiles may exist). So other than TID, the Mews on this savefile are all identical. The way I figure it, a cart was inserted in a Mew machine, a party full of 5 were generated, the cart was removed, and while someone manually placed those 5 Mews in a PC Box, another cart was in the machine having it's party filled. I don't figure it could have been practical to give every cart unique Mews, but multiple carts were filled to have a wider variation of existing TIDs. After a handful of carts were full of Mews, their savefiles were likely copied among the hundreds of carts send to Toys R Us stores. Keep in mind though, this is purely my speculation based of the information we have. All the traded pokemon from this savefile had been previously released, so only the Mews remain. Box 11 and 12 are totally empty. Box 5 and 10 are each missing one or two Mews. Boxes 1 to 4, and 6 to 9 remain fully untouched. I did return a few Mews from the party to their proper box slot, so the TIDs line up as they were originally. Any oddball TIDs that couldn't be matched up were placed in the Party. I also want to note that I did request the rom to be dumped as well, and it was 100% identical to any other retail Red cart. While we were 99% positive this was obviously the case, it's still nice to have that confirmation. In the past some people have speculated whether or not the rom was special and would have the PC filled with Mews if a New Game was started. Once again, I want to give special thanks to Jenn from Reddit, because without her generosity, we may have never been able to obtain one of these savefiles. She did promise to supply her personal experience/memory of the event and any details, so when she does, that will be shared here as well.
  3. Deoxyz
    @Kaphotics I just search the first few lines of a GBA header to see if one turns up. "colbtl.bin" and "pkjb_test.bin" both turn up GBA headers. I merged them with the AGBJ master, but neither sends a Celebi/Pikachu multiboot. The first bin didn't send anything, but the second one gave this: Whatever that translates too. At least that confirms what ajxpk said about everything is generated on the GCN, regardless whether it then directly gets transferred to the GBA. Same case for Channel Jirachi.
  4. Deoxyz
    Not that I'm aware of, but that figures. Besides, I doubt any collector has the rom for Celebi/Deoxys. ----- For the record, I did separate the Aura Mew multiboot from the distro rom and rebuilt it with the AGBJ master like done with the Jirachis, and that DID work on real hardware. So if it was questionable, we know for sure the problem has something to do with these multiboots coming from a GameCube. Though, theoretically it can be done since Nintendo did it officially for the European BGFZ cart. I also took the BGFZ multiboot from the US Demo disc(it's identical in both disc 14 and 16), but the differences to the GBA multiboot are too much to solve by trail-and-error. At this point I think we're mostly going to need to rely on the skill of @ajxpk, so hopefully everyone can give him the time and patience. Whatever it is, it's something VBA is "luckily" ignoring.
  5. Deoxyz
    @YoshiMoshi Battle Revolution is for Gen IV, so they shifted to wondercards by then. Multiboots were only Gen III. You can just inject those wondercards in any Gen IV distro rom if you wanted, as Gen IV/V distros are extremely easy to modify. Pokemon Box, iirc, adds its gift pokemon to a box slot (not sent to game cartridge), so there'd be no multiboots there either. As of now I think we have touched on all multiboots from retail games. Apparently the Gen III PCNY disributions were on GameCube discs as well, but those are in the same category of difficulty to obtain as any of the other GBA distribution carts (US 10 ANIV etc), since they likely don't exist with collectors. Since the Negaiboshi distribution apparently is also originally from a GCN disc (took me by surprise, I thought it'd be a GBA rom), there may be others from Japan on GameCube, but regardless whether the distribution is GCN or GBA, they're still nearly unobtainable. We're just very lucky Negaiboshi existed unused in the US Bonus Disc, and the fact the JPN BGF Zigzagoon file hinted about Negaiboshi's origin. In the meantime though, we'll continue to try and fix up these four GBA recreations to work on real hardware, then release them. Then in the future if we're lucky, someone may be generous enough to contribute another unreleased MB from a GBA rom or GCN disc. I suppose we may also eventually obtain more full original GBA distro roms as well, but we know how complicated that has been. I figure it's slightly more likely to get MB contributions then sales of the full roms. Otherwise, theoretical modification of our current roms into events using the same algorithm/seeds (Doel, etc) looks unlikely due to checksums.
  6. Deoxyz
    Probably figured out how to do it. Clearly by the Lv0 Zigzagoons, he's been previously looking into hacking this rom, so it's not really a surprise. It's not really that hard to hack BGFZ (unlike the other roms). So due to that, I'll say the problem we're facing, why we aren't releasing them yet. I don't think ajxpk would mind me saying. Clearly these all work fine on VBA, but on real hardware it seems to still have issues with the handshake, exactly as seen in King Impoleon's post on Page 2. I still shouldn't explain how this is all done, but we should be able to figure out the hardware situation in given time.
  7. Deoxyz
    Yeah, I'll talk to ajxpk about it. Though naturally since I used his same method, I probably shoudn't release mine until he is ready to do so with his. Actually, there's two good reasons I know of why these aren't being rush released, so everyone should be glad we're checking these things out first.
  8. Deoxyz
    GOT IT! Actually, visual examination proved easy to spot where the MB ended, as everything past it was clearly some unrelated trash. Then I used @ajxpk's method to recreating Negaiboshi, etc, and done!
  9. Deoxyz
    Thanks @InsaneNutter, I didn't expect us to obtain this MB so quickly! I have the .tgc and found the GBA header within it. I assume it's roughly the same size as the English version, but I'm not wise to finding the ending offsets of MBs yet, so I'll have to consult @ajxpk Once that is done, getting it on GBA is the easy part.
  10. Deoxyz
    Awesome! Can you PM me the .tgc or a link to the exact iso you downloaded?
  11. Deoxyz
    I used this to easily extract pokechan.bin from the Channel iso. But what St.GIGA listed may be a better option, idk. That's unfortunate, but I guess it's no surprise as Channel didn't look like a regular MB running on the GBA. Though I still wonder what the GBA header in pokechan is for... I guess just sending the data and/or that animation. As for Ageto, having never used the disc, I had no idea what it looks like running on the GBA. But are we still sure that ALL Ageto Celebis are generated on GCN, the initial one of course, but the other 48 as well that send straight to GBA? Maybe I'll look into these again later, but as you know, we have better things to look into for the time being ---------- That being said, if any one ever tracks down the Japanese Demo Disc that has the BGF Zigzagoon distribution, please do let me or @ajxpk know, as that at least is surely something we can create a GBA version for.
  12. Deoxyz
    Just an update, I extracted pokechan.bin and found a GBA header within it. Just need to find the ending offset, with the help of ajxpk. So I guess that's promising...
  13. Deoxyz
    Regarding Ageto Celebi, I looked into it. While the initial Celebi received is added to the Colosseum party as I had originally thought, the remaining 48 are sent directly to a GBA game. Also found a video: Sounds and looks like a multiboot to me! Unfortunately, I can't find any details on Colosseum Pikachu. I guess we'll have to see. So at the moment, we need to extract pokechan.bin from a EUR Pokemon Channel iso, and whatever file in the JPN Bonus disc that should contain Ageto Celebi, and possibly Colosseum Pikachu. I'm not familiar with extracting files from isos, but I'm looking into tools.
  14. Deoxyz
    We're talking about the JPN Colosseum disc right? Yeah, his site has the iso. And yeah, HaxAras HAD the disc before he got out of pokemon and sold off everything. I'm more concerned about tracking down the JPN BGF Zigzagoon iso, but I'm personally not buying the disc, because iirc it's very expensive and I rather put money towards GBA distributions. I know at one point HaxAras found someone with this disc who was willing to sell, but that never happened. I think it was someone he was talking to on this site's Discord/IRC.
  15. Deoxyz
    Interesting, so I guess it just may have a multiboot too... I know I can find the Japanese Bonus Disc iso, but do we know which file to extract to check for MBs?
  16. Deoxyz
    I know what it is, just last I heard the iso couldn't be found online.
  17. Deoxyz
    The Japanese BGF Zigzagoon disc?
  18. Deoxyz
    Any hex editor. I personally use HxD.
  19. Deoxyz
    My assumption is MBs sent from GCN discs just work a bit different compared to those from a GBA, at least due to the way they made them. I didn't think so for Ageto Celebi, as I explained previously, but I'm just basing that off unclear memory, and I assume @St. GIGA knows what he's talking about. I actually know nothing about how Colosseum Pikachu is distributed, but I assumed it was also generated in the GCN game, then can trade it to the GBA later. Only thing I know of is the US Demo Discs that have BGF Zigzagoon, but that's actually how the GBA rom used in Europe was officially made, hence the UI text referring to the GameCube. So no point in that. But actually, Japan had their own disc too, so if someone has the iso somewhere(I don't think so), we could extract the MB. However, this can also be recreated by editing the English Zigzagoon MB, as it uses the same generation method. Actually it's very easy to edit BGF Zigzagoon(unlike the other roms due to checksums), except a few traits that have been troublesome to record, such as origin region. Because otherwise, you'd be sending a Zigzagoon to a Japanese game, but PKHeX will still show it as ENG instead of JPN, therefore illegal. In the end though, I'd prefer recreating roms with original MBs where possible, only modifying MBs as last resort. Edit: I've also been told the PCNY events were distributed via GameCube discs as well, but you can place those in the category of the GBA distro roms that aren't known to have leaked from Nintendo, eg. the US 10 ANIVs.
  20. Deoxyz
    You don't press Start+Select using the Colosseum Bonus disc either though. It connects after you see the copyright screen after the receiving game boots.
  21. Deoxyz
    I just looked one up, and tbh, it seems like a multiboot working on the GBA side, just with a unique visual cutscene or whatever. I wouldn't say either way yet for sure, but it's odd compared to other MBs if it is. Iirc, with Ageto it's generated on the GCN, then traded over to the GBA like just any other purified pokemon, so it's at least not the exact same with CHANNEL.
  22. Deoxyz
    Just found the mention in some old posts, the pokedownload.tgc equivalent for CHANNEL Jirachi is called pokechan.bin Assuming it does contain a multiboot, I'd love to have the file sent my way if anyone has it. Can't find it on google yet, and I currently don't even really know how to unpack an iso to extract it.
  23. Deoxyz
    @St. GIGA If you're talking about the recreation roms, ajxpk said he would share them, I think he just wanted to verify some things first. It will happen soon, give him the time.
  24. Deoxyz
    OH! I think I have Channel's equivalent of pokedownload.tgc(different name) somewhere, not sure. That's definitely one we should do. Edit: Nevermind, I think I was just remembering it being mentioned in a discussion once... Though, I don't know much about CHANNEL Jirachi. It did send via multiboot, right? Or wasn't it more like Ageto Celebi?
  25. Deoxyz
    1) The multiboot that gets sent to the receiving GBA is identical. Only likely difference is the distro rom having the UI/Master that was used from Shiny Zigzagoon, but we don't know for sure what the original looks like. It's up to Purin whether or not he wants to share details. 2) Probably left over from beta testing. Started with copying Negaiboshi, made METEOR, but finalized with WISHMKR. Leftover files from beta testing isn't new, eg if you remember the debug Bulbasaur and Shiny Litwick from some of the Gen V roms. Japanese Colosseum Bonus disc doesn't have any multiboots, iirc, it just enables an in-game event for Celebi to join your party, iirc. 3)Hex editors
×
×
  • Create New...