No literal 26 exists anywhere, so the GamePart id is computed. That does not stop
it being found: the id is KNOWN at each screen from the GamePart table (EXTRAS = 5,
MISSION SELECT = 7), so snapshot both and intersect. New tool diff_words.py does
the classic differential search over the sparse guest image, and find_partslot.sh
drives the two screens and runs it.
Result: 171 MB scanned, exactly 4 addresses read 5 then 7 -- 0x708FFBEC,
0x708FFCBC, 0x708FFDAC, 0x708FFE20 -- and all four are guest STACK (the same run's
log puts thread stacks at 0x709...). So the requested part id exists only as a
stack argument in flight; there is no persistent field, which is consistent with
finding no literal store, and means there is nothing stable to poke.
That closes the last memory-and-menu route to the challenge missions. Reaching
them needs either the genuine in-game unlock (an in-mission attainment, per
AVSCRIPT_COMMAND_ATTAINMENT_CHALLENGE_MISSION_CARGO_SCORE) or an emulator-side
hook that forces the transition -- a code change, not a poke.
diff_words.py is worth keeping well beyond this question: it locates any field
whose address is unknown but whose value is known at two moments.
Section 4 claimed the mission-kind field at obj+144 "is initialised to 0 in the
constructor sub_821783D8, alongside +148 = 0, +132 = 2, +136/+140 = -1". That
linked two code regions on nothing more than both touching +144/+148, and an
in-flight snapshot refutes it:
sub_821783D8 initialises the STATIC at 0x828F3EC0 -- its first act is
InitializeCriticalSection(obj, 256) -- and in the snapshot that object holds
0x000B1C8B at +144 and a float at +592. Not a kind, not flags. So the object that
owns the kind field is UNIDENTIFIED. Scanning the snapshot for it (kind in
{0,3,5,6} at +144, stage 10 at +148, pointers at +0/+52/+604) returns only
matches inside the executable's own static data; the value 10 at +148 is far too
common to discriminate.
The switch itself stands -- it is direct disassembly at two independent sites
(0x82184df0, 0x82185ed0) plus two grouping tests. Only the attribution was wrong,
and the wrong half is the half I inferred rather than read.
Confirmed on screen instead: launching a story stage from MISSION SELECT reaches
a READY ROOM carrying an "EXTRA" watermark -- the EXTRA config section, kind 3,
visible in the UI. Independent evidence the field means what section 4 says even
though its owning object is not pinned.
Two results from the running game, one positive and one a clean negative.
POSITIVE: with word A = 0x0001FFFE (stages 1-16) every entry Stage01..Stage16 is
selectable, where the control run had only Stage01 and the rest greyed. Stage16
reads "Lonely Blue Planet - NO RECORD". So any story stage can be launched from
the menu by poking one word, with no save editing at all -- a simpler lever than
the GHAD stage-field patch used until now.
NEGATIVE: with word B = 0x3F (challenge stages 24-29 marked cleared) the list
still saturates at Stage16 -- the cursor stops there and further presses do
nothing. That matches the disc: the debriefing config declares exactly
px_deb_stage01..16, so the list is capped by data, not by the mask. The
challenge missions are NOT reachable through MISSION SELECT, and word B does not
feed it.
Also mapped, without finding the caller: the GP_DIALOG registry (tables.pak #41)
gives DLG_GO_CHALLENGE_MISSION_MENU = 41 and DLG_CHALLENGE_MISSION_AVAILABLE = 42
(0-based, in config order). No raw immediate 41/39/37 appears anywhere in the
GamePart code region, so dialogs are raised through a computed index and the
entry point to GamePart 26 is still unknown. New probe: examples/screen_configs.rs
dumps any tables.pak screen config by substring.
With word A = 2 the screen lists Stage01 SELECTABLE, carrying a High Score and a
Best Time, and Stage02-Stage08 GREYED OUT. One cleared stage, one selectable
entry, at the bit index that names it -- the mask's meaning is now visible on
screen rather than inferred from disassembly.
Two runs, identical navigation, fresh boot each:
control word A 0x00000002 -> MISSION SELECT opens normally
poked word A 0xFFFFFFFF -> MmAllocatePhysicalMemoryEx fails on 128 MB,
guest throws, Xenia shows "Disc Read Error"
So last commit's heap failure was caused by the poke, and by a careless one:
0xFFFFFFFF claims stages that do not exist (0, 17, 24-31 in word A). Poking only
real story ids (0x0001FFFE = stages 1-16) does not blow the heap. That the list
screen changes behaviour with the mask is itself evidence word A feeds it.
Getting a trustworthy control took three tries, and every failure produced a
plausible wrong answer rather than an error:
1. the title-glyph oracle fired during the ATTRACT MOVIE, so A was pressed at
nothing and the run "reported 0 failures" for a screen it never reached;
2. Xvfb keeps the previous instance's framebuffer until the new one draws, so
a screenshot seconds after launch showed the OLD run -- "MAIN MENU reached
after 1s", against a process that no longer existed;
3. a single-pixel "is NEW GAME white?" test matched a white LOADING FLASH.
Fixes, all in challenge_probe.sh: blank the root and refuse screen oracles for
the first 40 s; identify a screen by a PATTERN of sampled points (white text AND
the dark panel behind it), not one pixel; require two consecutive samples. The
new oracle was validated offline against all six saved screenshots and accepts
exactly the one real main menu.
General lesson worth the words: a navigation oracle that can only fail by
returning the wrong screen will happily produce a whole run of confident,
meaningless results.
Booted the title and read the two gate words live:
0x828F40C0 = 0x00000002 word A
0x828F4814 = 0x00000000 word B
Word A = 2 = bit 1. The profile's save is Stage 02 "At Standby" -- stage 01
cleared -- so the mask is exactly one bit, at the index of the one cleared
stage, 1-BASED. Reproduced across two cold boots. That confirms against a known
progress state, on the real game:
- the singleton is the static object at 0x828F4070, as derived statically;
- word A is a cleared-stage bitmask (not achievements, not a stage number);
- bit index = stage id, 1-based, so TimeAttack's REQUIREMENT 16 means "clear
stage 16" -- the last story mission;
- word B is the challenge half and is 0 on a story-only profile.
New tools: gpoke.py (live guest-memory WRITE, companion to gmem.py, prints
before/after for every word), pad.py (drives the new --hid=file pad; replaces
vgamepad, which leaked to the host through /dev/uinput), challenge_probe.sh
(one blocking session: boot, wait for title, drive in, poke, screenshot).
Poking both words did NOT surface a challenge entry in EXTRAS -- and that menu
was built 26 s after the poke, so it is not staleness. Entering MISSION SELECT
then failed, but the log names the real cause and it is not the gate:
MmAllocatePhysicalMemoryEx could not satisfy a 128 MB request (parent free
30633/131072 pages), the guest threw a C++ exception, and Xenia surfaced its
generic "Disc Read Error". It is preceded by "BaseHeap::Release failed because
address is not a region start" -- a failed release leaking the range. Recorded
as an emulator heap problem, with the control run (same navigation, no poke)
named as the next step.
Two results, one of which kills an operational hope I had been carrying.
THE RECORD IS MUCH BIGGER THAN I MEASURED. Reading 0x82175110 to the end: after
the two words, the 8-byte pair, the 184-byte memcpy and the 8 words at +200, it
copies 816 bytes at +232, 816 more at +1048, a sub-object at +1864 and a final
word at +1876. So the record spans +0..~+1880 = singleton +80..+1960, which means
word A is record +0 AND WORD B IS RECORD +1876. That retires last commit's "word
B has no known writer": there is no separate store because the whole record is
copied out, modified and assigned back as a unit (0x8216FF70 -> compare
0x822C3708, assign 0x82170650, then a worker 0x821700A8 -- note 168 decimal, not
hex, which I misread first time -- retrying a commit 0x822C33B8 up to five times).
IT IS NOT THE SAVEGAME, by two independent checks:
- size: every real save on disk is a 276-byte container deflating to 545 bytes;
the record is ~1880. It does not fit.
- files: after many sessions the content tree holds only game0N/savedata and
game0N/__thumbnail.png per slot plus three Headers/*.header. No second data
file exists anywhere under the title id.
Also negative: the savegame object is *(*(this+4)) + 304, and the singleton's
holder address 0x828F48B0 is referenced NOWHERE outside the accessor, so this+4
is a different holder -- the save block is not a window into this record.
=> Hand-editing a save cannot unlock the challenge missions. The earlier
savegame-editing win does not extend here.
WHAT WOULD WORK. The singleton is a static object at 0x828F4070 (0x8216F650:
addis 0x828F + addi 16496), so the gate words sit at fixed guest addresses with
no scanning: word A = 0x828F40C0, word B = 0x828F4814. Canary maps guest RAM into
/dev/shm and the project already reads it live, so writing 0xFFFF / 0x3F there
while the title sits on a menu should open all six challenge missions without
playing the campaign -- the route to the last 42 EX units. Untested; needs a run.
Third revision of this claim, and this one has the writer.
Word A (singleton +80) has exactly ONE writer in the image. Scanning all 22
callers of the +80 struct copier (0x82175110) for one that stores to the copy's
word 0 gives a single hit, 0x821C1820, inside GamePart_StageClear:
if (this+1004 & 0x20000) skip ; already recorded
copy local = singleton->progress ; src = obj+80
local.word0 |= 1 << (this+84)
if changed: singleton->set(local) ; assign + async persist
and this+84 is the STAGE NUMBER, by two independent uses: 0x821C1760 indexes a
20-byte per-stage record array with it (this + (x+7)*20, three words plus an
8-byte timestamp -- the savegame's 16x20 SHAB shape), and 0x821C1EEC/0x821C1924
pass it as the index into the config key "STAGE" (0x820A2540), the debriefing's
px_deb_stage01..16 sprite list.
So a challenge mission's REQUIREMENT n means "stage n has been cleared", and the
<24 / >=24 split is the disc's own stage numbering: story 1-16 and tutorial 18-23
in word A, challenge 24-29 as word B bits 0-5. TimeAttack needs stage 16 -- the
last story mission -- and the other five chain off challenge stages 25-29. That
is what the raw numbers suggested in the first place.
REFUTED: "the bit space is the game's 24 achievements". ACHIEVEMENTS_REQUIREMENTS
having 24 entries and the gate splitting at 24 is a COINCIDENCE -- 24 is also the
first challenge stage's id. Nothing copies the Debriefing's masks (+208/+736/+740)
into +80, which is the check that should have preceded the claim.
The achievement work itself stands and is kept, retitled and rescoped in
structures/achievements.md: the XACH table (.pe 0x8FBCBC, 36-byte records,
1000G self-check), the 24 names/descriptions, the on-disc ACHIEVEMENTS_REQUIREMENTS
list, and the XACHIEVEMENT_DETAILS/XAM read path. It just does not gate the
challenge missions.
Still open: word B (+1956) has no known writer -- GamePart_StageClear's
unconditional 1 << x would land a challenge stage on word A bits 24-29, not word
B, so clearing a challenge mission must be recorded by another path (presumably
the one that also stores its Time/Points record).
Two findings, one of them a correction to the previous commit.
FOUND: GamePart_Debriefing enumerates XACHIEVEMENT_DETAILS from XAM
(0x8218F888). The records are 36 bytes -- confirmed by the arithmetic, not by
eye: the count is a byte count divided by 36 through the 0x38E38E39 multiply-high
magic plus srawi 3. Field +0 is used as a shift amount, field +32 is tested for
0x00020000, and the buffer sits behind a handle that is waited on (0x824AA330
with -1) then closed (0x824AA3E0). That is the XDK struct exactly, with
XACHIEVEMENT_DETAILS_ACHIEVED == 0x20000, via the
XamUserCreateAchievementEnumerator / XEnumerate pattern.
So the title does NOT persist earned achievements itself -- it asks the console.
The lever for achievement-gated content is the emulator's PROFILE data, not the
savegame. Independently, the singleton the challenge gate reads is not the object
holding the save block: re-scanning all 202 accessor call sites WITH function-
boundary stops touches only +80/+1956/+1960/+1964 and none of the known save
offsets (+304/+316/+320/+336/+380/+440). The earlier scan that seemed to find
them had register tracking bleeding into the next function -- a false positive I
am recording rather than quietly dropping.
CORRECTED: the previous commit claimed "bit n <-> achievement n+1" and treated
the Debriefing award pass and the challenge gate as the same bit space, both as
confirmed. Neither holds up:
- the only place the image is observed turning an achievement into a bit does
1 << dwId with 1-based ids, so bit = the id and bit 0 is unused;
- the "list index is the bit index" step assumed 0x82448338's out-parameter is
the loop ordinal. It is the child entry's first word out of a 12-byte array,
and whether that is an ordinal, an id or a name hash is not pinned;
- the Debriefing's masks are its own fields (+208/+736/+740). Nothing observed
copies them into the singleton's +80, and no writer of that bitmask has been
found at all.
The requirement-type/id agreement still stands, but it confirms the LIST ORDER,
not the bit numbering. Consequence: if the join holds, TimeAttack's REQUIREMENT
16 is achievement 16 (Night Ravens Patch), not 17 (Solar System Defense Award).
Both read plausibly as a first-challenge gate, which is exactly why it needs
evidence and not the better story.
Also noted: +1960 is a third bitfield on the same singleton, and a what-changed
pass at 0x8219F3A4 diffs it and reports each newly set bit as bit + 64 -- so
there is a wider flag-id space whose bases are not yet worked out.
Static only. Last commit left "REQUIREMENT is a bit index into a progress
bitfield" with the space unidentified. It is the achievement space, and both
halves are now readable off the disc and the executable.
- GamePart_Debriefing (0x8218CF38-0x82191B18) awards them: sub_8218F9A8 walks
the on-disc ACHIEVEMENTS_REQUIREMENTS list (tables.pak #16, schema 744c0519),
and for entry index n tests bit n, evaluates the entry when clear, and sets
the bit when satisfied. The list is literally ACHIEVEMENT01..ACHIEVEMENT24 --
24 entries, which is exactly where the challenge gate splits word A from
word B.
- The XEX carries the definitions: XACH at .pe 0x8FBCBC, 36-byte records
{id, name_id, unlocked_desc_id, locked_desc_id, image_id u32, gamerscore u16,
pad, flags u32, 16 zero bytes}, strings from one XSTR per language (English is
table #5). tools/xach_dump.py parses it. SELF-CHECK: the 24 gamerscores sum to
exactly 1000, the retail total -- a wrong stride does not land on a round 1000.
- The two sources agree on ORDER independently: the requirement types
ShootDownAircrafts 1000/10000, ShootDownShips 100, ShootDownWeight MegaTons,
GetAllWeapons and GetAllAchievements line up with ids 19-24 exactly as XACH
names them. So bit n <-> achievement n+1 is evidence, not inference. (Those
last two are requirement TYPES, not debug cheats, despite how they read.)
- Corollary: TimeAttack's REQUIREMENT 16 -- the one value that sits in direct
value-before-key adjacency, so it survives IDXD dedup -- is bit 16 =
achievement 17, "Solar System Defense Award", i.e. finish the story campaign.
The other five values (25-29) are >= 24 and so index word B, a second flag
space, plausibly a challenge-clear chain. Still 🟡.
REFUTED, from the last commit: the stores to +1956 in 0x822AF278 / sub_822C8748
are NOT this singleton. That object comes from 0x822CEB30, checks a +2652 flag
and stores string POINTERS at +1956/+2024 -- and a pointer ANDed with 1<<n is
meaningless as a gate. So nothing in the image writes this singleton's +1956
field-wise, and where the mask persists (save vs Xbox profile) is open. XEX
imports are by ordinal, so absent XamUser* strings are not evidence either way.
Static only. Bounding each GamePart's code block by its factory creator thunk
(id -> creator recovered for 22 of 24 registrations at 0x8280C000-0x8280F800)
puts GamePart_ChallengeMission at 0x82187E60-0x8218CF10. Resolving every string
that block references gives the screen's config schema, and the record itself is
on disc -- tables.pak schema 54a10697, one copy per language, English entry #64.
Six missions: TimeAttack (record Time), ScoreAttack (record Points) and
Extra01..Extra04, each with MISSION_ID / REQUIREMENT / REQUIREMENT_DESC /
THUMBNAIL / STAGE_DESC / NEW_STAGE and a NORMAL_BUTTON / GRAY_BUTTON pair -- so
the screen always lists all six and greys out what is not earned.
THE GATE (0x82189970-0x821899D8), read off the code:
REQUIREMENT absent -> available
REQUIREMENT == "Always" -> available
else n = atoi(REQUIREMENT)
n == 0 -> locked
n < 24 -> test bit n of the word at singleton+80
n >= 24 -> test bit (n-24) of the word at singleton+1956
The singleton is 0x821707C0 (lazy, global 0x828F48BC). So availability is one
bit in a progress bitfield and REQUIREMENT is a bit INDEX -- not a stage number,
score or difficulty.
Values per mission are 🟡: the pool's numeric tokens are 16/25/26/27/29 and
24/28 already appear earlier as font metrics, so they would be deduped -- which
fits 24..29 but IDXD dedup makes positional pairing unsound here, so it is
recorded as a hypothesis, not a table.
Negative: the requirement TEXT is not in GP_CHALLENGE.pak (TextIndex over it =
0 entries; its only prose is embedded font copyright). Its PATH is a per-language
branch the loader does not currently reproduce.
Next: three stores to +1956 sit in 0x822C7DD0 / 0x822C8748, the same region as
the save serializer 0x822C00E8 -- if the bits are save-backed, a hand-written
save unlocks all six challenge missions and the last 42 units become one run.
Static-only (no emulator, no pad input). Three findings, each with its own
evidence:
- The disc holds exactly 29 StageResource records in three families --
S01-S16 story, S18-S23 tutorial (all bg=Original), S24-S29 challenge, plus
Test. That is 16 + 6 + 6 + 1, matching weapon.tbl's stage01..16 /
tutorial01..06 / challenge01..06 key set exactly. S17 does not exist.
GP_CHALLENGE.pak has 0 IDXD objects -- it is the menu screen; challenge
missions reuse GP_MAIN_GAME_E.pak's records.
- The GamePart id table is at 0x820A1630 (29 ids). Indices are confirmed by
the image's own RegisterToFactory<N, class silph::GamePart_*> text, not by
position: GP_CHALLENGE = 26, GP_TUTORIAL = 25, GP_BUNK = 10.
- The stage loader selects its config section from a mission-KIND field at
object+144: 3 -> EXTRA, 5|6 -> CHALLENGE, else FILE (two independent sites,
0x82184df0 and 0x82185ed0; two more classify {3,5,6} as one group). The
constructor sets it to 0 and every write inside the class only clears it,
and no immediate 3/5/6 store to it exists image-wide -- so the kind is
supplied by the launching GamePart, never derived from the stage number.
That last point is a mechanism (unproven) for why patching the save's stage
field to 27 kills the load: the record is a challenge stage but the kind stays
FILE. Names an untried, zero-cost discriminator -- try stage 18-23.
Also flagged, not resolved: roster_target says S10 (a STORY stage) still
fields an unharvested unit, which contradicts the "story campaign complete"
claim by one unit.
