Sylpheed/docs/re/menu-navigation-semantics.md

# The title menu — how it moves, and where each button goes

**Status:** ✅ `CONFIRMED` (**measured**, by driving the running game) for the
movement rules and for four of the five main-menu destinations. 🟡 the GamePart
*id* behind each destination is a **name match onto the decoded id table**, not a
measurement. ❔ `NEW GAME` deliberately untested.

Answers [MISSION Q5](../port/MISSION.md) and most of Q4. Nothing here is on the
disc in any form found so far — the port is **authoring** these rules from this
page, not transcribing a field.

## Q5 — movement

Two boots via `tools/re-capture/boot_menu.sh`, cursor read off the focus ring
with [`tools/re-capture/menu_focus.py`](../../tools/re-capture/menu_focus.py).

| | behaviour | evidence |
|---|---|---|
| **initial focus, main menu** | **`TUTORIAL`** — the *middle* item, not the top | 2/2 boots, the first frame after the menu appears |
| **initial focus, `EXTRAS`** | `MISSION SELECT` — the top item | [`extras-wrap.png`](captures/menu-nav/extras-wrap.png) |
| **up / down** | one item per press, no auto-repeat at the durations tried | |
| **wrap at the top** | ⬆ from the first item goes to the **last** | [`wrap-montage.png`](captures/menu-nav/wrap-montage.png), panels 1→2 |
| **wrap at the bottom** | ⬇ from the last item goes to the **first** | same, panels 3→4, and 4 presses from `EXTRAS` landing on `OPTIONS` — i.e. wrapping — is what makes the count come out |
| **left / right** | **nothing**, on the main menu | cursor unmoved across one ⬅ and one ➡ |
| **Ⓑ on a submenu** | returns to the parent **with focus restored to the item you entered from** — `LOAD GAME`→`LOAD GAME`, `TUTORIAL`→`TUTORIAL`, `OPTIONS`→`OPTIONS`, `EXTRAS`→`EXTRAS` | 4/4 |
| **Ⓑ on the main menu** | 🟡 goes to the **title**, which re-draws `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` after a beat | **none** — and the main menu's own footer does not advertise Ⓑ; [downgraded below](#-refutation-attempt-2026-08-29--the-main-menus-own-footer-does-not-advertise-ⓑ) |
| **Ⓑ on the title** | 🟡 **nothing** | **none** |

Wrap holds on both screens tested — the 5-item main menu and the 3-item `EXTRAS`
submenu — so it is a menu rule, not a per-screen table.

**🟡 Initial focus is reproducible but not established as invariant.** Both of my
boots opened on `TUTORIAL`, and both used `boot_menu.sh`. The run recorded in
[`menu-state-in-memory.md`](menu-state-in-memory.md) reached `EXTRAS` with *four*
downs from the main menu, which only works from `NEW GAME`. Either the harness
path matters or something persists. **Do not hardcode `TUTORIAL` without
re-testing it**; what is solid is that the menu does *not* open on the top item
in this harness.

## Q4 — where each button goes

Measured by driving: focus the item, press Ⓐ, read the screen's own title.

| button | screen it opens | evidence | GamePart id |
|---|---|---|---|
| `NEW GAME` | ❔ **not tested** | — | — |
| `LOAD GAME` | the save-slot list, `LOAD GAME` / `Current Storage` | [`q4-destinations.png`](captures/menu-nav/q4-destinations.png) left | 🟡 `3 GP_LOAD` |
| `TUTORIAL` | the lesson list, `TUTORIAL`, Level 1 / Level 2 | same, middle | 🟡 `25 GP_TUTORIAL` |
| `OPTIONS` | `OPTIONS` — GAME / CONTROL / SOUND / SCREEN SETTINGS / BACK | same, right | 🟡 `8 GP_OPTIONS` |
| `EXTRAS` | **`GP_TITLE.pak` build 6** — MISSION SELECT / MOVIE THEATER / BACK | [`ui-title-build-map.md`](ui-title-build-map.md) | 🟡 `5 GP_EXTRAS` |
| `EXTRAS ▸ MISSION SELECT` | the stage list + Wide Area Space Map — **8 rows visible of 16**, and rows below the first are **locked** on a fresh save ([below](#-mission-select-the-cursor-was-stuck-because-the-stages-were-locked)) | [`mission-select-stage01-only.png`](captures/mission-select-stage01-only.png) | 🟡 `7 GP_MISSION_SELECT` |
| `EXTRAS ▸ MOVIE THEATER` | ❔ not tested | | 🟡 `6 GP_MOVIE_THEATER` |

**Say which, as the gate asks.** The *screen* each button opens is **measured** —
I pressed the button and read the title off the framebuffer. The **GamePart id is
not measured**: it is the entry of the decoded 29-id table at `.rdata 0x820A1630`
([`challenge-mission-gate.md`](challenge-mission-gate.md) §3) whose *name* matches
the screen I saw. The table is decoded; the *binding* of a button to an entry in
it is a name match I made by eye. The port should treat these ids as authored.

Worth noting that the ids and the paks are not one-to-one: `GP_EXTRAS` is id 5
with **no pak of its own** — its artwork is a build inside `GP_TITLE.pak`.

**❔ `NEW GAME` was deliberately not pressed.** Ⓐ on it leads to a standing
black-screen hang that ends the run
([`ui-paint-order-third-permutation.md`](ui-paint-order-third-permutation.md)),
and this iteration needed the session. It is the one destination still unmeasured.

### 🔴 The "cheap way to finish this" was a dead route — WITHDRAWN 2026-08-29

This section used to say: *`0x828A690C` holds a live screen id (1 title, 3 main
menu, 4 extras) and `0x828F38AC` the cursor; read them while pressing Ⓐ and the
transition becomes a measurement, under `--gpu=null` with no screenshots.*

**Do not do that. Those words are monotonic counters, not state.**
[`menu-state-in-memory.md`](menu-state-in-memory.md) withdrew that identity **on
the same day it was published** — driving deep and then pressing Ⓑ three times
sends the "cursor" `36 → 38 → 40 → 41`, and a cursor returns when you go back.
The values match across runs because the same key sequence produces the same
count, not because `3` *means* main menu. With the sign-in fix the sequence runs
`3 → 5`, skipping `4` entirely, so "4 = extras" was never a screen at all.

This page kept recommending the route for three days after the page it cited had
killed it. ⚠️ **A cross-reference is not a citation unless you re-read the target**
— the two documents disagreed in the corpus and either would have been believed
on its own.

✅ **What those words are still good for**: all three advance if and only if the
game responds to input, and are stable when it does not. Read them as *"did the
game react?"*, never as *"which screen is this?"*. Screen identity still has to
come off the framebuffer.

❔ **So a measured button→GamePart-id binding remains unfinished**, and for the
reason it always was: no screen/state enum has been located in guest memory. The
ids in the table below stay a name match.

## ✅ `NEW GAME` — measured 2026-08-28, and it is not a hang

The one destination this page could not test has been driven. **Ⓐ on `NEW GAME`
does not hang.** It opens two more menus first:

```
NEW GAME  ->  DIFFICULTY  ->  SELECT DATA  ->  guest crash
```

* **`DIFFICULTY`** — `EASY` / `NORMAL` / `HARD` / `BACK`, footer
  `Ⓐ : OK  Ⓑ : Back`, opening focused on **`NORMAL`**
  ([capture](captures/newgame-path/newgame-difficulty.png)). It sat unchanged for
  90 s with the emulator healthy — a menu waiting for input, which is exactly
  what "a standing hang" looks like to a screenshot loop that never presses
  anything.
* Ⓐ on `NORMAL` → **`SELECT DATA`**, a save-slot picker headed
  `Current Storage: Dummy HDD`, prompting to pick a file for the auto-save.
* Then the guest throws, and Xenia pauses with `PC: 0x82307128`
  ([capture](captures/newgame-path/newgame-selectdata-crash.png)).

**That crash is already in the corpus and is not new**: `0x82307128` is inside
`sub_823070B0`, the cache-manager STL erase documented in
[`title-crash-stl-tree.md`](title-crash-stl-tree.md), whose trigger is an
incomplete on-disc shader/code cache — not the menu path. The corpus also already
holds `captures/select-data-crash.png`.

So Q4's last row closes as **measured**:

| button | screen it opens |
|---|---|
| `NEW GAME` | **`DIFFICULTY`** (then `SELECT DATA`) |

🟡 The GamePart ids for these two are unmeasured, like the rest — `24 GP_DIALOG`
and `3 GP_LOAD` / `2 GP_SELECT_STORAGE` are name-match candidates and nothing
more.

### Initial focus — a fourth data point, and it still varies

This boot opened the main menu on **`NEW GAME`**. Running tally across four
boots of the same harness: `TUTORIAL`, `TUTORIAL`, `NEW GAME`, `NEW GAME`.
Unchanged conclusion: **do not hardcode it.**

### The `NEW GAME` path completes — the `SELECT DATA` crash is state, not path

A second run of the same path, 2026-08-28, **did not crash**:

```
NEW GAME → DIFFICULTY → (Ⓐ on NORMAL) → SELECT DATA → (Ⓐ on a slot) → a movie plays
```

The previous run's throw at `PC 0x82307128` is therefore **not inherent to this
menu path** — the same six presses got through it. That is consistent with the
trigger `title-crash-stl-tree.md` already names (an incomplete on-disc cache) and
with nothing about `NEW GAME`. 🟡 n = 1 either way; do not read it as "fixed".

Worth recording because the first observation could easily have hardened into
"the new-game path crashes", which is what "A on NEW GAME hangs" had already
become once.

---

## 🟡 Refutation attempt 2026-08-29 — the main menu's own footer does **not** advertise Ⓑ

**Attempted claim:** this page's row *"Ⓑ on the main menu goes to the title,
which re-draws `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` after a beat"*.

**Why this row and not another.** It is one of only **two** rows in the Q5 table
with an **empty evidence cell** (the other is "Ⓑ on the title → nothing"); every
row that cites a capture cites one. And it is a rule the port will build on
directly — it is the only way out of the main menu.

**The measurement** — whole-frame colour test for the pad-glyph discs, run by
[`tools/re-capture/footer_and_locked_rows.py`](../../tools/re-capture/footer_and_locked_rows.py)
against the committed captures:

| capture | Ⓐ glyph px | Ⓑ glyph px |
|---|---|---|
| `live-main-menu.png` | 438 | **0** |
| `live-main-menu-options-focused.png` | 438 | **0** |
| `live-extras.png` | 440 | 514 |
| `difficulty-screen.png` | 438 | 518 |

**The control passes twice over.** The same detector, unchanged, finds the red Ⓑ
on the two screens that visibly have one; and the **Ⓐ** count is 438/438/440/438
across all four, i.e. the same glyph asset at the same size on every screen — so
a Ⓑ of that family would have been ~450–520 px and cannot have fallen under a
threshold. The negative is over the **whole frame**, not a guessed footer band:
`live-main-menu.png` contains **zero** red-glyph pixels anywhere.

So the main menu's legend reads `⊙ : Select   Ⓐ : OK` where every submenu reads
`⊙ : Select   Ⓐ : OK   Ⓑ : Back`.

**Verdict: the claim SURVIVES, at reduced confidence, and the row is downgraded
to 🟡.** A legend is not behaviour — a game may accept an unadvertised Ⓑ — so an
absent glyph cannot refute a press that was actually observed. But:

* the observation has **no capture behind it**, and it is now the only Q5 row
  contradicted by the game's own on-screen text;
* there is a **named confound**: the title-side screens auto-return on idle, and
  "I pressed Ⓑ and ended up at the title, which drew `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` after a
  beat" is also exactly what an idle timeout looks like to an observer who does
  not hold the two apart. The corpus documents that timeout at ~8–10 s
  ([`boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md`](boot-config-and-gamepart-registry.md)).

**What would settle it:** press Ⓑ on the main menu and read `0x828A690C`, the
live screen id (`1` title, `3` main menu, `4` extras) — a transition inside a
second is a Ⓑ, one at ~8–10 s regardless of the press is the timeout. Cheap, and
it needs no screenshots.

🔴 **Not runnable here.** This container has no disc and no ISO, so there is no
oracle at all — see
[`capture-harness-status.md`](capture-harness-status.md#-2026-08-29--the-disc-is-not-in-the-decoder-container-at-all).

**For the port:** Ⓑ from the main menu to the title is **measured, single
observation, uncited, and unadvertised by the game**. Implement it — it is the
only exit — but treat it as authored rather than transcribed, and do not also
build the idle-return on the assumption that the two are distinct until someone
has separated them.

---

## ✅ MISSION SELECT: the cursor was stuck because the stages were **locked**

**Measured 2026-08-29 from committed captures**, no disc needed. Settles the
⚠️ open in [`../game/navigation.md`](../game/navigation.md): *"sixteen d-pad
presses never left Stage 01 — whether that is because only one stage was
unlocked, or because the list is driven some other way, is unknown"*.

The stage list has **three** label brightnesses, not two, and that is what
discriminates. Sampling the label strip (x 190…320) of each of the 8 visible
rows, 95th percentile of luminance:

| capture | row 1 | rows 2–8 |
|---|---|---|
| `mission-select-stage01-only.png` | **254** | **104** |
| `mission-select-all-story-unlocked.png` | **254** | **183** |
| `mission-select-ends-at-stage16.png` | 183 | 183 ×6, then **254** on row 8 |

* **254** = focused (the row carrying the spinning focus ring)
* **183** = unlocked, not focused
* **104** = **locked**

The all-unlocked capture is the control: it holds row 1 focused at the identical
254 while rows 2–8 move 104 → 183 as one uniform step. So the dim rows in the
Stage01-only capture are **not** "unfocused"; unfocused is 183, and they are
79 levels below it.

**And the cursor does move when they are unlocked.** In
`mission-select-ends-at-stage16.png` the list has scrolled to show Stage09…16,
the scrollbar thumb is at the bottom, and the focus ring is on **Stage16** — the
last row. Locked list: 16 presses, no movement. Unlocked list: the cursor reaches
the end.

| | |
|---|---|
| **rows visible at once** | **8** |
| **list length** | **16** (`Stage01`…`Stage16`; the scrollbar bottoms out at 16) |
| **why 16 presses did nothing** | every row below the first was locked |

⚠️ **Reach.** This is a still image, so it says the cursor *reached* Stage16, not
how it got there and not whether the list wraps — the scroll thumb bottoming out
at row 16 is consistent with either. Whether a *locked* row is skipped or simply
unreachable is likewise not separated: with only row 1 unlocked the two are the
same observation.