Cheat Codes In PicoDrive??

[Kumaki]

Is there ANY way to use cheat codes with PicoDrive?

I know about .pat files, I just don't know if there's any way to make use of them with PicoDrive 1.80

I am playing an old favorite, Phantasy Star 2...but Shir is driving me NUTS by NOT STEALING THE RIGHT THINGS...specifically, Star Mist and Moon Dew.

By now I have ground up my characters a lot, and have over 1.2 milliion USELESS Meseta...which I'd LOVE to e able to use to just freaking BUY the Star Mist and Moon Dew that I need, rather than waiting for Shir to make up her mind to finally get it via the five-finger discount...which is the only NORMAL way to get it.

But there ARE cheat codes which will allow one to buy these items at the Store in Paseo.

The thing is, I have no idea how you go about etering or using cheat codes with PicoDrive 1.80.

Anyone have any help here?

 

[levi]

I'll assume you've a good reason for being on an old version of Picodrive. For what it's worth, I can't find a promising looking option in PD1.91 either. However, looking at a .pat file I found on the internet, it looks like a simple format, so it may be possible to modify your rom using the instructions contained within, at least for simple cheats like the one I've found.


However, it's beyond me at the moment to write general purpose instructions for anyone to follow to apply any patch to any game. Would you happen to have the .pat file that contains the cheat you want to use?

 

[Syragar]

Yes.  You can use cheats with PicoDrive 1.91!  I've done it.  Here's what you do.

• Place a text file with the same name as the ROM in the ROM folder, but with a ".pat" extension.  (i.e. if the game is named "Phantasy Star 2.zip", call the file "Phantasy Star 2.zip.pat")
• Place one cheat per line in the text file.  Add a description of the cheat to the right.  (below is only an example... they aren't real codes)
  
  1234-2345 Infinite HP
  89AB-9ABC One hit kills
  
  
• Launch PicoDrive and choose the first option to load a new ROM, then hit the Y button to show all files.  Select the ".pat" file as you would a ROM.
• Hit space to enter the menu, then choose "Patches / GameGenie".  Your cheat codes can be enabled/disabled from here.

I hope that helps!  Some codes may require you to reset the game.

 

[Kumaki]

Actually, as I am not as active here as I once was, I was not aware of a later version of Picodrive.

I tried the above instructions with 1.80 - and the Y button does not trigger shoing all the files.

Am going to try downloading 1.91

 

[Kumaki]

Hummm...in PicoDrive 1.91 the Y button DOES open up all files.  Unfortunately, my .pat file shows up as

"Phantasy Star II.smd.pat.txt"

And if I select it, it tells me not a rom file.

How do I get the damned ".txt" to get off there???

 

[Kumaki]

Allright!!

This is weird, though.

I managed to save the .pat file correctly.  It worked in Picodrive 1.91

So then I bought what I wanted and saved the game.

THEN, I moved the smd folder from PicoDrive 1.91 to PicoDrive 1.80

The rom loads up now with the items I had bought.

BUT NOW...PicoDrive 1.80 now allows for the .pat file to come up!

If I launch with the regular file, no Star Mist for sale

If I launch with the .pat file...AND enable the cheats (which can now be done in 1.80) then Star Mist is for sale!

IT WORKED!!

I don't mind having her steal a few Moon Dew...although I have a code to make that be for sale, too.

But, I grind everyone up all those levels, and I do not want to have to go forever trying to get her to steal all the Star Mist I want for going after MotherBrain.

Basically, I want every player in the game to have in their non-equipped stock...two Moon Dews each and the rest of the space, all Star Mist...meaning each player has 11-12 Star Mists in their posession.

Thanks!!  This worked!!

 

[levi]

Go to there in a file browser (e.g. the Pandora's own Thunar), right click on the file and choose 'rename'. You can even do it on a windows computer, though its file browser has the annoying default behaviour of hiding extensions like .txt, which is probably how it got there in the first place.

 

[mcobit]

Yes. If you create a new textfile on windows it will get a hidden .txt.


That is really annoying. As said before: rename the file on the Pandora.

 

[notaz]

Why do people keep using an OS that doesn't even allow you to create a text file the way you want..

 

[Rockthesmurf]

To show file extensions

1. Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button
   
   , clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then click Folder Options.
2. Click the View tab, and then under Advanced Settings:

• Clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box, and then click OK.

Taken from : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/show-hide-file-name-extensions#show-hide-file-name-extensions=windows-7

 

[mcobit]

A lot of work to disable something that shouldn't be on from the start.

 

[pmprog]

To be fair - you could just use a better text editor - like Programmer's Notepad or Notepad++; This is more a failing in Notepad than Windows (not that Windows helps the matter really)

 

[levi]

No, it's a system wide setting, as evidenced by the instructions on how to set it above. I'm sure it used to be a file manager setting, but these days it seems to have migrated to the control panel.


I can kind of see why they did it, but the fact remains very few people seemed to be confused by extensions back in the day, and even today, coders need them to be right for their programs to function, which is where hiding them comes back to bite you in the arse (as in this case).

 

[pmprog]

No, it's a system wide setting, as evidenced by the instructions on how to set it above. I'm sure it used to be a file manager setting, but these days it seems to have migrated to the control panel.

Actually, you can do it from the Explorer window without needing to go to the control panel - Organise -> File and Folder Settings.
That aside, you can save text files with any extension you want - regardless of if they are visible - even through Windows Notepad actually, you just need to change the "Save as type" filter from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All files (*.*)", then you can apply whatever extension you want. It's there, if not all that clear. Programmer's Notepad just defaults to All Files so you can just type in whatever you feel like.

 

[mcobit]

The problem is, that Windows assumes that every textfile needs to be a txt file. It creates this extension when you right click, choose new and then textfile. It them immediately hides the txt extension from you.

 

[M-HT]

Actually it's Windows explorer doing the assuming and not Windows.

I would suggest using some other file manager than Windows explorer.

Total commander seems to be the most popular (I prefer FAR manager).

 

[Kumaki]

Actually, I discovered that, in Windows XP and in Windows 7 (tried it in both of these OS's) you CAN save a file with Notepad, without the .txt extension.  All you need to do is wrap the file name in quotes, exactly as you want it.

So I created the file "Phantasy Star II.smd.pat" and saved it that way, with the quotes, and it worked.

Just for giggles, I starte playing around with the Game Genie codes I had...working from what existed...in order to make the store in Paseo sell me almost any item I wantm, sometimes for free, sometimes for normal price, sometimes for 1 meseta, sometimes 255 Meseta, and sometimes a totally irrational price.

I managed to find codes to make the store in Paseo sell all the Nei Items...FOR FREE.

So now you can get two Nei Armor or two Neimet or two Neislashers in the same game.

Makes for quite a bit of fun, actually.

Now I am looking forward to starting a brand-new game...when I am finished with the one I am working on...where I will start off with literally all the best equipment from jump street.  Except that the Agent will start with the Swd of Ang rather than the Neisword, since you only need one in the game (only the Agent can use it) and then you'd end up with an extra item you don't need at the end...but it could be stored in the lockers, as well, I suppose.

But as soon as I start, I could get Nei a couple of Lasr Bars, Knifeboots, Jwl Ribbon, and the Agent a Neimet, LaconChest, Guardaboots and Swd of Ang...and get the Hunter a Pulse Cannon (again, only one NeiShot needed in the game since only the Hunter can use it) Guardaboots and Laconiamet, and Nei Armor.

Be fun to go take out the first few dungeons with that equip, LOL!!

Interestingly, I also found a code to make the store in Paseo sell me "Tiem" LOL for free...as well as some other items, like the Recorder, the Key Tube....some funny stuff, actually...including an item called "H" which is the same as a Red Card...and an item called "T" which does not appear to do anything at all.

Incidentally, the store in Paseo can a;so be made to sell the Dam Cards, all four colors, for free...so no need to learn the damned MUSIK spell.  I always thought that was SO stupid...it takes up a spot on your spell list forever, and only has one use in the whole game...why not just have Ustvestia sell you an item to unlock the area to get the Dam Cards, instead of thi stupid MUSIK technique?

Anyway, on the game I am now grinding up to level 50...my male characters are all at 50, and I am grinding up the female charaters.

Doctor and Thief BOTH have Neicapes now...and Guardian has TWO Neislashers.  Fun...LOL

Also, Agent and Wrecker have Neimet...and Hunter and Wrecker both have Nei Armor.

It's fun to be able to get more Nei items.

 

[Rockthesmurf]

A lot of work to disable something that shouldn't be on from the start.

It is one of those things which is based on perspective. If someone that doesn't know much about PC's wants to rename a file, if the extension isn't hidden, they will quite possibly end up renaming 'New Document.doc' to 'Important' (losing the file extension). They'll later double click on the file, and nothing useful will happen (as Windows uses the file extension to know which program to associate a file with). At this point they'll be confused and probably require technical support. Sure they could be told not to rename the extension too, but exposing this sort of thing isn't really 'right' for what the user wants to do, they want to rename the document itself (they don't really want to rename the file as such).

On the flip side, for more experienced user, hiding file extensions is very annoying, but the positive thing is the users that need want the more advanced functionality typically don't have any problems enabling it.

Using file extensions to determine program associate perhaps isn't ideal, but it is has long term roots which are possibly hard to shake.

Anyway, it seems the issue has been resolved now. Lets not get into an OS wars; I don't thing think Windows is amazing; just trying to apply a bit of perspective here as to why MS have made certain decisions (in terms of being a successful, money making company, they must have been doing something right all these years).

 

[levi]

File extensions are a weird thing. I don't know where they came from - first time I came across them was in DOS, and I imagine it was in CP/M as well. Wiki reckons they came from IBM mainframes before that.


Pre mac-OS X and RISC OS use implicit metadata for filetypes, not extensions. Unix commonly didn't use extensions much and using magic shebang numbers more. But tar has always generated .tar files AFAIK, and GNU make is harder to use if you don't use extensions, so little parts of the Unixish world started using file extensions fairly early on. Then GUIs came about, and file associations and all that, and file extensions became a proper thing.


Windows would have a hard time migrating extensions to embedded metadata - it could be done but it'd be a massive compatibility break. The current half-way house is pretty much as far as they can go without requiring loads of old stuff to be rewritten, although I guess you could say the same about removing the keyboard and mouse, yet that's still something they're trying to shove down our throats.

 

[ptitSeb]

File extensions are a weird thing. I don't know where they came from - first time I came across them was in DOS, and I imagine it was in CP/M as well. Wiki reckons they came from IBM mainframes before that.

Yes, CP/M and DOS had the same 8.3 file name scheme.

And DOS added the the folder to CP/M, and remove the concept of "User"... Those are very old time!