River City Ransom EX [GBA][USA]:
File Name: River City - Ransom EX (Venom) 1.0 USA.gba
MD5 - C098362CA95E73D92BEE95F462724560
Legend:
^ - See above; Is related to above.
Notes - They are only related to the RAM address and value directly above them. Not under.
<newline> - Stopgap for missing information.
[XXXX - YYYY] - RAM Addresses Region from XXXX to YYYY.
| Address | Size | Display | Purpose
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0000 | 1 | Unsigned | Transition Screen? (always 0x0 or 0x5)
| 0002 | 2 | Unsigned | Area Zone ID
| 0004 | 1 | Unsigned | Controls
10000000b 128 Down
01000000b 64 Up
00100000b 32 Left
00010000b 16 Right
00001000b 8 Start
00000100b 4 Select
00000010b 2 B
00000001b 1 A
No L and R buttons
| 0008 | 1 | Unsigned | Rendering tick count accumulator (0 to 255). (Low Bits)
| 0009 | 1 | Unsigned | Rendering tick count accumulator (0 to 255). (High Bits)
| 0368 | 2 | Hex | Timing that controls when a player can start to freely move. (Counts down)
| 0370 | 2 | Hex | Sets to 0x0 when values in 0x0368 and 0x0372 are both 0x0 and 1000 equivalently.
| 0372 | 2 | Hex | Timing that controls when a player can start to freely move. (Counts up)
| 06D4 | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with background scene textures.
| 06D5 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 06D6 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 06E1 | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with background scene textures.
| 06E2 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 06E3 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 06E6 | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 0 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 06E8 | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 0 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 06EA | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 1 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 06EC | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 1 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 0702 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 2 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 0704 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 2 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 0706 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 3 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 0708 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 3 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 073E - 074A | 2 x 7 | Hex | Text spritesheet / mapping addresses, top row (assuming)
| 074C - 0760 | 2 x 11 | Hex | Text spritesheet / mapping addresses, bottom row (assuming)
| 076A - 0770 | 2 x 4 | Hex | Text messages pointer data for enemy gang shouts. (assuming)
| 09B5 | 1 | Unsigned | Area Section Name
| 09B9 | 1 | Unsigned | Wrapper string?
| 073E - 09E4 | 2 x 340 | Hex | (Region) Has to do with text messages and pointer data to strings.
| 0AA5 | 1 | Unsigned | Text message cursor position
| 0D18 | 4 | Hex | Something to do with Rendering buffer
| 0D20 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D28 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D30 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D38 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D40 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D48 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D20 | 4 | Hex | Something to do with Player's sprite position or updates
| 0DB8 | 4 | Hex | Something to do with Enemy B's sprite position or updates
| 0DC0 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0DC8 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0DD0 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0AB0 | 1 | Unsigned | Crashes when freezing addresses
| 0AB1 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 0AB2 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 0AB3 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 211C | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with color masking
| 211E | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with color masking. Needs to be +0x1 more than 211C value.
| 2127 | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 216A | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 216B | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 216E | 1 | Unsigned | Background Y position (Low Bit)
| 216F | 1 | Unsigned | Background Y position (High Bit)
| 2170 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Background X position (Little Endian)
| 2172 | 1 | Unsigned | Background X position (Low Bit)
| 2173 | 1 | Unsigned | Background X position (High Bit)
| 217A | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 217B | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 217E | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 2180 | 1 | Unsigned | Something to do with area transitions
| 2181 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 2184 | 1 | Unsigned | Enable Rendering Layers Bitmask
0 = Null (no scenery)
1 = Text only
2 = Foreground
4 = Background
8 = Sky
15 = All
| 21B2 | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 21B6 | 1 | Unsigned | Background texture Y position
| 21B7 | 1 | Unsigned | Background texture Y position. Negative number if 255.
| 220C | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (Low Mantissa)
| 220D | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (High Mantissa)
| 220E | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 220F | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (High Bit)
When Player's X position is 0x15, will transition to new area.
| 2210 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (Low Mantissa)
| 2211 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (High Mantissa)
| 2212 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 2213 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (High Bit). 255 is negative.
| 2214 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (Low Mantissa)
| 2215 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (High Mantissa)
| 2216 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 2217 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (High Bit). 255 is negative.
| 2218 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Jump power facing right (0 or 128).
| 2219 | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X speed (Low Low Bit)
| 221A | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X Speed (Low High Bit)
| 221B | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X speed (High Low Bit)
| 221C | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X Speed (High High Bit)
| 221D | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X speed (Low Low Bit)
| 221E | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X Speed (Low High Bit)
| 221F | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X speed (High Low Bit)
| 2220 | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X Speed (High High Bit)
| 2221 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Acceleration (Low Mantissa)
| 2222 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Acceleration (High Bit). -Y is positive
| 2258 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Finite State Machine ID
| 22A4 | 1 | Unsigned | Something to do with going from shop (safe areas) to non-safe areas:
255 = Shops
58 = Non-shop areas
| 22DC | 1 | Unsigned | Duration between Player animation frames, counts down to 0. When 0, sets a new animation frame.
| 250C | 1 | Unsigned | Duration between Enemy A animation frames, counts down to 0. When 0, sets a new animation
Frame #:
Running: 4 -> 0, 4 -> 0, 4 -> 0, repeat
Walking: 8 -> 0, 6 -> 0, 8 -> 0, repeat
| 250E | 1 | Unsigned | Flag to jump to next animation frame:
0x5 = Continue playing animation
0xD = Jump to next animation
Loop
Update: 0xD 0x5 0x5 0xD 0x5 0x5 0xD 0x5
Render: Walk 1 -> Walk 1 -> Walk 1 -> Walk 2 -> Walk 2 -> Walk 2 -> Walk 1 -> Walk 1
EndLoop
| 2676 | 1 | Unsigned | Enemy A Y position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 2677 | 1 | Unsigned | Enemy A Y position in the game area (High Bit)
| 273A | 1 | Unsigned | Jump Kick animation ID
| 273C | 1 | Unsigned | NPC Walking Animation loop duration
| 2AB4 | 2 | Unsigned | Current Money
| 24E1 | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown purposes. Value is deallocated when entering new areas. Value is determined to be a type identifier for enemy gangs, as follows:
Stickville - Park Entrance
8 = Generic Dudes
6 = Frat Boys
2 = Entrees
1 = Dragons
0 = Mob
| 243C | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy A X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 2444 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy A Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 289C | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 28A4 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 28A8 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B X speed (Little Endian)
When value is 0 and the enemy is in the Running state, the enemy will respond as if it has hit a wall.
| 28AC | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B Y speed (Little Endian)
| 2CFC | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy C X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 2D04 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy C Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 315C | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy D X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 3164 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy D Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
Numbers - How many points it will add to your stats total, accumulatively.
Green Text - Emphasis on potential leveling shortcuts.
Red Text - Special Techniques (Moves)
I probably will continue to update this when I find more information.
The goal is for me to understand what the game is doing with all these numbers, and see if it's possible to do a Crazy (Hardest difficulty) speedrun.
There are other factors at play, such as:
| Address | Byte Size | Display | Purpose
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0000 | 1 | Unsigned | Transition Screen? (always 0x0 or 0x5)
| 0002 | 2 | Unsigned | Area Zone ID
| 0004 | 1 | Unsigned | Controls:
10000000b 128 Down
01000000b 64 Up
00100000b 32 Left
00010000b 16 Right
00001000b 8 Start
00000100b 4 Select
00000010b 2 B
00000001b 1 A
No L and R buttons
| 0008 | 1 | Unsigned | Rendering tick count accumulator (0 to 255). (Low Bits)
| 0009 | 1 | Unsigned | Rendering tick count accumulator (0 to 255). (High Bits)
| 06D4 | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with background scene textures.
| 06D5 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 06D6 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 06E1 | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with background scene textures.
| 06E2 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 06E3 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 09B5 | 1 | Unsigned | Area Section Name
| 09B9 | 1 | Unsigned | Wrapper string?
| 0AB0 | 1 | Unsigned | Crashes when freezing addresses
| 0AB1 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 0AB2 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 0AB3 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 211C | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with color masking
| 211E | 1 | Unsigned | Has to do with color masking. Needs to be +0x1 more than 211C value.
| 2127 | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 216A | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 216B | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 216E | 1 | Unsigned | Background Y position (Low Bit)
| 216F | 1 | Unsigned | Background Y position (High Bit)
| 2172 | 1 | Unsigned | Background X position (Low Bit)
| 2173 | 1 | Unsigned | Background X position (High Bit)
| 217A | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 217B | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 217E | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 2180 | 1 | Unsigned | Something to do with area transitions
| 2181 | 1 | Unsigned | ^
| 2184 | 1 | Unsigned | Enable Rendering Layers Bitmask
0 = Null (no scenery)
1 = Text only
2 = Foreground
4 = Background
8 = Sky
15 = All
| 21B2 | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown
| 21B6 | 1 | Unsigned | Background texture Y position
| 21B7 | 1 | Unsigned | Background texture Y position. Negative number if 255.
| 220C | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (Low Mantissa)
| 220D | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (High Mantissa)
| 220E | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 220F | 1 | Unsigned | Player X position in the game area (High Bit)
When Player's X position is 0x15, will transition to new area on the Player's left hand side.
| 2210 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (Low Mantissa)
| 2211 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (High Mantissa)
| 2212 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 2213 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Jump position in the game area (High Bit). 255 is negative.
| 2214 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (Low Mantissa)
| 2215 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (High Mantissa)
| 2216 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 2217 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y position in the game area (High Bit). 255 is negative.
| 2218 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Jump power facing right (0 or 128).
| 2219 | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X speed (Low Low Bit)
| 221A | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X Speed (Low High Bit)
| 221B | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X speed (High Low Bit)
| 221C | 1 | Unsigned | Player +X Speed (High High Bit)
| 221D | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X speed (Low Low Bit)
| 221E | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X Speed (Low High Bit)
| 221F | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X speed (High Low Bit)
| 2220 | 1 | Unsigned | Player -X Speed (High High Bit)
| 2221 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Acceleration (Low Mantissa)
| 2222 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Y Acceleration (High Bit). -Y is positive
| 2258 | 1 | Unsigned | Player Finite State Machine ID
| 22A4 | 1 | Unsigned | Something to do with going from shop (safe areas) to non-safe areas:
255 = Shops
58 = Non-shop areas
| 22DC | 1 | Unsigned | Duration between Player animation frames, counts down to 0. When 0, sets a new animation frame.
| 250C | 1 | Unsigned | Duration between Enemy A animation frames, counts down to 0. When 0, sets a new animation frame:
Running: 4 -> 0
Walking: 8 -> 0, 6 -> 0, 8 -> 0, repeat.
| 2676 | 1 | Unsigned | Enemy A Y position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 2677 | 1 | Unsigned | Enemy A Y position in the game area (High Bit)
| 273A | 1 | Unsigned | Jump Kick animation ID
| 273C | 1 | Unsigned | NPC Walking Animation loop duration
| 2AB4 | 2 | Unsigned | Current Money
| 24E1 | 1 | Unsigned | Unknown purposes. Value is determined to have an effect on enemy gangs, as follows:
Stickville - Park Entrance
8 = Generic Dudes
6 = Frat Boys
2 = Entrees
1 = Dragons
0 = Mob
| Address | Size | Display | Purpose
| 0D18 | 4 | Hex | Something to do with Rendering buffer
| 0D20 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D28 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D30 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D38 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D40 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0D48 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0DB8 | 4 | Hex | Something to do with Enemy B's sprite position or updates
| 0DC0 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0DC8 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 0DD0 | 4 | Hex | ^
| 250E | 1 | Unsigned | Flag to jump to next animation frame:
0x5 = Continue playing animation
0xD = Jump to next animation
Loop
Update: 0xD 0x5 0x5 0xD 0x5 0x5 0xD 0x5
Render: Walk 1 -> Walk 1 -> Walk 1 -> Walk 2 -> Walk 2 -> Walk 2 -> Walk 1 -> Walk 1
EndLoop
| 2676 | 1 | Unsigned | Enemy A Y position in the game area (Low Bit)
| 2677 | 1 | Unsigned | Enemy A Y position in the game area (High Bit)
| 243C | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy A X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 2444 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy A Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 289C | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 28A4 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 28A8 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B X speed (Little Endian)
When value is 0 and the enemy is in the Running state, the enemy will respond as if it has hit a wall.
| 28AC | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy B Y speed (Little Endian)
| 2CFC | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy C X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 2D04 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy C Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 315C | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy D X position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 3164 | 4 | Fixed Point 16.16 | Enemy D Y position in the game area (Little Endian)
| 0368 | 2 | Hex | Timing that controls when a player can start to freely move. (Counts down)
| 0370 | 2 | Hex | Sets to 0x0 when values in 0x0368 and 0x0372 are both 0x0 and 1000 equivalently.
| 0372 | 2 | Hex | Timing that controls when a player can start to freely move. (Counts up)
| 06E6 | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 0 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 06E8 | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 0 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 06EA | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 1 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 06EC | 2 | Hex | (Foreground) Layer 1 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 0702 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 2 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 0704 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 2 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 0706 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 3 texture X position (Little Endian)
| 0708 | 2 | Hex | (Background) Layer 3 texture Y position (Little Endian)
| 073E - 074A | 2 x 7 | Hex | Text spritesheet / mapping addresses, top row (assuming)
| 074C - 0760 | 2 x 11 | Hex | Text spritesheet / mapping addresses, bottom row (assuming)
| 076A - 0770 | 2 x 4 | Hex | Text messages pointer data for enemy gang shouts. (assuming)
| 073E - 09E4 | 2 x 340 | Hex | (Region) Has to do with text messages and pointer data to strings.
| 0AA5 | 1 | Unsigned | Text message cursor position
| 24E1 | 1 | Unsigned | + Value gets deallocated when entering new areas.
Updated store items, part 1. More to come...
| Address | Size (bytes) | Display | Purpose
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0371 | 1 | Hexadecimal | When it is 0x4, game will recognize your inputs to control your main character.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2180 | 1 | Hexadecimal | ID related to data that stores collision boxes/obstacles/abyss information about
| | | | the currently loaded area.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 49CA | 2 | Hexadecimal | Lotto Tix prize
| | | | 1501 - No prizes: $0.00
| | | | 1401 - 5th prize: $1.00
| | | | 1301 - 4th prize: $100.00
| | | | 1201 - 3rd prize: $1000.00
| | | | 1101 - 2nd prize: $10000.00
| | | | 1001 - 1st prize: $100000.00
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 4A50 | 2 | Hexadecimal | Random number counter (Loops from 0x270 to 0x1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 4A54 | 4 | Hexadecimal (BE) | Viewed in Big Endian format. This is what I personally called it the "determinant".
| | | | The determinant helps to keep each loop of the random number counter "unique" in
| | | | the game.
Swap Dragon Kick with Mach Punch if you're playing as Ryan.
There is a random number counter that starts from 0x270 and decrements until it reaches 0x0. When it does reach 0x0, it loops back to 0x270.
Another counter was found where the random value, which I found out, is tied to another value. This value is coined as the "determinant" (by me), where, each time it decreases the counter, it increments itself. It's a 4-byte counter, guaranteeing the Lotto Tix lottery results are unique every 0x270 times.
The trick is to manipulate the CPU enemies to make any actions, to start decreasing the random value, and reach a specific random number counter and determinant as fast as possible, in order to reach a particular combination of the random number counter and the determinant, to get the calculating Lotto Tix prize.
The upside to using this strategy allows you to always get your Lotto Tix prize of whatever monetary value you want, but the downside of using this strategy is it takes a bit of frames to do. Here in the GIF, I'm just lucky that, after exiting the Merlin's Secrets shop, I can get the 3rd Prize within 500 frames from the frame I exited the shop.
Huh. Today I learned that the Japanese version of RCR EX had a semi-official update patch. Wonder what got changed in it. https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1565965970669473792 https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1565966510312783872
So, I decided to look into the Reputation system to see what was happening with it. Total Reputation is stored in IWRAM value $0242 (Combined WRAM value $040242). This only changes on screen transitions. IWRAM $0246 (Combined WRAM $040246) holds the value you've currently gained or lost on the current screen. On every screen transition, this value is added to $0242 and resets to 0. Both of these are signed, 1 byte values.Recruiting Rex, as done in this run, only requires your reputation to not be negative, i.e 0 or above. What this means is that this run has a lot of wiggle room for fighting dirty to save time. 32 points of Rep, in fact:
- Running into walls gives you 1 Rep each time you do it.
- Defeating a boss gives you 2 Rep.
- Dying gives you 4 Rep.
- Clearing a field of enemies gives you 5 Rep.
- Recruiting a character gives you 16 Rep.
- You can gain Rep while fighting, though I don't exactly know how this works.
- Losing Rep comes from fighting dirty (hitting enemies while they're on the ground, hitting bosses while they're still talking, etc).
Also, since Rep only changes on screen transitions, clearing out the gang before Rex can be done however you want, as Rep cannot change between entering the screen and Rex appearing.