Game saves Shining Force II and Shining in the Darkness

[ace1973]

Describe the bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is.

When launching Shining Force II and Shining in the Darkness, both games don't show the option to start a new game, but just the options to 'continue' and 'delete' existing save games. The save games states however are all unusable: for 'Shining in the Darkness' normally the save states are listed as numbers 1, 2 and 3, but now they all say '55' (For Shining Force II they are just gibberish). Deleting a save game and going back to select that erased save games still causes the same error message.

So far I haven't been able to get past the save menu's and actually play both games.

Also, checking the box for save games states in Hackchi (and assigning a number of save states) doesn't remedy the situation: I have also tried different file types (.gen, .md and .bin) but all produce the same negative results.

I just checked and a similar type of error seems to exist for the Phantasy Star II save games.

And of course, many thanks in advance for solving this!

[alucard73]

I have no problem with Shining Force 2 For the others yes, as well as Soleil, Phantasy Star 3, Wonder Boy in the Monster Land, Super Hydlide

[ace1973]

Hi, Thanks for your reply. I don't have this problem with Soleil (the others I haven't tested yet).

Just to be sure, in Shining Force II, at the start of the game (the scene where the witch) you get 4 options ('start', 'continue, 'del' and 'copy') instead of 2 garbled ones? If this is the case, could you please let me know which version of the Shining Force II rom you are using?

[alucard73]

In Soleil once create the name of the character, when have reset the game, you still have your game in 1?

I use the trad french version of Shining Force 2. I will test a rom in english to see if it is the same or not because on the Trad French version you can delete, copy etc ...

[madmonkey1907]

Maybe it's stock Sf2? It's a patched rom. For the issue, press ctrl+f12 in main ce window, settings - dev tools - download latest hakchi, then kernel - install again. I might need some help with these. With update, you should be able to start most (all?) sram games, but sram saves will not stick. Currently I need to know whether all sram games are affected, or only some of them. To check, press start in main ui to start a game with retroarch. If it works, retroarch should see sram save from m2engage. Sf2 doesn't work that way currently, but I think ps4 does.

[alucard73]

Hakchi update was done yesterday but the problem is still there. Soleil and Super Hydlide the sram is recognized with Retroarch but not with M2engage. I will be testing more games this afternoon. As indicated on Discord, games with sram problems work in PL

[madmonkey1907]

I updated it today too, re-download please

[alucard73]

Once download the hmod, I leave it well in data and I do install / repair?

[madmonkey1907]

Correct

[alucard73]

Ok As soon as I can I re-download it

[ace1973]

I'm not at home right now, but I'll try the update later this afternoon as well.

[alucard73]

By cons, Wonderboy is a freeze by pressing Start, I patch the rom for the sram which was on the site of Krizz, the game starts well but the backup not. This afternoon when I come back, I re-test all that

[madmonkey1907]

Do not patch it for sram or any other reason besides translation/hack

[alucard73]

it was just for testing to see if it could correct the problem to give you an idea but I would prefer not to do it either I'm going to update now and I'm testing some games to see, I'll keep you posted in 10 minutes

[madmonkey1907]

Oh, sorry then, for testing, good idea actually

[alucard73]

don't be sorry, I'm still looking for every possible way to understand why a game is not working ;)

Let's go for the tests

[alucard73]

I tested the games that I had already tested

Phantasy Star 2: Before I had the message that the backups were corrupted when I launched the game, now we can save but M2engage does not recognize it, it is blank but if I launch Retroarch the backup it is recognized

Phantasy Star 3: same problem as Phantasy Star 2 except that now when I save, I have a mush of colors whereas before I didn't

Soleil (Europe, France etc ...): Backup not recognized by M2engage but with Retroarch yes

WonderBoy in the Monster Land: Before I had a freeze by pressing Start to launch the game, now it works except save as before

Super Hydlide: Same as for Soleil

Shining Force 2 (USA): Same as Soleil, except that Shining Force 2 (Trad French) works perfectly

[madmonkey1907]

Thanks, this will help

[alucard73]

I forgot

Shining of the Darkness: Before the game said there were backups, now we can do Start but M2engage can't find the backup, Retroarch can't find it either

[ace1973]

My findings (all US roms, .gen file types):

Crusader of Centy: still doesn't retain save state Phantasy Star II: no error messages regarding corrupted files any more, but doesn't retain save state Phantasy Star III: no error messages regarding corrupted files any more, but doesn't retain save state Shining Force II: correct start-up screen and possible to start the game :-) doesn't retain save state though Shining in the Darkness: correct start-up screen and possible to start the game :-) doesn't retain save state though

Hope this helps!

[ace1973]

@madmonkey1907 Thanks so much! I had one remaining question: did the update we install also include retroarch?

[madmonkey1907]

retroarch only if you install it from km hub. we try not to bundle everything into one giant blob.

[madmonkey1907]

This should be fixed now. update hakchi and try:

• Press Ctrl+F12 in hakchi CE to unlock the Developper menu.
• Settings > Developper tools > Download Latest Hakchi.
• And finally Kernel > Install / Repair.

[ace1973]

Hi, thank you so much for your work: i will upload the new Kernel later today and ill let you know what my experiences are.

[ace1973]

Long story short: all work! Great job :-)