The DDR Research Master Thread - UPDATED 2023-04-15 - Minor Addition - SOME DDR GB1 Memory Addresses

Well the basic idea is to clear songs and/or clear specific songs to unlock other songs.

Thank you.

By the way, regarding the clearing of specific songs to unlock others, which specific songs unlock what songs?

There's also phase unlocks that are just Wait Time, get things.

IIRC in the newer AC DDR's by clearing one of the Paranoia's (I don't remember which one, someone please help clarify this) then Paranoia Max ~Dirty Mix~ (in Roulette) gets unlocked, since the newer DDR AC doesn't have the Roulette option any more.

Added a touch of info about songwheel traversal in the PS2 mixes (concerning the speed at which the wheel is traversed), pardon the wording being weird I am utterly sleep deprived (too much TF2 lately) - I will be editing it, and adding more info as I stumble across it (including correcting erroneous information that might be present). Also pardon the lack of action lately, as I am trying to get back into a rhythm of doing a lot of different things, INCLUDING this, and haven't quite worked out managing my time well just yet. >_<

UPDATE 5-10-17: Added a preliminary attempt at interpreting how the code for calculating your letter grade works in the MAX Engine. Will definitely be updating this in the immediate future.

MAJOR UPDATE 6-5-2017:

Inserting custom tracks (by overwriting existing tracks, at least for now) - IS NOW PROVEN (relatively easily) doable!

It looks as though we could be closer to cracking the code of the MAX engine these games used. Keep up the good work, man!

https://www.youtube.com/user/travelsonic/videos

you should subscribe to travelsonic's Youtube channel as he upload updates on hacking the games.

I'm subscribed, BTW. Thanks for the heads up though.

no problem.

I'm having a similar issue with dump-filedata.py:

Extracting 459 files from FILEDATA.BIN for Party Collection
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "D:\Descargas\Cosas PS2\ddr-tools\dump-filedata.py", line 36, in <module>
offset = int.from_bytes([data[1],data[2],data[3]], 'little') * 0x800
AttributeError: type object 'int' has no attribute 'from_bytes'

Maybe it's because of the Python version I'm using? I have 2.7.11 installed.

EDIT: that was the cause. I installed Python 3.6.2 and it worked.

Now, I have many .bin files of varying sizes. What do I do with them?

I heard there was some cool stuff going on in this thread.

Without some of the work, and tools you and others had done in the past none of which would have been possible.

EDIT: I gotta run to a morning class, but I should post here (if I didn't already) a video of my semi-successfully putting the music for Remember December from ITG into DDRMAX2JP.

I realized, following this semi-successful venture, that since tools exist that allow me to repack PS2 ISO images, I could just do that, and actually append the song to the end of the filedata.bin file - then change the appropriate filedata table entry to reflect this change, instead of the trial and error that leads to audio files, and more data than necessary, being overwritten.

I found a lot of interesting stuff.

Seems that there is in fact an array of ASCII strings for the data entries of the songs that are used in the attract demo. Not yet gotten changing them with other songs to work.

Also found a table containing ASCII strings for all 74 songs in MAX2JP and some other data I have not yet determined the identity of. Underneath it is an array of pointers to filedata table entries. Looks like it controls a song's static background image. It also appears that there are 296 entries - 4 per song, even for songs that have no Oni chart, or are Oni only. Seems like a massive waste of space to me.

I think I have also found the HEART of the game engine - the gameplay portion. It is an ungodly mess of functions that will take time to sort through, but wow, will the customization options go through the roof once I've figured it out. I've already gotten close to deciphering the behavior that leads up to declaring a song finished, and have found where the determination to end the song is made.

Seems there are separate tables for song BGM AND song static BG image loads. Go figure. XD

EDIT AGAIN: Wow, even the unused tracks - the menu holdovers from MAX - have entries in the BGM table. I gotta livestream a bit of this later tonight, if I can.

I actually had a question for you since you clearly know your way around these games' engines and shit. I remember I accidentally left DDR Max 2 US CS idle on a break stage in endless mode for a decently long time (I want to say around 30 minutes or so). My computer was in the same room as my PS2 and Cobalt Flux at the time and I was filling out job applications and I forgot that I left the PS2 and TV on. Out of nowhere, it starts playing the same 1st Mix demo mode music that was in your video where you found unused audio data on Extreme JP CS. Was my copy of Max 2 glitching up there or is that actually normal?

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Wow, that's certainly odd... haven't yet looked at U.S mixes, but I want to now that I've read of this happening.

(and I will probably do a livestream during the weekend, maybe later Saturday night, too much class work during the weekdays to do. I do wanna stream my expeditions into the game engine though. )

Well, DS EuroMIX 2's censor list is a hell of a lot more comprehensive compared to the one used in console mixes... I'm assuming for the moment that the other AC titles have a list that is equally extensive (for obvious reasons).



Looks like George Carlin's 7 words, and the 3 he added on in his followup routine (fart, turd, and twat) made the list, unsurprisingly.

Hopefully I can work on AC mix hacking at school, since PCSX2 needs DirectX updates, and that requires admin privs. >_<

Hell, don't forget the racial, homophobic, and anti-Semitic slurs.

MAX2 US uses a lot of music from previous games, like 5th Mix's select used in the How To Play
also MAX2 uses elements from EXTREME JP CS as well (SP-Trip Machine using the EXTREME AC vid)

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Ug, if only I could figure out this fucking BGM load thing - there is an array of filedata entries for each BGM. I find that the game loads the address of the first element, then adds the offset that will result in the proper song being loaded, but manipulating this is proving frustrating as in, I change the index value loaded into the register, nothing happens. Only seems to change when I go to the table, and change the array elements manually.


Dunno if that'd explain the music changing - but sure would explain it changing to what it did

Speaking of, I did, quite a while back, find DDRMAX US lesson mode graphics in MAX2 JP. Odd, seeing MAX JP didn't - if I recall, at least, have it.

Also think I've pinpointed where in MAX2JP and EXTREME JP stepdata is loaded.

Added preliminary information about stepdata loading - and info about the filedata, how it's stored in filedata.bin, etc.

I'm more interested to know why 573 cares so much about "DICKS" and "WHORE"


But on the reals, this is some real impressive stuff. And it should carry over all the pre-Extreme 2 engines? Hmm...

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It is likely a part of a master song list - Konami, for some reason, feels fine with wasting a butt ton of bytes in these executables with such a list (among other things left in). MAX-EX2 has them too. No idea what purpose it possibly serves. 0_o

The US releases always came after the Jp version, so they could've borrowed elements from the most recent JP release. (MAX1 US using MAX2 JP Lesson Grpahics, MAX2 US using EX JP music).

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