Ico Debug-Enabled Demo

So... yeah. It's a version of the PAL demo of Ico with the debug menu enabled.

Download link

Backstory:

I've found my niche in game collecting with PS2 demos, and have built up a fair bit of a collection. On one disc ("Selector Demo 01", SCED-50811) is a demo of Ico, identical to all other PAL demos, except for 2 files which shouldn't belong: SCPS_0~1.DBG and MAIN.ELF. While MAIN.ELF, apart from being an unstripped ELF (decompiles quite well in IDA Pro), doesn't boot, SCPS_0~1.DBG does. While this was a bit surprising, the true juiciness of this comes from the debug menu which can be enabled by pressing Select. Have fun.

Screenshots:

 

Awesome. What a great find. I'll need to give this a shot, one of my favorite games for the PS2. Thanks a ton!

 

Thank You very much

 

This is the most interesting release for ps2 for now, i believe
wish we could have more debug unlocks, almost every ps2 have one, what can be unlocked with ELF Disassembler
so many games still waiting for research on ps2...

 

This is a really awesome find. I worked up a whole bunch of hacks for Ico many many years ago to toggle the debug flags (the ones you see in the "Debug Mode" option), but could never get the debug menu to render and functionally use it. It has a wealth of really interesting options and tools... you can even control Yorda with the 2nd controller. Its a shame that this is tied to the demo as practically nothing in the Stage Select level list loads (including the interesting sounding test and debugging levels). Having this file makes it possible to potentially get the debug menu working in the full game though, which is always promising.

 

also i was noticed that iso will not work on original hardware like ps2/ps3 BC, but working on pcsx2
so, i did rebuild whole iso to DVD5 (also patched ELF + added big DUMMY file for more correct size), works great with real hardware now, debug is complete, there is so many options...

ico demo DVD5 rebuilded download (for original hardware, not emu):
https://www.mediafire.com/?003b301l69j90j8
(7-zip 9.20, LZMA, packed/unpacked: 261 MB/1,61 GB)

to do list: widescreen elf patch

i think we can rebuild iso with more levels files in directories from original game, then boot it from debug loader, i will try

 

I have tried replacing the main DAT file with one from the final version, and it won't work. Unless you can extract and rebuild the DAT file, the only option is to find the code that launches the debug menu and implement it into the final build.

 

Any chance of a upload outside mediafire? Can't get captcha to show even with blockers off. Either way great find!!

 

We actually can extract and edit/rebuild DATA.DF!
there is two ways:

1. http://www.mediafire.com/download/tj0xq7m6s27qgcs/ICOtoolsPack.zip- with this tool pack, contains:
*DVD-ROM Gen - for creating iml+map files
*cdvd2iml5.30 - for converting iml to iso
*dummy creator - recomended to add this file into iso
*DVDScanLite3.7 - will patch ELF from CD to DVD mode
*Xpert2+ICO Plugins - more:

This is old rebuilder, that can replace files in game archive and do many things, but i have no any interesting result with it. I mean i was trying to replace this:
STGONLYSAMPLE_ST13D.DF - 2572868 byte
with this one from retail iso:
STGST17B.DF - 2485383 byte
and i've got fail (attached)
Problem is, i dont really know which files are map files, and which files can be connected with map files. So only way to get this working, if thinking logically, is adding ALL files from retail game version inside of demo DATA.DF without replace (or with?) - and this i can't do, but tried already and got fail again (cos Xpert tool seems like can only replace files, not adding new files).
Why we need to rebuild whole iso and not to replace DAT with apache2/3? Cos we can rebuild any file bigger then original, with apache not.


2. http://astrange.ithinksw.net/ico/ (not tested yet by me, maybe this one is extract only, idk) - maybe we will have more luck with this tool, as i know this is source code for c programming language, you can use this complier for it: http://ladsoft.tripod.com/orange_c_compiler.html (simple and tiny c compiler)
Also we can see "test" levels models with this method: http://ps23dformat.wikispaces.com/Ico

---
Here is files list with size from demo and retail ico:

Retail files size: http://pastebin.com/Q7Brez93
Retail LBA offsets: http://pastebin.com/43SvDLqK
(start file location | file size | LBA position | file name)

Demo files size: http://pastebin.com/xDKQFLqh
Demo LBA and offsets: http://pastebin.com/dkPvcaNf

Also, here is complete list of levels, those with "E3" mark are loadable from debug menu and this is demo files, others mostly not. And don't try to replace files with hex, cos archive maybe compressed.

 

Progress is being made!

I spent so much time trying to get this debug menu to work long ago that I was fairly confident that with the labels in place, something could be accomplished. Unfortunately, I only have the Ico NTSC demo and PAL review copy (SCES_507.60) on hand. However, with a few hours of work I have the debug menu working on the NTSC demo.



Its not quite perfect. There is certainly more code missing to handle all of the menu functions correctly. For example, the assert screens don't show when the game crashes (trying to load the same game levels that dont work in the PAL demo) and you can still move the character on screen while navigating the menu, but it appears fully functional otherwise.

Working now on the PAL review copy (and hopefully the NTSC retail copy once I find my disc).

Hopefully not much has changed for the retail releases. The PAL demo is dated "Jun 29 2001" and the NTSC is dated "Aug 2 2001", so the elf files were similar enough to work with. The PAL disc I have is dated much later at "Jan 17 2002", so it will be a bit trickier.

 

That's interesting, never heard of the PAL review copy before. I have a straight demo disc that is identical to the magazine one(s), and its build date fits right in-between the NTSC and PAL releases.

 

I believe it is identical to the retail PAL release, it is just printed on a "Promo Only Not For Resale" Disc.

If you think you have any other different PAL or NTSC demos, I'd be interested in seeing the dates for them. All of the NTSC demos I've seen are identical to the standalone.

 

Success!

If anyone has the retail PAL release (SCES_507.60), and if it is the same as my promo copy, you can use a simple patch file to enable this using pcsx2 (or patch the SCES file directly and burn to disc!).

The bad news is that none of the debug levels load still, with the exception of Ba_TEST (unsure what this is, need a 2nd controller to move the free mode camera around) and boss_battle (seems to be the normal fight in the starting room where you get swarmed by enemies). The debug levels don't actually crash the game either, as it seems that the debug menu isn't even trying to load them (exactly how it worked in the demo as well). The "demo" levels are all cutscenes and seem to work fine. The E3 levels from the demo no longer work and will actually crash the game, though without an assert screen as im unsure how to re-enable that currently.



Put in the cheats folder:
Filename: 5C991F4E.pnach

patch=1,EE,001af850,word,0806bd28
patch=1,EE,00101f94,word,0c06c966

 

Thank you! Working perfectly on Retail PAL SCES_507.60, GAME CRC: 5C991F4E.
ba_test - is working! the last one seems like something new... there is no characters playable (cos they are falling underwater), but you can use free camera to look around (attached)
also, if you press SELECT button while in boss_test - game will freeze

yea, USA ret. version is more interesting (CRC = 0x6F8545DB), so i was trying to convert your EUR pnach to US ret version and got fail (with this tut: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX2-Widescreen-Game-Patches?pid=290914#pid290914), cos second adress is not existed in USA version!
here is first adress of your pnach:


patch=1,EE,001af850,word,0806bd28 - EUR
patch=1,EE,001a6de0,word,0806bd28 - US

and the second one, this:
patch=1,EE,00101f94,word,0c06c966
i can't find in US ELF, always as i'm trying get this message:

 

I don't think that they can be straight converted using that guide's methods since the files were compiled many months apart with sometimes very different function ordering and behavior.


Luckily I got a hold of a few more versions and converted them already. There don't appear to be any differences in the level listings and only boss_battle and ba_test load of the debugging levels. But its possible that I missed some in my haste.

Standalone NTSC-U Demo
Dated "Aug 2 2001"
48CDF317.pnach
patch=1,EE,00101f20,word,0c069978
patch=1,EE,001a38a8,word,08068d3e

Retail NTSC-U
Dated "Aug 20 2001"
6F8545DB.pnach
patch=1,EE,00101f48,word,0c06a6ca
patch=1,EE,001a6de0,word,08069a8c

Retail NTSC-J
Dated "Nov 2 2001"
B288DC85.pnach
patch=1,EE,00101f64,word,0c06c9da
patch=1,EE,001afa20,word,0806bd9c

And for completeness..

Retail PAL
Dated "Jan 17 2002"
5C991F4E.pnach
patch=1,EE,00101f94,word,0c06c966
patch=1,EE,001af850,word,0806bd28

 

Hi fibre,

First of all I would like to thank you for doing this, it's been a lot of fun to play around with Ico this way for the first time ; )
I had a look around the Ba_TEST level in the full PAL version with the 2nd controller and found something weird!


This appears to be part of the trolley Ico and Yorda ride around in, but way down under the model - and I mean 'way' down! I used 'target object' to find it and then the camera spent a few minutes to reach it down there. Trippy!


I also noticed the couch appears to be a different colour, although this may be due to the lighting? But it seems like the couch is missing its textures.


I think this is the room Ico and Yorda were in at the Ba_TEST level, for some reason the room doesn't load so they fall into the void. I love how Yorda gives a little 'squeak' of fright as they both plummet to their deaths!

I was wondering if you could help me fix this issue?

In the demo when you press L2 and some cross hairs appear around Ico allowing you to move him anywhere. You can also use this feature with 'target object' and move things around, like Yorda and the birds, but in the final version this feature is missing?

I found the cross hairs mode in the 'waytest' part of the menu, but I can't seem to bind it to Ico? That is, I can move the cross hairs around but Ico stays where he is. Any ideas why the demo debug options are acting differently to the final version? It would be nice to move Ico and Yorda to some out of the way places, I know I can move the camera there but being able to move Ico and Yorda to a specific spot tells me if there is any collision detection there. You press L3 to exit L2 - the cross hairs disappears and Ico lands on the surface (if it's solid).

I made a video about the demo with the debug option if you are interested - here:
http://youtu.be/xHZomgtV_4c

Again, love your work ; )

 

Oh, right, that PAL standalone demo.

SCED-50844
https://mega.co.nz/#!bZh0FRzQ!0Ku20wc643etifoRR5CpA8fwbKcV-NKVRJ26CeL6t9M

 

The PAL patch works on standard and the Limited Edition variants with all the extras like fully translated and 2p mode. Also one can tweak the video using debug to make it look amazing. I patched my DVD ISO with widescreen and 480p patch as well as the above pnatch file.

 

@einstein95: It was only a matter of time.

@Fiber: Good to see you back in action. You can speed up your code testing, by just using the "extended" command. It replaces the byte, short and word commands now (only kept for compatibility with older pnach files). Just set your codes up as if you were using a CodeBreaker.

For example:
patch=1,EE,00101f48,word,0c06a6ca
patch=1,EE,001a6de0,word,08069a8c

can be:
patch=1,EE,20101f48,extended,0c06a6ca
patch=1,EE,201a6de0,extended,08069a8c

Oh, and check out the new SVN commits for PCSX2.

 

Really great to see so much interest in this! ICO is an amazing game and having the debug menu really opens it up to new analysis and discoveries. It is certainly a shame that nearly all of the debugging levels were removed. Judging by the released beta videos on the bonus discs, the game made some pretty dramatic changes from PS1 to PS2. Hopefully with all this activity we will see some legitimate ICO betas surface? Perhaps just wishful thinking on my part

Thanks for the upload einstein95. The build date is different on that build from the debug demo (though the build dates for that change depending on if you are looking at main.elf or the actual SCPS file).

Unfortunately, as i've seen from diggging through my own collection of demos, these all seem to be compiled with the same levels contained within DFDATA.DS (I actually went through and extracted them all to get a peek). For instance, the NTSC-U standalone demo differs from the date of the ICO demo appearing on a US Kiosk disc, which differs from a version appearing on a Jampack demo disc. Some have more sound effect files or object files, and the build dates for the main elf vary wildly, from June to December, but it seems like the ICO team was careful to only include stage files for the "E3 demo" in every single instance. Definitely disappointing knowing the sheer volume of debugging levels that are missing from all of the "releases".

Long time no see! It was great to see the loop on this finally closed. Its hard to believe that I tried getting this to work way back in 2004 and now, 10 years later, it is finished!

Thanks for the tip about the patch formats. Also, the news of a R5900 debugger and debugging tools in PCSX is fantastic. I've been running an ancient build (0.9.7) that still had the memory dumper and terribly buggy (heh) debugger included, and I've been dying to update a newer version with the debugger re-enabled.

ICO was the holy grail to me, but so many PS2 games have debug menus sitting around in code, and a proper debugger in PCSX2 would make getting those functional much, much easier. Its a long shot from when I used to look at static elf files in ps2dis then walk over to my PS2 with codebreaker codes scrawled on paper