Entry 50

The title's Load: the game's load screen on the card, and the loaded save handed to the desktop

2026-09-23uisavetest

Filescrates/piney-demo/src/dataload.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/savesys.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/card.rscrates/piney-game/src/session.rstools/test_demo_rs.py

The user found DATALOAD on the title missing; in 43 it was a stand-in. The title agent ported the game's load screen; I put it in the runtime. The reference is "The load screen" in the title page.

What the game does

• The screen. DataLoad_Control::Main_Control runs Data_Control's steps (the slot list, the save list with its panel, the question, the messages and YES/NO). It works over the same ccSaveSys as the boot's card check and the desktop's Data screen: the game keeps one from boot.

• The title-only steps. ccSaveSys has steps only the title uses:

  • LoadSelectReq and LoadDataReq;
  • MainProccess 6, which asks "Load this data?";
  • MainProccess 8, which reads the slot (DataRead), checks its 16-bit byte sum against the index record, and copies it into saveData, except three padding runs.

• The hand-off. Main returns 3, and ccThDemo then runs:

  • saveData->LoadGame();
  • the same music fade and ChangeRequest(3, 7) as New Game.

  No event is started or converted. The event task started at boot keeps running, and every event flag it reads comes from the loaded save. LoadGame sets:

  • each party member's name pointers and the float from charTbl;
  • the vol1 words;
  • outside the save, the camera scheme, vibration, the display offset and SetSoundEnv.

In the runtime

• The card. The title now gets the same card as the desktop:
  • FilesCard on the --card directory (work/memcard/slot1 by default);
  • with --no-card, NoCard, and the boot asks whether to start without one, as the game does.
• Load. Loading hands the title's save to the desktop just as New Game does.
  • SetSoundEnv's volumes go to the sound driver.
  • The Data screen starts at the card slot and save the load used (set_card_position).
  • The camera scheme, vibration and display offset have nothing to act on in the runtime yet.

Checked

• Against the game's code. test_data_load in tools/test_demo_rs.py runs the game's DataLoad_Control and ccSaveSys in eemu beside the port. It covers 15 pad runs over cards kept as files:

  • saves, and empty, corrupt, missing and short slots;
  • a card without the save directory, and no card.

  Every frame matches: state, text draws, cursors and sounds. So does the whole save at the end. The runs reach "Data loaded." and each error.

• LoadGame. test_load_game compares LoadGame on random saves. All 18 tests in the file pass.

• The runtime. load_from_the_card in piney-game writes a save and its index record to a card directory. It loads the save through the title's screen (slot 1, the third save, YES, OK), and the desktop starts on it, play time and name included.

• The other session tests. They now boot with an empty card directory, because with no card the boot asks its question. piney-game has 7 tests, piney-demo and piney-desktop pass, and clippy (also with trace) and fmt are clean.