[Hidden-Palace]Biohazard Betas Released

[RekseW]

It is definitely fun to find stuff like this. I was hoping to unlock the debug menu(s) that this build contains, but seems that a special overlay is needed to get it to properly function. Needless to say, it's missing from the disc, along with any other code needed for it.

Think it would be possible to use the sample code to fill in the gaps of the alpha, then use one of your asm hacks to glue it together?
Or we could study the debug functions and maybe we could add debug to all retail releases of re1.

ida has a plugin to compare functions. try that on various builds. It will tell you if they're identical/matched/removed. most will be the same I bet. and use the psyq flirts so you get nice names ;)

[Guest]

Hey Mark, what do you mean by the debug menu is missing an overlay?

[redman]

Well, the Config Mode exists within the second alpha (Oct. 1995), but is exactly the same. Absolutely nothing is different.

Furthermore, the second alpha doesn't contain any debug menus, etc., but has twice the amount of unused functionality.

I've attached both patched executables, in case anyone wanted to see what the fuss is all about. Use CDmage to replace the original executables, and remember to make a backup.

To activate the Config Mode, simply press the Select button. In the second alpha, you'll have to wait until control of the player is gained (in the Dining Room).


EDIT:
I forgot to mention, I found a function in the first alpha that disables all event scripts, thus, allowing for free roam. Again, nothing special, but was fun for a minute or two.

can you make it for me i not can do this
i not understand this CDmage pleace help i will you work test!

[MeganGrass]

Think it would be possible to use the sample code to fill in the gaps of the alpha, then use one of your asm hacks to glue it together?
Or we could study the debug functions and maybe we could add debug to all retail releases of re1.

ida has a plugin to compare functions. try that on various builds. It will tell you if they're identical/matched/removed. most will be the same I bet. and use the psyq flirts so you get nice names ;)

It's absolutely possible, yes.

In fact, I overwrote an area of unused functionality with my own asm code, in-order to produce access to the Config Mode. From there, I linked my asm into the main controller/pad loop. My code simply checks if the Select button is pressed, and links to the Config Mode. The specific function that I overwrote had about 0x4000 bytes left that can overwritten... not to mention, the hundreds of other unused functions.

But before any of that, I had to implement a simple controller/pad fixture at boot.

That said, it's definitely possible to literally create and/or link whatever code I want, all with the press of a button (of my choice, of course). Or, I could just create and link my own overlay into the main program. So yes, it's possible to add a debug menu to retail builds.


The only problem is whether or not I actually want to add debug functionality to a build that only contains about a dozen rooms to explore. It's just overkill, for these alphas... but I honestly thought about it, yeah. For retail builds, well, there's already that 1996 full beta floating around, so, I dunno. If I decide to do anything with Bio1, it'd have to be something really special, and not just a debug menu.

I'm not sure how useful that "function compare" plugin would be, especially when completely different memory addresses are used. I have a decent eye for these things, so I'm not sure that's really necessary... but I appreciate it.

Hey Mark, what do you mean by the debug menu is missing an overlay?

In the first alpha, the debug menu is very different from any other debug menu I've seen in other Bio builds. Specifically, there's features to 'build a room' - placing/moving item objects, enemies, texture debug info, etc.

The problem is that the code area that contains the debug functionality seems more like a jump location rather than an actual function. That means another function most likely must be called prior to jumping to these locations of code, before any of it actually becomes usable.

So, there's either a missing overlay, missing function, and/or some functionality that I hadn't discovered that will get it to properly boot. After all, I didn't spend a tremendous amount of time on this.

If you're wondering what an overlay is, think of 'STAGE1.EXE', etc. - it's an extra piece of code that can be flushed, in order to make room for other code. That way, the main executable isn't bloated, and you can run much more code than what would be possible otherwise. A dev could make a small piece of code that is only used at certain times, so that another piece of code can be used in it's place, later.

The best example of this I could provide is that 'STAGE1.EXE' controls some things in the Mansion, whereas 'SELECT.EXE' would control parts of what happens at the character selection menu.

can you make it for me i not can do this
i not understand this CDmage pleace help i will you work test!

Open the game image with CDmage.

Right-click the 'PSX.EXE' file, and select the "Import File..." option and select the patched executable I provided.

Save and test.

[redman]

i see import file not!!!!

[Scream]

Yeah I found something similar to that event disable function also, where all the enemies disappear (and the game speeds up for some reason). Here's what I came up with after a couple of hours hacking (its a lot of fun, but I promised myself not to get wrapped up in it, so no more after this ). Nothing amazing unfortunately, I just tried some usual methods without thinking too much but came up quite empty.

Taking out the yawn After it dies you get transported to the graveyard area (just kidding, I wish)


No collision on yawn if it matters


Knife combat with yawn


Found a reliable way to disable parts of the backgrounds.



This is what I called "Matrix mode", that's the maximum number of empty shells you can have on-screen at once..

[Guest]

Great work guys, I love any old Bio1 beta/alpha stuff. Most interesting to see that these builds still contain secrets.

[Scream]

MarkGrass - interesting that the alpha debug menu has those sort of functions. If the full retail debug was mostly for testing, then it makes sense the alpha is more geared towards development/debugging?

BTW, maybe kinda related, I've come across "PC HDD" menus before in betas.. do they require a PS-PC connection to function properly?

Here's some screens from another game that reference this kind of menu, I was wondering why it was referencing a C: \ directory and a PC mode because I'm definitely not on a PC lol.. Any thoughts?

[Flak Master]

Here's two development Playstation 1s for reference. Perhaps they used the parallel I/O port? I know that you can use that for Dexdrives, Gamesharks, and any other unofficial devices that were made for that port. Probably part of the reason why they removed it for the SCPH-9000 model of the original Playstation's design.



Now, this one with the green...handle? I can't quite tell. But I don't know what that is for. According to the image on Google Images, it is an older development model.

This is off-topic, but how did you get into that menu in Xenogears? Because I never have seen that before, or have heard it mentioned in regards to the Debug Room.

[Scream]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9180[/ATTACH]

Here's two development Playstation 1s for reference. Perhaps they used the parallel I/O port? I know that you can use that for Dexdrives, Gamesharks, and any other unofficial devices that were made for that port. Probably part of the reason why they removed it for the SCPH-9000 model of the original Playstation's design.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9179[/ATTACH]

Now, this one with the green...handle? I can't quite tell. But I don't know what that is for. According to the image on Google Images, it is an older development model.

This is off-topic, but how did you get into that menu in Xenogears? Because I never have seen that before, or have heard it mentioned in regards to the Debug Room.

You know your XG Yeah, you wouldn't of seen it before. I discovered it (or at least first to post it) a few years ago, it only exists in the Japanese trial (SLPS-01235) and is separate to the debug room (which is what made it interesting to me). It's completely removed from the US trial demo released a little later and of course all retail releases.

Though it made me think, what if some of the functions in debug menus (like BH2 beta2) only work when connected to a PC? It kinda makes sense, some functions may need to write to logs or need more memory etc, no idea if that's true or not though.

That debug menu mostly crashed IIRC, though it had character rename function not featured in debug room or game, and a neat overlay which you can use to display all those useful addresses at any time:

[MeganGrass]

@redman - Download the CDmage B5 version.

Yeah I found something similar to that event disable function also, where all the enemies disappear (and the game speeds up for some reason). Here's what I came up with after a couple of hours hacking (its a lot of fun, but I promised myself not to get wrapped up in it, so no more after this ). Nothing amazing unfortunately, I just tried some usual methods without thinking too much but came up quite empty.

The 'Event Disable' function I discovered does the same (even Jill is missing), only the game doesn't speed up. Though, I found a completely separate function that does that, and, yet another that slows everything, instead.

They were 3 different functions I found and tested/linked in asm - I'm not sure why you're cheat code would cause multiple effects.

Eitherway, interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.

MarkGrass - interesting that the alpha debug menu has those sort of functions. If the full retail debug was mostly for testing, then it makes sense the alpha is more geared towards development/debugging?

BTW, maybe kinda related, I've come across "PC HDD" menus before in betas.. do they require a PS-PC connection to function properly?

Here's some screens from another game that reference this kind of menu, I was wondering why it was referencing a C: \ directory and a PC mode because I'm definitely not on a PC lol.. Any thoughts?

It seems that those debug functions in the alpha build were used for development, rather than testing.

Yeah, certain PSone development units connect to the PC. They allowed for file transfers and testing of code, so that a new disc didn't have to be built every time something new came along.

Unfortunately, most of these debugging units are expensive and/or in the hands of people who have absolutely no fucking clue how to properly use and/or appreciate them.

Though it made me think, what if some of the functions in debug menus (like BH2 beta2) only work when connected to a PC? It kinda makes sense, some functions may need to write to logs or need more memory etc, no idea if that's true or not though.

The PSone cannot use a PC's memory. Furthermore, development units had extended RAM size (8mb), where retail units only had limited memory (2mb).

Special functions are written into the executables for this kinda stuff - such as file transfers, etc. In fact, that same code is included in the first alpha (!)... but cannot be properly used without a development unit.

In addition, the development units require ancient PC hardware - absolutely nothing you'll find in a modern PC.

[Scream]

Hah, I basically just take the juicy areas of memory and kick the crap out of it till it works, nothing compared to the finesse of your asm linkage I'm sure But it produces results quickly..

Yeah I noticed Jill seems to be flagged as an enemy, when you move backwards away from her Chris goes into his "oh shit, zombie" animation.

That's kind of what I expected about the file transfer/PC stuff being in the alpha (and betas for other games). Would of loved to of seen that in action.

You could start a 0.5 restoration project if you want to work on BIO1, crappy backgrounds and co-op. People want to know what happens when you take the right path in the shed after defeating the snake

Speaking of which here is a screen I left out with the background thing, you can see here they obviously didn't bother with any background layers for the left side of the screen (if you walk over there your character glitches up). Does this mean they were never really sure about this room from the get-go.. or pressed for time maybe.

[Northman]

Hey, MarkGrass, could you link to the copy of CDmage that you're using? My search for the program is turning up a disturbing number of dead links.

[Guest]

Glad to see people are still interested in these builds, the BIO1 releases are by far my favourite of all the RE builds out there.

@ Mark - Thanks for explaining. I'll look forward to any progress you make with these builds as the potential features of their debug functions sound very exciting indeed, far beyond what I would have imagined. However at this stage of development I guess it makes sense to have these sorts of things there for development as opposed to features designed for beta testing and debugging.

@ Scream - I imagine parts of the build were put together purely for presentation purposes and not a lot of attention went into exhibiting continuity in the Yawn room. They probably had ideas in mind of where the game leads but simply slapped someting together to end the demo knowing the player wouldn't be moving around or doing much, and that their resources available at the time had to come to an end at some point or other anyway. Are here any extra RDTs on the build they don't have backgrounds available for them? Is there any info that suggests something beyond that room? I've never actually took a look at the image contents yet.

[MeganGrass]

I've attached CDmage B5 to this post... but I can't stress enough - the Config Mode isn't really anything to get excited about.

Hah, I basically just take the juicy areas of memory and kick the crap out of it till it works, nothing compared to the finesse of your asm linkage I'm sure But it produces results quickly..

I didn't "mean anything" by what I said earlier, like, trying to 'one-up' you or something. Just noting that I found the same functionality, without the side effects.

You could start a 0.5 restoration project if you want to work on BIO1, crappy backgrounds and co-op. People want to know what happens when you take the right path in the shed after defeating the snake

Speaking of which here is a screen I left out with the background thing, you can see here they obviously didn't bother with any background layers for the left side of the screen (if you walk over there your character glitches up). Does this mean they were never really sure about this room from the get-go.. or pressed for time maybe.

That's kind of a neat idea. Maybe, even, remake the entire mansion ala REbirth. There's also that spin-off, that was supposed to take place in the same mansion, only dilapidated (taken over by plants and such, iirc). The only problem is that I have no modeling skills.

IGAS has set the gold standard of what a true restoration project should be, and if I dedicate myself to such a project - not saying that I will or I won't - I go all the way with it. I wouldn't expect any less from a talent pool who may collaborate on such a project either, either.

Besides acquiring the necessary talent, there's the real issue of "Is it really worth it?" and "Will people really be interested?".

Speaking of which here is a screen I left out with the background thing, you can see here they obviously didn't bother with any background layers for the left side of the screen (if you walk over there your character glitches up). Does this mean they were never really sure about this room from the get-go.. or pressed for time maybe.

I noticed that, as well. It was especially funny to watch Chris' model do some funny stuff.

They could have been in a hurry, or perhaps, the room wasn't complete. Maybe, it was planned as a placeholder - though I'd doubt that, given the FMV that's located on retail.

It's just one of those developer mysteries.

@ Mark - Thanks for explaining. I'll look forward to any progress you make with these builds as the potential features of their debug functions sound very exciting indeed, far beyond what I would have imagined. However at this stage of development I guess it makes sense to have these sorts of things there for development as opposed to features designed for beta testing and debugging.

I think I'm done looking for 'teh betaz' stuff in these builds.

As I said before, there's just not enough content on the disc. Producing something, like a debug menu, for the exploration of a dozen or so rooms is just too much.

Besides, a debug menu couldn't 'tell' me anything that I didn't already know about the file formats, anyways.