(Link to video)

Introduction

So, there have been two Pokemon Crystal save glitch movies so far. Both of which abuse the laughable checksum system and use checksum collision to corrupt the main save data. It was thought that this technique would ultimately be just slower in Gold/Silver due to the classic save glitch ACE exploit, type 0xD0, required a third Pokemon in the party. However, I've recently discovered that this requirement is really only needed for Gold. Silver happens to have some slight differences with type 0xD0 ACE, that being a usable pointer was in the middle of box names! This eliminated the need for a third Pokemon, making save glitch far better in Silver than Crystal. Now Silver is the fastest gen 2 game!

Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.5.1

  • SubGBHawk was again used due to the need of a precise subframe reset.

Categories

  • Aims for fastest completion of the game
  • Minor luck manipulation
  • Heavy glitch abuse
  • Corrupts save data
  • Corrupts memory

Objectives

Save corruption

Read the previous 2 save glitch submissions for the details, but essentially we want to corrupt Cyndaquil so it has no moves, while also making sure the checksum passes.

Type 0xD0

Type 0xD0 is the type move 0x00 has on the move summary screen. This type sources itself from VRAM, which is subject to locking, so the corruption done is variable and dependent on timing. This timing can be manipulated slightly using PrintLetterDelay, just like RNG. Anyways, this corruption can overflow the tile map, and the corruption happens to reach some data regarding animations. Particularly, the animation ID can be corrupted, and this animation ID happens to use a jump table that has some interesting values past its valid entries. For 0x91, the pointer is 0xD8CD, which is in the middle of box 2. 0x91 can be corrupted in using the player's name (R is character 0x91).

Arbitrary Code Execution

This uses yet again MrWint's box code for input to opcode. There were some minor modifications done to work around character limitations.
BytesInstructionComment
Box 4
aaxor dd stores last joypad input: find out differences to current input
ea e2 f8ld (f8e2),aWrite difference; will be executed as opcode later in the next cycle
aaxor dRestore current joypad input value
f5push afCopy current joypad input from a...
d1pop de... to d (store it as last joypad input)
f1pop afRestore a and f from the previous cycle
(f8e2)(any)Execute opcode written earlier this cycle
Box 5
f5push afSave a and f for next cycle
b6or (hl)Clears carry flag, needed for the jump
fa a6 ffld a,(ffa6)Reads current joypad inputs into a
d2 d6 f8jp nc, f8d6Loop back to right before Box 4; carry will never be set
Here is a paste of the tracelog and the values set from the input to opcode payload: https://pastebin.com/raw/B7R0Cmf1
To note, movie does something a bit differently to get to Mt. Silver. Instead of creating a warp, I just change the map connection so it goes to Mt. Silver (and in front of Red) and I move myself next to the map connection, so taking 1 step down triggers it. This also happens to make autoinput taken from 00:0000 to work, so all I need to do is enable autoinput and it'll just work.

Route

Intro

  • Save data is cleared for morality reasons.
  • Options are not set as text can print at the fast speed when A or B is held anyway.
  • The trainer ID is not manipulated, as it's not relevant for ACE nor collision.
  • The player is named "R". This is needed for type 0xD0 ACE to work.

New Bark Town

  • The game is saved before obtaining Cyndaquil to setup later collision.
  • Save corruption happens right before entering Route 29. Upon reloading the game, Cyndaquil now has no moves.

Route 29

  • No encounters are manipulated. This is the only luck manipulation within the run.

Cherrygrove City

  • Boxes 4 and 5 are named for the initial ACE payload.
  • Type 0xD0 is viewed and manipulated to place the player's name at the right spot for ACE to happen.
  • Auto input takes over after ACE, going down and pressing A through Red's textboxes.

ThunderAxe31: Judging.
ThunderAxe31: All right, the movie looks optimized and it correctly beats the game.
There is just one special note I need to make. After some discussion with the other judges, as well as the precedent set with this submission, we decided that using glitches that are affected by uninitialized SRAM bytes is considered fair. For this reason, it shouldn't be considered as a requirement to wipe the save data by using in-game functionalities, like this movie does. Additionally, this movie does also write a proper save file once, before performing the save glitch, so there wouldn't be much of controversial even if we wanted to see it that way. However, the time lost is not considered as suboptimal play, but rather as a personal choice from the author. Additionally, the previous publications are also making use of this in-game feature, so it's understandable that the author decided to follow the trend set by movies that have been accepted in the past, in order to make sure that the new submission would comply with the rules. Though, this isn't always the case, as rules may change and judgement precedents may not always reflect them; when in doubt, always ask directly to the judges. Anyway, please remember to avoid wiping the save data for future submissions, unless that is required for performing a faster glitch.
Since the movie contents are very similar to the published Pokémon Crystal movie, this movie is going to obsolete it. It does also pretty much reflect the same audience reaction, so it's also going to inherit the Moons tier. Accepting over [4285] GBC Pokémon: Crystal Version "save glitch" by CasualPokePlayer in 03:55.59.
Spikestuff: Publishing.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14773
Location: 127.0.0.1
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Expert player, Publisher (2254)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6324
Location: The land down under.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Expert player (3514)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2713
Location: US
It's really surprising to me how much shorter this is then the other Crystal movie, despite all the extra travel. Nice work.
xxezrabxxx
He/Him
Joined: 7/15/2017
Posts: 199
Location: Kentucky
Yes vote obviously. Nice improvement!
I like to comment on submissions and look around the site. You have probably seen me before (if you have been around for a while) either on the site, Discord, or any other social media. I recently took up making temporary encodes for new submissions. Also, I never forget to greet Tompa wherever I find him! "when resyncing stuff sucks it's called Resuccing" - EZGames69 “If an emulator stops being accepted to the site it should be called an emuLAMEr” - EZGames69 "oh no discord, everything I say will now be logged forever, sdfsdf, time to hide" - Masterjun "just had to give therapy to a taxi with daddy issues" - psx Current Projects: Mother 3 (75% complete)
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 3999
Nicely done, yes vote! It feels practically as broken as RBY now.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Player (50)
Joined: 4/1/2016
Posts: 282
Location: Cornelia Castle
What a nice improvement! Yes vote!
DJ Incendration Believe in Michael Girard and every speedrunner and TASer!
Judge, Skilled player (1274)
Joined: 9/12/2016
Posts: 1645
Location: Italy
After the judgement precedents set with Devil Island and Link's Awakening, we have general agreement that there is no requirement to wipe the SRAM with in-game functionalities. On the other hand, I still consider it as a good practice. But on the other other hand, in this submission the game is properly saved already once, before performing the save file corruption, so it's technically unnecessary. Still, I want to leave freedom of choice to the author, and still allow it as a stylistic choice. CasualPokePlayer, would you like to replace the submitted movie with a version that skips the memory clearing, or leave the movie file unchanged?
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
Emulator Coder, Experienced player, Judge (593)
Joined: 2/26/2020
Posts: 691
Location: California
haha no just keep it the same (totally not saying this out of laziness considering much of the movie would have to be redone to actually have that work lel)
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14773
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [4326] GBC Pokémon: Silver Version "save glitch" by CasualPokePlayer in 03:31.23