Debugging - pk-hack/CoilSnake GitHub Wiki

EB actually has a whole suite of debugging features that are perfectly intact in the vanilla game, just hidden behind a "debug flag" that's never enabled. The debug menu enabler script is the best way to get at them - simply hold L+R while the game is booting to enable debug mode. They're pretty useful for testing your own hacks too.

Boot-up debug screen

Hey, isn't that Kirby?! What is he doing here? This debug screen appears if you've successfully enabled debug mode. You've got a few options...

1 GAME

Starts the game as usual, but with the debug flag on. You will probably be using this the most. Read on for what the debug flag does in-game.

2 VIEW MAP - 4 VIEW ATTRIBUTE and 6 SHOW POSITION

Dumps you in Tenda Village (top-left corner of the map) and lets you wander around. Each mode displays different information - respectively, nothing special, enemies, collision data, and coordinates. You can press A to refresh the screen and Y to open the in-game debug menu. These modes are kinda brokenish and don't let you do anything you can't in the map editor.

5 SHOW BATTLE

Starts a battle with enemy group (TODO: which is it lol). You can't actually fight though. Here are the controls:

  • Up/Down - Change your level
  • Left/Right - Change your party configuration
  • A - Cycle through battle animations
  • B - Cycle through swirls
  • X - Reset your level to 1
  • Start - Display the encounter text and then probably crash the game
  • Select - Display some unknown text? and then refresh the screen. Seems to mess with stats, but not sure how specifically.

6 SOUND MODE

Finally a usable option! You can play music, sound effects, and try out various real-time effects like fading out. For some reason, dumps you in the game like 2 VIEW MAP if you press Y.

In-game debug screen

When playing with the debug flag on, press B once (to open the HP/PP cards), press it again and this time hold it, and then press R. This opens the in-game debug screen! If you want detailed info on the options, go to TCRF's page. Here are the only useful ones:

  • Flag - Check the status of and toggle flags
  • Goods - Add items to your inventory
  • Save - Save the game at any point
  • Apple - Open the Apple debug screen, see below
  • Tea - Demos the tea scene from Saturn Valley
  • Star ɑ/β - Makes Poo learn PSI Starstorm ɑ and Ω respectively
  • Player 0 - Opens the player's name input screen used in Summers and Tenda Village. Player 1 is from M2, where you input your name in Japanese the first time and English the second, but goes unused in EB
  • CAST - Shows the casting call from the end of the game
  • STONE - Shows the Sound Stone screen
  • STAFF - Shows the credits

Apple debug menu

This is the most famous of the debug screens. It's normally in this weird transliterated Japanese abbreviation, so you should use the New Debug Menu patch to translate it. (TODO: put on library and link it here). The options are actually pretty self-explanatory, so we won't go over them. Before the debug mode flag was properly understood, it was popular to use a cheat code to make the ATM Card's Help! description open this menu.

Other debug functions

With the debug mode flag on, you can do a few other things during the game:

  • Hold X to snap your location to the corner of the 8x8 tile you are on
  • Holding L+R does SOMETHING to NPC spawns?
  • When encountering an enemy, the battle won't start until you let go of Y
  • If player 2 presses B, your HP and PP will be refilled
  • If you press Start and Select, the game will go back to the debug menu
  • If CCScript is waiting for an Action Script (via wait_for_movement/[1F 61]), pressing Start and Select will continue without waiting.
  • Something involving the text prompt?
  • Something involving HP/PP rolling in battle?

There are also a handful of other unused/nonfunctional/pretty useless debugging things enabled by the debug mode flag. Notably, pressing A on the P2 controller in the Japanese version of the game will test the Your Sanctuary display.