The Atlus Atlas

PepsimanGB is a freelance writer and Japanese-English translator who enjoys using his skills to preserve video game history and spread knowledge of it in new languages.

[atlusatlas]

Aya Nishitani on the Days Leading up to Megami Tensei on the Famicom

Hi again!

Long time no see. As you’ve probably long since noticed, the Atlus Atlas, along with my other side project @demoban, has entered yet another lull as I focus on translating games for my 9-to-5 and generally keeping a roof on my head. Although I have plans for a large investigative piece that I hope to get online once I hopefully acquire a few key pieces of data and information that are particularly tough to come by, in the meantime, I have a translation to share after the break below of a post that Aya Nishitani recently wrote on his Facebook page about the early days of Megami Tensei, particularly its Famicom game adaptation.

Despite being the guy who wrote the original Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei novels that kicked off the entire series begin with, Nishitani’s name doesn’t come up a whole lot at all in retrospectives about the series, especially in English, which I consider to be a shame, even if Atlus’ games are the ones most responsible for keeping the series’ name in the public consciousness at this point by far. In any case, this brief post that he wrote about developing Megami Tensei into a cross-media franchise has some nice tidbits that are worth sharing with non-Japanese readers, especially the part about how he and his publisher, Tokuma Shoten, attempted to get Nintendo itself to develop a game adaptation. It’s not a whole lot of material, but I figured it was enough that I don’t believe he’s discussed most anywhere else, at least in print, so I decided to take it upon myself to translate it for posterity. Hopefully you all will agree!

Enjoy!

-Pepsi

To Megami Tensei readers:

Recently, I've been getting a lot of questions about the beginnings of Megami Tensei, so I decided to take some time and write a little about that history below.

-Planning for the cross-media promotion began in 1985 with three producers including myself. Obviously, I wrote the original manuscript for the book, while Tokuma Shoten handled publishing work for the book, as well as the anime adaptation. For the game, we originally asked Nintendo if they would be willing to develop it for us, but the board of directors ultimately declined, saying that they couldn't develop it because there was content in Megami Tensei's story that wasn't good for players' education. As a result, we ended up shopping it around to other developers and, ultimately, Atlus volunteered for the job by way of Namco.

To hear [Atlus founding member] Kazutoshi Ueda, who was in charge of game development back then, describe it, "At the time, we'd developed a dungeon system that was really fleshed out. The only problem was that we didn't have a story or cast of characters to go along with the dungeons. I found your book really engrossing when I read it, which is why I agreed to have Atlus make the game. I got the inspiration from the demon fusion system from the way that you describe how demons emerge from the computer monitor in the story."

-The original concept of Megami Tensei as a story about Izanami being brought back to life is something that I obviously conceived myself. It wasn't a title without its fair share of controversy and resistance, though, so I have to thank Toshio Suzuki, who was the editor-in-chief at Tokuma Shoten then, for going out there and putting his weight behind it and offering his support. Previously, I've shared this sequence of events at Tokyo University's May Festival. [Translator's note: I've actually previously covered Nishitani's appearance at this event. You can read more about it here.]

-In the end, though, the fact that Megami Tensei has persisted for three decades now is thanks to the people at Atlus for making great games for it, as well as everyone's enduring support for the original books. And for that, I'm forever grateful.

Aya Nishitani, April 30, 2018

[atlusatlas]

Atlus’s Forgotten PS2 LAN Game Adventure

As with every developer that’s been in the business for a while, Atlus has its fair share of skeletons in the closet in terms of projects that never got off the ground, both in terms of games cancelled after being formally announced and those that not even got past the prototyping stage. Take this little PS2 venture that caused a minor stir when it was rediscovered in 2010 thanks to the above scan posted to the venerable Lost Levels forums. There’s very little to go off of here, but the premise is at least interesting, both in the context of Atlus in 2000 and where console video games were at in general with respect to utilizing networked multiplayer of any variety, local or online.

For a long time, it seems like this piece was the only known English coverage anybody had to go off and as a result, fueled a fair amount of speculation as to what it could’ve possibly been. Cerberus can clearly be seen in the screenshot here, leading people to believe if it was a cancelled game or something that evolved into, say, Shin Megami Tensei: Nine, given that game’s roots as an online game. While there’s at least some logic to these theories, they’re ultimately pretty off the mark. The reality behind this project is ultimately a little more complicated, which is why today I’m going to set out to compile what’ll likely be by default the most exhaustive (but still ultimately sparse) overview possible in English based on original Japanese research, with some details contradicting the contents of the PlayStation Magazine article.

For starters, this project had no formal name, but the photograph you see here from Game Watch Impress’ article at the time shows that, for display purposes, Atlus gave it a sexy title that literally translates to “Network Features Research and Development Piece.” (Japanese: ネットワーク機能研究開発作品, or Network Kinou Kenkyuu Kaihatsu Sakuhin) Developed by Atlus R&D1, Atlus’ primary development arm before it was split across Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, and Etrian Odyssey, it was indeed shown off at Tokyo Game Show 2000 Spring, back when the convention was held twice a year in the spring and fall, rather than once yearly in the fall now, and appears to have been playable by both the press and the public.

As the name entails, it was a prototype of sorts designed to test the LAN networking features that the PS2 was capable of. According to that Game Watch Impress article, a total of five consoles were networked together; four of these were dedicated to an individual player each, while the fifth acted as a server that connected the other units together. That fifth PS2 also served as a spectating camera that could see what all of the players were doing as an outside observer and project the action on a separate screen. Like the PlayStation Magazine article mentions, Game Watch Impress was unable to actually see or glean any details about what sort of networking setup was utilized, although as later evidence will indicate, it can be safely assumed that it was indeed running on actual PlayStation 2 hardware, especially given that the show took place soon after the console’s Japanese launch. Unlike what PlayStation Magazine implies, however, a representative explicitly told Game Watch Impress at the time that no concrete decision had been made one way or the other as to whether it would ever be sold as a proper retail game, which obviously never happened.

Gameplay details are sparse, but not wholly unknown. Famitsu, as one might expect, was also present at the show and discussed the prototype very briefly in an online article. To hear them tell it, each player took control of Cerberus as they fought monsters that appeared in the gameplay field. Game Watch Impress’ article also mentions that it was a competitive multiplayer game, which can be surmised from the screenshot in the scan up top. It can pretty readily be guessed that it was a simple game where players competed to defeat the most monsters within a specific time limit.

As for screenshots, I did a lot of digging and could only find one small, but direct feed picture still lying around the Japanese Internet that I found in ASCII’s coverage of the event here. Given the spotty nature of old online Japanese game coverage, I’m posting it below as well for posterity so that it can hopefully be forever preserved.

Japanese press coverage of this tech demo stops here with it seemingly not ever being publicly shown off again. The story doesn’t quite end here, however. While at the time, Atlus’ public explanation for this prototype was that it served as a LAN gameplay test, it actually also served as a different testbed of sorts during Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne’s development. This wasn’t known at the time because the game was in a very nascent stage of development, with Atlus having only announced its foray into PS2 games a few months prior to Tokyo Game Show 2000 Spring. But in a making of documentary for the game contained on a rare DVD by the name of “Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Special DVD: Souzou no Kiseki” (Japanese: 真・女神転生III NOCTURNE SPECIAL DVD ~創造の軌跡~), none other than Katsura Hashino discusses this prototype years after the fact as a quick snippet of footage is shown. I’ve taken the liberty of subtitling the brief segment in question, which you can view below.

Essentially, in addition to testing the PS2′s LAN capabilities, the prototype also served as Atlus’ first real stab at creating polygonal assets for Shin Megami Tensei, not just in terms of how to bring Kazuma Kaneko’s demon artwork to life, but also how to animate it and make it move around in real time before ultimately arriving at the cel shading used in the final game after additional experimentation.

This is the point where the informational well ultimately runs dry for now. Whether development on this prototype proceeded much past the Tokyo Game Show exhibition is unknown, but unlikely. As for whether this demo would go on to impact Shin Megami Tensei: Nine’s development, given its initial announcement as an online Xbox game, is also disputable. Nine itself wasn’t announced in any capacity until August 2001, well after this initial showing of the PS2 prototype. While it’s likely that these experiences in developing a networked game helped inform initial development of Nine, Hashino’s wording here seems to imply that this prototype was squarely used for development work on the PS2 specifically and while Nine actually does appear in this documentary, it doesn’t otherwise get discussed in this context.

While I’m still curious enough myself to keep pursuing this and see if I can track down some sources who might know more about this prototype, as of now, this is quite possibly all that’s publicly known about it. Should I glean any more information, you can bet I’ll update this post accordingly, but in the meantime, hopefully this clears up what’s definitely been one of the more murkier pieces of Atlus development history.

Thanks for reading!

-Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

Soul Hackers: Extra Dungeon and Its Nice, Stable Debug Mode

Hi! It’s been a while! Again! 久しぶり, as we say in my other tongue. Tax season has come and gone here in the Pepsiman household and now work season is finally in full swing again, hence the quiet again. But! I wanted to throw up some sort of update to whet your appetites and I think I have just the thing.

Remember that Soul Hackers: Extra Dungeon disc I dumped for you all last year? I’ve poking around at its innards here and there in my down time and I figured out a while back that, it’s also got a really extensive debug mode, just like the stuff I documented for vanilla Soul Hackers on the Saturn here! And what’s more, as far as I can tell, nobody on the Japanese Internet ever unearthed this debug mode for the Extra Disc dungeon disc, which is really exciting for me in a nerdy way, even if it probably just boils down to its sheer rarity and lack of publicly available dumps aside from mine.

Anyway, the debug mode stuff! It looks and works 99 percent like the one for the main game, the details of which you can find here if you’re new to Soul Hackers’ debug features, so this isn’t going to be nearly as long of a post. There are a few interesting differences that I’ll get to in a little bit, but first, let’s quickly go over how to access the thing.

Reminder

To access the Saturn Extra Dungeon content, you’ll need a save file from the main game, which it uses to import your party and stats. For more details on the requirements your save needs to meet, visit this page where I uploaded the dump of my disc, which also includes a hacked save file that’ll work in case you’re understandably not inclined to put in the work.

Pro Action Replay/Art Money Codes

Post-Load Screen Debug Menu: Pro Action Replay: 30223802 0001 Art Money: 00223802 0001 In-Game Debug Functions: Pro Action Replay: 30223003 0001 Art Money: 00223003 0001

The instructions for loading these codes in emulation using Art Money are the same as for the main game debug codes, so consult that previous post linked above for more information on how to do that if you aren’t familiar with the procedure for doing so. As with last time, while I don’t have access to real hardware to test the Pro Action Replay cheats, they should work, as I did try them in Yabuse, an emulator that does feature native support for them and they worked like a charm, so hopefully they should play nice on a real Saturn. There are a few things to note about how these cheats work in practice, however.

First, because of the way Extra Dungeon’s content is structured specifically (ie: no save points from start to finish), you can’t really use both cheats at the same time. So if you want to access the debug menu, you’ll have to turn that cheat on, but keep the in-game debug function cheat off, and vice versa. You can turn on the in-game debug functionality flag within the debug menu like usual and it is technically possible to re-access the Extra Dungeon content after entering the menu, but it’s a huge logistical pain involving using the map warp feature and isn’t worth the effort. Just activate the menu, make a save state for it, then do the same for the in-game debug functions and then you can go back and forth between them without much trouble.

The way these cheats are activated in the game once you’ve input them also surprisingly vary depending on the method that you use. If you use Pro Action Replay, whether in emulation (not recommended with Yabuse, as its support of Soul Hackers in general is quite spotty) or hypothetically on real hardware, once you’ve input them, you’re set and don’t need to worry about anything else. However, if you’re using Art Money, you must wait until after you’ve loaded your save file before freezing the value to activate your desired cheat. For whatever reason, Extra Dungeon has a habit of trying to wipe the RAM values for both cheats after a save is loaded in emulation and will successfully override even a value that should stay frozen. Therefore, wait until you get to this screen below that immediately after loading your save to activate either cheat in emulation.

Once you’re here, you should be good to go!

Whichever way you decide to go for loading your cheats, do know that if you want to access the debug menu specifically, you’ll need to get past this introductory screen first. Unlike the vanilla Saturn version, this debug menu isn’t triggered with button codes on the file selection screen. Once you get past that screen, you’ll load right into the debug menu like usual and be able to go about your business!

So What’s Actually Different About This Version of the Debug Features?

Honestly, not a whole lot. The features for both the menu and in-game debug functionality are more or less identical, making these codes primarily useful for exploring Extra Dungeon content specifically. Having said that, there are a few interesting wrinkles that I’ve uncovered in my own research that I’ll briefly outline below.

Overall, the debug menu specifically is more stable. Indeed, funnily enough, despite being distributed a few months after the main game, the debug menu in Extra Dungeon actually works better than the vanilla game version’s in a few key areas. First and foremost, the text at the bottom that indicates whether you have the in-game debug mode turned on or off actually works properly. It defaults to the text saying “off” rather than “on” and smoothly goes back and forth between the two states properly when pressing the Start Button. Aside from the crash that still happens when trying to access the “Movie Ev” option, this is clearly how this menu is intended to actually work, rather than the slightly wonky incarnation on display in the vanilla game.

On a similar note, the “Install” option in Extra Dungeon’s debug menu actually has all of the unlockable programs you can activate in game for you to trigger as you like, rather than being completely barren in the original game’s debug menu. Handy!

Content within the Event menu is largely the same, barring some minor alterations here and there to accommodate the new content that’s unique to the Extra Dungeon disc, such as Kyouji’s art being available for viewing.

Interestingly enough, a seemingly decent amount of the original game’s content still seems to be accessible and playable on the disc. If you go to the “2D Map” option in the debug menu, you’ll be taken back out in the main game, which you can then play as normal. Your starting area seems to depend on the save file that you load into Extra Dungeon from what I’ve tested. Seeing as Extra Dungeon is just one disc, though, I imagine the game will probably go haywire if you try to access the disc transition and/or possibly anything that requires the anime FMV files to be loaded. That being said, I haven’t tested this extensively myself and can confirm that you can at least warp to late-game areas with the scripting still seemingly intact, so it might not be quite so bad, all things considered. Incidentally, if you do choose to turn on the in-game debug flag through the debug menu before sneaking back into the main game this way, the full debug functionality that you get in the overworld and other parts of the main game is at your disposal.

That should be the long and short of this debug stuff in Extra Dungeon, at least insofar as I’ve been able to determine. While in practice a lot of it covers the same ground as the debug features in the main game, it still pleases me greatly to have found a way to bring it up in this relatively obscure disc and document it for posterity. Hopefully it’ll be of use to at least some of you who like to dumpster dive into the more unique parts of Atlus history like this.

Enjoy!

-Pepsi

PS: Feel free to repost this information to sites such as tcrf.net, but please do me a favor and credit this blog, The Atlus Atlas, if you choose to do so. Doing all this research took a lot of time and I’d appreciate the recognition, especially given how I’m the one to have broken the news about all this, to my knowledge. Thanks!

[atlusatlas]

We at the Atlus Atlas apologize for another extended period of quiet time. We’ve been primarily focused on such blog relevant activities as taxes, getting rent paid on time, and being confused about whether such rent can be used to deduct taxes if you work from home, too.

There’s plenty more fun stuff in the works for this blog when we can find a moment or ten to spare for them in earnest, including more coverage about Soul Hackers debug mode fun. But in the meantime, as a token of our appreciation for your patience, please accept this video we subtitled about Yoko Taro having a mental breakdown over Atlus’ new fantasy RPG it’s got in the works. Yoko Taro is a man very dear to our hearts and believe he should be to yours, too. Please keep him in your thoughts as you consider in likely two to three years’ time whether you’ll buy that game once we actually know something about it other than the fact it exists as a thing being made.

Sincerely,

Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

The Soul Hackers Debug Menu and Its Many, Many, MANY Functions: Saturn Version

Most recent update: 2018/05/09

Update 1: Additional documentation has been added about being able to access the event testing functionality in-game, as well as the debugging features on save screens in the main game.

Update 2: Provided additional clarification about how to properly access the Event option from the main debug menu.

Update 3: Updated the instructions for how to load the initial debug menu. Long story short, don’t freeze the value permanently at 1. Just set it to 1 on the load screen once and execute the rest of the instructions as normal.

Update 4: Slight correction to the conclusion to link to my guide for how to find this same debug menu in the Soul Hackers Extra Dungeon disc for the Saturn, which you can read about here.

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Longtime readers of the Atlus Atlas might know that I have a penchant for researching debug menus in old Atlus games and documenting them in English for future posterity, often for the first time ever in it to my knowledge. To that end, up until now, I’ve covered debug menus for Shin Megami Tensei II’s PS1 port, Nocturne, and the Japanese version of Persona 4. This time we’re going to take a look at debug menus for Soul Hackers and I say menus because not only do they exist in both the Saturn and PS1 versions (and probably the 3DS version if anybody ever digs it up), but each version has some unique features and functionality that aren’t at least known to be present in the other one.

Researching all of this has taken a long time, spanning Japanese language sources that are decades old at this point that aren’t always written all that clearly. But hopefully you’ll find the end results worth it because these debug menus are arguably the most extensive ones uncovered on this blog yet. To that end, I’ll be detailing each version in its own dedicated post, starting with the original Saturn one before moving onto the PS1 in a separate post; such is the extent of the debugging features of both versions. This first post especially is going to be very, very long, so to be merciful on your timelines for you reblogging types, I’ll cut to the actual chase after the break below.

Saturn Soul Hackers’ Debug Menu

Pro Action Replay Code

30223003 0001

The Saturn version of Soul Hackers’ debug menu is known to be accessible on original hardware. I haven’t been able to confirm that myself, seeing as I actually don’t have a physical Saturn on hand, but for you adventurous types who happen to have both a Saturn that can play Japanese games and a Pro Action Replay, you can input the above code and then skip to the third section to learn how to trigger it in the actual game.

Emulator Code

Art Money: 00223003 0001

For many of you, your best or quite possibly only option for accessing this debug menu is going to be via emulation. This is more than doable, but is a multi-step process, so read these instructions over extremely carefully, as it’s easy to mess up if you don’t manually input emulator cheat codes very often.

This guide will assume that you’re using SSF as your Saturn emulator. I haven’t bothered to test this in any other emulator as your mileage will vary considerably with Saturn emulation, but SSF at least is proven to be able to reliably handle Soul Hackers. If the game does play nice in other emulators, the principles of applying the cheat should more or less remain the same, but you’ll have to figure out how to tweak specific steps to make it work on your own.

First, open up SSF and make sure that the emulator is pointed to whatever CD drive has your copy of Soul Hackers load. Using a CD drive emulator is ideal for this step, as SSF can’t load disc images natively. Daemon Tools Lite should more than suffice, as SSF, in my experience, is fussy with other programs. In case you either loaded the disc image into your CD drive emulator or change the drive letter you want SSF to check after starting it up, you’ll have to close and restart the emulator in order for the game to properly load. You’ll know you’ve set it right if the emulator goes straight to the Sega logo license screen immediately after booting up.

From here, with the game running in the background, download and run a program called Art Money, which you can find here. Art Money is memory editor, meaning that basically you can edit the RAM values for programs currently running on your computer if you know what to look for. This is how we’re going to activate our cheat. The free version of the program is all you need for this. If it bugs you to register when you run it, you can safely choose to continue without registering and use the program as is. With that prompt out of the way, look for a drop down menu by the words “Select process” about a third of the way down the window. Click the arrow on the right side of the menu next to the “...” button and you should see a list of programs running on your computer. Choose SSF and your window should now look something like this:

Art Money is now actively hooked into SSF’s memory values. With that accomplished, click on the “Table” menu option in the upper-left corner of the screen and choose the second option, “Info.” From there, click on the final tab, Emulator. Check the box labeled “Use emulator options.” The next two steps should be fairly obvious: choose “Sega Saturn” under the “Game system” drop down menu and then choose the version of SSF you’re using under “Emulator” drop down menu. The version number is listed at the top of SSF’s window when you start it up. Most likely, you’re using the latest version, 0.12 beta R4, but double check to make sure, as different versions of the emulator interact with Windows’ RAM differently. Either way, the final result should resemble something like this:

If everything looks okay to you, you can click the OK button at the bottom of the window to commit your settings. At this point, normally you would have to search for the values you wanted to modify manually, but since I’ve already converted the original Pro Action Replay code for use with Art Money, we can skip that step and go to immediately into directly inputting the code.

To do that, press the Insert/Ins key, located most likely along the upper part of your keyboard. This should bring you a window titled “Edit Address.” It looks complicated, but there are only a few parts we need to touch before we’re finally in business. For starters, you can type whatever description you want into the “Description” box to name your cheat. For our purposes, I’m going to use “Debug Mode Flag.” After that, skip down to the drop down menu labeled “Type” and choose “Integer 1 byte,” as we’re only changing one byte of data in RAM in order to trigger the debug menu.

Next, go back up to the two boxes directly above the Type menu, which should be labeled “Emul.address.” In the first box, copy and paste the following RAM address: 00223003. In the box next to it, simply type in a 1. After that, check the box next to the “Freeze” option. (EDIT: Do NOT check the freeze box. This is an unnecessary step and will result in glitched funtionality. Simply make sure this value is still set to 1 when you’re on the loading screen, which will be described in the next section. If it resets to 0 on that screen, just set it back to 1 and you should be set.) The final result should look like this:

If the PC address box has a different value than what my screenshot contains, that’s okay. This is to be expected because of the way many emulators are coded in that they don’t occupy the same space in RAM every time they boot. Even on my own PC, the PC address changes every time I reload SSF with my saved cheat file and it works fine. If everything else looks okay, click the OK button and you’ll be taken back to the main screen. Your cheat should now be automatically activated. Sometimes, though, Art Money will be stubborn and forget to set the number in the “Value” column to 1 like you just did. As such, if it says 0, double click on that box, manually type in a 1 and hit enter to commit. The value should finally stick and you’ll be good to go. At this point the screen should look like this (Edit: Your window shouldn’t have the x in the F column like in this screenshot; that signifies the value is frozen, which we DON’T WANT.):

Don’t worry if the address is a different value than what you’ve typed in. Your emulator settings that you applied earlier have already ensured that the address for the code you entered is actually going to the right part of the emulator so that you don’t have to go hunting for it yourself. Very convenient!

At this point, you’re now ready to move onto the next section, where we’ll trigger the debug menu in-game.

Triggering the Debug Menu

After going to all that effort inputting the cheat code, you should potentially do a little more leg work in-game before you get started. It’s mercifully simple, however: all you need to do is make sure you have a save file you can load from the main menu. If you don’t have one, just simply start a new game and save whenever you like. Any save at any point in the game will work, even before the first Vision Quest sequence. You just need to have a save file on hand; it can be saved either to the Saturn console itself or a memory pack. It doesn’t matter either way. Obviously, if you already have a save file, you can simply move on to the next step below.

Once you have a save file, go to the main menu and choose the “Load Game” option to go to the save file load screen. Before proceeding, once the file loading screen is open, check Art Money one more time to see if the value you set earlier is still 1. Sometimes, certain transitions in the game can reset this value back to 0 before debug features are enabled. If it is 0, simply double click on the 0 in the value column, re-type 1, press Enter, and it should finally commit in earnest. From here, highlight your preferred save and then hold the Z button and then while still holding it, press the C button confirm to load it. Keep holding down the Z button as it loads. If you did it right, rather than load into the main game, you should find yourself greeted with this screen:

Congratulations! You’ve hit the jackpot! Now the real fun can begin.

Note that while you can also access this menu by simply holding down the Z Button while choosing the “New Game” option, it’s recommended that you use a pre-existing save file to get the most out of its functionality, especially in-game. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes of work, especially if you already know how to proceed through the opening portion of the game. When using the debug menu from New Game, you won’t be able to save any data at all, either from the debug menu or from in-game. It will remember any name you give the protagonist from the debug menu, which is detailed in the next section, but there’s otherwise nothing to be gained from accessing the debug menu via New Game.

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of what all you can do with this debug functionality, if you’re using an emulator, I highly suggest making a save state. While not overly common, it is possible to freeze the game while messing around with debug stuff and having a save state will save you the trouble of having to manually reload your save file again using the above process.

Debug Menu Features

Before we cover what each of the individual items in this debug menu does, it’s recommended that you press and hold the Start Button for a few moments until you hear a chime. You’ll notice that the text at the bottom now says “DEBUG MODE OFF.” Ironically, this is actually what we want, as it means that we’ve now turned on access to numerous debug mode features that can be used during actual gameplay, which I’ll cover in the next section in nauseating detail. (Edit: The above issue only happens if you freeze the debug menu cheat at a value of 1 like the old instructions stated. This is unnecessary. Consult the edit in the previous section for more information if you’re still having trouble switching in-game debug features on and off.) 

When you arrive at the debug menu, the text at the bottom of the screen should say “Debug Mode On” by default. This means that a number of in-game debug functions have also been enabled. You can turn them off by pressing the Start Button, but there’s no reason to really do so. For now, let’s go through each of the options on this main debug menu one by one.

1. 2D Map

2D Map loads you into the one of overworld maps for Amami City, the specific location of which seemingly varying depending on in-game progress. The number of places you can visit I believe should be true to your actual in-game progress, but if you end up in the overall location selection screen, as seen above, you can unlock every location with in-game debug functionality using controls described in the next section. Otherwise, it lets you play the game as normal.

2. 3D Map

3D Map loads you into a dungeon with your current party loadout. It defaults to the Strange Area, but you can move around to other dungeons using in-game debug features that I’ll also discuss in the next section. You can warp to different polygonal areas by using in-game debug features, as well as the auto-map debugging features to know which map value will warp you ware; both the controls and the auto-map are discussed in the next section.

3. Event

Note: To actually be able to access this menu, you MUST have the in-game debug mode features turned on by pressing the Start Button in the main debug menu by following the instructions provided earlier in the post. Without doing so, the game won’t respond to you pressing the Start Button to enter this menu at all. The Event option is a strange and meatier beast than the name might imply. When you see the screen above, push the Start Button to actually access its features or the C Button to exit it, as it states. Be careful about pressing the C Button at this juncture. Doing so will trigger a message that your party has been reset to default settings and will screw with your loadout big time. This won’t affect your save state, so as long as you reload back to that and then manually save the game again afterwards, you should be okay, but you have been warned. It’ll still bring you back to the debug menu, but it’s best to go back using a save state instead.

Pressing the Start Button will give you the following options, translated left to right and from top to bottom:

Event Flags

Art Test

Event Trigger

Exit

The first three options are fairly involved, so I’ll start by saying that the last option, Exit, simply takes you back to the previous screen and doesn’t actually take you back to the debug menu. If you want to quit out of this menu, again, do it with a save state.

Event Flag will trigger an in-game RAM editor where you can flag different variables as on or off with 1s and 0s, the latter of which are represented with hyphens but function just like 0s. You can change values by pressing the C Button and closing the window with the B Button. While some values will revert automatically when you close them, some will stay on once you’ve changed them and can only be changed by reopening the window and pressing the C Button on them again. The terminology for this menu implies that you should be able to essentially manipulate the state of the game (eg: turn on/off different events/states in the game, etc.). There’s absolutely no documentation available whatsoever as to what values correspond to what event flags, however, so if you experiment with this, you’re on your own. Definitely tread with caution if you do, as things like this are a very quick way to breaking games severely.

Art Test will trigger another menu after a momentary load, at which point you’re greeted by the following four options:

Messenger

Backgrounds

Demons

Videos

Before breaking down all of these options, know that you can back out to the previous menu at any time by pressing the B Button.

Anyway, Messenger lets you bring up various dialogue portraits and their associated character sprites. Increase or decrease the hex value with Up or Down on the D-Pad, respectively, and then press the C Button to load the art assets in question. Press the B Button to go back to the Art Test menu.

Backgrounds lets you view the game’s myriads background imagery. The controls are the same as those for Messenger. It’s worth mentioning here that there is unused content in here. Off the top of my head, I know one background contains a message about a demo version of the game used at Tokyo Game Show. There could well be more to uncover both here and in other parts of the game with debugging features turned on.

Demons, as you’ve probably guessed by now, lets you view the game’s demon sprites. The controls remain the same as the previous two options.

Movies brings up another menu within a menu within a menu, as if the layers weren’t deep enough already. The options translate as follows:

TrueMotion [Thanks to @antime_unique on Twitter for correcting me!]

Looping Videos

Cinepak

Quit

The function of TrueMotion is unknown, although after talking with antime_unique, it’s believed to refer to a video codec of the same name. It asks you to pick another value, like with the previous menus, but all of the ones I’ve tested simply make the screen blink and revert back to the main Event test menu. Further testing is likely required to determine if there’s more to this or a deleted feature that no longer works.

Looping Videos lets you test, as you would think, the looping videos that sometimes pop up in the game. Select a value using the usual controls, but know that some values seem to load nothing and will lock the game. If you do get a video to play, though, you can stop it and back out by pressing the B Button.

Cinepak is similar to Looping Videos, except it’s primarily designed to test videos that don’t run on a loop. The feature seems to be a little more stable. As with before, you can press the B Button to quit out of a video while it’s playing.

Quit takes you back to the previous sub-menu with Messenger, Backgrounds, Demons, and Movies, meaning we’re done with the Art Test sub-menu. Let’s go back to remaining options for the main Event debug menu.

Event Trigger

This final option you can select in the main Event debug menu aside from Event Flags and Art Test lets you trigger various in-game events, whether they’re in-game cutscenes or simple events like entering a shop. As usual, select a value with the standard controls. Do note that 0001 simply restarts to Event debug menu and some, like 8002, trigger gameplay sequences that seemingly let you just play the game as normal from that designated event, while others will quit back to the Event debug menu after finishing, such as ones that simply take you into shops. More testing is required to fully understand the scope of this option.

It’s also worth noting that with in-game debugging features turned on, this event screen test is also accessible during the main game. Simply press the Start Button during things like cutscenes to access the usual menu and use it as normal.

For now, let’s go back to the actual main debug menu and continue with the rest of the features.

4. Shop

This option ostensibly lets you load into an in-game shop. However, I’ve never gotten any actual shop functionality to trigger. Instead, the shopkeeper has always prevented me from shopping, seemingly because of Nemissa’s presence in my party, which occurs even if you trigger the debug menu without loading a preexisting save. It’s possible it might play nice if you do load into this option during a portion of the game where she’s not present, but I don’t have a save file on hand to actually confirm this. (Edit: Whether you can access this shop seems to depend on the state of your in-game save. Some saves will prevent you from doing any shopping, while others will allow you to do so. Following the old instructions and keeping the initial debug menu cheat value frozen at 1, however, will seemingly always result in you being unable to access the shop, so don’t do that! Consult the edited instructions above for more information.)

5. Battle

This option loads a test battle that you can fight out. Your protagonist’s saved name, as well as his and Nemissa’s stats, should at least be reflected, but by default, your party otherwise appears to be predetermined, even if your in-game party makeup is different. Regardless, you can trigger battle debug features inside the test battle using controls that will be discussed in the next section.

6. Unite

This lets you test the game’s demon fusion feature. Exiting it will take you back to the main location selection menu for Amami City.

7. Save

This one should be self-explanatory. It lets you test the save option. This is mostly handy for immediately saving the unlock feature for accessing in-game debugging features so that you can trigger them without having to manually trigger the debug code again using the previously laid-out steps above.

8. Name Entry

Another intuitively named option, this one lets you screw around with the protagonist name and nickname setting screen you encounter at the beginning of the game. Do note that in most cases, this will overwrite your existing protagonist name and if you save the game, it’ll commit your new name permanently.

9. Sound

The sound debug menu is essentially a more complex version of the typical sound test modes that were common for this era, letting you test the game’s background music, sound effects, and PCM sound files. Fully utilizing this menu requires using two controllers; while this is the only option in the main debug menu to need two controllers, it’s overall recommended that you have another one plugged in and set for the in-game debug features that’ll be described in the next setting. (Binding controller 2 to the keyboard in emulation suffices just fine.) Anyway, here are the controls for everything you can do in this menu so far as I can tell:

Controller 1 (Music Controls): D-Pad:Change BGM REQ value, which controls which song to play. A Button: Stop current song. B Button: Fade out current song. C Button: Play current song. X Button+D-Pad: Change BGM VOL value, which affects the music volume. Works, but only really noticeable if you set it to a really high value. Y Button+D-Pad: Change BGM IN value, which influences the prominence of the fade-in effect. Again, also only noticeable if set to a high value. Z Button+D-Pad: Change BGM OUT value. Presumably influences the fade-out effect, although I haven’t been able to notice a difference in my own tests. L Button: Change the DIRECT VOL value. Presumably influences some sort of volume value, but couldn’t determine what, if it works at all. R Button: Triggers a whole bunch more debug values to show up and overlap the screen. Function unknown. Cannot be removed. Controller 2 (Sound Effects and PCM Controls): D-Pad: Change S E REQ value, which controls which sound effect to play. L/R Button: Change selected PCM file at the bottom of the screen. A Button: Play selected PCM file. B Button: Stop sound effect/PCM file. C Button: Play sound effect.

If you can wrap your head around the control configuration, actually using it is pretty straightforward and works like most other standard sound tests, just with more digital knobs to turn, so to speak. While song channels will generally reset when switching songs even if you don’t manually stop them, some songs will instead occupy a new sound channel while the previous song continues to play, creating a surreal cacophony. To stop this, you’ll have to turn off each song by manually navigating to their BGM REQ value and pressing the A Button to stop them.

10. Title

This one just takes you straight back to the title screen. Were you expecting much else?

11. Movie Ev

The one option on this entire menu that doesn’t work at all, to my knowledge. Whenever I’ve triggered it, I get an error screen and get kicked immediately back out to the title screen.

12. Install

This takes you to the software installation screen for your COMP. I’ve never been able to do anything on this screen, but would assume that if you have a save file with actual software unlocked that this screen might actually be usable. (Edit: You’ll only see nothing on this screen if you follow the old instructions and permanently freeze the debug menu cheat value at 1. This is unnecessary and will make this functionality glitch out. When you don’t freeze that value, every application is unlocked on this screen and can be installed at will. Consult the edited instructions above for more information.)

And that’s it for everything you can do from this debug menu. But we’re far from done covering this version’s debug functionality, as there’s a whole slew of additional features you can play with during actual gameplay!

In-Game Debug Mode Features 

As mentioned before, to unlock the in-game debug mode, you first need to trigger the debug menu in the previous section using the method described above. Once you’re in the menu, press the Start Button. You should hear a loud chime and the text at the bottom should change to say “Debug Mode Off,” which is what we’re actually looking for. (Edit: These steps are no longer necessary as long as you don’t freeze the value at 1 one in the initial steps like the instructions originally state.) As mentioned before, by default, the bottom text of the main debug menu should say “Debug Mode On.” This indicates that debug mode is activated for in-game use. If you use the save function within this debug menu or any time in-game using one of the options that takes you into actual gameplay, you can keep this functionality turned on for your save file permanently. This allows you to always have access to these separate debugging features without needing to go into the debug menu from the title screen every time. In fact, you don’t even need to keep using the cheat codes you typed in earlier, either!

Anyway, the actual debug mode features you can mess around with during normal gameplay are extremely extensive and the controls vary depending on what part of the game you’re in. They also require two controllers to be plugged in to fully utilize. (Again, if you’re using an emulator, just bind the second controller to your keyboard.) As such, I’ll be breaking down these controls into distinct sub-sections based on each part of the game. This list should not be considered definitive by any means. While researching these debug features, I found a number of new ones that were seemingly never documented on the Japanese, something which has continued to occur even as a I write this post. So, by all means, if you find a new feature that isn’t documented here, tell me about it and I’ll update this post and credit you with the find after I confirm it for myself!

Save Screens

Pressing the Start Button on controller 1 while on a save screen will bring up a hexadecimal number in the upper left corner of the screen. This number varies depending on which save point is being used, making it likely that this number is used to identify different save points within the game. That being said, saving the game can temporarily change this number for reasons that remain uncertain.

Amami City Area Map

Controller 1: X/Y Buttons: Trigger fade in/fade out effects. Z Button: Unlock all major areas to visit in Amami City.

2D City Area Maps

Controller 1: Hold A Button+D-Pad: Turn off path collision and freely move around map. X Button+Down: Triggers a bit code editor of some sort with unknown functionality. Probably a flag editor that tells the game what state it’s in with regards to plot progression and other variables; alter values with caution. Press B Button to exit. (See first screenshot above.) X Button while talking to an NPC: Change character portrait. (Use D-Pad to change portrait. L/R Buttons change portrait position. Press the C Button to confirm portrait change and press the B Button to exit.) Z Button: Trigger fade in/fade out effects.

Controller 2: D-Pad: Move background scenery. L/R Buttons: Change background scenery to move. (No on-screen indicator is given as to what’s selected. Just fiddle around with the D-Pad and you should see something eventually move, although some objects are quite small.)

Polygonal Maps (Paradigm X, dungeons, etc.)

Soul Hackers’ polygonal maps feature some of the most extensive in-game debugging features and therefore some of the most convoluted controls to utilize. The auto-map in particular merits its own section and as such will have its controls and explanation broken out separately so as to minimize confusion.

Controller 1: X Button+Left: Exit dungeon. (Should work anywhere.) X Button+Down: Display auto-map, even in dungeons where it normally doesn’t work. (Seemingly doesn’t work in the main outdoor area of Paradigm X. See below for more details about auto-map debug features.) Y Button+Up: Open/close doors within room, including doors that are normally hard-coded to stay locked. The scripts preventing you from proceeding will still remain in effect, but can otherwise be ignored by turning off the collision using another code below. Y Button+Left: Various numbers appear on-screen. Unable to remove from screen. (See second screenshot. Numbers in question are those written in the small font.) Y Button+Right: Triggers the same bit code editor seen in 2D city area maps. Again, likely a flag editor used to alter the state of various aspects of the game. Edit with extreme caution. (Left/Right to navigate to different values. C Button to turn on/off some values, though not all changes will remain after moving cursor. B Button to exit.) Y Button+Down: Change current moon phase. Y Button+L Button or R Button: Turn on/off HUD. Z Button: Bring up map data window in upper-right corner of the screen. (See first screenshot. Z and X values are your current coordinates. Press L/R to change map number and press C to warp to new map. Use warping with caution, as it’s prone to bugs. Map numbers correspond to values assigned to areas in the auto-map’s debugging features, which are explained in greater detail below.) Hold Z Button while tapping on D-Pad: Turn off collision and walk through walls. Hold Z Button while talking to an NPC: Display a message number in the window in the upper-right corner of the screen. (See third screenshot.) Start Button: Pause game and turn on frame advance mode. (Press A Button to advance a frame. Can still use movement controls by holding down D-Pad or buttons and pressing the A Button to continue.)

Auto-Map

As mentioned before, to trigger the auto-map at any time, even in most areas where that functionality is normally disabled, press the X Button+Down on the D-Pad on controller one. This will initially bring up the standard auto-map window; to enable debug features in here, simply press the Start Button and you should see a debug menu pop up like what you see in the screenshot above. You can quit out of this menu at any time by pressing the B Button, but for now, let’s go over its functionality.

Visible: You can cycle between four options by pressing Left and Right on the D-Pad and pressing the C Button to trigger them. These options are NORMAL, P-SCAN, ALLDON, and ALLDOF. NORMAL displays the current map you’re on as you would normally see it in the game; if you’re in an area where auto-map is typically accessible, then it’ll show you as much of the map as you’ve actually explored. P-SCAN’s function remains unknown. ALLDON and ALLDOF will both reveal map layouts without having to explore them. This includes places listed as NO_MAP via the Map No. option and also places such as the main Paradigm X hub, where the auto-map is normally inaccessible. Interestingly, ALLDOF will sometimes reveal additional walls that won’t appear on a given map when viewed using ALLDON. The differentiation beyond that, as well as their specific purposes, remain ambiguous and require more testing.

Map No.: Cycle through different maps of the game’s polygonal areas, both dungeons and non-dungeons, by pressing Left and Right on the D-Pad and pressing the C Button to load it with current visibility and direction settings. As mentioned in the previous bullet point, places listed as NO_MAP can still have maps appear when viewed using the ALLDON and ALLDOF visibility options. Many maps, but I believe not necessarily all, labeled as NO_MAP use the layout for the Algon NS building lobby.

DIR: Changes the orientation of the map between four compass directions, north, south, east, and west.

Pause Menu

As you’ve probably come to expect at this point, the pause menu comes with its own fair share of debug features to trigger. The controls for these features depend on what part of the pause menu you’re in, so I’ll break them down into separate sub-sections for better readability.

Main Pause Menu

Controller 1: X Button: Bring up sound player information. (See first screenshot.) Y Button: Toggle the COMP option ON/OFF. (See second screenshot. Seems to only really work before actually acquiring the COMP in-game.) Z Button+D-Pad: Change current yen amount. (See third screenshot.)

Item Sub-Menu (At Use, etc. options list before actual item menu)

Controller 1: X Button: Have all items at maximum amounts, including equipment. (See first screenshot.) Z Button+D-Pad: Scroll through item list Up/Down and add/subtract items into inventory with Left/Right. (See second screenshot.)

COMP Sub-Menu

Controller 1: Z Button+D-Pad: Change Magnetite amount. (See screenshot above.)

Status Screen:

Controller 1: Y Button (Demon only): Cycle through moon cycle effects on demons. (See first screenshot.) Z Button+D-Pad: Change status parameter amounts for selected character/demon. (See second screenshot.)

Combat

Accessing debug features during combat in Soul Hackers is similar to how it’s done in the pause menu. However, so far as I and past Japanese research has been able to determine, most functions are triggered not by actually going into any of the options, but simply by highlighting them with the cursor and then inputting the controls. Many functions also require the use of the controller 2, although as far as I can tell, you can activate them while highlighting any menu menu item. As such, let’s first go over what you can do while highlighting each command with controller 1 and then cover the controls for debug features that rely on controller 2.

Controller 1:

While Fight command is highlighted: Hold Z Button+D-Pad: Change combat background. Press the C Button to confirm background change. (See above screenshot.)

While COMP command is highlighted: Z Button: Turn on/off COMP command. (See above screenshot. Seemingly stops working once you actually have access to the COMP.)

While Escape command is highlighted: Z Button: Displays an array of hex numbers. Likely related to sound/music. (See above screenshot.)

While Auto command is highlighted: Hold Z Button+D-Pad: Change Magnetite amount. (See above screenshot.)

While Item command is highlighted after choosing Fight: Z Button: Grants every item in the game with maximum amounts in your inventory. (See above screenshot.)

While Magic command is highlighted after choosing Fight (Nemissa only): Z+C Buttons: Unlocks every magic spell in the game for your use, including enemy-exclusive skills, which are denoted by the Japanese term てきせんよう in hiragana. (Only lasts for current turn. Must repeat button combination to reuse. See above screenshots.)

While Command is highlighted after choosing Fight (Demons only): Z Button+D-Pad: Change a demon’s loyalty to you. (See screenshot above.)

That’s it for the known debug controls with controller 1. Controller 2 mostly lets you alter various combat conditions, although there’s significantly less on-screen guidance to help you figure out what you’re doing, so follow this guide closely to avoid getting lost.

Controller 2: Start Button: Makes various small windows appear around the screen detailing different types of data. Cannot be removed. Pressing the Start Button again will make the value in the upper right corner freeze, although what this achieves is unknown. Pressing directions on the D-Pad after this will also make the counter overlapping the yen value change, although what this does is also unknown. (See first two screenshots. Windows change during actual combat to show combat-related variables and some will remain once a new turn has started.) Hold A Button+D-Pad: Cycle through enemy formations. Press the A Button to confirm change. B Button+D-Pad: Cycle through status ailments. Up/Down will change between applying ailments for party/enemy group, while Left/Right will cycle through the ailments for currently selected group. Press the B Button to confirm change. (See third screenshot. Code must be manually reentered every time you want to shift between groups or between ailments. Cycling through ailments for party after a while seems to automatically make you shift through enemy ailments, which can be fixed by pressing Up or Down again during next refresh.) C Button: After pressing the Start Button, another window with the phrase “MAG_CPK” will appear on the left side of the screen overlapping the fight command. Hold L Button+D-Pad: Cycle through enemy types for front and center position. Press the L Button again to confirm the change. R Button: Change between protagonist, Urabe, Yuda, and Naomi as the character in your party’s first slot. X Button+D-Pad: Change number of enemies and their placement. (Can be glitchy. To change to a new number or formation, must reinput button combination every time.) Y Button+D-Pad: Another way to cycle through different enemy formations. (Very easy to soft lock the game doing this. Use with caution.)

Conclusion

Well, I think that’s the long and short of it. There are a handful of debug functions I’ve only found in the PlayStation version and vice-versa, although experimentation with button commands on both controllers is encouraged, as I was able to find some previously inaccessible features in this Saturn version that way even while writing this post. If you do find any new functions, please feel free to reach out and say so and I’ll give you credit for it after testing it myself. I’ll write up another post detailing the PlayStation version’s debug features when I feel motivated enough to do so, hopefully relatively soonish.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that no debug menu has current been found inside the Extra Dungeon disc for the Saturn, which I previously dumped here. Given that one exists for the PlayStation version and how rarely Atlus has historically scrubbed debug menus from its own games, especially older ones, I see no reason to believe one shouldn’t exist for that disc, too, and I encourage anybody with the interest and hacking talent to investigate it for themselves. I also have reason to believe a debug menu likely exists for the 3DS port of Soul Hackers, as well, although nothing has been found as of yet. Should anything be unearthed on any of these fronts, I’ll happily write about it here and credit the discoverer. Again, if I can be of assistance in this endeavor, please feel free to contact me at any time. 

(Edit: Since writing this guide, I ended up finding the debug menu for the Extra Dungeon disc myself! You can read more about how to access it in this post here!)

Finally, before I go, I’d like to cite the sources that I used to make this post possible. Without them, I wouldn’t have known about the existence of these debug features and while their documentation is old and relatively incomplete, they gave me a very good head start.

Pro Action Replay code: http://game12.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/gameurawaza/1115707418/ Some controls: http://www2.famille.ne.jp/~k_yukio/saturn/dssh/code1.htm (This source actually details an old way to trigger the title screen debug menu without using cheat codes, which I might write up one day for posterity, even if it’s significantly less convenient.) PS1 version cheat code and controls: http://ds-cheat.boy.jp/ps/dssh.html (Helpful in finding debug features in the Saturn version that weren’t covered in the second link.) Converting the PAR code for use with Art Money: http://gamehacking.org/vb/threads/12775-Using-Sega-Saturn-Action-Replay-Codes-In-a-progam-like-Artmoney

Enjoy!

-Pepsi

PS: Feel free to repost this information to sites such as tcrf.net, but please do me a favor and credit this blog, The Atlus Atlas, if you choose to do so. Doing all this research and writing has probably taken the better part of at least 20 hours of my time and would appreciate the recognition, seeing as I don’t believe any other English-speaking fans has covered this stuff up until now. Thanks!

[atlusatlas]

Sega Saturn Soul Hackers: Extra Dungeon Disc Dump and Save Data

Download Link

The Sega Saturn Soul Hackers: Extra Dungeon disc is one of those ephemeral trinkets from 90s Atlus history that isn’t widely discussed in great detail. Part of that is circumstantial; only 1000 of these discs were ever given out by Atlus, making tracking one down in the wild extremely difficult (I’ve only seen one ever in person in the years I’ve trawled through Japanese game stores) and limiting the amount of information that’s on it even on the Japanese Internet. Part of it also has to do with the fact that the content on it was by and large brought over to the PS1 and 3DS ports of Soul Hackers and made accessible as post-game content by way of the Extra Game mode. Compound these issues with the fact that, so far as I could tell, there wasn’t a preexisting dump of this disc circulating around publicly online and you had a relic that could well have remained in obscurity if left alone, which I personally think would be a shame, as it’s a neat little thing in its own right.

That’s why I did some detective work and managed to acquire one of these discs for myself and now I’ve dumped it so that you, the readers, can experience the origins of this side content for yourself. Though similar to the Extra Dungeon that you’ll find in those later PS1 and 3DS version, it’s not entirely identical. Here’s an excerpt from the readme I’ve included in the dump that discusses these differences in detail (at least when it comes to the ones I could find and verify):

-Unlike the PS1 and 3DS versions of Soul Hackers, Extra Dungeon on the Saturn actually lets you play through it without having to beat the game. In fact, all you need is a save where you have your COMP and isn't currently inside a Vision Quest. I tested this myself and the game will in fact let you proceed as soon as you're done with the first Vision Quest. This isn't particularly advisable, though; the demons and bosses you fight inside are still designed for late to post-game level characters. I've alleviated this problem for those who don't have a Saturn save file on hand with a hacked one of my own, which I'll discuss how to use a little further down. -In terms of the actual content, there are minor differences here and there between this original version and the one used in later ports. Most notably, the only final boss present is Kyouji from the first Devil Summoner, unlike the gauntlet that sees you facing Raidou and company in the 3DS game. The layouts of the individual mini-dungeons that you visit also seem to be potentially different from the ones employed in the PS1 and 3DS version. At the very least, I can confirm that the final mini-dungeon where you have to navigate through a door puzzle before fighting Kyouji does in fact have its doors laid out a little differently than those later versions, meaning any maps or FAQs you might consult for that room in English are useless unless they're updated to accommodate this version specifically, which is understandably unlikely.

And there could well be even more to unearth! I just don’t know because I’m not the biggest Soul Hackers expert, as much as I otherwise like that game, so any input from the game’s superfans would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, as mentioned, to play this disc, you need to have a save file on hand that meets the requirements of that first bullet point. I’ve included a hacked one designed for use with the Saturn emulator SSF in the archive linked above alongside the actual dump of the game. It has the protagonist and an Agi-type Nemissa at max level with maxed out stats, the best equipment, and 10 of every item. While there are no demons included, I can confirm that this already way more than enough to beat this content. Consult the readme for more specific directions about how to copy it over if you need it. And while I haven’t tested the game in other major emulators or on real hardware, I figure it should run just fine if you have other preferences for how you play Saturn games.

I think that's just about it for me. As usual, while you're free to repost this dump elsewhere, a credit to me, PepsimanGB, would be appreciated, along with a link to the Atlus Atlas (http://www.atlusatlas.com), my Atlus blog where I'm officially hosting it. This archive may be updated in the future to include scans of the printed media that originally came with this disc, but seeing as I have yet to acquire any of it yet, you should simply find the disc dump and the save data.

Have fun with this disc! It’s been a journey getting my hands on this hand given how rare it is, but being able to make this happen has made it all worth it!

-Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

Trauma Center: Under the Knife Director Kazuya Niinou on the Game’s Development History

Up until now, the Atlus Atlas has had a dedicated focus on Shin Megami Tensei and Persona ephemera. This isn’t particularly intentional so much as just a natural consequence of Atlus’ output being dominated by those two franchises. But near and dear to my heart is the Trauma Center series, as well, especially its Wii incarnations. After starting a new run of Trauma Team for the first time since I beat it during launch, I realized there weren’t necessarily a whole lot of translated interviews about the series and its development history, which I find to be something of a shame given its unique place as one of the better showcases of both the DS and Wii’s unique control schemes.

That’s where this translated interview conducted by Nintendo Inside comes into play, which you can find below. Conducted with the first DS game’s director Kazuya Niinou, it’s not very long, but as an initial taste of hopefully more Trauma Center content to come in the future, hopefully it’s at least informative about the series’ history, some of which I didn’t know about. I’m going to try and make a more concerted effort to feature more Trauma Center content when I can make time for it, so wish me luck in pursuing bigger pieces from here.

-Pepsi

Trauma Center: Under the Knife Q&A April 16, 2005 By OKOK, show, and Spelunker

Trauma Center: Under the Knife is an upcoming game set to release for the Nintendo DS on June 16 that revolves around the world of medicine. For this interview, we decided to drop by developer Atlus to have a chat with director Kazuya Niinou about the game. We'll publish our formal impressions of the game later, but suffice it to say, it's shaping up to be a great game that's worth keeping an eye out for once it's out!

Nintendo Inside: Could you briefly describe what the game is for our readers?

Kazuya Niinou: Sure. Trauma Center: Under the Knife is a science fiction game of sorts where doctors wage war on a mysterious parasite known as GUILT. It's the first game of its kind to come to the DS, making it a rather unique game, if I do say so myself.

How did Trauma Center even come about in the first place?

In a nutshell, I'd wanted to somehow make a game about surgery in the past and when I learned about what the DS was capable of, I felt like the time had come for me to finally make it. The hardware just couldn't be a better fit for it. The fact we can work with both dual screens and a stylus has helped realize the game's potential beyond my wildest imagination.

Would you describe it as more of an action game rather than an adventure one, then?

I would, yeah. It's not that I don't get why some people might think it's an adventure game. There are a lot of elements in the screenshots we've released that definitely resemble those sorts of games. But at the end of the day, the story exists in Trauma Center primarily in service of the gameplay experience, to give players a sense of purpose and make things more exciting for them. Obviously, the deeper you get into the game, the more we ratchet the drama of it all and hopefully players will enjoy that, but at the end of the day, it's meant to be an action game, so the story can't get in the way of that action or else it's failed to do its job as a game.

That being said, there's also been a trend in games lately to have no real loss state whatsoever and just essentially let players keep moving forward until they reach the end. Trauma Center isn't that sort of game. We've limited the number of hints players can find on purpose in favor of just letting them learn the mechanics more organically as they play through levels repeatedly. Some players might think that's a little harsh, but I'd argue that it makes the act of pulling off tricky surgeries in the game that much more satisfying.

When did initial planning for the game start?

The core concept of a surgery action game itself was something that we'd been looking into for several years, but it wasn't until around spring last year that we settled on making it for the DS. The actual planning for the game then started around last summer.

Did you and the team get any inspiration from medical dramas while making the game?

Of course. There were a lot of things that we looked at while making the game such as shows like ER, Chicago Hope, and various Japanese TV series, as well as comics. But even knowing that, Trauma Center has its own distinct flavor to it, so in the end, when it came to the actual storyline we came up with, there wasn't much material from other people's works that we ended up drawing upon.

Was there anything about developing a surgical game specifically that made it uniquely hard compared to other kinds of games?

Definitely. It took us a long time for us to figure out what we were going to do about the graphics in particular. Early on, the game was pretty gory in its depictions of surgery. We also tried more of a deformed visual style, but in the end, we settled upon the more placid visuals you see in the final game. Even then, just by sheer virtue of the kind of game Trauma Center is and the overall setting it has, the style we adopted still means we couldn't shoot for an all ages demographic when it came time to start marketing the game. [Indeed, in the end, the game was given a 12 rating by CERO, putting it roughly in line with a T rating from the ESRB.]

Were you aware of the existence of Kenshuui Tendou Dokuta [a Spike-published medical game released as part of the Nintendo DS' Japanese launch] as you were making Trauma Center?

I was, yeah. But that game is one I'd consider to be much more in the adventure game camp, whereas, again, Trauma Center is pretty firmly in the action side of things. I don't really view them as competing games in that sense.

How long do you expect it to take players to beat the game?

If you get to be as knowledgeable about the game's inner workings as us developers, then you can probably beat it in around six hours like we have. That's probably unrealistic for most players going through it their first time, though. After all, there are over 40 surgeries to perform in the game and you often have things that crop up mid-surgery, not to mention the more marathon procedures that'll take a while just to get through in general.

It's a pretty hard game as a result of all that, but, like I said, I think that just makes victory that much sweeter when you attain it. There are a lot of hidden nuances and tricks of the trade you can pick up along the way to improve your skills, too, which I think is a lot of fun. Really, it's one of those games that you can only really understand by sitting down and playing it, so I hope readers at least give it a shot. We think we've made something pretty special here.

Thank you for your time.

[atlusatlas]

Persona 4′s Boot Time Debug Menu

Followers of this blog might be aware that I have something of a penchant for digging through old Japanese cheat code repositories in search of fun cheats that English fan bases never got around to digging up, either due to version discrepancies or just lack of awareness. Indeed, in previous posts, I’ve covered how to unlock PS1 Shin Megami Tensei II’s debug menu, as well as how to unlock a dedicated battle debug menu for most versions of Nocturne.

Today’s post obviously focuses on unlocking another such debug menu in Persona 4. While limited debugging features were previously unearthed by others that let you do things like mess with the calendar system and parts of the dungeon crawling, this is a much more proper debug menu that lets you examine much of the nitty gritty of the game, at least insofar as the corresponding menu functions still work. Given the extensiveness of the features on display here, I’ll first cover what you need to do to even trigger the debug menu to begin with before proceeding to translate and break down the features insofar as I could figure them out.

What You Need

A Japanese copy of Persona 4. (Unlike Nocturne, this debug menu has seemingly been disabled in localized editions of the game. It’s also worth noting that this code has only been tested on the original launch release of the game, serial number SLPM-66978. I’m unsure if this works on the PlayStation 2 The Best budget re-release edition and would appreciate anybody who owns a copy testing it and seeing for themselves if that’s the case of not.)

PCSX2. (While this is confirmed to work on actual hardware, for reasons I’ll discuss below, it is highly advised you use the debug menu in emulation instead as a matter of convenience.)

A memory editor such as Cheat Engine. (Optional, but potentially a little more convenient overall if you’re familiar with those sorts of interfaces.)

Inputting the Code

Memory Editors

If you plan on triggering the debug menu using emulation, you have two options at your disposal. First off, if you know how to use Cheat Engine or other such memory editors, you can inject the code directly into the game once you’ve loaded the ISO by manually entering the following: 205F0AD4 00102D10. The first set of numbers is obviously the address you need to manually request, while the second set is the actual number. Make sure the entry is set to hex by right clicking your new cheat under the “Value” column. It’s fussy about this and tends to be set to decimal format by default.

.pnach file/PCSX2

If you don’t know how to use Cheat Engine, you can make a custom cheat file for PCSX2 known as a .pnach that will automatically load the cheat when you boot the game up. Doing so is fairly simple and as such I’m going to basically copy what I wrote for Nocturne since the procedure is the exact same.

.pnach files are the files contained inside PCSX2′s cheat directory that the emulator consults to activate cheats. Making one is simple, even if you don’t understand the actual parlance of what’s contained within them. Just open up a text editor, copy and paste the text for whichever version of the game you want to play using this cheat, and save it to PCSX2′s cheats directory (which should be inside the main folder where you’d normally execute the emulator) using the designated filename I’ve provided (make sure it saves as a .pnach and not as a .txt!). Then, once you’ve opened the emulator, go to the “System” menu option and make sure “Enable Cheats” is checked. After that, you should be set; the emulator will automatically load your cheats into the system once you’ve got the game running. Of course, if you already have .pnach files for Persona 4 in the directory, you can just add this code below whatever else you’ve got and you should be good to go.

Japanese Persona 4 Filename: 43D6E63C.pnach Contents: gametitle=Persona 4 (Japan) Debug Menu patch=1,EE,205F0AD4,extended,00102D10

Real PS2 Hardware

If you want to enter the debug code on console, you’ll obviously need a cheat device of some sort in addition to the actual game. You’ll also need to track down the master code so that you can use cheats in the game without the system freaking out. For convenience’s sake, I’ll include both that master code and the actual debug menu code in a raw, unencrypted format below:

F0100208 0000000E 205F0AD4 00102D10

Many cheat devices will require you to convert both of these codes to another format before you can actually use them. Thankfully, there’s a tool out there called Omniconvert that can do the job for you, which you can download here. Just stick these numbers in the input column on the left, then go to the Input menu and choose “Unencrypted” and then “Standard.” After that, use the Output menu to choose whatever cheat hardware you have, press the “Convert” button on the bottom left, and then copy the final results into your cheat device.

Since most of you will likely need to use Swap Magic in order to boot a Japanese copy of Persona 4 on real hardware anyway, I’ll save you the trouble of figuring out the codes you need for that and include them below:

EC878530 1456E79B 1CCA8DFC 144602B5

Getting to the Debug Menu

Once you’ve input the code for the debug menu using any of the means above, the rest should be automatic. After the memory card check and initial load, you should immediately see this screen below rather than the opening movie. (If you use a program like Cheat Engine to do it, time is of the essence. You need to input that code as soon as possible while the game is booting up or else you’ll miss your window of opportunity. Of course, if you’re too slow, you can just freeze the value and restart the game, at which point, you should get to the debug menu.)

At this point, controlling the debug menu is generally pretty simple. Just scroll through the list using the d-pad and then select or cancel using the Circle and X Buttons, respectively. One important thing to note, though: once you’ve activated an option, the rest of the debug menu tends to be rendered useless and inaccessible, even if you back out for whatever reason. This means that to test various options, it’s highly suggested you use savestates so that you can instantly reload back into the debug menu and not have to restart the booting process from scratch. This is why using the debug menu on real hardware isn’t advised, as you’ll have to reset the system and possibly reenter or reactivate your codes just to get back to this screen. Save yourself the hassle; computers have advanced far enough that you don’t need a top of the line PC to run Persona 4 in PCSX2, especially for this level of functionality.

Debug Menu Translation

Many of you reading this probably understandably can’t read Japanese. Fear not, for I’ve translated and briefly documented below more or less what every option in every menu does, at least among the ones that still work properly. Bold items signify the options in the main menu, while italics signify sub-menu options contained within each main option.

Field (Event) Viewer  MAJOR (#)  MINOR (#)  START POS (#)  FBN (#)  ENV (#)  FIELD HIT (T/F)  Display Imaginary NPCs (T/F)  Event Major  Event Minor  Definition Table Dungeon Viewer  Level (#) (This number covers both the dungeon and the individual floor)  Build ID (#)  No Enemy Symbol Placement (T/F)  No Enemy Attacks (T/F) (Enemy won't trigger an encounter even if they collide with player)  No Enemy Detection (T/F) (Enemy won't notice player)  No Treasure Chest Placement (T/F) Dungeon Editor  MAJOR (#)  MINOR (#)    Set your numbers and press circle to confirm to enter editor. Controls are as follows: -L1/R1: Rotate block -L2/R2: Change block type -Circle: Place block Dymap (Takes you to town location menu) SCRIPT VIEWER (Doesn't work?) EVENT (Doesn't work?) Food Court (Takes you to food court) Kosaka (For Debugging)  Map Test (Dungeon map layout generator test?)    TYPE A (#)    TYPE B (#)    TYPE C (#)    Level (#)  Set your numbers for the above items and then press Circle. Some combinations of numbers can make menu freeze.  Field Unit Test (Takes you to school and cycles through two areas)  Reload Rain Texture (Doesn't work?)  Fog Test (Displays rain)  Noise Test (Displays TV noise filter)  Icon Test (Doesn't seem to work?)  Field Background Clamp Instance (Doesn't work?)  Field TEX Strip (Doesn't work?)  Dungeon Parts TEX Strip (Doesn't work?)  RWS Test (Brings up a text prompt, unknown function) Tōyama (For Debugging)  Load Initialization Data (Doesn't seem to work?)  pak2 Test (Text prompts appear that can change with button presses; unsure what for)  Display Item Data (Press up and down on d-pad to display item names)  Camp (Opens the triangle button menu)  Cut-in (Displays a bouncing Yukari cut-in)  Bust Up (May not work)    Bank (#)    Character (#)    Kune (#) (Unknown function)    Expression    Load    Display    Turn Off  Movie (Doesn't work)  Clear Data SAVE (Saves a New Game Plus file)  Memory Card DEUBUG (Should be debug; haven't tested, but back up memory card files if you venture into this!)    GET MEMCARD INFO    DATA WRITE    UNFORMAT    FORMAT    CONVERT Niida (For Debugging) (Doesn't work) Yajii (For Debugging) (Brings up a location; choose with left and right on d-pad and press O to load, last option appears to not work; pressing square triggers experience point sound and triangle makes name flash?) Nowatari (For Debugging)  LINE TEST (Does an animation test of the colored menu lines)  SFL TEST (Doesn't work)  CAMP TEST (Opens triangle button menu)  PERSONA TEST (Change Persona ID +/-1 with d-pad up/down, +/-16 with d-pad left/right, circle to load; L1/R1 to change ID +/-1 and load immediately; Start changes ordering between Arcana, level, and internal hex ID numbers; Square button changes state between normal, level up, and bonus EXP from Social Link bonuses; triangle changes other miscellaneous options; other options appear when pressing other buttons, will confirm later)  MISC (Displays an Izanagi Persona card) Miwa (For Debugging)  FONT (Displays a menu where you can test varying font effects; choose a cell with circle to make value go to 0; increase it temporarily again with R1)  Name Entry (Opens the name entry menu)  System Window (Tests various system message windows; up and down on d-pad to select and circle to choose)  Assist Window (Doesn't work)  Save (Creates a special save file with RESERVE set as the location name; loading it is like starting a non-New Game Plus Run seemingly; needs further testing)  Load (Opens the save file loading screen; unsure if it actually works)  Time Change (Changes time of day)  Day Change (Advances in-game calendary)  TV World (Triggers transition into TV World; unsure if it does more beyond that)  Pesto (Doesn't work) Imanishi (For Debugging)  Sample (Brings up a sample screen with katakana and Latin character sets)  BAD Staff Roll (Triggers credits roll for bad ending)  TRUE Staff Roll (Triggers credits roll for true ending)  Verify (Triggers staff-less credits roll for a few roles)  Sample (Doesn't work) Sample (Same as first sample option in Imanishi) Title (Seemingly doesn't work)

Whew, that’s a lot to parse through, isn’t it? While I did my best to test the functionality of things in so far as I could, some menus where you’re asked to input a lot of numbers I obviously couldn’t fully test and may not know what all they have to them, so please, by all means, if you come upon things that I haven’t noted here, please feel free to share them with me, especially if they contradict what I have! I want this documentation to be as complete and accurate as possible so that the people who want to dig through this can do so knowing what they’re doing.

Putting Out a Translation Patch for This Menu

While I’ve opted to just do a basic text translation inside a Tumblr test, my own testing leads me to believe that it should be possible to put out a translation patch for this debug menu. The reason why I didn’t go through with it is that text encoding makes doing so a bit of a headache, but for those interested in giving it a shot, here’s what you’ll need to know:

The debug menu code is obviously contained inside the game’s executable, an ELF file titled “SLPM_669.78.” This should be the only file you ever need to touch to get it working.

As with the rest of the game’s text, the debug menu options are encoded in Shift-JIS. The tricky thing, however, is that all of it except for the menu options written in romaji already are half-width size, rather than the standard full-width (e.g.: the word katakana would look like ｶﾀｶﾅ rather than カタカナ). From what I’ve seen, not every hex editor necessarily supports this text rendering mode out of the gate, even the ones that otherwise ostensibly do support Japanese text encoding. You may therefore be forced to track down menu options by searching for the hex values of each character, rather than a conventional text search. This site here should be able to handle it. Chon-chons (the dashes to the upper right of characters that turn characters like カ into ガ) and bubbles (e.g.: ホ into ポ) are also their own separate character, rather than properly integrated into the character being modified, as is normally the case. Finally, each character takes up one byte rather than the standard two, meaning that any English that’s inserted won’t have extra space to work with, at least by default.

To my knowledge, a full English font is loaded into memory in this screen, meaning you should be able to type away as necessary without worrying about any missing characters. You can even choose between uppercase and lowercase letters if you like! Just obviously beware that text space is limited for the reasons stated above.

A partially translated version of these debug menu options does exist in the localized English game’s executable, even though the functionality itself has been wiped out. It’s entirely possible that you might be able to get away with just copying and pasting what’s there for the relevant options, but I would personally suggest doing it from scratch just to be safe. What remains also doesn’t really seem helpful at all in terms of establishing context for the more ambiguous options, but I figure it’s still worth mentioning so that those interested in patching the game have every tool at their disposal.

Though I know Persona 4 does have some file integrity protocols that it runs to confirms in-game files are as they should be, I don’t think hex editing the debug menu should break anything on that front. As such, a basic patch like those used in other PS2 translation efforts should likely do the job fine. If any prospective patchers would like additional translation assistance in the event that more stuff is unearthed or just need more truncated alternatives for text space reasons, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and I’ll see what I can do!

Conclusion

While I don’t recall finding anything new in terms of deleted content, I also obviously didn’t exhaust every last option at my disposal within the debug menu itself because of the sheer scope of some options. As such, I still highly encourage the adventurous among you to take a look inside and share what you can find! If you find something especially interesting or need to contact me about something else related to the debug menu, my IM inbox for this blog should be opened, so don’t be shy! (I can also be contacted at iiotenki on Twitter, if you prefer that way of doing things.) If anything especially juicy comes up, I’ll be sure to update this post and credit the lucky people to find it!

Until then, hopefully this is of use to some of you out there or you at least get some good kicks out of it. Many of the repositories that include these Japanese codes and discussions surrounding them are extremely outdated and could potentially one day be deleted without intervention, so if nothing else, I’m glad I can do my small part to unearth them and share them with foreign fans when possible. For those of you unable to run the debug menu yourself, I’ll leave you with a few fun screenshots of what lies in store, perhaps to tease you into sharing it with friends and stuff.

Enjoy!

-Pepsi

The dungeon editor.

A wild Yukari appears.

Pause menu testing.

Persona testing.

[atlusatlas]

Giten Megami Tensei PC-9801 Version Game Dump and Scan Archive

Game Dump Download Link Printed Media Scan Archive Download Link

It’s been long promised, but after much Yahoo Japan Auctions shipping finangling, I finally own a physical copy of Giten Megami Tensei for the PC-9801. For readers of the blog who were here the last time I got a rare copy of a PC Megami Tensei game by way of Megami Tensei for the PC-8801, you know what this means: a whole boatload of goodies included in the package archived and uploaded by yours truly so that series history may be forever preserved.

Unlike last time, this release comes with two distinct links up top. The first is my own personal dump of the game itself, while the second is the actual archive of my scans with all of the game’s printed materials included. This is to allow those who only want one or the other to have the choice to download just what they want, rather than get everything in one big package and potentially waste bandwidth.

I’ll get to what’s included in the scan archive in the next paragraph, but I briefly want to cover why I’m also releasing a proper dump of the game itself since I haven’t often done that on this blog. In essence, the reality as it generally stood until now was that while you could find the Windows port of this game circulating online with some detective work, in my experience, a downloadable version of the original PC-9801 version was basically impossible to come by on either English or Japanese sites. That’s not to say someone else hasn’t dumped it already, but, like many Japanese PC games from the 80s and 90s, I suspect it’s been relegated to obtuse Japanese P2P filesharing systems. While it took a lot of time to research and figure out by trial and error how to install the game and properly archive it, I feel it was important to do so partly so that, again, history can be preserved, but also to give people the option to play a version of this game that shouldn’t be necessarily prone to compatibility issues. Although the Windows copy can still run in today’s operating systems, it’s also very, very old at this point and may well not play nicely on some current computers. Either way, the end result is that now you’re able to play the original version of the game in an emulator of your choice. (Make sure to consult the readme for instructions on how to run it since it’s a fairly specific procedure.)

Anyway, as for the scanned materials, that 7-Zip archive includes the following things:

Cover art

CD label art

Manual

Map (although it’s pretty rough since I had to piece together multiple scans in Photoshop given how big the thing is)

Other miscellaneous paperwork

Essentially, you can check out everything you could possibly see and read in the physical package if you bought it yourself. Aside from the really nice super high resolution box art, the most important part of this archive is easily the manual. Not only does it include a good amount of character art (albeit in black and white), there’s a lot of critical information about the game in terms of story/gameplay content that the game proper doesn’t cover, as well as technical stuff. As such, it’s very much so worth keeping close by if you intend to play or even, god forbid, install it from scratch. (You really shouldn’t do it if you don’t know what you’re doing, though. Just use the preinstalled hard disk and floppy disk images I’ve included in the dump and follow my instructions on how to run it.) Of course, that given the age of all this material, there are visual blemishes here and there, but it should all still be very readable.

And if you do want to give the game a serious shot, I can’t recommend the PDF guides published on this Japanese site here enough. (Obviously, Japanese literacy required.) They’re extremely thorough and very well laid out; I don’t think I’ve seen a fan guide with better presentation and production values, especially for a game with as dubious of a reputation as this one.

That should be just about everything I want to cover.  Do note that you’re free to repost the contents of these archives to blogs, wikis, forums, etc, but I would greatly appreciate a credit and a link back to the Atlus Atlas if you do so considering it took a lot of time and even more money to bring to fruition.

Enjoy the history!

-Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

All right, one last Atlus phone game video sourced from NicoNico for you all, this time Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Requiem. Developed as usual by Bbmf, Tokyo Requiem kicks off with you being on a date with your girlfriend on Christmas Eve. Soon after receiving a mysterious email containing a demon summoning program, Tokyo is spontaneously struck by nuclear missiles, with things obviously only getting better from there. Design-wise, one of Tokyo Requiem’s main claims to fame is its episode release structure, with the game doled out in six chapters that were released monthly.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but of course, if I find more, you can expect that I’ll throw it up here. I’m also trying to work on acquiring proper data dumps of these games for posterity, but that’s likely going to be a very long term project given the games’ scarcity these days, so don’t hold your breath on that one.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this stroll down mobile memory lane!

-Pepsi

PS: Though it gets off to a very slow, wordy start, I promise you there’s actual RPG bits to see towards the end of the video, so skip there if you’re not feeling patient!

[atlusatlas]

Next up on the Atlus phone game archival footage docket is Shin Megami Tensei: if... Hazama-hen, originally grabbed from NicoNico here. As the title implies, the game stars if’s antagonist. Originally planned to be a part of the original SNES game and then as a special edition version of the game that was scrapped due to budgeting issues, the Bbmf-developed Hazama-hen has a few interesting gameplay mechanics going for it. Notably, as a COMP-wielding protagonist, Hazama is able to utilize magic, something of a rarity among SMT protagonists from that era of the series. More interestingly, while he can still recruit demons, he has no Guardian of his own; instead, he can fuse demons with special pieces of equipment, granting them added stats and abilities.

I’ve got footage for one more SMT phone that I hope to get online sometime tonight, so look forward to that!

-Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

And so the archiving of old Atlus phone games continues unabated. This time around, it’s Shin Megami Tensei 20XX, originally uploaded to NicoNico here. Developed by longtime feature phone game collaborator Bbmf, 20XX is a prequel to SMT2. In it, players take the role of an amnesiac protagonist with a nagging obsession for getting stronger for reasons they’re unsure of, constantly getting into street fights in Valhalla until one day a mysterious guy seeking someone just like you scouts you out and gives you a COMP, intent on training you up to be more than just a mere street punk.

Although this is the most footage I can find for the time being, the whole script for the game is actually online over here. From what I understand, this is one of the more well regarded phone-only spinoff games, so maybe one of these days I’ll get around to translating it or at least doing a synopsis. We’ll see!

Onward and upward!

[atlusatlas]

Following up on the OST collection for the Shinyaku Last Bible trilogy that I reuploaded, it’s time for some right proper gameplay footage from the first two games, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Shinyaku Last Bible and Megami Tensei Gaiden: Shinyaku Last Bible II: Hajimari no Fukuin, both of which I managed to dig up from NicoNico. (The second one is embedded at the bottom of this post.) As mentioned previously, the Shinyaku Last Bible trilogy is its own original set of games with their own storylines, rather than just being remakes of the existing games, as was common with Japanese feature phone games at the time. Gameplay-wise, these two games look similar to the original Last Bible games, but I only played one of them for all of like 30 minutes years and years ago, so I’m no expert on them. Development duties for all three games were handled by the same team, albeit under different names, going by Bbmf for the first two games and Menue in the final game.

Footage for the third game hasn’t been found as of yet, but of course, should that change, I’ll be sure to upload this post. (As with before, source URLs can be found on the actual YouTube pages, for those curious.) I’m not done uploading more game footage for some of Atlus’ other lost phone games, so look forward to more soon!

-Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

Next up on the Atlus feature phone game archival docket are three OSTs for the Megami Tensei Gaiden: Shinyaku Last Bible trilogy that some anonymous brave soul uploaded to NicoNico. As you might surmise from the title, though these games are part of the Last Bible series that Atlus put out for the Game Boy, these three games released exclusively for Japanese phones are otherwise their own distinct, original series with their own continuity from what I’ve been able to gather about them.

It should be noted that while the first two games’ OSTs are complete, the third game’s isn’t due to a computer failure the original uploader experienced. So far as I can tell, the remaining music hasn’t been uploaded, but of course, if I can ever find the rest, I’ll be sure to update this post. Also, while it should be abundantly obvious, the images in the videos are doodles by the original uploader and not actual screenshots, although an MS Paint Atlus game sounds pretty all right to me personally.

The OST for the first game,  Megami Tensei Gaiden: Shinyaku Last Bible, is up top. For the remaining two games,  Megami Tensei Gaiden: Shinyaku Last Bible II: Hajimari no Fukuin and  Megami Tensei Gaiden: Shinyaku Last Bible III: Mugen no Eiyuu, check the videos embedded below. Because all of these soundtracks were originally uploaded in parts, please check the YouTube page descriptions for source links.

Enjoy!

-Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

From time to time, I like to go on a bit of a hunt online for remnants of Atlus’ forays into the strange and largely undocumented (in English) world of feature/flip phones games that it indulged in during the early 2000s. Though they obviously never got anywhere near the level of notoriety of their console work, Atlus had a bunch of them commissioned across a variety of genres, including a number of RPGs that are spinoffs to some of their most famous works. As access to these games and the services that provided them dwindles down with every passing year, I feel it’s important to preserve whatever I can to make sure they aren’t entirely forgotten, even if so far that unfortunately hasn’t meant any proper game dumps as of yet.

As such, this is footage of one such feature phone game I found on NicoNico called Persona 3: Escape. Recorded by a user named Nanashi, the name should make the premise obvious enough: it’s a room escape game developed by menue that takes place in the Lovers Arcana hotel dungeon early on in the core Persona 3 storyline. As in that game, you end up in a room with Yukari, but unlike the source material, you’re trapped, forcing you to use Personas to solve a variety of puzzles to find a way to get out. Clearing certain puzzles is said to unlock images for the in-game gallery, though I’m not sure if this LP shows off any of that stuff since I only skimmed through it before reuploading it. 

This LP goes through the entire game from start to finish, with the commentator attaining the good ending. Not a very meaty game at just a little over a half hour, but pretty par for the course for a 315 yen Japanese phone game from the pre-iPhone days.

There’s more to come soon, so hang tight!

-Pepsi

[atlusatlas]

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei PC-8801 Version Scan Archive

Download Link It’s only been in recent years that Atlus fans outside of Japan have been able to widely engage with Megami Tensei at some of its deepest roots, namely the original Famicom games and their subsequent remakes, as well as the actual novels by Aya Nishitani that gave rise to the whole thing to begin with. But the story even in those early days is more complicated than many even within Japan know, thanks to another radically different adaptation produced for Japanese PCs (specifically the MSX, PC-8801, X1, and FM77AV) by way of Nihon Telenet, a developer you probably best know for the Valis games and as the former home of legendary RPG developers Wolfteam.

Aside from some shared aesthetic tastes, Nihon Telenet’s take on Megami Tensei couldn’t be much more different from Atlus’ “canonical” version. Indeed, not only is it something of an open-ended Gauntlet clone rather than a first-person dungeon crawling RPG, the PC versions also hew closer to the original novels, featuring a handful of characters that are never referenced in Atlus’ game. To many, the end result is probably overall a lot less engaging than the RPGs that have since codified the Megami Tensei’s true starting point, but it’s no less a fascinating historical tangent for it.

As someone with something of a soft spot for old Japanese computers, I recently decided to sit down and do the long, protracted dirty work involved in getting a proper copy of one of these alternative versions in 2016 and lo and behold, I wound up with the PC-8801 version, which is the one I happen to know best. But instead of dumping floppy discs that you can already readily find online and play in an emulator, I decided to fix what I saw as a glaring oversight on the part of the Japanese Internet and scan all of the printed material the PC-8801 version includes and put it all in an archive. So I did! That’s what the download link is for up top and it includes the following:

Cover art

Manual

Mini art booklet

Floppy discs and disc envelopes

While it’s all in Japanese, I’d argue it’s still worth a download, as there’s a lot of really neat artwork within both the manual and art booklet that show off a different take on Megami Tensei than the conventional Kaneko material we’re all used to. And if you do speak Japanese, you’ll find the manual to be helpful in elucidating some of the more obtuse aspects of the PC versions, information which is surprisingly hard to come by even when consulting Japanese walkthroughs.

I want to try and cover some of those more important details in another post here on the blog, but for now, I thought I’d at least get this archive out in the world for people to parse through and enjoy. Do note that you’re free to repost these scans to blogs, wikis, forums, etc, but I would greatly appreciate a credit and a link back to the Atlus Atlas if you do so.

Enjoy the history!

-Pepsi

PS: You’ll find some visual defects here and there within the scans. That’s simply the condition in which all of this material arrived. Given that the game is nearly 30 years old, though, I think it can be forgiven. It should all still be very viewable regardless!

[atlusatlas]

Over on Demoban, another side project of mine where I gather and upload Japanese demo discs for archival purposes, I’ve been working on getting some old discs Famitsu put out for the PS1 that were graciously given to me by a friend. Anyway, on this current disc I’m about to throw up on there soon, there’s a Persona 2: Innocent Sin interview with Kazuma Kaneko and Cozy Okada, two Atlus figures I’m sure I don’t have to explain to anyone visiting this blog. I’m posting it here less because it has any new insights about the game —because it really doesn’t— so much as just: 1. Kaneko and Okada look super suave in it and that’s worth sharing and 2. it’s... kind of a surreal train wreck in parts.

You can probably at least partly divine why it’s An Interesting Thing just looking at the image the YouTube player defaults to for it. All three choices were that guy. You’ll understand what makes him so special within seconds.

Enjoy?

-Pepsiman