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Arbitrary Code Execution Discussion

The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE - Page 1

The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2017-06-26 09:03:09
[size=14pt]Welcome to the ACE Guide ![/size]

ACE is the most powerful and dangerous glitch of them all, and some questions come up often.
If you want to ask a question, please read this thread, if the answer is there please don't post about it.


NOTE : This guide is a WIP, I'm going to add new questions as they come up. Please don't post unless it's for this purpose :)

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2017-06-26 09:08:26
Question : I tried using this setup and it doesn't work !

Answer : This is quite specific, depending on the setup. Check out the wiki page for a fix, and if it doesn't work, ask us !
If you ask us, please tell us :
- Which version of the game you're playing (Red/Blue or Yellow)
- Which language you're using (note : for ACE's purposes, all that counts is Japanese, English or "other". "Other" all have more or less the same properties.)
- Which party / box Pokémon setup you're using
- Which item setup you're using, if possible link us to the source instead of copy-pasting the setup. This sometimes gives extra info you didn't know was important.

Also, but that's a general rule, be polite, use a correct English, and don't stalk us. ACE is complex, don't expect us to give away solutions by snapping two fingers. Thank you for asking in the first place, though :P


Details :

First off, most ACE setups are region-specific. There are three groups :
- Japanese
- English
- Other ("European")
Most setups aren't cross-region.

Also, most setups for R/B don't work in Yellow, and vice-versa.

Basically, ACE allows mostly to edit the game's memory to, uh, make it do backflips ? Or whatever else.
Due to technical reasons, depending on your group (see above) some parts of memory are laid out differently. Thus, codes have to be modified to account for these changes.

Likewise, there are huge differences between Red/Blue (which are basically the same thing with different encounter tables xD) and Yellow. So same things apply.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: Krys3000
Date: 2017-06-30 04:52:32
Very good idea ISSOtm, it was about time a clear guide was started, because we usually see always the same questions here  :P

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2017-07-03 08:05:50
Question : I tried using 8F / ws m, but it corrupted my save. Is there a way to recover it ?

Answer : Oh heeeeell yeah. It's just… Try doing this without ever saving. And I mean, if you save then it's game over. You can't switch boxes either. lol

I might have better for you : here are instructions to reduce the risk of nuking your save file !

1. Save (not necessary but heh)
2. View a Pokémon's summary (as innocuous as it might seems xD)
3. DON'T SAVE, SWITCH BOXES, OR ANYTHING.
4. Use 8F / ws m. Crashes are less lethal to your save data, promise.

I didn't say this was the perfect solution in any way, though. Best practice really is to check, double-check and triple-check you did everything alright, then do what's above, then use. If you're on an emulator, a savestate is a must.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2017-07-03 08:14:04
Question : How do I write my own setup ?

Answer : You need to know the GB's ASM. Try learning z80 ASM, it's mostly the same (and for good reasons :P). Then learn some of Gen I's inner workings, and write your setup.
Still, the best way is to become part of the community and worm your way into doing what you're aiming to. Some did just tha, and are having a great time here ^^

If you'd like to commission someone here, we need to know the target version and language, as well as precisely knowing what you want. That said, we're open for commissionning, and it's free !

Note to those only knowing C and hoping it's enough : oooohhhh boyyyy it's NOT. Believe me. Even for experienced ASM programmers, it's a pain.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2017-07-03 08:21:15
Question : Is it possible to permanently do blah blah blah wit ACE ?

Answer : Whoa there boy, cool your jets. Doing that is probably possible, but the biggest problem with ACE is that it usually doesn't persist when shutting the console down.
But you might have heard about MrCheeze's virus, which bypasses this restriction by manipulating the save file. The biggest problem is that it's a very heavy modification of the save file, and… I don't think anybody here will want to modify everything required for it to work. Sorry, boy.
But on the flip side : yes. It's entirely possible.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: Legerepze
Date: 2017-09-13 14:09:48
I try using ACE for the first time to change my ID in pokemon Yellow, but I can´t change more than the last 3 digits and I do´t know what I'm doing wrong.

Here´s what I am doing:

Version: Pokemon Yellow
Region: Other (Europe-Spanish)
Method: ws#&#m#

Bootstrap (PC):
11 Pokémon in your current PC box
Seel as the 1st Pokémon in the current PC box
Parasect as the 2nd Pokémon in the current PC box
Growlithe as the 3rd Pokémon in the current PC box
Magikarp as the 4th Pokémon in the current PC box
Psyduck as the 5th Pokémon in the current PC box
Flareon as the 6th Pokémon in the current PC box
Tentacool as the 7th Pokémon in the current PC box
Female Nidoran as the 8th Pokémon in the current PC box
Three more Pokémon
Finally, Seel's HP must be 233

Bag set:
any item (Masterball x108)
ws# #m#
Lemonade x89
Repel x12
Carbos x 211
X Accuracy x94
Water Stone x115
TM01 x(1)

When I use ws#&#m#, I change my ID from 47337 to 47271, but that's all.
Thanks and sorry for my bad english.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: DoubleNegative
Date: 2017-09-13 14:56:34
In yellow, many addresses are shifted one over. by the looks of it, you are trying to get the game freak mew id. try this: replace your setup with one that doesn't use e. Then toss 1 x accuracy, use wsm, buy another x accuracy, toss 77 lemonade, and use wsm again.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: Krys3000
Date: 2017-09-13 16:55:58
First of all, if your game is not english, an english code won't work. Adresses in European non-english Yellow are +4 from the English R/B (+5 from English Y). Everything must be adapted accordingly.



Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2017-09-14 05:42:45
Also these last three are off-topic.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: TheZZAZZGlitch
Date: 2017-09-14 15:12:42
I think we should isolate all of these questions into a nicely formatted Wiki page, and refer any newcomers there.
I might even help create such a short guide in my free time.

Also, giving this thread an official name and explicitly inviting newcomers here, while everything over here is still under construction, might not have been a very good idea.

Some common questions that will need to be addressed:
- What is ACE
- What is the most simple, up-to-date method of obtaining 8F
- What is bootstrapping, how to bootstrap 8F
- Will 8F work on all languages and game revisions? What are the alternatives?
- 8F just crashes the game, wat do
- 8F worked previously without any problems, but now it crashes…
- I tried this specific setup, and it didn't work! What happened?
- My game crashed and the save file got corrupted… is there any way to recover it?
- Are there any safety precautions I can take to make sure my save will never get corrupted by accident?
- Can I permanently modify the game using ACE?
- Is there anything that ACE can't do at all? Are there any limits?
- I've seen the "universal pseudo-Gameshark setup", but it needs a "memory address" and a "value". What are those things?
- How do I know which memory addresses do specific things I need? Is there any documentation on that?
- I have a memory address from English R/B - is there any way to find out the equivalent address in Yellow and other games?
- I've seen some complex setups that did incredible things, like making Mew appear under the truck. How do I do that?
- I want to write my own scripts. Where should I start? Are there any resources on this topic?
- How do I convert gbz80 assembly code to an item list and vice versa?
- I'm converting my code into an item list, but I keep getting glitch items, which are hard to obtain. Can I do anything about it?
- I looked into some setups, and some instructions in them did seemingly useless things…
- Having to write codes by using items is starting to drive me insane… Is there a better option for getting my code into the game?
- How do I know the address of a specific subroutine in the game, like GivePokemon?
- I've seen save files that automatically run some code. How does this work? How do I do that?
- Is there any way to have my code run continuously in the background, to have it persist between maps for example?

And potentially a lot more.
But most importantly:
- All I care about is getting a GameFreak Mew to transfer into Pokemon Bank. Show me the easiest way of accomplishing just that.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: Xavi
Date: 2018-03-20 18:11:26
Wrong thread, sorry.

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2018-03-20 21:22:42

NOTE : This guide is a WIP, I'm going to add new questions as they come up. Please don't post unless it's for this purpose :)

Anyways, your Pokémon setup is correct, instead the item list needs to be adjusted. (I didn't take a look at it yet.)

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: bwill11
Date: 2019-07-26 12:55:05

First of all, if your game is not english, an english code won't work. Adresses in European non-english Yellow are +4 from the English R/B (+5 from English Y). Everything must be adapted accordingly.

By "Addresses are +4 in european non-english", what does that mean in terms of changing items in an ACE setup?

Re: The Official ACE Guide - READ THIS IF YOU ARE NEW TO ACE

Posted by: Sherkel
Date: 2019-07-26 15:21:26


First of all, if your game is not english, an english code won't work. Adresses in European non-english Yellow are +4 from the English R/B (+5 from English Y). Everything must be adapted accordingly.

By "Addresses are +4 in european non-english", what does that mean in terms of changing items in an ACE setup?
$D158 in English Red corresponds to $D15D in European Red, and so forth.