Shenmue - Save Anywhere (EUR/USA/JAP)

(Modding and other series related projects)

Shenmue - Save Anywhere (EUR/USA/JAP)

Postby ner0 » Sat Feb 04, 2017 2:21 pm

Shenmue - Save Anywhere
(EUR/USA/JAP)


Coded by
ner0

Special thanks to
assemblergames.com, shenmuedojo.net
Esppiral, S4pph4rad, masterchan777



> [DOWNLOAD] <




Compatibility
Tested under Windows 10 (x64), with:
    > nullDC v1.0.4 (Apr. 28, 2014), also known as "Shenmue Edition"
    > DEMUL v0.7 alpha (Aug. 18, 2016)


What is it?
Anyone ever played Shenmue for hours, without saving, during a thunder storm?! Bad idea!
The main purpose of this trainer, as the title suggests, is to allow you to save your game progress anywhere, at any time, bypassing the original restrictions. This trainer was specifically developed to work with Shenmue on DEMUL and nullDC Dreamcast emulators. I also took the liberty to include the latest widescreen hack/patch, developed by Esppiral. Although most people using the widescreen hack will want to use fully patched discs/images (which I highly recommend), I still felt that it could be of some use; you can always disable the patch by unticking the checkbox on the top-left corner. If you're playing with already patched images then the trainer will detect that and ignore it's own patch.


How does it work?
Simple. Open the trainer and boot the game (not necessarily in that order, except for widescreen patch or patched GDRom region) and wait for the trainer to detect the emulator and game. Once you see the STATUS indicating a successful detection then you can use two functions. Let me go over those below:

1. "Save Game", the first function, which can be called by pressing the respective trainer's button, or using the F11 hotkey, calls the standard save function which by default is only accessible in Ryo's room or in key parts of the game. This save is more trustworthy because it will not be erased after loading the game - we'll get to that in a second. The downside of this function is that, if it is used during any key event or scene, upon loading you will be returned to the point before that scene happens and the player's physical location will be set to the default entry point of that level. Let's say that you save during the first scene between Fuku-san and Ryo, at the dojo. When loading this save you will start just outside the door of the Hazuki Residence's house and the event will have to be played again by entering the dojo. Everything else, like your achievements, items, current time, and story line, will remain intact.

2. "Quick Save", the second function, which can be called by pressing the respective trainer's button, or using the F12 hotkey, calls the "Resume" type of save that by default is called by accessing the in-game menu and selecting the VMU icon. As you are certainly aware, normally this save option prevents you from playing further once used, and on top of that it gets erased as soon as it is loaded. You may be asking yourself why bother if you can save anywhere using the first function. Well, as you may or may not know, this save method is much more accurate, like a snapshot or an emulator's "save-state" if you will. This means that whatever you might be doing in-game, whether it's a fight or a cut-scene, it will save and load to the exact same point. This trainer can call that save function directly and wait for it to finish saving and then bypass the lock screen returning you to the game as normal. It can also return you to the game if you have already used that save method through the default VMU menu option. There is always one thing to keep in mind, if you rely on this save method frequently then you have a higher probability of losing your game progress since it is always erased after loading, and then we tend to forget things...


My anti-virus flagged this as malware! What gives?!
This trainer was developed using Cheat Engine, and it uses it's resources and drivers to work as it does. The way Cheat Engine works makes it so that a lot of its mechanisms are mistaken as malicious by a lot of reputable anti-virus software. I can guarantee you that, to the best of my knowledge, no malware is shipped with this trainer. Here are the links for VirusTotal analysis:

> Shenmue - Save Anywhere v1.0.1_DEMUL.exe (DEMUL Edition v1.0.1)
    SHA256: 887394adc5be1eb220cf358c097560631953a850ca838678175c8b0f9300c9cc
    Analysis results

> Shenmue - Save Anywhere v1.0.1_nullDC.exe (nullDC Edition v1.0.1)
    SHA256: 51b5334c8d61fc3e6359a311cd69569ee7355d24123317d296db09f9c704f367
    Analysis results

Note: ESET-NOD32 detection seems to be the most accurate.


Troubleshooting
The first thing that I should mention is that the nullDC version of the trainer can be quite unstable. The reason for this is that nullDC maps memory in a way that forced me to use a kernel driver that is loaded by the trainer and allows the trainer to detect and change parts of the game's memory that would otherwise not be accessible. I don't expect it to crash your game or emulator, it didn't for me, but the trainer itself may crash once in a while. Since we're on the subject, when you open nullDC version of the trainer you will notice a message flashing on the top-left of the screen ('DBKxx LOADED'). This indicates that the trainer has loaded the kernel driver which I mentioned earlier and which it needs in order to work with nullDC. DEMUL trainer is more stable since it doesn't load this kernel driver. No worries though, if you spot any bugs make sure to let me know and I'll have it sorted ASAP.

> The trainer isn't working for me, what can I do?
The first thing to establish is if there was any particular error which the trainer might have given. In case there was an error, let us focus on that... I had no issues but I'm willing to look into it if enough details are given to me. Otherwise, if no error was given, the second thing is to establish what version of the emulator you are using. I released one trainer for nullDC and another one for DEMUL. At the moment of writing I have tested it on both versions mentioned at the top of this 'README'. If indeed you are using one of the emulators above then the next step is to know if the version of Shenmue that you are using is supported by this trainer. I made sure to include compatibility for the 3 main versions of the game (EUR/USA/JAP), if yours isn't detected as supported then I can look into it and try to add support for it.

> When using the save function the game crashes/freezes!
This sort of thing happened a lot to me earlier on, but we're talking during the main phase of research. During the "just-about-to-release" phase these didn't occur at all. But if it happens to you then let me know and I'll see if there is anything I can do to fix it.

> When using the nullDC trainer my computer BSOD'd (crashed)!
I mentioned that nullDC version is somewhat unstable. BSOD is not very common though, in fact it only happened to me a few times until I fine tuned it to be as stable as I could - but it may depend on your CPU. Still, it may happen so make sure that any crucial information is saved in case of a crash. The kernel driver which I mentioned before is probably responsible for that. If it happens, see what particular error is mentioned in the blue-screen and let me know, I'll see if there is anything I can do to sort it out or mitigate as best as possible.


Any other subject not covered above, feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to get back to you when possible.

Enjoy! :)
Last edited by ner0 on Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ner0 has received 6 thanks from: Coromasta, Jibby, masterchan777, Mr357, SheepheadCG, Switch
ner0
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Joined: January 2017
Favorite title: Shenmue
Currently playing: Shenmue

Re: Shenmue - Save Anywhere (EUR/USA/JAP)

Postby ner0 » Mon Feb 06, 2017 6:40 pm

I just realized that Demul uses F11 to enable a red triangle used as a crosshair for the arcade gun.
It's pretty annoying that it can't be disabled afterwards, I was having to move my mouse to a corner every time...

Anyway, I updated the trainer to v1.0.1 and added the possibility to change hotkeys by using an external text file. If the file is not found then it uses the default F11 and F12. But if the 'hotkeys.txt' file is found then it reads the key name and code. Keys have to be assigned as follows:
    Keyname (simply to show up on the button)
    Hexadecimal key code
If you open the text file released with the trainer you'll understand it clearly.
ner0
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Joined: January 2017
Favorite title: Shenmue
Currently playing: Shenmue

Re: Shenmue - Save Anywhere (EUR/USA/JAP)

Postby lorddanilo » Mon Feb 27, 2017 7:02 pm

What values did you apply in the widescreen patch? I can not make the new widescreen patch work on Shenmue Undub, but this save anywhere patch works. Could you only make widescreen available?

i'm using NullDC with Shenmue fixes

PS: sorry, my english is bad (I'm brazilian)
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lorddanilo
Fuku-san
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Joined: February 2017
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Re: Shenmue - Save Anywhere (EUR/USA/JAP)

Postby ner0 » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:49 pm

The values are the same as the ones posted on the original topic by Esppiral. Besides, the trainer works, what do you expect me to do differently? You likely prefer to have patched discs, in which case continue the conversation here: viewtopic.php?p=1148208#p1148208
ner0
Asia Travel Representative
Asia Travel Representative
 
Joined: January 2017
Favorite title: Shenmue
Currently playing: Shenmue


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