Entry 159

"The save menus after the staff roll: SaveSelMenu and SaveMenu"

2026-09-26ui

Filescrates/piney-desktop/src/dtmenu/save.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/dtmenu.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/lib.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/data.rscrates/piney-desktop/examples/desktop_probe.rscrates/piney-game/src/desktop.rscrates/piney-game/src/session/tests/ending_save.rstools/test_desktop_savemenu_rs.pycrates/piney-demo/examples/demo_probe.rsdocs/engine/desktop.md

The ending's staff_roll instruction opens ccDtMenu menu 8 after the roll and waits for the menus to close. The port had neither menu 8 nor menu 9: both closed at once, so the ending never saved the clear data.

What the game does

After the roll the instruction waits 30 frames, calls SetFrameRate(2) and, unless parody mode is on, sets openReqNum 8.

• Menu 8, SaveSelMenu (0x0016ef90) asks "You now have the Data Flag for .hack//INFECTION. Save?" in ccMsg's information window over the OK / Cancel dialog. OK opens menu 9; Cancel closes.
• Menu 9, SaveMenu (0x0016f2c0) drives ccSaveSys as the Data screen does (StartReq, SlotSelectReq, LoadInfoReq, SaveSelectReq, SaveDataReq, NextProccess, EndReq). It draws the card slots and the twelve files in the menu window (SaveMenuDisp 0x0016fe70). The task's messages and questions go through ccMsg's DispInfo, with the dialog for a question. The plain lines ("Select MEMORY CARD slot.", "Select a place to save.") go through DispMsg.
• The file list shows each file's number, the name, "LV" and the level, and the play time, in yellow for clear data and red for parody.

Three surprises

• Registers left behind. In SaveSelMenu the InitCursol after OK has a nop in its delay slot, so it gets the 1 left in $a1 from the select test, not a 0. SaveMenu's StartReq gets 12, left by ccThDtMenu's InitCursol(1) call when the menu changed. ccSaveSys tests operate only against 1 and 2, so 12 saves as the Data screen's 3 does.
• The frame rate. The menus run at frame rate 2. DispSelectCursol reads the rate five times: the bars step by /(3 - rate), the trailing wings ease by (10 - k)(3 - rate), and the lead wing by 4.5 / rate. The port's cursor had rate 1 built in.
• When the card task runs. ccThSaveSys (priority 20) runs before the menu task (33). Its first run only breathes, so the first MainProccess comes two frames after StartReq.

The port

• crates/piney-desktop/src/dtmenu/save.rs holds the two menus, SaveMenuDisp, the texts (clearFlagStr, recordMenuStr, saveSysMsg's lines) and dec2str.
• dtmenu.rs draws the four name kanji and menuFont strings in colour. Its select cursor now takes the frame rate.
• MenuCtx carries the desktop's SaveSys, and Desktop::step runs its task before the menu, from the second frame on.
• Desktop keeps ccSystem's frame rate. piney-game's host passes on a SetFrameRate while the desktop sleeps (the staff roll's), so the menus and the frame pacing follow it.
• desktop_probe's savemenu runs the menus over the same simulated card as datascen.

demo_probe had stopped building after convert::mmat gained div_z and depth_fog. It now passes DIV_Z and no fog, and tools/test_demo_rs.py passes again.

Checked

tools/test_desktop_savemenu_rs.py runs the game's ccThDtMenu natively in eemu (as tools/test_desktop_menu_rs.py does), with ccSaveSys constructed and its MainProccess called between the menu's frames. The card is tools/test_desktop_data_rs.py's. There are 16 scenarios:

• saving to new and used files, and the clear data warning;
• NO answers, both card slots, no card, not a PS2 card;
• unformatted (NO, then formatted), a failing format, no directory;
• a full card, failing slot and index writes;
• frame rate 2 twice, and 160 random pads over two prepared cards.

Every frame agrees: the menu's and the task's state, the sounds, the DispInfo and DispMsg lines, every window and kanji packet, and the font strings with their colours. So do the card files at the end. The runs reach all 25 results the test asks for. The first mismatch it found was the InitCursol 1.

piney-game's ending_saves_the_clear_data plays story:31 through the ending and its staff roll (menu 8 at frame 12,587, at rate 2). It saves to an empty card: the directory is made, then the first file written. Read back, the index's first record is used, with clear flag 1 and the save's level, and the file holds clear flag 1. The desktop wakes after. save_menu_shots (ignored) writes the menus to /mnt/data/claude/scratch/savemenus/shots.