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Two results and one retraction, all from the same session. REFUTED: 'an ~8-10 s idle returns to the title' does not apply to the main menu. Held untouched it stayed put for >= 60 s, correlation never leaving 0.9245-0.9249. That timer is real but belongs to the TITLE. It was the only reason 'B leaves the main menu' was classed as authored, so Q5's B rule is upgraded to measured-ordering: B is delivered (canary logs vk=5801) and is the only input in >= 100 s before the return. The PRESS (A) plate: the boot title presents build 4 WITHOUT the plate first -- green-glyph 154, against 159 on the committed no-plate capture and 753/977/1493 on plate titles -- and the plate arrives after. That is the port's third option. RETRACTED: four durations taken the same day. classify_array costs 1503 ms per frame; running it per frame against an 8 fps x11grab drained the pipe at 0.64 fps, so every classified frame was stale and increasingly so. It manufactured 'plate 24.66 s after the title art', 'B->title 15.58 s', 'B->title 25.60 s' and 'A->menu 20.26 s'. The tell: a transition, a press and a fade do not share a duration, and the two B figures GREW across a longer run. A backlog preserves ordering and destroys durations, which is why the sequence results above stand and every timing does not. The ring's period is unaffected and that was checked, not assumed -- ring_period ran at 15.03 fps against a requested 15. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01KNR5Y79D1T4bBr6gJQaWFP
256 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
256 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# Playing the game: every screen, and how you move through it
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**Written from the player's chair.** What is on screen, what you press, what
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happens. This is the document you would hand someone who has never seen the game
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and wants to reach a mission — or who needs to script that journey.
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Internal names (`ptbtn03`, `GP_LOAD`, build numbers) appear only as footnotes,
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because they are how *we* find things, not what the game shows anyone.
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**Status:** filling in. §1–§4 now carry what the committed oracle frames actually
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show; what is still ❔ is what no capture answers. This page exists to be filled
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in by playing, not to look finished.
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> ## ⚠️ Fill this in from the real game
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>
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> The oracle is **Xenia Canary running the actual title**, captured. Not
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> `sylpheed-cli`, not the Explorer, not any renderer of ours — those are tools
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> for verifying our decoding, they are hypotheses under test, and they have been
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> wrong. A row here with no capture behind it is a guess wearing a table cell.
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>
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> Describe what you *saw*. "The cursor starts on the second item" is worth more
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> than any amount of reasoning about the layout data.
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Confidence: ✅ seen in a capture · 🟡 inferred · ❔ unknown.
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---
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## 1. From power-on to the main menu
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| # | What you see | What you do | What happens |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| 1 | **SQUARE ENIX** in white on black, the two dots in red, `™` after it ✅ | nothing | fades on to the next logo |
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| 2 | **GAME ARTS**, **SETA** and **studio anima** stacked on black ✅ | nothing | fades on into the cinematic |
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| 3 | The opening cinematic | **Ⓐ** skips it ✅ | ends into the title |
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| 4 | **Title screen** — the wordmark appears **first, with no prompt**; `PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON` fades in a beat later, above the 2006/2007 Square Enix copyright line ✅ | press **Ⓐ** | goes to the main menu ✅ |
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| 5 | **Main menu** | — | see §2 |
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Both logo screens are **still pictures the game draws**, not video — neither is a
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`.wmv` on the disc. Captures:
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[publisher](../re/captures/title-builds/live-splash-publisher.png) ·
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[developer](../re/captures/title-builds/live-splash-developer.png) ·
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[title](../re/captures/title-builds/live-title-press-a.png).
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⚠️ **One Ⓐ skips the cinematic**, and it is worth a lot of time: the title
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arrived at **57 s** with the skip against **193 s** without it ✅.
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⚠️ **The title screen has two states that look identical.** The one that ends
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the boot accepts Ⓐ. The one the attract loop returns to, after the game has sat
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untouched and looped back, **accepts nothing** — Ⓐ, START, B, BACK, X, Y, dozens
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of presses, no response. Nothing on screen distinguishes them ✅. If you are
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scripting: use the *first* title after boot, and do not press anything during the
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boot.
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⚠️ **The title is not input-ready for about ten seconds** after it appears ✅.
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And even then Ⓐ registers roughly half the time, with nothing yet found that
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predicts which ✅ — budget retries.
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---
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## 2. Main menu
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Five options in a vertical stack, roughly centred, with a highlighted state on
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the focused one.
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> ✅ **The focused option carries a small ring to the left of its label, and the
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> ring turns — continuously, about once every 2.2 s.** It has a bright head, so
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> you can see it go round. It is the **only** thing moving on this screen once it
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> has settled: the labels, the bracket and the footer are all completely still
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> (temporal std exactly 0.000 over 20 s). Ⓑ
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> [five frames, 4 s apart](../re/captures/focus-ring/ring-single-frames-4s-apart.png) ·
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> [the measurement](../re/focus-ring-spin-measured.md)
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| position | label | what it opens |
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|---|---|---|
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| 1 | **NEW GAME** | a **DIFFICULTY** prompt, then **SELECT DATA** ✅ |
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| 2 | **LOAD GAME** | the save-slot list ✅ |
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| 3 | **TUTORIAL** | the lesson list ✅ |
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| 4 | **OPTIONS** | the settings menu ✅ |
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| 5 | **EXTRAS** | a three-item submenu ✅ |
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Read off [`live-main-menu.png`](../re/captures/title-builds/live-main-menu.png);
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destinations off
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[`q4-destinations.png`](../re/captures/menu-nav/q4-destinations.png) and
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[`newgame-difficulty.png`](../re/captures/newgame-path/newgame-difficulty.png).
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The screen is the title art gone dim, with the wordmark ghosted behind the list
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and a bracket of glowing rule-lines drawn around it. The focused item is bright
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white with a **spinning ring** to its left; the others are dim blue. Every item
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carries a small dot-in-circle at the left end of its underline — that is on all
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five all the time and is *not* the cursor.
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**Moving around ✅**
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| you press | what happens |
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|---|---|
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| ⬆ / ⬇ | one item, and it **wraps** at both ends |
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| ⬅ / ➡ | nothing |
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| Ⓐ | opens the focused item |
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| Ⓑ | 🟡 back to the title — see the warning below |
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❔ **Which item is focused when the menu opens is not fixed.** Four boots of the
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same harness opened on `TUTORIAL`, `TUTORIAL`, `NEW GAME`, `NEW GAME`. Do not
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assume the top item, and do not assume the middle one either.
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> ⚠️ **The main menu is the one screen whose footer does not offer Ⓑ.** It reads
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> `⊙ : Select Ⓐ : OK` — every submenu adds `Ⓑ : Back`. Measured: **zero**
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> red-Ⓑ glyph pixels anywhere in the frame, on two captures, with the same
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> detector finding the glyph on `EXTRAS` and `DIFFICULTY` ✅.
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> ✅ **But Ⓑ does leave it, and the objection that stood here is refuted
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> (2026-08-29).** This page used to say the title "returns on its own after
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> ~8–10 s idle", so an observer could not tell Ⓑ from the timer. That timer
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> belongs to the **title**, not to this screen: the main menu was held untouched
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> for **≥ 60 s** and never moved. Ⓑ is delivered and is the only input in ≥ 100 s
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> before the return, so the ordering is measured — the *latency* is not
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> ([the measurement](../re/menu-idle-and-b-2026-08-29.md)).
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*Internals: `GP_TITLE.pak` build 5; buttons `ptbtn01`–`ptbtn05` top to bottom.*
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---
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## 3. The rest of the menus
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One section each, in the shape of §2: what is on screen, what the cursor does,
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what each choice leads to, and what a wrong choice shows you.
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### New game ✅
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Ⓐ on `NEW GAME` does **not** start a mission. It opens **DIFFICULTY** —
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`EASY` / `NORMAL` / `HARD` / `BACK`, opening focused on **NORMAL** ✅ — and Ⓐ
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there opens **SELECT DATA**, a save-slot picker headed
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`Current Storage: Dummy HDD` that asks you to choose a file for the auto-save.
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Pick one and a movie plays ✅.
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[DIFFICULTY](../re/captures/difficulty-screen.png)
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### Load game ✅
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A vertical list of numbered slots, **8 rows visible**, scrolling as a carousel —
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one capture shows the order `19, 20, 01, 02, 03, 04` with `01` focused, so the
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list runs past the end and back round to the start ✅. Each row shows
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`Difficulty`, `Flight Time` and `Clear Ratio`; a **Details** panel to the right
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gives `STAGE`, `Game Status`, `Points` and `Times Cleared`, and an empty slot
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leaves every one of those blank ✅. `Current Storage: Dummy HDD` sits along the
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top.
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Its footer offers more than the other menus:
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`⊙ : Select Ⓐ : OK Ⓑ : Back Ⓧ : Delete Ⓨ : Select Storage` ✅.
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[capture](../re/captures/menu-nav/q4-destinations.png) (left panel)
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❔ Still open: the overwrite / delete confirmation, and where its cursor starts.
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Known: `title → LOAD GAME → slot 01 → YES → READY ROOM → TAKE OFF` reaches
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flight ✅.
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### Tutorial ✅
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A list of lessons in two headed groups, with a one-line description shown on the
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left for whichever is focused ✅ — e.g. `BASIC CONTROLS` reads
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*"Learn how to move and attack"*. Opens focused on the first entry.
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| group | lessons |
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|---|---|
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| **Level 1** | `BASIC CONTROLS`, `HEADS-UP DISPLAY`, `RADAR` |
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| **Level 2** | `SUPPLY AND SPECIAL MOVES`, `RADIO ORDERS`, `ADVANCED CONTROLS` |
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| — | `BACK` |
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[capture](../re/captures/menu-nav/q4-destinations.png) (middle panel)
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### Options ✅ (one level in)
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`GAME SETTINGS` · `CONTROL SETTINGS` · `SOUND SETTINGS` · `SCREEN SETTINGS` ·
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`BACK`, opening focused on the first ✅.
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[capture](../re/captures/menu-nav/q4-destinations.png) (right panel)
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❔ Still open: what is inside each of the four, what each setting ranges over, and
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whether a change needs confirming.
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### Extras ✅
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Three items: `MISSION SELECT` · `MOVIE THEATER` · `BACK`, opening focused on
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`MISSION SELECT` ✅. The cursor wraps here too — it is a menu rule, not a
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per-screen one ✅.
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[capture](../re/captures/title-builds/live-extras.png)
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❔ `MOVIE THEATER` has never been opened.
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### Mission select ✅ — and the "stuck cursor" is explained
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The stage list on the left (**8 rows visible of 16**, with a scrollbar), a detail
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panel showing the stage's name, a picture, `High Score` and `Best Time`, and a
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**Wide Area Space Map** on the right with the named systems on it. The chosen
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difficulty is printed top-right. Footer:
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`⊙ : Select Ⓐ : OK Ⓑ : Back Ⓨ : Difficulty` ✅.
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⚠️ **"Stage select would not move" — sixteen d-pad presses never left Stage 01 —
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is now explained: the other fifteen stages were LOCKED** ✅. A locked row is
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drawn *dimmer than an unfocused one*: measured, the labels sit at three distinct
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brightnesses — focused **254**, unlocked **183**, locked **104** — and on a save
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with the story unlocked the same rows read 183, with the cursor able to reach
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**Stage16** at the bottom of the scrolled list.
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[the measurement](../re/menu-navigation-semantics.md#-mission-select-the-cursor-was-stuck-because-the-stages-were-locked) ·
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[locked](../re/captures/mission-select-stage01-only.png) ·
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[unlocked](../re/captures/mission-select-all-story-unlocked.png) ·
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[at Stage16](../re/captures/mission-select-ends-at-stage16.png)
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So: if you are scripting a run, **check what the save has unlocked** before
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concluding the list is broken. ❔ Whether the list wraps past Stage16, and
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whether a locked row is skipped or simply unreachable, is not settled.
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### Briefing and Ready Room ❔
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❔ What you read, what you choose, and what finally launches the mission.
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### Hangar / Arsenal ❔
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❔ How a weapon is fitted, how one is bought, what a purchase prompt says.
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---
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## 4. Prompts, confirmations and alerts
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The interrupting layer — and the thing most likely to break a scripted run,
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because it looks like a menu and does not behave like one.
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| prompt | when | where the cursor starts | notes |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| `Save game?` | after a mission | **YES** ✅ | |
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| `Do you want to develop this weapon?` | Arsenal, on purchase | ❔ | |
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| overwrite / delete confirmation | saving, loading | ❔ | |
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| "not enough points" or similar refusal | Arsenal | ❔ | ❔ does it need dismissing |
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⚠️ **A short d-pad tap is ignored inside a prompt.** Sixty milliseconds moves the
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cursor on a menu and does *nothing* in a dialog ✅. So a script that works
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through the menus will silently accept the default in every prompt it meets —
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which is how you end up overwriting a save you meant to keep. **Confirm which
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side the cursor is on before pressing Ⓐ.**
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---
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## 5. Flying
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Not started, and the game teaches it better than we could: **play the in-game
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tutorials and write down what they say.** They are the game's own explanation of
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its controls, which is exactly the document we want.
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To fill in: the control map, and whether there is more than one scheme · throttle
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and boost · targeting — ⚠️ target select is Ⓐ pressed **twice**; a sweep that
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only ever tapped once concluded targeting was automatic, and was wrong ✅ ·
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switching weapons · the pause menu and what it offers · what the HUD tells you,
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element by element · how a mission ends, win or lose, and what you see next.
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---
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## 6. If you are scripting this
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Traps that read as bugs but are not, all measured ✅:
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* **F10 opens Xenia's own menu bar**, and while any emulator UI is up the game
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is handed an empty keystroke before any pad driver is asked. The controller
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looks dead and is not.
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* **A signed-in profile is required** — `--create_profile_if_none`.
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* **A trace consumer that exits stalls the emulator**, which also reads as a dead
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pad.
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* Cold boot is slow; ~25 s once the shader and code caches are warm.
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