Talk:The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

"Unused rooms"
Hero's Cave 1- This side scrolling room is within the very first dungeon of the game. In the room is a gasha seed. The ladder on the left only leads to yellow nothingness.



This one is actually used. In the lower-left room, defeat the enemies and push the upper-right block.

The other rooms may be used too. I would be cautious about labeling them if you haven't played them yet. -- Xkeeper (talk) 14:26, 21 June 2011 (EDT)

Speculation + glitches/GS-code workings in-detail
The items section is full of speculation, which isn't bad I'd guess, but things like the item with the glitched traded ore graphics being that you were supposed to get two is just a wild guess.

The same section treats glitches as if they were supposed to be actual things. The "nothing" item is simply a properly blanked out item, while the "Glitched Ore" is just a glitch from an unvalid value.

It also goes on to explain how you can equip and use inventory items... Any behavior from these items is purely a glitch from equiping an item you aren't supposed to have equipped. Unless it actually triggers an unused behavior, in which case it should go along other unused behaviors. ReimuHakurei 02:39, 13 July 2011 (EDT)

I agree with all of what you said. I cleaned up the items section to the two unused items I found to not be glitches. One of them was the punching and the other was the switch hook. The "punching" item is unique because it seems that no situation in the game Link actually uses this item. In the situations where he fights Blaino and uses rings to punch, this item is never equipped. The switch hook, while doesn't function properly, still seems to have some partial coding. Link goes through the animations as he would if he used this item in Oracle of Ages. I feel that is still worth a mention so I didn't throw it out. I think the items section looks cleaner now. Cuber456 05:36, 13 July 2011 (EDT)

On the other hand, the fact that there is garbage and empty items in the exact same places as Oracle of Ages has its exclusives is probably worth mentioning (And possibly on other nearby values, considering they planned a third game). The problem was more on the whole "equipping Quest Items" and Glitched Ore deal, really. ReimuHakurei 13:18, 13 July 2011 (EDT)

Ok. I added info on the unused values that are used in Oracle of Ages back to the page. I made sure to say that they don't work as intended and that they are all glitchy. I didn't add back the item values that do nothing because you can't really say what they were for. I also left out the glitched ore because for the same reason. Since we are on topic of items, I think I can add one more item to the list but I want your take on these before I add it. The biggoron sword has a behavior I haven't seen in the game. The biggoron sword normally takes up both the A and B buttons in the game but I can, through hacking, equip it to just one button instead. I don't know whether it should be added because of this. What do you think of this? Cuber456 16:49, 13 July 2011 (EDT)

That isn't a behavior. Normally when you select it, the Biggoron Sword is equipped both for the button you pressed and throws the item in the other button onto the next free slot, equipping the Biggoron Sword in that button as well. You simply are skipping the part where you select it on the inventory, so it doesn't move away the other item. ReimuHakurei 17:33, 13 July 2011 (EDT)

Characters
Would it be possible to have a picture with the uncompressed unused characters instead? (Or in the correct BPP or something, assuming they in fact aren't supposed to look like that, of course.) Also, considering there are Japanese and European characters there, I'd check if the games use all the same font, so with the exception of unused characters in all three versions like the "X" gylph and such they'd be more like a somewhat obvious regional difference. --ReimuHakurei 19:03, 14 July 2011 (EDT)

I don't see why it wouldn't be possible through hacking. I was using the program yy-chr and stumbled across it and felt that it is worth noting. Speaking of the "X" glyph, there is a glitch that can change the player's name to these. Start a new game and go to secrets. The secret you type in is a bunch of "N"'s. So literally type "NNNNN NNNNN NNNNN NNNNN" and select ok and the player's name will be those weird "X" gylphs. I did this in the US version so I don't know if this work's for other versions. This glitch might be helpful for accessing those other characters in the game if you look at the game in a memory editor. --Cuber456 19:24, 14 July 2011 (EDT)

Overworld Placeholder Screens
Just for reference for the winter placeholder screen(if it exists), what letter would be expected to be on the map? --Cuber456 19:24, 14 July 2011 (EDT)


 * "F", for "fuyu", which is, of course, the japanese word for "Winter". --From: divingkataetheweirdo 20:01, 14 July 2011 (EDT)

Probably No more Unused Maps/PlaceHolders
I have reasons to believe that there aren't anymore unused maps or placeholders left in Oracle of Seasons. I have been trying my best to find more unused maps but I can't come up with anything worthwhile which kind of makes me sad. I'll give a full explanation of why I think all the unused maps/placeholders have already been found. It might be lengthy explanation but I feel it is required. If you find anything wrong with my methodology or feel that I didn't do something right, PLEASE SAY SO. I don't want to stop searching just because I am going about this the wrong way.

Basically, the way that Oracle of Seasons seems to organize maps is the following. Map data seems to start at 0x10C000 and continues on until 0x200000. In other words, this space is where all the map data for the game seems to be located. A single map area in the game is composed of 80 bytes of data. Using Zole, I cleared every ever map(edit-->clear map) for almost all map groups(Excluding Fall and Winter overworld) that the program knows about. What this does is take a known map and set its 80 bytes of data to be all zeros. So by the end of this process, all known maps(or map groups except Fall and Winter maps) that Zole knows about were set to zero. If there were any other maps, besides the ones Zole knows about, it would still be displayed as random data in the locations between 0x10C000 and 0x200000. I was able to find four hex areas that weren't deleted by Zole and I shall list them here and describe them:
 * 0x13D3D0 through 0x13D690 Mostly contains maps from Horon Village that use slightly different tile sets. There are a few maps with the H place holder in here.
 * 0x13E1A0 through 0x13EA80 Its hard to tell if these are unused areas at all or really just coding that is mistaken for maps. These maps ,when displayed in Zole, have no flow/organization at all. Even changing the tile sets in Zole for these maps doesn't make these maps more consistent or organized.
 * 0x149A00 through 0x14A180 same as above
 * 0x14A500 through 0x14AD30 same as above

I noticed that the three last hex areas look too organized to be map data. What I mean is that there are a ton of repeating hex values. Used map data is completely disorganized. Here are two example maps:

B8B0 B0B0 B0B0 B0B0 B0B0 B0B0 B0B0 B900 B31D 1D1D 1D1D 1D1D 1D1D 1D1D 1D1D B100 B31D EFEF EFEF EFEF EFEF EFEF EF1D B100 B31D EFEF EFF8 F8F8 F8EF EFEF EF1D B100 B31D EFEF EFF8 F8F8 F8F8 F8EF EF1D B100
 * 0x13E1A0 through 0x13E1E0:

B8A7 A8AB B4AC A8A9 B8B8 A1A7 A8A8 BAA8 A8A9 AAB8 ADA7 B4A8 A6A8 B4A9 AEB8 ADB7 B5BD EFBE B5A9 AEB8 ADB2 B2B2 B2B2 B2B2 A0B8 ADB2 B2B2 B2B2 B2B2 2F2F B1BC BCBC BCBC BCBC B0B8 4554 5454 5454 5454 46B8
 * Used map data for the entrance into level 6 during Spring:

I didn't completely check ever single unused "map" because most of them followed this organized pattern. Other than that, I didn't find any other unused map data. This is why I conclude that there probably isn't any more unused maps/placeholders. It is possible that maybe outside the bound of 0x10C000 through 0x200000 there may exist other map data but who knows. I also compared the US version of the game to the Japanese version of the game(it had the earliest public release) to see if there was any differences in map data between the two and there weren't enough differences to lead to any more unused maps. I'll say it again, if you find anything wrong with my methodology or feel that I didn't do something right, PLEASE SAY SO. I don't want to stop searching just because I am going about this the wrong way. Feel free to use this information to search for maps if you want.--Cuber456 17:11, 17 July 2011 (EDT)

Actually, I knew these rooms a long time ago. I accessed them by using the GameShark code 010033D0 that allows to walk through the walls. And actually, there are still some more unused rooms. For example, here is a kind of "mockup" room found by walking at random:



So I think there are still some rooms to discover ;) --Morwenn 13:41, 20 July 2011 (EDT)

Perhaps you are right. The map you posted, however, is the entrance to the maku tree that is within 0x13D3D0 through 0x13D690. On that screen, go to the inventory screen and then exit it and the game will fix some of the tiles. These maps are worth noting with their tile changes but I am depressed that this is all that I can find. Nothing but used rooms that have some different tiles. I was hoping for rooms that didn't get used at all :( --Cuber456 16:07, 20 July 2011 (EDT)

You are right, however the room you see is bigger than the one with the Maku Tree's door. But the rest of the room is empty. But I do not think that those rooms are that interesting compared to some other rooms =) --Morwenn 13:37, 23 July 2011 (EDT)

More Unused Rooms !



--Dark Linkaël 06:00, 22 July 2011 (EDT)

Just to say I will remove the details of the exit of some unused rooms from the main article. Actually, those doors do not work and just act as if there was not any collision. So they lead to the South room. I will replace the current comment by "The door does not work". --Morwenn 00:05, 28 July 2011 (EDT)

Simple Area ID Changes for Unused Maps
I don't know if this is worth mentioning but some of the unused rooms look more proper if their area ID's are changed in Zole. Subrosia AE looks much better if its ID is changed to either 49,50,51. Unmapped(2) CD looks better if its ID is changed to 80,81,82,83,84. I don't know if these were suppose to be the original ID's of these rooms but I find it odd how they just seem to fit properly when changed.--Cuber456 17:30, 17 July 2011 (EDT)

Unmapped(2) CE (Change ID Area)



--Dark Linkaël 06:08, 22 July 2011 (EDT)

It's crazy to see how just a few simple ID changes can make some of these maps turn from gibberish to consistent rooms. --Cuber456 16:30, 22 July 2011 (EDT)

Resorting to Defaults
I have noticed two interesting patterns in this game(one was mentioned by the user Aoi). Whenever I spawn a staircase in an area that doesn't normally have one and I use the stairs, it always seems to bring me outside Impa's Refuge. This also happens in some of the unused rooms. So do you think it would be proper to say that stairs with no destinations automatically default to outside Impa's Refuge? The other thing I noticed is that the treasure chests in the unused rooms always seem to have one rupee in them(this seem to be the same for Oracle of Ages as well actually). Is it possible chests not defined with a certain item default to 1 rupee? --Cuber456 17:30, 17 July 2011 (EDT)


 * Just debug the game and look for yourself. Don't post unsubstantiated guesses on the wiki. --Tauwasser 07:40, 22 July 2011 (EDT)

All I was doing is posting on the discussion what I am finding to be true. Every time I spawn a staircase/doorway in a room or area that doesn't usually have one defined, I always end up outside of Impa's Refuge. I did not post anything on the Seasons page saying what I said before this was fact. I am just trying to let people know my findings. I see no harm in that. --Cuber456 16:25, 22 July 2011 (EDT)
 * You can post whatever you like on a talk page, but please refrain from putting baseless info in the main article. --Tauwasser 15:04, 25 July 2011 (EDT)

After trying to debug OoS this past week(it took me long enough to start) to try to find if 1 rupee is used for "undefined" chests, I am happy to say that I was able to find the section of assembly code(by myself :D) that is responsible for this behavior. It is set off by a particular jump in a loop of code(I'll post the code later). This jump always seems to be set off by "undefined" chests (like the ones in the unused rooms). Even forcing the game to take the jump for a "defined" chest will make the chest yield one rupee. How the game determines whether to take this particular jump is what I still need to figure out though. Do you guys think I should post my finding on the main page now or should keep analyzing the code to see what sets this behavior off? Whether now or later, I will post the ASM code with it. --Cuber456 3:00, 8 September 2011 (EDT)


 * Don't post anything until you figure it out. No need to litter the article with incomplete/inaccurate findings (Lord knows we already have enough of that). --BMF54123 16:42, 8 September 2011 (EDT)


 * As of right now, I have figured out exactly how OoS separates defined chests from undefined chests. With that, opening an undefined chest will always produce 1 rupee as it is the default value since no data about the chest can be found in the game. I'll post this finding and its explanation on the main page with the assembly code to back it up either this weekend or within the next week(hopefully). Next I should try to see if I can prove if Impa's Refuge is the default location for undefined stairs/passages. Cuber456 4:30, 10 September 2011 (EDT)

Text Dump
Here is a text dump of the game. It might or might not have unused text. --Cuber456 14:46, 21 July 2011 (EDT)

Internal Name
Oracle of Seasons, as well as Oracle of Ages, has an internal name. This can be found using a hex editor or, more easily, by using a program called GBRead. Oracle of Seasons internal name is "ZELDA DIN"(surprise surprise). There is also a manufacturing code internally as well as on the actual label of the cartridge. Is any of this information worth adding to the main Seasons page? --Cuber456 23:56, 26 July 2011 (EDT)
 * Lots of games have internal titles; in fact, it became a requirement of Nintendo's licensing process back in the SNES days. And no, they're not worth adding. --BMF54123 04:54, 27 July 2011 (EDT)
 * That's good to know for the future. I actually have another question that you might be able to answer. Is it common for the developers to list the assembly/build date of a particular game inside of the ROM? I see that some games have assembly/build dates, like DKC2, but is it a common practice to do this or is it purely just chance that the developers do something like that? Thanks --Cuber456 20:19, 27 July 2011 (EDT)
 * It's pretty common, yeah, but by no means required. A lot of developers simply didn't bother. --BMF54123 20:46, 27 July 2011 (EDT)

Change Picture/Image Names
From my stupidity, some of the names of the images/pictures in the maps section need to have their names slightly changed because they either have the wrong map area in the title or they just have stupid errors(one map has the name "OOS_Restore_UnmappedCD.png.png" ...). I can't seem to find a way to change the names. How do you change the names? --Cuber456 2:15, 8 August 2011 (EDT)