Modify Knight's Chance default hi-scores

[aha2940]

Hi! I know many will read this and just say "git gud", but since this game depends on luck, and I'm like Wile E. Coyote in that regard, then for me the default hi-scores for all 4 games in Knight's Chance are a bit too high to even enter the table. That actually made me not to want to play the game that much, even if I find the game entertaining and have an original cart. However I recently found (yes, I'm a bit slow on news) that the rom was officially released so I quickly bought it to play it on my multicarts. Since the rom is just a file, I thought about poking a bit into it to modify the hi-scores table so that at least for once I can enter the tables. And it was easier than I thought (about 1h of work total). What you have to do is modify the P1 rom from this:

000724a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
000724b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 27 00  10 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |......'...T.C.J.|
000724c0  00 00 00 00 00 00 23 00  28 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |......#.(.R.B.U.|
000724d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 1d 00  4c 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |........L.B.C.C.|
000724e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 17 00  70 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |........p.A.C.E.|
000724f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 13 00  88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00072500  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
00072510  00 00 00 00 00 00 27 00  10 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |......'...T.C.J.|
00072520  00 00 00 00 00 00 23 00  28 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |......#.(.R.B.U.|
00072530  00 00 00 00 00 00 1d 00  4c 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |........L.B.C.C.|
00072540  00 00 00 00 00 00 17 00  70 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |........p.A.C.E.|
00072550  00 00 00 00 00 00 13 00  88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00072560  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
00072570  00 00 00 00 00 00 3a 00  98 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |......:...T.C.J.|
00072580  00 00 00 00 00 00 2e 00  e0 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |..........R.B.U.|
00072590  00 00 00 00 00 00 27 00  10 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |......'...B.C.C.|
000725a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 1d 00  4c 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |........L.A.C.E.|
000725b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 13 00  88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000725c0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
000725d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 3a 00  98 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |......:...T.C.J.|
000725e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 2e 00  e0 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |..........R.B.U.|
000725f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 27 00  10 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |......'...B.C.C.|
00072600  00 00 00 00 00 00 23 00  28 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |......#.(.A.C.E.|
00072610  00 00 00 00 00 00 1f 00  40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |........@.......|

to this:

000724a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
000724b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  05 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |..........T.C.J.|
000724c0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  04 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |..........R.B.U.|
000724d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  03 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |..........B.C.C.|
000724e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  02 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |..........A.C.E.|
000724f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00072500  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
00072510  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  05 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |..........T.C.J.|
00072520  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  04 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |..........R.B.U.|
00072530  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  03 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |..........B.C.C.|
00072540  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  02 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |..........A.C.E.|
00072550  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00072560  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
00072570  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  05 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |..........T.C.J.|
00072580  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  04 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |..........R.B.U.|
00072590  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  03 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |..........B.C.C.|
000725a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  02 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |..........A.C.E.|
000725b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000725c0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 4a 00 4d 00 4b 00  |..........J.M.K.|
000725d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  05 00 54 00 43 00 4a 00  |..........T.C.J.|
000725e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  04 00 52 00 42 00 55 00  |..........R.B.U.|
000725f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  03 00 42 00 43 00 43 00  |..........B.C.C.|
00072600  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  02 00 41 00 43 00 45 00  |..........A.C.E.|
00072610  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

Basically, offsets 000724a0 through 00072610 (for neosd rom the offset starts at 000734a0) contain the default hi scores table for all four games. You can also see the default names, in case you want to modify them, however I left them by default. The modified values I used are 5,4,3,2 and 1. The values are encoded like this: take the number you want, (originally 15000, for instance) and change it into hexadecimal (15000 decimal = 3A98 hexadecimal) so that is why you see in lines 0x72570 and 0x725d0 that bytes 7 and 9 are 3A and 98 respectively. So I changed them into 00 and 05 and that converted the number to just 5. I think you can see the pattern for the rest of the scores.

Note: The default scores are saved in the MVS backup memory, so you should clear it for this change to have effect. Also AFAIK, you have to delete and rewrite the game in DS multicart to make sure it uses the modified P rom.

Note 2: Yes, I know this removes much of the challenge of the game, etcetera, but if you dislike this mod, just don't apply it to your rom

Ugly pic with the results:

 

[lithy]

For anyone that doesn't know, there is a credits sequence that only happen when you beat the top score.

I once had some sort of bug pop up where basically every roll in Mystic Dice was a 1 or 5 and allowed me to easily get 20k+ points. Went away when I cleared the backup RAM. Between that and using a photo on Cursed Mynd, I don't think I've ever legitimately posted a top score. :p