User:Kimbles/Medarot 2 Hacking Notes

Just a page to post what I've found in Medarot 2. ;D

Note that this is for the original GB/GBC version. For the GBA remake, see Medarot 2 Core Hacking Notes.

Bank map

These are my findings for how the ROM is organized. This game is 2 MB, so about four times the size of Medarot 1.

Legend: Text is green, Graphics are pink, and other data is black. Only the banks that say (Empty) are actually empty, and the rest just contain unidentified data.

Bank Map
Bank	Address	Known contents
0x0	0x0000	0x237E - Dialogue text bank pointer table
0x3	0xC000	0xDB50 - Metabee part names in English, used in intro 0xDC20 - Graphics for English font used in intro
0x4	0x10000	0x11350 - Staff credits
0x5	0x14000	0x160D0 - Skill names 0x159E0 - Head/Right arm/Left arm/Legs
0x6	0x18000	(Empty)
0xC	0x30000	(Empty)
0x11	0x44000	0x45000 - Title screen graphics
0x1A	0x68000	0x693F9 - Debug menu options
0x20	0x80000	0x80800 - Medarotter names + data for encounter portraits/text
0x21	0x84000	0x84000 - Parts data 0x86620 - Attribute names 0x866D0 - Skill names, Leg types  ? some other data? 0x86D70 - Medal nature names 0x86E60 - Medaforce names + data
0x22	0x88000	0x88200 - Medarot names 0x88890 - Part names, models + gender data 0x8B7A0 - Item names + usability data 0x8BA50 - Medal names 0x8BB90 - Terrain names 0x8BC60 - Short action names (partly unused)
0x23	0x8C000	Battle, menu, system messages
0x24	0x90000	Battle, menu, system messages
0x25	0x94000	(Empty)
0x28	0xA0000	Character walking sprites
0x29	0xA4000	Character walking sprites
0x2A	0xA8000	Attack/battle animations
0x2B	0xAC000	Attack/battle animations
0x2E	0xB8000	More character walking sprites
0x34	0xD0000	Tilemaps + menu text
0x35	0xD4000	Tilemaps + menu text
0x3A	0xE8000	0xE8200 - Signs and objects
0x3B	0xEC000	? Compressed graphics (+ font)
0x3C	0xF0000	? Compressed graphics
0x3D	0xF4000	? Compressed graphics
0x3E	0xF8000	? Compressed graphics
0x40	0x100000	Character portraits
0x41	0x104000	Character portraits
0x42	0x108000	Character portraits
0x43	0x10C000	Character portraits
0x44	0x110000	? Compressed graphics
0x45	0x114000	? Compressed graphics
0x46	0x118000	Medal graphics
0x47	0x11C000	Medal graphics
0x48	0x120000	Medal graphics
0x49	0x124000	Head part graphics
0x4A	0x128000	Head part graphics
0x4B	0x12C000	Head part graphics
0x4C	0x130000	Head part graphics (silhouette)
0x4D	0x134000	Head part graphics (silhouette)
0x4E	0x138000	Head part graphics (silhouette)
0x4F	0x13C000	Right part graphics
0x50	0x140000	Right part graphics
0x51	0x144000	Right part graphics
0x52	0x148000	Right part graphics (silhouette)
0x53	0x14C000	Right part graphics (silhouette)
0x54	0x150000	Right part graphics (silhouette)
0x55	0x154000	Left part graphics
0x56	0x158000	Left part graphics
0x57	0x15C000	Left part graphics
0x58	0x160000	Left part graphics (silhouette)
0x59	0x164000	Left part graphics (silhouette)
0x5A	0x168000	Left part graphics (silhouette)
0x5B	0x16C000	Leg part graphics
0x5C	0x170000	Leg part graphics
0x5D	0x174000	Leg part graphics
0x69	0x1A4000	(Empty)
0x6F	0x1BC000	Dialogue (beginning of game)
0x70	0x1C0000	Dialogue
0x71	0x1C4000	Dialogue
0x72	0x1C8000	Dialogue
0x73	0x1CC000	Dialogue
0x74	0x1D0000	Dialogue
0x75	0x1D4000	Dialogue
0x76	0x1D8000	Dialogue
0x77	0x1DC000	Dialogue
0x78	0x1E0000	Dialogue
0x79	0x1E4000	Dialogue
0x7A	0x1E8000	0x1E8000 - Dialogue 0x1EA7FB - ? some other data?
0x7B	0x1EC000	Dialogue
0x7C	0x1F0000	Dialogue
0x7D	0x1F4000	Dialogue
0x7E	0x1F8000	Dialogue (ends with bathroom door)
0x7F	0x1FC000	? Compressed graphics

This should be all of the text in the game. I found the graphics by scrolling through a tile editor though, so I couldn't identify most of the compressed graphics. (The game almost certainly has a compressed graphics table like Telefang.)

If you know where anything else is located in the ROM (like music/sound, ASM code, or other data), feel free to add it here!

Text table

The text table for the game can be downloaded here:

• http://www.mediafire.com/file/7okkkxxopgpxyzi/medarot2.tbl

Use this to view/edit the text in a hex editor.

Control codes

• C0 = End character used to seperate entries in lists
• C1?? = Ends a string. In normal dialogue, C100 is used for most lines and C104 is used for yes/no questions. The game also uses C102 and C104 in battle/system messages.
• C2 = New line character. Technically this just starts writing on the second text line, so if you use it on the second text line it will start overwriting existing text.
• C3?? = Changes the text speed. Lower numbers are faster, and C3FF makes the text appear instantly.
• C4 = Waits for the player to press A, then starts a new text box. In normal dialogue, C4 is always followed by C6 when the game wants to start a new text box, but in battle/system messages C4 is sometimes used on its own. I'm not 100% sure what the difference is.
• C5???? = Inserts text from the RAM address specified. C528CB inserts the player's name.
• C6 = Starts a new box without waiting for a button press. The game seems to only use this in conjunction with C4.
• C7?? = Sets the dialogue portrait. There are C5 (198) possible faces to use. C7FF doesn't display a portrait.

Parts data

The format for parts data in M2 is much nicer than in Medarot 1. Like the other games, the parts are listed in the order of the Medarot list, with all head parts followed by all right arms, etc. The data is stored in two sections, one containing just the model number, name, and gender, and the other containing the rest of the data.

The addresses are as follows:

Models/Names/Gender:
--------------
Heads:   0x88891
Rights:  0x894BA
Lefts:   0x8A0E4
Legs:    0x8AD0D
End:     0x8B735

Data:
----------------
Heads:   0x84000
Rights:  0x84970
Lefts:   0x852E0
Legs:    0x85C50
End:     0x86570

Models, names, and genders

Each part has 17 bytes in this section.

Format:
  /A/A/A/A/A/A/A/B/B/B/B/B/B/B/B/B/C/

• A - Model number (as text) plus an end character.

• B - The part's name, limited to 8 characters plus an end character. (Empty space is filled with 00's)

• C - Decides the part's gender. 00 is male, 01 is female.

While they don't have any stats, this section actually includes slots for the male and female tinpets for use when no parts are equipped. The part names are all "--------" and the model numbers are all BAY-03, for some reason. (They aren't visible in the game.)

Data (Heads and arms)

Here, each part has 11 bytes of data, followed by five 00's for spacing.

Format:
  /A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/

A = Attribute
B = Action
C = Skill
D = Armor
E = Success
F = Power
G = Pierce
H = Uses/Charge
I = Cooldown (arms only)
J = Blank
K = Unknown

• A - This decides the attribute. There are 32 (1F) possible values (in the same order as the medal list), but the last 6 aren't used since they're for medals that don't match anything.

• B - This decides the action. There are 70 (45) possible actions, listed below. (Even non-attacking actions have names now!)

• C - This decides the skill. As you'd expect, there are 8 possible values (00 to 07).

Skills:
 00 = Strike    01 = Berserk
 02 = Shoot     03 = Snipe	
 04 = Support   05 = Protect
 06 = Heal      07 = Other

• D, E, F = Decide the Armor, Success, and Power stats respectively. All three range from 00 to FF (255), but I suspect only armor can go that high without causing problems.

• G - Decides whether or not the part has a pierce effect. 00 means no, 01 (or any non-00 value) means yes. Amusingly, most of the Medarots from the first game still use 0B here, which implies that the list really was copy/pasted.

• H - For head parts, this is the number of uses. For arms, it's the charge value.

• I - For heads, this is always 00. For arms, it's the cooldown value.

• J - This is 00 for all head and arm parts.

• K - I... I don't know what this does. It looks like it's for something, but nothing stands out on the stat pages or in battle. The number seems to be the same among parts on the same Medarot (including legs).

Data (Legs)

Like heads and arms, these have 11 bytes of stuff followed by five 00's for spacing.

Format:
  /A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/

A = Attribute
B = Leg type
C = Blank
D = Armor
E = Speed
F = Mobility
G = Fighting
H = Shooting
I = Scan
J = Conceal
K = Unknown

• A - Same as above.

• B - This decides the leg type. There are 7 total, ranging from 46 (Flying) to 4C (Water).

• C - This is 00 for all leg parts.

• D, E, F, G, H, I, J - These are numeric stats that can range from 00 to FF (255). Again, aside from armor they'll probably mess up if you raise them that high.

• K - The same mystery byte as above. If you know what it does, please tell me!

That's it!

Extra action names

In M2, every action has a name shown in the first line of the part's description, but the ROM also contains a list of short names written in katakana English for every action. For attacking actions, the names on this list actually get used in battle, but for non-attacking actions they appear to go unused. They're all under 5 characters, so it's possible that they were intended to show up on the stats screens along with the attributes/skills. (If the goal was just to have names to use in battle, they probably would have used more than 5 characters!)

I think they're interesting, so I've listed them here with translations. I've also included the names the game actually uses for each action, as well as their current translations. (Some action names in Medarot 2 were changed later in the series, so the names the wiki uses don't match exactly. For those, I've added the translation of the original in brackets.)

Medarot 2 Action list
#	Short name	English	Actual name	Actual English
00	ソード	Sword	ソード	Sword
01	ハンマー	Hammer	ハンマー	Hammer
02	ライフル	Rifle	ライフル	Rifle
03	ガトリング	Gatling	ガトリング	Gatling
04	レーザー	Laser	レーザー	Laser
05	ビーム	Beam	ビーム	Beam
06	ミサイル	Missile	ミサイル	Missile
07	ナパーム	Napalm	ナパーム	Napalm
08	ブレイク	Break	ブレイク	Break
09	プレス	Press	プレス	Press
0A	トラップ	Trap	かくとう トラップ	Melee Trap
0B	トラップ	Trap	しゃげき トラップ	Shooting Trap
0C	ブロック	Block	こうげき ブロック	Shot Clear (Attack Block)
0D	バグ	Bug	バグ	Bug
0E	ウィルス	Virus	ウィルス	Virus
0F	サンダー	Thunder	サンダー	Thunder
10	フリーズ	Freeze	フリーズ	Freeze
11	ウェーブ	Wave	ウェーブ	Wave
12	ホールド	Hold	ホールド	Hold
13	ファイヤー	Fire	ファイヤー	Fire
14	メルト	Melt	メルト	Melt
15	キャンセル	Cancel	トラップ かいじょ	Trap Cancel
16	キャンセル	Cancel	しょうじょう かいじょ	Status Cancel
17	キャンセル	Cancel	ヘんどう かいじょ	Flux Cancel
18	キャンセル	Cancel	ていし かいじょ	Stop Cancel
19	キャンセル	Cancel	そくばく かいじょ	Bind Cancel
1A	キャンセル	Cancel	けいぞく かいじょ	Burn Cancel
1B	オペレート	Operate	メダフォース コントロール	Force Control (Medaforce Control)
1C	ボイド	Void	こうがく むこう	Negate Optical
1D	ボイド	Void	かやく むこう	Negate Gunpowder
1E	ボイド	Void	じゅうリょく むこう	Negate Gravity
1F	デフェンス	Defense	シールド	Defend (Shield)
20	バリア	Barrier	バリア	Perfect Defense (Barrier)
21	ブロック	Block	ダメージ しょうめつ	Lesser Defense (Damage Discard)
22	キュア	Cure	かいふく	Repair
23	レストア	Restore	けいぞく かいふく	Auto-Repair
24	リバイバル	Revival	ふっかつ	Revive
25	リバース	Reverse	そせい	Resurrect
26	アンチエア	Anti-Air	たいくう	Anti-Air *
27	アンチエア	Anti-Air	たいくう	Anti-Air *
28	アンチシー	Anti-Sea	たいすい	Anti-Sea *
29	アンチシー	Anti-Sea	たいすい	Anti-Sea *
2A	サーチ	Search	さくてき	Scan
2B	ストリップ	Strip	いんペい クリア	Conceal Clear
2C	ヒドュン	Hidden	いんペい	Conceal
2D	ジャミング	Jamming	さくてき クリア	Scan Clear
2E	フルアップ	Full-Up	ほじょ じゅうてん	Boost Charge
2F	チャージ	Charge	きゅうそく じゅうてん	Instant Charge
30	バッテリー	Battery	じょうじ じゅうてん	Constant Charge
31	アブソーブ	Absorb	じゅうてん きゅうしゅう	Charge Drain
32	フォール	Fall	てんとう	Trip
33	インポス	Imposs	しようふのう	Disable
34	コンフュ	Confu	こんらん	Confuse
35	リデュース	Reduce	かいすう ダウン	Ammo Down
36	リアボイド	Re-Avoid	かいひ ふかのう	No Dodge
37	リデフェン	Re-Defen	ぼうぎょ ふかのう	No Defend
38	デストロイ	Destroy	デストロイ	Destroy
39	サクリ	Sacri	サクリファイス	Sacrifice
3A	メダアップ	Meda-Up	メダフォース アップ	Force Up (Medaforce Up)
3B	メダダウン	Meda-Down	メダフォース ダウン	Force Down (Medaforce Down)
3C	セットオン	Set On	クロスこうげき セットオン!	Cross Attack Set (Cross Attack Set On!)
3D	ファイヤー	Fire	クロスこうげき ファイヤー!	Cross Attack Fire (Cross Attack Fire!)
3E	まわリこみ	Surround	しのびこみ かくとう	Enemy Detection (Sneak Attack)
3F	カウンター	Counter	ダメージ はんげき	Counter (Damage Counter)
40	リフレクト	Reflect	ダメージ はんしゃ	Reflect (Damage Reflect)
41	チェンジ	Change	パーツ ヘんか	Transform
42	ジャミング	Jamming	ぼうがいパーツ ヘんか	Transform: Disrupt
43	アタッカー	Attacker	こうげきパーツ ヘんか	Transform: Attack
44	デフェンダ	Defender	ぼうぎょパーツ ヘんか	Transform: Defend
45	スペシャル	Special	とくしゅパーツ ヘんか	Transform: Special
Leg types
46	プレーン	Plane	ひこう	Flying
47	フロート	Float	ふゆう	Hover
48	ミリポッド	Milipod	たきゃく	Multi-leg
49	レッグ	Leg	にきゃく	Bipedal
4A	ホイール	Wheel	しゃリん	Wheeled
4B	タンク	Tank	せんしゃ	Tank
4C	サブマリン	Submarine	せんすい	Aquatic

* There are two copies each of Anti-Air and Anti-Sea. The only difference seems to be the animations; the first one is used as a physical attack and the second one is ranged.