Code Conversion Tutorial

[michaelchan21]

Does anybody know where I can find a Japanese to US code conversion tutorial? All I can find are US to PAL/PAL to US ones. If you know one, please let me know. Thanks.

[jlwmanagement]

From what I have seen it largely depends on the game. There isnt a magic number to add or subtract generally speaking.

[willkuer]

1.You need the exactly same cheat for both versions. (Possibly inf health or money cheat).
2. Convert both cheats to raw format if they are encrypted.
3. Subtract the lower address from the larger address using a hex calculator (win calculator in programming mode). The result is called offset.
4. Convert foreign region codes to your own region codes by adding or subtracting the offset using an hex calculator.

If this confuses you don't hesitate asking precise questions.

[michaelchan21]

Thanks both of your replies.

The code I want to convert is the "one flash hit" Onimusha 3 (J) - 201FBB58 10000000.

Mr. Willkuer, I have tried your way quite a lot of times before. I had checked different sites and they don't have the one flash hit code for Onimusha 3 Demon Siege. I am wondering if the US version of this game pertains to AMS or something the like as Mr. jlwmanagement says.

[willkuer]

Let's just try do it together. Maybe the method doesn't work but I never saw it failing.

Please find a reliable source for the same cheat in the ntsc-j and in the region you would like to use (I guess ntsc-u).
Please link these sources/webpages to your next post. I would suggest to use something like infinite money or infinite health cheats.

[michaelchan21]

1. http://bbs.a9vg.com/thread-184285-1-1.html - this is a Chinese site that shows all the Japanese codes for Onimusha 3
2.  http://bbs.a9vg.com/thread-164744-1-1.html - this is the same site showing all the US codes for the same game

I tried to subtract some of the US codes against the JP codes and got a same result of 11680. I added this to 201FBB58 and got 2020D1D8. But this has no effect at all.

[willkuer]

The offset sounds reasonable.

I haven't found the cheat you want to convert in that source (?) Do you use another source?

Do other cheats work?

Unfortunately naming convention isn't consistent between versions. Do you understand which of the infinite codes translates to which one?

Some of these cheats are in the x08.....till x0A.... Range where the status and inventory seems to be stored while some cheats are in the x01.... Range where game physics are treated. Possibly both ranges have a different offset. The cheat you want to convert is in the lower range. Can you create a working offset in that range? Probably you need the infinite cheats.

[michaelchan21]

In fact I don't have any knowledge about code converting. I just learned it from Codemasters Project days ago.

I have search for years and found that there is no "one flash hit" code for Onimusha 3 (U). You can perform one flash hit only after you acquired the Black Vest and at least 9 EcoSpeheres. And yet, you can perform one flash hit at the beginning of the game if you use the one flash hit cheat in the JP version.

I have found (and tested) only 2 infinite codes for both versions :

A. Inf life (yellow soul) 208F2AD8 00000500 (US) version
    Inf life (yellow soul) 2016C2B4 8C8521E4 (JP) version

B. Inf orge power 108F4D32 00000500 (US) version
    Inf orge power 2016C4D0 10200000 (JP) version

I tried to subtract them but the results are different and both codes have no effect either.

[willkuer]

Then I guess this will be the problem. Converting cheats only works if the memory alignment is more or less conserved. This seems not to be valid in this case.

So there would be no other possibility hunting the cheat the old way using cheatengine.

I am by no means expert in it and maybe somebody like vsub or some of the widescreen guys could help more but the general idea is to bruteforce all values that are possible candidates.

The cheats you are looking for probably has a similar address as your last two trials. So you need to look in a range slightly larger and containing these two addresses. The value is probably unchanged during normal gameplay. The value is probably zero if you are in the beginning of the game. And it seems to be of 4byte character.

[willkuer]

Sorry don't know how to help you further.