Cheat Engine

BlackMoogle1234 · How do I cheat? Reputation: 0 Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Posts: 3

So, after stumbling around for awhile, I managed to find a way to edit a value that I needed for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on the Dolphin Emulator. This value is to increase the number of enemy kills in an area, so that I can get high Bonus Points. The value sadly resets to 0 after I clear the dungeon, requiring me to enter the value in again -- it does this even if I freeze the value by checking the box, or if I say "find what accesses this value" and replace the resulting code with nothing. So, I'm left with having to increase the number of kills again by modifying the value.
Problem is, for some reason, I can only modify this value once per session. That is to say, I can enter a dungeon, say "255 kills", clear the dungeon. Yay, bonus items. I leave, the value is reset to 0, and then, unless I reset Dolphin altogether, Cheat Engine won't let me change the kills back to 255 again. It just ignores my input. This seems very strange to me, and though it's only a mild inconvenience, I was wondering whether anyone had any ideas on how to fix it, or could at least explain why it only lets me modify it once? =x Sorry for huge noobness.

Xathan · Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 1:18 pm Post subject:

I have a theory but first one question:

When you change the value the second time is it still zero or the value you entered? If the latter then your address is not correct any more and you need to search it again. If it is still zero then it could be a "bug" when using too high values. Try some smaller values, e.g. 120 (less than 127 just to make sure).

BlackMoogle1234 · How do I cheat? Reputation: 0 Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Posts: 3

That was my first thought, too, but no. The value itself is still correct; for instance, if I enter a dungeon and kill something, I can see the value increase 1, 2, 3, etc. I just can't change it. It also occurred to me that 255 may be too high, but no -- changing it to anything at all "locks" it, and I have to reset the emulator to change it again.
Thanks for your response anyway, though :3

Alamer99 · Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 2:58 pm Post subject:

Start The Game And Scan For The Value You Want

Do NOT Change It.

Find What Writes/Accesses The Value When It Increases

Do Some Code Injecting On It And See If It Works (It Probably Will)

BlackMoogle1234 · How do I cheat? Reputation: 0 Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Posts: 3

I'm afraid the layman for what you suggested is probably "Don't be a layman". XD I already tried replacing the accessing codes with "Code that does nothing", and when I did so, the game stopped registering kills on its own. That is, if I had ten kills so far, the eleventh kill wouldn't register. However, the only real problem at this point is that the kill counter is reset to 0 when I re-enter a dungeon, and this happens even when I find the access code for re-entering the dungeon and replace that with code that does nothing. I'm afraid that if by "Code Injections" you mean something more than that, I'll just have to make do, 'cause I doubt whether I have the capacity to figure out anything more sophisticated XD Thanks for your time, though.

Alamer99 · Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 3:52 pm Post subject:

You Dont Quite Get The Idea

Code Injecting is NOT Just NOP There Are So Many More Things To Do

Find What Writes/Accesses The Value When It Increases

For Example Lets Say You Got

vng21092 · Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 4:40 pm Post subject:

Kyokyonos · Newbie cheater Reputation: 0 Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Posts: 19

Dark Byte · Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:53 am Post subject:

it's an emulwtor so nop won't work
best thing you can do is a code injection and then inspect the stack to determine if it should be skipped or not (the stack most likely contains a direct or indirect reference to the current program counter)

also, if the code you find isn't part of a module it's possible it got jitted. If that's the case a nop could work. You'll then have to write an aobscan to automatically find it

DeniedAnal · How do I cheat? Reputation: 0 Joined: 12 Jun 2015 Posts: 6

Why doesn't nop work in emulators?

Dark Byte · Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 12:15 pm Post subject:

because the code you'll find is the code used to change a memory address in the emulated memory, not just the one specific address you're interested in.

If you nop that, then not a single address will ever change. e.g sound, pixel colors, position, keyboard buffer, etc...etc...etc... would never change