FAQ - Guide for Blood of Zeon

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Mobile Suit Gundam Gihren's Greed 
	   BLOOD OF ZEON
	(for Sega Dreamcast)

Savegame Editing FAQ
Version 1.0
3-27-2001

by DeadScreenSky



!--------------------------------------------------------------------!
	Ummm, this document is free.
	Do whatever you like with it, though please don't sell it. 
	If you want to quote it or whatever, just include some mild
	credit for me please. 
	I guess that it is technically copyrighted by me, but the
	worth of that is unclear to me.
!--------------------------------------------------------------------!

-------------------
ABOUT THIS FAQ:   |
-------------------
This guide gives directions on how to modify savegames for the Dreamcast
version of Blood of Zeon. You will need a memory card that can connect to
a computer, a link cable to perform this connection, and software to 
modify it. I use the very common Nexus 2MB card. 
You can get it at: 
They will also have a link to the software to use (which is free). 
(Oh yes, and you will probably need a Windows machine to do this. 
 If anyone knows how to do this on other OSes, let me know!)

Don't worry if you don't have any experience doing this stuff - 
I didn't either, and I managed to figure it out. 
I used the excellent Hex Workshop, available at:

For some reason I wasn't able to hack files in Hex Workshop and export
them back to my DC memcard, but for finding and comparing hex values
it worked like a charm.

I learned this because I was finding the second part of the game too 
hard - I have absolutely no knowledge of Japanese. So if you want to
play this game and enjoy it, but are similarly ignorant, this should
make it much easier (especially with the wonderful, if vague and
PSX-specific, guides at GameFAQs). 
This site has some good info on the Mobile Suits, etc., so you can be 
more informed on what units to use for what:


I don't need much more info for this to be complete in my eyes. 
Just research levels are the last important step, along with some 
improved formatting perhaps.

Let me know if anything is unclear or if you have any additional info 
I can add. Comments are always appreciated.

If anyone wants to help me out on hacking the actual game into English,
let me know. I have started figuring out how to do this, but I haven't 
progressed much yet, and I am once again woefully inexperienced.

------------------------------------------------
STUFF THAT THIS DOCUMENT TELLS HOW TO MODIFY   |
------------------------------------------------
* Money and Resources
* Research bars (but NOT levels)

----------------------------------------
THE EASY 'JUST GIVE ME MONEY' METHOD:  |
----------------------------------------
(Make sure all your hardware works. Test out transferring a save or
 something similar.)

The first thing you want to do is to create a savefile in Blood of Zeon.
Remember which slot it is - the first one is #0, the second one is #1,
etc. It is easiest to do this trick with a game that has just been started.
You can exit the game when you have finished, or leave it running.
It shouldn't matter.

Now load up the DCLink software and connect your memory card. You will 
probably have to right-click on Slot 1 and hit 'refresh'.

You should see several files now. The one with the Zeon crest is your 
system save. We aren't messing with that. The files afterward 
(with Gihren's pixelish face if you play as Zeon) are the save files. 
They are in order.

Highlight whichever one you saved (the date and time will help if it is
 your last save). Then click the 'edit' button.

The layout of the file will popup in an editor window now. The middle 
field of data (organized in pairs) is what we want to change around. 
In the bottom lefthand corner of the window is a "POS:" area, probably with
a zero after it. This is our cursor position. 
Move the cursor down to 2514 with your arrow keys. 
At the START of 2514, change the next 12 data places to 'F'. 
Case doesn't matter.

Now go to File - Save and then exit. It will save the modified data to your
memory card. When it is done, load up the game and select your savefile. 
You should have plenty of money and resources now. :-)

---------------------------------------------------------
WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED ABOUT THE SAVEFILE STRUCTURE     |
---------------------------------------------------------
In the examples I have modified so far, the game didn't care that there
were values bigger than what was reasonable - so the game doesn't appear 
(SO FAR) to have any tamper checking.

The money and resources begin at: 0x000009D2
They go for 12 spaces, six each. They are stored as something inbetween
a long and a short that lasts six places. :-) 
(Any help here is appreciated, I just learned enough to get it working!)

Research bars start at 0x000009C3 (or position 2499 in the DCLink Editor).
Each bar is two places, and there are four bars. The way I raised
research for my game was to max the bars out (to FF) at the start of every
turn, then buy the 'finish' in the game.

I couldn't figure out where the actual research levels were stored. I tried
quite a bit, too, but all I could do was crash the game. The unedited text
file of my experiments is at the end of this FAQ, maybe it will help 
someone succeed? I THINK the data is stored between 0x000009C0 and 
0x000009C3, though that might just be part of it, or something wholly 
unrelated. Regardless, I couldn't edit it successfully (though I did manage 
to make them all level 31 - perhaps a lower number would work? I will try 
more later). I am pretty sure that it isn't stored as simple numbers 
(a la the hex value for 20 for research level 20, etc.).

After getting the research level data I am not sure what should be looked
into next. Perhaps the flag that says if something is researched or not? 
Seems kind of useless with max research anyway, but it could be fun. 
Modifying the system file might be cool, to unlock everything, but just 
downloading a completed save might be much easier. 

Any suggestions out there?



------------------------
MY (UNEDITED) NOTES    |
------------------------

Research Experiments
File 1
Starting
File 2
Money=29400
MS Moved Up
File 3
Money=28800
MA Moved Up
MS Moved Up

Comparisons:
1:2

00000046
B060:AE46
45152: 44614

000002B7
4F:50
79:80

00000975
84 0000 0000 0000 0000 00B4: 
94 0000 0000 0000 0000 00A4

000009C4
0000 0084 208C 0002 8831 A81E 0001 0075 30:
6000 0084 208C 0002 8831 A81E 0001 0072 DB

000009FF
6F: E0

2:3
00000046
AE46:6B18
44614: 27416

000002B7
50:51
80:81

00000975
94 0000 0000 0000 0000 00A4:
B4 0000 0000 0000 0000 0084

000009C4
6000 0084 20BC 0002 8831 A81E 0001 0072 D8:
60C0 0084 20BC 0002 8831 A81E 0001 0070 80

000009FF
E0: FA

Analysis:
Remember that some of this is a counter to say research has already been
done in that area this turn.

00000046
Some kind of counter?
Decreases. Doesn't seem to be patterned (so far). Seems to go up again
sometimes, too!

000002B7
Another kind of counter. Seems pretty straightforward - increments by 1.
But is it because of research or because of something else?

00000975
Not sure. First 2 go up by 16, then 32 the second time. Very queer.
Wait a second! The hex values used are the same, they are just moved 
around! Why??

000009C4 (C3 really, maybe)
Bingo, I think!
Part of it is resources (last 6 places).
16 of them before that do not change MUCH.
Potentially the first 4 are research, first two are MS, second two MA.
Though they go up different amounts! Two after would be enemy research?
Two before would be general research. This seems to bear out, though
they affect each other in weird ways. Maybe they aren't in pairs?

[00] 0000 0084 208C (0002 8831 A81E 0001) (0075 30)
[00] 6000 0084 20BC (0002 8831 A81E 0001) (0072 D8)
[00] 60C0 0084 20BC (0002 8831 A81E 0001) (0070 80)
(modified, then added full to general)
 54  A890 0084 20C8  0002 8831 A09E 0001
(Turn 2, modified with FFFFFF and more reasearch added - 
 trying to find the 'levels')
 66  CD9F 0084 20AA  0002 7811 601D 0001

The modified one makes this confusing. Maybe trial and error is
called for? Some extensive changes are made starting 000009BA when the
levels increase. 9BA-9BE appear to deal with secret projects though,
so don't mess with it probably! (Seems to crash it!)
9BE-9C3 then maybe deal with levels.

(2499-2502 in DCLink editor)

Bars are stored somewhere after (and including) 9C0 and before 9C6 
(I suspect before 9C3). (2496-2499) [This is probably wrong in hindsight.]

000009FF
No idea. Again, some kind of counter.
6F
E0
FA


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