A cart's saves are keyed by cart id, not by version. SaveData resolves
every path through activeScopeKey, which answers cart_<id> while one is
active, and the launcher lists, creates and selects a cart's slots from
the cartSlots registry (RomImporter._refreshSlots / _selectSlot /
_newSlot).
src/core/gen2/Save.lua asked in the version's name alone. saveNames
built saves/<version>/<slot>.lua or save_<suffix>.lua from the version in
both branches and never consulted the active cart, so a cart on Gold,
Silver or Crystal read and wrote the BASE GAME's playthrough. Gen 1 was
unaffected because it saves through SaveData itself, which is already
cart-scoped -- so this only showed on a Gen 2 cart.
It was worse than sharing one file. Save.save opens by asking
activeSlot(version) and, on nil, calling createSlot + setActiveSlot in
the version's name, so the first save inside a cart registered a slot in
the base game's registry and made it active: the cart's playthrough
appeared in the launcher's list for the base version, and the player's
own save there was what the cart then overwrote.
Both sites now resolve the cart scope the way SaveData does, and the
names they build are SaveData's own -- slotDir's saves/cart_<id>/ and
legacyNames' save_cart_<id>.lua -- so the in-game save layer and the
launcher land on one file again.
tests/gen2_save_test.lua covers the cart's flat name, its slot name, the
slot going into the cart's registry rather than the base game's, the
cart's scope winning over a base slot, and the base game keeping its own
once the cart is cleared. Four of them fail on the unpatched module.
Reported as "when I select Wild Crystal to launch it loads my save from
regular Crystal".
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Crystal boots from a user-supplied ROM, imports a full cache and is playable:
copyright, the Crystal intro movie, the animated title, gender select, Oak,
and out into Johto. 122 of the cart's 169 script specials are implemented.
Import and data
- tools/make_crystal_manifest.py derives the manifest by importing
make_gold_manifest as a library, with three additive keyword seams. Gold and
Silver still regenerate byte-identical, which is the standing requirement for
touching that generator.
- crystal_symbol_deltas.py and crystal_movie_symbols.py carry the symbol delta:
Crystal renames the credits mons, splits the trainer card, Pokegear and
pack-pal blocks by gender, and replaces the intro and title outright.
- Crystal-only manifest keys: engineFlagOrder (162 flags to Gold's 93, so the
badge block sits one higher) and unownCharmap (the main charmap parser stops
at the first newcharmap so the two cannot contaminate each other).
Extractor
- RomExtractorGen2 becomes three-edition. Crystal corrections: PAL_MAP_BANK
0x13, a flat PICS_FIX pic bank, audio bank 0x5e, the mapSongs id-100 hole,
seven NPC trades, a TradeTexts stride of 8, the five Crystal tileset anim
steps with per-row degrade, and the column-major trainer card portraits.
- New: animated front sprites (frames, bitmasks, play and idle scripts), the
Battle Tower roster, Kris assets, Mobile System GB art, and the Crystal
intro and title via src/import/CrystalMovie.lua.
Engine
- GameVersion gains engine(id) and fixes(id). Gold and Silver keep their
original bugs where the bug is not hardware dependent; Crystal gets the fixes
Crystal shipped: Lucky Number boxes 10-14, surfing onto an NPC, and the
Reflect and Light Screen defence overflow.
- Crystal story: Suicune and Eusine, Celebi behind the GS Ball flag, the Ruins
of Alph chambers, Buena, the Move Tutor, the Poke Seer, and the Battle Tower
including the wInBattleTowerBattle badge-boost guard.
- Kris and the gender flag, animated fronts in battle and the summary screen,
and mon caught data.
Verification
- Every extracted asset is pixel-compared against pret's own source PNGs.
- Gold caches are byte-identical before and after, file for file.
- New Crystal suites plus a T2 Gen 2 tier; the full suite passes.
Silver: derived import manifest (tools/make_silver_manifest.py re-resolves
the Gold manifest's symbols from pokesilver.sym), silver GameVersion row,
generation-keyed extractor routing, required-files override, edition save
stamping (a Silver playthrough no longer writes into the Gold save),
checkver-driven edition data, SILVER/KAMON/OSCAR/MAX presets, GOLD rival
default, edition credits banner, Lugia title screen (OAM layouts, bob,
trail, palettes as title.lua data keys with Gold defaults so old caches
need no re-import), packaging for every build target, docs, and tests.
Launcher: the installed-mods list is one continuous scroll (rows culled to
the viewport) instead of a pager with an inner scroll viewport; the pad
cursor's edge-scroll no longer runs it to the bottom. The game dropdown
shows just the initial and caret. Find-tab behavior unchanged.
Title tempo: a sprite-anim frame shows duration+1 ticks
(engine/sprite_anims/core.asm GetSpriteAnimFrame), which locks both
editions' 64-tick wing beat to the 64-tick sine bob; the title screens no
longer run fast and out of phase.
Claude