PoPoRoGue

This page contains no introduction. What makes this game notable or what is it about? Are you a bad enough dude to save this article?

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: The debug flag seems to do other stuff as well. Check it some more at different parts in the game. Compare revisions 0 and 1.

Debug Feature#

A simple debug flag remains in the game that allows the player to buy any item in shops for zero gold.

Original release code:

All Shop Items Cost 0 (debug option)
300B6D60 0001

Debug Symbol Map#

Present in the route of the CD is a MAIN.MAP file which has labels to all functions and memory locations in the game.

Unused Debug Command#

Labeled debug_key_command in the map file is a memory location containing the buttons Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, X, Circle. However, no function makes use of these. It would have likely enabled the debug flag above with more extensive features at one point.

Anti-Piracy#

This game is the first to use the Sony-developed APv1 library (safechk.obj) for detecting early modchips. These modchips would constantly output the "SCEx" license string needed by the console's copy protection, even while games were already playing. The Sony library could detect this and halt the game with an error message.¹

On bootup, the game will begin loading/decompressing/decrypting the overlay code containing this library into memory then execute said code, which if tripped will immediately show the error message after the "Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Presents" message.

This game is notable for containing a unique version of the anti-modchip error screen that simply featured a red hand sign, which would serve as the namesake for the Japanese term "Red Hand Protect", or RHP for short. Due to the vagueness of this screen, it was changed in all subsequent games to feature a slightly larger "No go" sign with Japanese or English text informing the user that the console may have been modified.

References#