Jurassic Park Save Feature Patch

Original game : Jurassic Park

Platform : SNES

Author : Yoshifanatic

Release date : 17 February 2022

Category : Improvement

Patch version : 1.0

Modifications : T, P

Downloads : 1316

ROM Information

HEADER ROM:

Database match: Jurassic Park (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210222-050638)
File CRC32: 3D4CBD28
File MD5: FFF67292F2E5C9A968D11BCA52FDC1F6
File SHA-1: 60C9BB3BE082B0FA91B27300F6395F3067C82D46
File SHA-256: 1F4B0C48DC871206FFF782BAF4F3098AB2E3E7153E2E0688A8661B1B44C61906
ROM CRC32: 77540CB9
ROM MD5: BB9C2F667CED16A2E605B385C041C744
ROM SHA-1: DCF24B8BCBDA766FFAFDEBFD39AAD073C18176F3
ROM SHA-256: FE91D45201753AE9655D5CE38838E352F478B26B2D933C1BCB5BD8330121F9FF

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEADERLESS ROM:

Database match: Jurassic Park (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210222-050638)
File/ROM CRC32: 77540CB9
File/ROM MD5: BB9C2F667CED16A2E605B385C041C744
File/ROM SHA-1: DCF24B8BCBDA766FFAFDEBFD39AAD073C18176F3
File/ROM SHA-256: FE91D45201753AE9655D5CE38838E352F478B26B2D933C1BCB5BD8330121F9FF

Hack description

Hacked into the park's systems to bring forth a save feature. All that was needed was guessing the magic word!

Joking aside, the lack of a save feature is one of JP's biggest flaws. Obviously, it doesn't matter as much nowadays with the advent of savestates, but that doesn't excuse it. Just because there is a workaround to the problem doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.

Turns out, don't blame the developers for not implementing a save feature, because this game has a lot of stuff to save. The SRAM needs to be 64 KB minimum for just 1 save file and 128 KB to have the standard 3 save files. Why? Because this game keeps track of the state of every single sprite that's located outdoors. In order to put the game into the same state between play sessions, it had to save every single one of those exterior sprite RAM addresses. Interior sprites are not kept track of anywhere close to as extensively by comparison.

In order for this save feature to work, the title screen also had to change so it would support a file select. Due to the 8BPP title screen image using up all but one palette row and the compressed files being in RNC format (a format that maybe Lunar Compress doesn't support), there were some limitations to deal with to make this work. But, it was a good enough job.

Anyway, to use this, apply it to a V1.0 (Header) USA Jurassic Park ROM and the game will autosave every time you enter/exit a building, die, or touch a communication pole. And yes, it works with the Jurassic Park randomizer.

A couple of extra notes about this patch:

* The game will autosave when you start a new game, after respawning after death, and whenever a checkpoint is triggered, which means it will occur when you touch a pole, when entering a building, or when you appear outside after leaving a building.

* In addition, the original title screen menu will be replaced with a new one to allow selecting a file.

* As a bonus, the new title screen menu will also contain a song test. When the cursor is hovering over that option, press A/B to increment the song ID, X/Y to decrement it, and select to play that music.

Contributions

Contributor	Type of contribution	Description
Yoshifanatic	Hacking	Jurassic Park's disassembly and Save code

Reviews

That's how the game should be back in the day	Fisher	2022-11-11	Version 1.0
I think this hack is fantastic, definitely how the game should have been made back in the 90s. The only problem I had when doing a repro cartridge is that the SRAM size recommended is 128 Kilobytes. When I first read the readme I assumed it was 128 Kilobits. I also had some weird problems with swapbin but it looks like it was related to some malware that was active on my PC. Finally, I'll be able to finish the game, since all the times I tried and got far on the game it crashed. Now if it crashes again at least I'll have my progress saved and won't need to start from zero. So many thanks to the author and the guys at NesDev that helped me to figure out and fix the problems I've got.

A must-have QoL hack for this game!	ShadowOne333	2022-02-22	Version 1.0
Since I was a little kid, I always had fond memories of going through this game and spending hours going through it, making progress throughout the island, only to have that progress wiped on each reboot of the game. It was annoying to say the least that each time I started it, I had to do everything from scratch, and traversing through the different facilities and landscapes while figuring out what to do on each new start, even if making little progress each time, made coming back to it and finishing it a complete hassle. Then it came as a surprise that someone at SMWCentral had worked on a disassembly of this game, and not only that, but YoshiFanatic also worked on an Save hack for it, which is precisely what this game needed in order for it to be enjoyed properly! Something so small can make such a huge difference to certain games, and this patch proves it, I had a blast now with my playthrough of Jurassic Park, without having to worry to do the same steps each and every time, now I simply load and continue where I left off! Thank you so much for making such a patch!

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