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Generation III Glitch Discussion

Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC. - Page 1

Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: pokechu22
Date: 2014-03-22 22:59:29
I have a video on this, but you don't need to watch it immediately.  The necessary content is linked within. 

I've been recently researching Decamarks in Pokémon FireRed.  Overall, I've spent about 7 hours on this (From the 4 gigabytes of video files), and have cataloged 019D thru 01FF and 2800 thru 022F.  (I skipped to the 2800's so that I could get different data that probably wasn't already obtained…)

One thing that is odd is that a LARGE number of these Pokémon know THUNDERPUNCH.  No idea what causes that. 
Another thing is that hex 2827 has a glitch move named "î" at level 1, along with THUNDERPUNCH.  Upon trying to use "î", the game displays an empty text box and stops responding to input.  (I haven't tested the help system or GameShark input, but nothing else happens). 

(In case you can't see that symbol, it is [size=36pt]î[/size]).

One of the Decamarks that interests me greatly is hex 2829.  Here's some quick facts on it before I get on to the really interesting part:


Ok, here's the more interesting part.  I decided to try and view it's name using the PC.  One of the odd effects of certain Decamarks is that they can cause weird glitches when viewed in the PC.  I only know this for sure due to 2829, but others had more minor effects (and no, I don't remember the hex ids for these…): One caused the Pokémon's icon to be slightly darker for a few frames, and another caused the background to flash red.  Both of these effects happened when I changed from my first Pokémon to my second, and back the other way.

2829 has a similar effect.  It's best if you just watch. 



Ok, so what just happened?  Well, a message box popped up, flashed something quickly, then said the following:
Save completed. 
"Please press the A Button."
I've done a reset and it didn't actually save.  This isn't just because my FireRed is unable to save, as the same issue occurred on a separate save file, with proper battery set up. 

Anyways, about that quickly-flashed text?  I view it in slow-motion here.

It brings up a message stating this:
Save failed. 
Checking the backup memory...
Please wait.
"Time required:
About 1 minute."

Now, in this case, that message makes sense.  (Excluding the "time required" section…)

But I don't know where it is used, if anywhere.  Nor do I know why. 



I go over some of the other effects in the rest of the video.  So feel free to watch the rest.

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: Crystalame
Date: 2014-03-23 00:27:17
Wow! This is the most interesting decamark I've ever seen. And so are those messages! I've never even seen or heard of those messages appearing. The most similar I've ever seen to the main two you talk about is "The 1m sub-circuit board is not installed." message and that one is pretty common with some roms.

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: pokechu22
Date: 2014-03-23 10:52:38

Wow! This is the most interesting decamark I've ever seen. And so are those messages! I've never even seen or heard of those messages appearing. The most similar I've ever seen to the main two you talk about is "The 1m sub-circuit board is not installed." message and that one is pretty common with some roms.


Indeed.  I get that message, although I know how to fix it: set the save type to FLASH 128kib. 

One of the weirdest things about these messages is the fact that parts of them are in quotes. 

I've never used it, but it might be posible that these (The ones about saving) messages are from link gameplay, although I doubt it.

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: camper
Date: 2014-03-23 10:57:14
Could they be beta messages that are used for testing purposes?

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: pokechu22
Date: 2014-03-23 14:23:58

Could they be beta messages that are used for testing purposes?

That would be interesting.  They probably relate to the message you almost always get on startup:
The 1M sub-Circuit board is not installed
However, the quoted text is really weird. 

The messages do appear in the iimarck.us text dumpFile size: 550 kb (linked from the cutting room floor, where I am asking about these messages themselves), and this text can be found by searching for "save failed.").

Acording to that document, there are three messages:
Save failed.
Checking the backup memory
Please wait.
Time required:
about 1 minute


The backup memory is damaged or
the games battery has run dry.
The game can be played, but its
progress cannot be saved.
Please press the A Button.


Save completed.
Please press the A Button.

I still don't know where these would appear, or why they speak of the A Button.

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: Stackout
Date: 2014-03-23 14:24:57
aand someone posted the same thing as I was checking the dump myself.. lol..

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: Crystalame
Date: 2014-03-23 17:36:29
I think it's kind of strange that it specifically says 1 minute. Maybe that's just me though?

Messages used for testing sounds very plausible, definitely. Of course, it's also likely these appear when the backup memory is damaged just like it says. But as I mentioned before, I've never even heard of these messages, only the sub-circuit board one. Surely there would have been someone out there with a messed up cartridge within the 10 years these games have been out?

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: Stackout
Date: 2014-03-24 05:46:03
Well, I just googled for "The backup memory is damaged or the games battery has run dry. The game can be played, but its progress cannot be saved." and got a couple results. Mainly from fake carts, or running ROMs in flashcarts.

So yes, it does happen.

Seems this happens a lot on a flashcart called the "supercard"..

Now, if only there was a readily available disassembly of Gen 3 around…

…and if only I knew ARM asm..

Re: Weird behaviour of Decamark 2829 in the PC.

Posted by: pokechu22
Date: 2014-03-24 16:47:49

Well, I just googled for "The backup memory is damaged or the games battery has run dry. The game can be played, but its progress cannot be saved." and got a couple results. Mainly from fake carts, or running ROMs in flashcarts.

So yes, it does happen.

Seems this happens a lot on a flashcart called the "supercard"..

Hm.  Whenever I get a save error on an emulator, it just says "Save error" and then "Please exchange the backup battery".

Must be due to a different set-up, probably because there is SRAM, it just has less space than it should.