learnMoveOn (Game2.lua) built every move-learning message -- level-up
learn, TM/HM teach, the "trying to learn X, forget a move?" flow, "stop
learning?", the HM-can't-be-forgotten refusal, "which move should be
forgotten?", and the "1, 2 and... forgot X, learned Y!" replace result
-- with a bare string literal or a direct :format() call, bypassing
Strings() entirely (src/core/Strings.lua). Game2:say()/TextBox.new()
show whatever text they're handed with no lookup of their own, so this
meant the entire move-learning UI stayed in English no matter what
translation catalog a mod supplied -- confirmed against a real
gen1recomp-translation-mods build, which has translated overrides for
several of these keys that could never apply because the literal never
reached the catalog. Same bug for the TM/HM teach refusals ("X can't
learn Y!"/"X already knows Y!").
src/core/gen2/ItemEffects.lua had the same bug across its whole family:
every item-usage message (Potion/heal, status cure, Revive, Rare Candy,
Vitamin, PP restore/PP Up, "no effect"/"can't use on an EGG"/"can't use
on this #MON") was either a bare table constant or built with :format()
directly, none of it routed through Strings(). Its constants are now
wrapped in Strings.source() at declaration (so a mod's catalog harvest
still finds them, per the pattern already documented in Strings.lua)
and looked up through Strings() at each use site. The Vitamin success
message's own VITAMIN_LABEL table (HEALTH/ATTACK/DEFENSE/SPEED/SPECIAL)
gets the same two-part fix -- each entry wrapped in Strings.source() at
declaration, and Strings(VITAMIN_LABEL[stat]) at the one use site --
matching the identical stat-name tables in MoveEffects.lua/TrainerAI.lua/
gen2/Effects.lua/ContestMenu.lua/SummaryMenu.lua, which all already do
this; without it a Vitamin's stat name would stay in English mid-sentence
even inside an otherwise fully translated message. Two more call sites
read ItemEffects.TEXT_NO_EFFECT raw outside that file and needed the
same fix: PartyMenu.lua's Softboiled-no-target refusal, and
BattleState.lua's X-item-reused-with-no-effect and
BitterBerry-when-not-confused refusals -- both battle-side messages
where every neighboring self.message assignment already correctly
wraps in Strings(), which is what made these two stand out as missed.
None of this changes vanilla (no mod loaded) output: Strings.get() is
an identity function with no catalog active, so every message renders
byte-identical to before. Verified with the headless Gen 2 suite
(luajit tests/run_gen2.lua): 144/145, the one failure
(gen2_fishing_time_test.lua) reproduces identically on dev before this
change and is unrelated (fishing time-group logic); the full engine
suite (luajit tests/run_engine.lua) is 533/533.
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.
Both call sites -- Game2:usePartyItem (the field pack) and
BattleState:useItem (the battle pack) -- asked ItemEffects.partyAction
for an item's family with no `data` argument, even though every other
call in the same functions (useOnMon, usePpItem, applyPartyItem) passed
it through correctly. partyAction resolves through recordFor, which
reads data.gen2ItemEffects when given a dataset and falls back to the
module's own built-in RECORDS table when not -- so with no data, a
mod's own item_effects record was invisible and every mod-defined Gen 2
field or battle item resolved to a nil action, falling straight through
to "isn't going to help here" / "isn't going to help here" without ever
opening the party picker.
Both now pass the live dataset (self.data on Game2, self.game.data on
the battle screen) the same way their sibling calls already did.