Final Fantasy III: Description Disruption

This patch addresses a minor text display bug in the field menu's item section.

Normally, if the player enters an item's details screen (elemental affinity / applicable characters) before the item's description text has finished filling the upper panel, the text stream gets cut off partway.

This bugfix ensures that an item's description continues filling the upper panel uninterrupted, even after entering the item details screen.

Patches for both headered and non-headered ROMs are included in the archive.

Title: Description Disruption Fix
Author: SilentEnigma
Version: 1.2
Release Date: 2021-03-01
Applies to: FF3us 1.0, FF3us 1.1
Tested on: Final Fantasy III (v1.0) (U)

Contents:

DescriptionDisruption-H.ips = patch for headered ROMs (3146240 bytes)

DescriptionDisruption-NH.ips = patch for unheadered ROMs

DescriptionDisruption-A-H.ips = anti-patch for headered ROMs

DescriptionDisruption-A-NH.ips = anti-patch for unheadered ROMs

readme.txt = this file

ROM Addresses:

C3/02A3 - C3/02A4, C3/A897 - C3/A899

Free space used: 28 bytes, C3/FA30 - C3/FA4B


Urgency: Medium/Low. The bug is a temporary visual flaw.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

0. Description
1. Relevant Offsets & Disassembly
2. Acknowledgments
3. Revision History
4. Legal
________________________________________________________________________________

0. DESCRIPTION
________________________________________________________________________________


When browsing the field menu's items list, a description of the item under the
cursor will gradually fill the panel above the list. For equippable items, the
player may "double-click" on the item to display its details screen (showing the
item's elemental strengths and weaknesses, lists the applicable characters).

If the player enters the details screen before the item's description has
finished filling the upper panel, the text stream will get cut off partway and
remain stuck until the player exits the details screen and moves the cursor
away from the item.

This patch ensures that an item's description continues to fill the upper panel
uninterrupted, even as the player navigates to the equippable item details
screen.

________________________________________________________________________________

1. RELEVANT OFFSETS & DISASSEMBLY
________________________________________________________________________________

Original:
C3/02A3: 83 89 ; pointer to subroutine C3/8983, equipment details screen
Modified:
C3/02A3: 30 FA ; pointer to new subroutine C3/FA30

Original:
C3/A897: 9E 49 36 STZ $3649,X ; resets the item description display
Modified:
C3/A897: 20 3B FA JSR $FA3B ; Jump to new subroutine C3/FA3B

New subroutine C3/FA30:
C3/FA30: A9 10 LDA #$10 ; duplicated from C3/1EF7
C3/FA32: 14 45 TRB $45
C3/FA34: 20 FD 0E JSR $0EFD
C3/FA37: 18 CLC
C3/FA38: 4C 83 89 JMP $8983 ; originally pointed by C3/02A3

New subroutine C3/FA3B:
C3/FA3B: 48 PHA
C3/FA3C: A5 26 LDA $26
C3/FA3E: C9 5E CMP #$5E
C3/FA40: F0 08 BEQ $FA4A
C3/FA42: 4A LSR
C3/FA43: C9 32 CMP #$32
C3/FA45: F0 03 BEQ $FA4A
C3/FA47: 9E 49 36 STZ $3649,X ; resets the item description display
C3/FA4A: 68 PLA
C3/FA4B: 60 RTS

________________________________________________________________________________

2. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
________________________________________________________________________________

Special thanks to:

Imzogelmo, for his disassembly of bank C3.
http://www.angelfire.com/al2/imzogelmo/patches.html#disassembly

Warrax, for finding the bug in v1.0.
https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/user-1647.html

________________________________________________________________________________

3. REVISION HISTORY
________________________________________________________________________________


2020-02-14 : Version 1.0 released.

2020-10-10 : Version 1.1 released.
- Fixed R & L buttons not being disabled in the item details screen.

2021-03-01 : Version 1.2 released.
- Resolved patch conflict with Madsiur's "Music Player" patch as used in
Rodimus Primal's "Final Fantasy VI - Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition" (tested
on version 3.01).

________________________________________________________________________________

4. LEGAL
________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright (C) 2020, 2021 David R. Thompson (SilentEnigma).

The copyright holder ("author") permits the free use of the attributed work
referenced by this document exclusively for non-commercial purposes, provided
that the following conditions are met:
1. The author and all contributors credited in this readme document shall be
given credit for their respective contributions wherever the attributed work is
reused, redistributed, or modified.
2. This readme document shall accompany any of the files comprising the
attributed work wherever they are redistributed in unmodified form.

The work(s) and file(s) distributed with this document are provided "AS-IS",
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. The author shall not be held responsible for any damages
related to the use of work(s) and file(s) distributed with this document.


Database match: Final Fantasy III (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20180813-062835)
File SHA-1: 2F3959057B2AB3664A564C467FBE4B81227CB0F3
File CRC32: 7D91FDF2
ROM SHA-1: 4F37E4274AC3B2EA1BEDB08AA149D8FC5BB676E7
ROM CRC32: A27F1C7A