Entry 290

Open questions after the triage: the save

save

This entry answers the question left open by The memory card save format, Event scripts on every volume, and how a save carries into the next, The game from power-on: title, New Game, the desktop, and back, A new game's setup: the event's lines, name entry, and NewGame's save, The title's Load: the game's load screen on the card, and the loaded save handed to the desktop, A new game's save as the game builds it: ccSaveData::Init, NewGame and InitSpcParam, and the merchant's camera, "The save menus after the staff roll: SaveSelMenu and SaveMenu", "The later volumes' title: five items, the previous volume's save, every branch of the opening checked on the four volumes", What the save's open fields hold, Options kept across the four parts.

FilesUNKNOWNS.md

This entry closes the open questions of 10 entries about the save: the memory card format, the new game, the title's load and what carries between volumes. The triage of 2026-09-28 (UNKNOWNS.md) split every entry's open paragraph into single questions and checked each one against the later log, the docs and the code. The answered ones are listed below with their evidence. What is still open is restated at the end, with the entry that asked it, the play questions first. Open questions of these entries that belong to another subsystem are restated in that subsystem's entry: 288, 289 and 291.

Answered

  • 16: what mcFname[0] (BISLPS-00000HUCKER) is for — answered by docs/formats/save.md (nothing uses it; only mcFname+4 is referenced)
  • 16: the icon.sys fields the game fills in — answered by docs/formats/save.md (the title from mcTitleName, the break at byte 10)
  • 16: which of the twelve icons each volume uses — answered by docs/formats/save.md (volume v uses iconBinTbl 3(v-1) to 3(v-1)+2)
  • 16: the meaning of most event-flag bits — answered by 40 / docs/engine/events.md (bit 62 done, 63 closed); 246
  • 16: whether ConvGame is reachable — answered by 24 / docs/formats/save.md (ccThDemo calls it when the later titles' opening returns 4)
  • 16: how the later volumes read Infection's saves — answered by 24, 200 / docs/formats/save.md (LoadInfoPrevReq, LoadDataPrevReq)
  • 24: what the Mutation-on blocks at +0x8432 and +0x8462 hold — answered by 246 (zeroed by Init, copied, never read)
  • 24: the extension's 3 bytes at +0x748 — answered by 200 / docs/formats/save.md (pcTradeCount of characters 18-20)
  • 24: the extension's 256 bytes at +0x754 — answered by 246 (cleared and copied, nothing else)
  • 24: the save bit at +0x5ec8 bit 62 — answered by 220 (eventFlag[314] bit 62: event 314 done, the random-path dungeon flag)
  • 24: what the ending routine does while the KFED buffers are loaded — answered by 239 (gcmn 0x004f0a30 starts STFROLL_VOL4 and waits)
  • 44: NewGame(0)'s copy of charTbl into spcParam — answered by 76 (tools/test_save_init_rs.py)
  • 44: the setup screen and name entry during event 1 are black — answered by 45
  • 44: the title's music, the PSS movies, the intro stream, The World — answered by 46, 49, 52, 58, 59
  • 50: LoadGame's vibration — answered by 232 (piney_input::actuator)
  • 50: LoadGame's camera scheme — answered by crates/piney-world/src/camera.rs (camera_mode from the save) and the CameraType requests applied (crates/piney-game/src/world.rs, area.rs); 254
  • 76: per-frame CalcReal only in Mac Anu — answered by BUGS.md (kites_buff_times_out_in_town; the field's frame ran it already), crates/piney-game/src/world.rs calc_real_party
  • 76: Init's fields not repaired in old saves (townMoveFlag, partyMemberCall, tactics, cameraMode, drainDemo, idol ranks) — no longer applies: it concerned the port's own saves made before 76's fix, not the game
  • 76: what partyMemberCall 0x3fffe, tactics 7, drainDemo and growth are for — answered by 246 / docs/formats/save.md
  • 201: Outbreak's and Quarantine's titles not run — answered by 204 (all three later discs reach their desktops)
Still unknown
  • (play) [[43]], [[201]], [[226]]: CONVERT, a previous volume's save into a new part: Data_Control's m_PrevFlg load screen reads the card, but Request::ConvGame only reaches "title asks" in crates/piney-game/src/session.rs, so nothing is imported (docs/engine/title.md) — starting Mutation, Outbreak or Quarantine from the previous part's clear data. - [[246]]: what each eventStatus index counts; it belongs to the scripts that use it. - [[193]]: what reads the save's portal counts (+0x6864, +0x6866, +0x6868) (docs/engine/effects.md Unknown). - [[45]]: save_va: the real heap address NewGame stores as character 0's name pointer. - [[50]]: whether ccSaveSys keeps its card position through a reset. - [[70]]: the Recorder's card position follows the title's Load, not a later desktop Data save (the cursor's start only). - [[45]], [[73]], [[159]]: real disc and card times: the port's card calls finish at once, so the card-busy frames and messages never show (docs/engine/desktop.md Unknown). - [[254]]: whether a player wants a save's own options to win when loading a card made elsewhere (a port design choice).