Other hack: Pokémon Gold Spaceworld 1997 Demo - Story Mode Patch

[TD]

Pokémon Gold Spaceworld 1997 Demo - Story Mode Patch


This is an in progress patch for reimplementing the extremely limited story mode for of the Spaceworld 1997 Demo of Pokémon Gold Version. It currently only implements the extremely limited story mode that was left in the code of the ROM back in 1997. This includes the initial scene with Prof. Oak, being taken to the lab by Blue, and battling your rival in Oak's Lab. Outside of that, there is unfortunately nothing else still in the game's code for the story. It was likely all stripped to prevent any accidental exploration or may have not even existed at all.

Below you will find the change logs for the patch, the planned future changes, as well as which version of the ROM that you must acquire to be able to use this patch. If you would like to help with getting this ROM hack further, please feel free to reach out as I would absolutely love to make a finished version of this patch. I have created a GitHub repository for this patch. Originally, builds v1 through v4 were all based on copying hex data from a very poor and unfinished translation and story patch that I found online. That extremely unfinished translation can be found here. But I highly advise against this patch solely because it breaks the ability to understand anything that is going on with the game. Especially since v7 onwards has all of the same features (as far as I am aware) while still being fully legible Japanese. The GitHub version that I am working on is based on the PRET Disassembly of the ROM to have more freedom in working with a language I can actually somewhat understand. If you would like to take a look at that (or even help further the progress), you can find it here. NOTE: All patch updates will be uploaded to the GitHub as soon as possible while this post may take a bit of time. I will, of course, continue to try to keep this post as up to date as possible as well.

You will need to get a copy of the ROM named exactly "Pokémon Gold - Spaceworld 1997 Demo (Debug) (Header Fixed).sgb" which is relatively easy to find if you know where to look.​

Screenshots

Spoiler:

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

Image 4:

Image 5:

Image 6:

Image 7:

Image 8:

Image 9:

Change Logs

Spoiler:

Story Mode V13
-Fixed bug introduced in either V12 that caused Rival Battle to become bugged like it originally did
-Adjusted Old City's Mart to properly fit in the smaller size that it was adjusted to at some point in development that caused map corruption
--This is an approximation based on other Mart maps but in the smaller 6 tile width instead of the seemingly standard 8 tile width

Story Mode V12
-All used tilesets have been updated/corrected
--Will eventually go back for the unused tilesets like Cave, Power Plant, SS Anne, and SS Anne Dock once they are needed/accessible
--The world is now technically 100% functional (including wild Pokémon but not including scripts after Route 1 Gate to Old City)

Story Mode V11
-Sadly brings back the locked door text for Oak's Lab as this was causing the game to crash for some reason.
-Added proper collision data for Old City, West (City), Baadon (City), all of their connecting routes (that share the same tilesets), and all route gates
--This opens up roughly 30-40% of the map as mostly functional (including wild Pokémon but not including scripts after Route 1 Gate to Old City)

Story Mode V10
-Implemented the Continue Game option on the title screen
--Selecting this option without having saved before will cause the game to crash
-Removed locked door text for Oak's Lab so that the player may now enter freely
-Made the forced Rival end demo text at the end of Route 1 not trigger automatically
--Talking to the Rival will cause the dialogue to trigger as normal and send the player back to the title screen (need a better solution)

Story Mode V9
-Added partial support for the Debug Menu version of Bill's PC
--This will crash the game if accessed before getting your starter Pokémon
--There is only one box with roughly 20 spaces but the release feature does function properly from my limited testing
-Adjusted the amount of PokéBalls that Nanami gives you after you defeat your rival from 6 to 99
--Her dialogue still states that she is giving you 6 because this is only temporary while I work on better systems of implementation for getting items

Story Mode V8
-Changed start menu to show the save option
--Save does not actually work at this moment in time
-Added in Field Debug Menu (Activated by holding B and Start at the same time)
--This allows users to heal their party as well as some other features

Story Mode v7
-Removed the demo barricades at the North and East exits of Silent Hill
--DO NOT GO TO THE EAST UNTIL YOU HAVE RECEIVED YOUR STARTER!!!! Doing so will cause a soft lock of the game.

Story Mode v6
-Implemented Rival battle
--The Rival's name is currently messed up (Shows the text of "<rival's name>'s has started a battle!") but attempting to fix this later

Story Mode v5 (Beginning of rewrite)
-Enable Story Mode
-Change Title Menu Option from "Play Pokémon" to "New Game"
-Re-enabled all Pokémon evolutions

Story Mode v4
-Remove the barricade to the north of Silent Hills.

Story Mode v3
-Remove the barricade to the east of Silent Hills
--Going this way and encountering a Pokémon without having chosen your starter will cause a soft lock that will require a restart to resolve.

Story Mode v2
-Correct the Rival battle to use the appropriate counter starter choice.

Story Mode v1
-Change game from Demo Mode to Story Mode

Known Bugs

Spoiler:

-Selecting the Continue Game option on the title screen without having a save made will cause the game to crash
-Talking to the rival at the end of Route 1 will still trigger the end demo dialogue and reset the game
-Opening the Debug Menu version of Bill's PC before getting your starter Pokémon will cause the game to crash
-Nanami's dialogue incorrectly states that she is giving you 6 PokéBalls because the 99 she gives you is a temporary workaround
-Encountering a wild Pokémon to the East (and possibly North) of Silent Hills before receiving your starter will cause a soft lock that requires a restart to resolve.
-Rival battle has grammatical error during the intro text
-All of you Pokémon fainting will cause the game to reset.
-Currently no way of acquiring more items besides the few PokéBalls that the player receives after defeating their Rival.
-Start menu does not update along with the story flags being achieved
-Title screen menu does not update along with existing/missing save data

Planned Changes

Spoiler:

-Remove locked door text for Oak's Lab so that the player may enter freely
-Implement a temporary blockade to the East (and possibly North) exit of Silent Hill, similar to Blue at the West exit
--This is because if you encounter a wild Pokémon before receiving your starter, the game will soft lock and require a restart
-Re-enable Pokémon Center features in Silent Hill
--Re-enable healing feature
--Re-enable the PC features
-Disable the game reset after all of your Pokémon faint that is currently implemented even outside of Demo Mode
-Fix start menu to actually update with the story mode flags
-Fix the title menu to show Continue Game only after the player saves the game at least once

Stretch Goal Features

Spoiler:

-Enable the ability to enter all Pokémon Centers within the game as well as both healing and PC boxes if possible
-Enable the ability to enter and purchase from PokéMarts everywhere in the game if possible
-English translation (This is almost a zero percent chance thanks to my limited skillset but I am very much open to help with this as well as any of the other features listed above)
-If I can either get the help or learn enough to do all of the above features, I would like to maybe make a separate version of the patch that would essentially be a Gold 97 Reforged situation. Though this would require a lot of additional research into as much info that can be found about the original plans for Generation 2 prior to them being scrapped for the versions that were officially released to us. This is including, but not limited to; adding the boat to travel between Fonto, High Tech, and West, adding the proper connections for Cave and Power Plant if actually intended to be used, story events found in other leaked sources, etc.

Credits

Spoiler:

Patch Source Code: https://github.com/tdadvocate/pret-pokegold-spaceworld-storypatch
PRET Disassembly: https://github.com/pret/pokegold-spaceworld
Code Modification: TD (and hopefully others in the future)
Translations (within code, NOT the actual game): TD and PRET Team
Topic Research Resource: The Cutting Room Floor
Bad Patch used for no longer available versions 1 through 4 (highly advised against using): Godspeed

 

[StCooler]

Approved :)

 

[TD]

I have released Version 10 of the patch now. This finally adds saving! There are a lot of bugs to squash and features to add. Please feel free to lend a hand on the GitHub. I am new to this whole scene and language so I would love to have some more skilled individuals lending their help to continue this project further!

 

[TD]

Today I am releasing version 11 of the patch. This is a massive step in fixing the world map. I have corrected a ton of collision data which allows players to now properly explore a majority of the middle third of the entire world map. You can even encounter all of the wild Pokémon in several routes. There is still so much left to do so please feel free to help out on the GitHub if you would like so that we can make this the best patch that we can.

 

[TD]

Today I have released version 12 of the patch. This officially makes it so that all accessible areas of the overworld should now be fully playable (outside of the scripts removed by TPC before the demo). This means that you should be able to encounter wild Pokémon in every area, enter every building, and explore the full region. This project still has an incredibly long journey ahead of it, so please feel free to help out on the GitHub if you would like so that we can make this the best patch that we can!

 

[TD]

Just wanted to post an update on this project. I have been working on getting a proper development environment setup so that I can begin working on the full disassembly. There is a lot that I am limited from doing with this patch without having the full ROM disassembled. (There are also limitations in my skills but those bridges will be crossed over time.) I am hoping to get the disassembly moved along further as I have also been working on an English translation of the original SW97 demo mode. This is when I really saw just how limited I am with the only half finished disassembly currently available on the PRET github.

Once I have the disassembly further along/completed, I can then work on the English translation for the demo mode. That should be relatively "easy" in comparison to the remaining issues in this Japanese story mode patch. The Japanese story mode patch will then be my next target as it will be the foundation for resolving all of the missing or incomplete features that are required for the English expanded story mode patch to be based on. Not to mention that the knowledge acquired from working on the English demo mode patch would help me more easily convert the story mode patches once they were ready to be converted.

This is going to take an extremely long time to get to a point where I can get back to working on these patches for the ROM. I would love if anyone who has any knowledge or even just wants to begin learning like I am, please lend a hand over on the main PRET disassembly that can be found here. With help from others, we can finally finish preserving a very important piece of history as well as allow many more people to have access to the content that we never saw outside of Japan. Also, feel free to join the PRET Discord server (link in the github link earlier) where you can learn how to help with the project and we could more easily communicate on changes and whatnot for the projects. Thank you to any and all who help out or even just use these patches!

 

[TD]

Since it has been quite some time, I wanted to post an update on this situation I am currently in with this project series.

Development Setup
I now have a proper device and environment set up specifically for working on the Space World 1997 Pokémon leaks. This means that I can now focus specifically on the full disassembly that was abandoned by the PRET community, the English Demo Translation Patch, the Japanese "Story" Mode Patch, the English Story Mode Patch, and the English Story Mode Colour Patch. However, this does not mean that any of them will make any major progress soon unfortunately. (Github links available to the current projects that I have started if you would like to see development progress.)

Research/Studies
Because of the main disassembly having been dropped by the PRET community as "not worth it" due to projects like Super Gold 97 and "lack of [general] interest in the leaked demos, I am basically on my own. Which means that I have to learn a lot about how the GB, SGB, and CGB all worked as well as games for them. I have never worked with the assembly language before let alone any GameBoy assembly language. So now that I have what I believe to be everything that I need to learn/work on these projects, I am currently in the progress of learning how to actually finish the main disassembly.

Why the Disassembly?
The reason that I must learn this all to work on the disassembly is because the main disassembly was dropped roughly half way through (give or take from what I can tell). Which means that I cannot work with a lot of the text or features within the game that would be needed for translation or proper patching. As seen in the current V12 build of the Japanese "Story" Mode Patch that is available here, a lot of the features require the user to enter my forced in Debug Menu. This is because many of the features had not yet been completed for this rewrite of the code. And, unfortunately, much of the code that I need to finish myself are not currently accessible due to the unfinished nature of the disassembly. This can also be seen with the English Demo Translation Patch's GitHub page. If you compile the English code, there are many different intractable objects within just the Demo area that are still in Japanese. And due to the way the translation is being done, will just show up as garbled text.

What is Next?
As of the moment, it is just learning everything I can about GameBoy era development. Once I have this under my belt, I will continue the disassembly. Unfortunately, as seen above, I cannot further work on any of the projects to make the game more playable for anyone until this has been completed. However, as soon as the disassembly is complete, I will begin to work on the playable projects in the order seen in the first text block. This being: English Demo, Japanese Story, English Story, and finally English Story Colour Upgrade. However, all of these steps are going to take a very long time due to my limited free time.

How Can You Help?
Since this is all one giant passion project, I am only able to do all of these things in my extremely limited free time. I have work, family, and actual studies to attend to in my day to day life. If you would like to help get these projects rolling, please lend a hand by furthering the main PRET disassembly for the Gold Space World 1997 ROM. The faster that this version is disassembled, the faster that I can get back to finishing the English Demo Translation. That essentially holds the key to making a V12 equivalent but in English. And then I can get to work on things like finishing patching out all the demo mode limitations, complete the half built features from GF themself, and finally start working on expanding the story mode into a full story similar to how Super Gold 97 did.

Thank You!
A big thank you to anyone who is watching this project still and also took the time to read through this massive wall of text. It means a lot that anyone other than myself still has interest in this kind of a project. If you would like to help, absolutely please do so. And if you do end up helping, I cannot thank you enough for doing so. Every hand we can get on a project like this means that we will be one step closer to preserving an incredibly important piece of gaming history for the future!

 

[Tamamo-no-Bae]

I wish I could do more to help, but unfortunately I am not skilled at disassembling. I greatly appreciate the effort put in here though, it'd be really cool to see this engine fully functioning.
It's tragic that pret abandoned this.

 

[TD]

Sorry for being gone so long. I have been super busy with life and just have not had time to check in or work on this project. It looks like I never actually released V13 which fixes a bug reversion that occurred in V12 with the rival battle. I will be trying to get this patch released onto this page hopefully in the relatively near future. For the time being, you can compile the patch manually if you know how via the GitHub page here to avoid this situation for the time being.

Additionally, I have not had much time to work on the further disassembly of the main game. If anyone sees this and would like to help out, please feel free to do so. It would help further this project greatly. I did look into modding the game to make it a full GBC ROM based on the SGB pallets, but that will take a lot more time and also likely require the full ROM to be disassembled. So if you know anyone who could help us with this project, please feel free to reach out to me via the PRET Discord server so that I can keep making all of these different patch versions come to life!

 

[TD]

UPDATE V13 Released!
I have officially update the patch for the first time in months. Sorry for the lack of updates. I just have not had much time. But this update makes the game fully playable again. I fixed the Rival battle and adjusted the mart in Old City to actually be accessible now.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
I am looking to hire someone to help me finish the disassembly of the base ROM so that I can further my work on both the story mode patch and the English translation patches. If you or anyone you know is interested and capable of finishing the disassembly that PRET left us with, please reach out to me on Discord so that we can discuss the topic further. You can find me in the PRET Discord server to reach out to me. I am relatively active in the protoypes-and-leaks channel if you are trying to find me. I thank any and all offers in advance!

Unfortunate Notice
Without a full disassembly, I just am unable to further this project anymore. I really would like to continue working on this patch and the translations, but I just don't have the time to learn how to disassemble the ROM myself. I will still try to patch things as I am able to with my limited resources, but I don't want to get any hopes up. Please reach out to me if you think that you or someone you know can help us keep this project alive to completion!

 

[TheEndOfTheRoad]

Thank you so much for making this TD. Like obviously... the spaceworld demo will never be a full game, but it is good to see that what little we had, was able to be made into an enjoyable playable experience.