How is the data stored? Something like this:

A name
B name
C name
(Each of these is a separate 6 character long string.)

And in ROM it looks like this:

A nameB nameC name

In other words, there's no end of string control code, right?

Try that. The #END CTRL specifies a little string of text that you want output at the end of each string. This isn't an actual control code in the game. Rather it's just something I added that would end up in the script to make it easier to determine where individual strings end.

With the above your example should output like this:

AAAAAA[END]

BBBBBB[END]

CCCCCC[END]

DDDDDD[END]

EEEEEE[END]

FFFFFF[END]


The FIXED_LINE thing is really for Genesis games that don't specify line breaks instead leaving it up to the tilemap to insert them. Bare Knuckle 3 did this. It would stick all of the tiles in VRAM right after one another and the tilemap was changed separately.

Here's an example:


In ROM:
AAAAAABBBBBBCCCCCCDDDDDDEEEEEEFFFFFF

Output:

AAAAAA[LINE]
BBBBBB[END]

CCCCCC[LINE]
DDDDDD[END]

EEEEEE[LINE]
FFFFFFF[END]

Hope that clears things up.

Yeah, that must be a bug. I dunno what the hell the deal is.  :huh:

No. I didn't realize such a scheme existed, so I didn't add it.

I am HURT.

This is a method of storage I have omitted from my WIP utility as well.  String Types  are C-Style (end terminated), Pascal (string length in the beginning), and Fixed. This is a bastardization. I do support a pointer table to fixed length strings no problem. However, we have variable length here with no length or end indication. Length can only be inferred from pointer math. Perhaps a 'Fixed Length by Next Pointer' option extension to Fixed Length string types. Something to that effect.

However, one big issue is what about the last string? How do you know how long the last string is? How does the game know in this case? This gets a little ugly and may turn into something very game specific.

It's the same for the last string. Doesn't end with an end byte. The script ends when it hits an end byte value, which in this case passes beyond this script block, the monster names and spells. The monster and spell names are fixed strings, though.

The last string is supposed to end at $270862 but ends at $272962. The whole block, with the available space included, is between $270200 and $270AFF, so the extraction gets quite far before it hits the end.

This is the only block in the game that has this kind of format, so fortunately, it's not a real biggie. But maybe this applies to other games besides this and RS2.

-C_CliFF