SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives trick

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Muchi Muchi Spork
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SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives trick

Post by Muchi Muchi Spork »

ImageThe hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives trickImage
........................................................................Version 1.1 | Mar. 26, 2018........................................................................


This discussion assumes you already have a basic understanding of the game. To review key points about the trick, when you get the 4th 1UP without having died, it triggers the infinite lives trick. When you destroy 2500 enemies or destructive bullets with your main shot, the next item release is a 1UP and there are also some fixed ones. There is one fixed 1UP in the middle of stage 3 when you cripple a tank's wheels and then another at the end of stage 5 if you destroy all 12 towers and then there a couple in stage 7.

If you play the game trying to trigger the trick by blindly milking all you can without having a thorough understanding of what I'm about to teach you, your best case scenario will most likely be looking to trigger infinite lives at the end of a high ranked Nightmare at the 12 Towers in stage 5. What you want to do ideally is trigger the trick much earlier - right after the stage 3 midboss.

If you turn on the 7th C menu in special mode (hold A and B and hit the service button to get to special mode, start a game, then hold down C and press up 7 times) you can see the hit counter for 1UP releases which is hidden when you play the game in its normal mode. The middle right set of 6 hex values is the 2500 counter for them (2500 is 9C4 in hex). You can see it circled in green in this picture.

Image

When it passes 9C4 (2500 DEC) and then you hit an enemy that does an item release, it will release a 1UP and the counter resets (note that in the XX version of the game the number is 3000 DEC instead of 2500).

Here is how the counter works:
- raises toward the 2500 DEC when you kill enemies/destructible bullets with your normal shots
- does nothing when you kill enemies/destructible bullets with your rose hips
- lowers when you kill enemies/destructible bullets with your rose cracker

Here's a big problem: The counter doesn't just release a 1UP and roll over after 9C4, it rolls over only after a 1UP is released when you kill an enemy that is an item releaser. So whatever amount you milk the counter up past 9C4 before killing an enemy that releases items is a waste/loss. You can even pass what should rightfully be 2 1UP release markers (5000 hits) before an item gets released, and if you do, you basically get screwed out of 1 of the 1UPs you are owed - only 1 is released.

This happens naturally on the stage 3 midboss. You kill off all the drones then he starts the massive end spray. Then during this final spray you pass what should be 2 1UP markers - 9C4 (2500) and 1388 (5000 hits) on the counter but only 1 1UP comes up after you finish him off and kill an enemy swarm. The key is to time it to where you leave 1 drone until after you have passed 9C4 (2500), then kill the drone and get the 1UP, then milk the final spread a bit and kill him and you will get a second 1UP soon after which will trigger infinite lives if you have done everything correctly prior to it (milking enough to have gotten a 1UP in stage 2, built up your counter a decent amount before facing him, and getting the fixed one at the tanks in stage 3).

You can go into special mode and turn on invincibility (in dips turn player counts to invincible) and then go plan out a route to memorize to get proof of concept where you can see the counter and make sure the run would trigger infinite lives in normal mode if you did it without getting hit, then go make it happen in the normal mode and you've beaten the game. If you need to raise rank during practice, keep changing your ship speed quickly. If you want to see how close you are getting in areas to 1UP releases you can convert the hex with the programmer option in Windows Calculator.
Last edited by Muchi Muchi Spork on Mon Mar 26, 2018 5:01 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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CStarFlare
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by CStarFlare »

*The number is 3000 instead of 2500 in the xx/xx version and this figure probably subtracts however many things you have rose crackered before releasing it so if you use the cracker, plan to go over 9C4 a bit, but I'm not 100% sure about the specifics of the calculations if crackers are added as a variable
Wait, so the extend conditions are different in different revisions? Which one is xx/xx? I recall there being three - the original, the second with the infinite lives bug removed, and the third with it back in.

Any idea which the port is based off of? (irrelevant to this discussion but important nonetheless)
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Muchi Muchi Spork
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Muchi Muchi Spork »

CStarFlare wrote:
*The number is 3000 instead of 2500 in the xx/xx version and this figure probably subtracts however many things you have rose crackered before releasing it so if you use the cracker, plan to go over 9C4 a bit, but I'm not 100% sure about the specifics of the calculations if crackers are added as a variable
Wait, so the extend conditions are different in different revisions? Which one is xx/xx? I recall there being three - the original, the second with the infinite lives bug removed, and the third with it back in.

Any idea which the port is based off of? (irrelevant to this discussion but important nonetheless)
All of the 2006/04/06 versions are 2500.
The 2006/xx/xx is 3000 (and may have other variable changes, I don't know).
The 2006/05/18 version has the trick removed but is probably still 2500, but I've never played it.

The port could be most compared to the 5/18 version I guess since you can't do the trick but I've heard it has the rank ramping lowered. I don't know. I've never even played it.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Dave_K. »

Muchi Muchi Spork wrote:The hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives trick
Thanks for posting this practice guide and for calling infinite lives a "trick" and not a "bug". :wink: This has been an illusive goal of mine for quite some time. I've arrived at the stage 3 midboss with all the rank and lives requirements but have never figured out why I could get a 1up out of the boss and not the second 1up just after (and typically loose a life on the stage end boss or by the snakes in stage 4).

Cheers for finding the zan counter in the debug screens, this should make practice for PCB owners much easier since we can't practice it in the port.
Muchi Muchi Spork wrote:a) Use the service switch to bring the game in and out of test mode before each practice/run. This ensures that items will be in the same place every time you play and it can quickly reset the game if you mess up and are trying to practice a specific run. In special mode practicing you just need to remember to hold A and B first before hitting service. You can use alligator clips to temporarily route service to some other button on your control panel. I suggest one of player 2's buttons. The reset code trick won't work because it doesn't reset item order or beginning rank, it just jumps to attract mode. It's also a lot more work than hitting a single button.
You can use the special mode reset function (hold A+B+C down for 2 seconds). Unlike the in-game reset code, special reset will reboot the board. Just remember to then hold A+B down while the memory counter comes up to ensure you boot into special mode again. This may be a little slower than actually hitting the cab's test switch, but at least you don't have to mod your panel with a test button. :D
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by adversity1 »

Nice guide dude!
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Udderdude »

Does this give any more insight into whether this was a bug or a feature? Careful monitoring of the game logic and variables may reveal more. >_>
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by KAI »

Thanks for the video Muchi Muchi Spork. I almost triggered the infinite lives yesterday, but I ruined it in the last second (there's so many random shit on this game).
BTW, Big Burn says "Doushita Doushita?" ;P
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Muchi Muchi Spork
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Muchi Muchi Spork »

I'm sticking firm on the doosa.

Yeah this game is one of those "always SOMETHING" / "just one more try and I'll get it" types. It looks easy to trigger it in the video but it's not that easy. Certainly a lot less frustrating when you understand the system underneath though.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Muchi Muchi Spork »

Udderdude wrote:Does this give any more insight into whether this was a bug or a feature? Careful monitoring of the game logic and variables may reveal more. >_>
Not that I can tell.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by KAI »

Triggered the 6th live on the 4th stage, wasn't so hard.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by jpj »

thanks for the write-up dude

anyone seen any 15+ mill scores with infinite lives, or 8+ mill on score attack?
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Strikers1945guy »

Holy crap had to bump this up to say thanks for this info MMS. All the previous info I could find didn't go into such detail about the trick like this at all.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by trap15 »

Thanks for the bump as well, now I have somewhere to say that it's a bug, not a trick :lol:

First off, let's establish what lives mean. When the game starts, you are given the number of lives set in the soft-DIP. The infinite lives and invincibility settings in the soft-DIP are simply higher values for the starting lives. That is, infinite lives is set to 6 lives and invincibility is set to 7. The reason this bug occurs is because of this functionality. Because the life counter is not capped, the player can extend into the infinite lives setting, which is what causes the life counter to go to 2 and the player to gain infinite lives. Theoretically, if the infinite lives setting didn't force your life counter to stay at 6, you could even extend into invincibility.

That is why it's a bug. It's clearly not intentional. Someone just forgot to limit the extend maximum (or maybe they set it to 1 too high?).
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Strikers1945guy »

Trap don't ruin this for me!! :lol:
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by CStarFlare »

*feature
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by xMetalliCx »

very old topic, but I have few bits to add based on game code study I've accidentally made recently.

in 1UP item release involved two counters:
- number of enemies killed by Main Shot (shown on screenshot in 1st post)
- number of enemies killed by Rose Cracker (shown below of ^^^)
then (Main_Shot_kills - Rose_Cracker_kills) becomes bigger than specific constant, which is 2500 in 2006/04/06 versions and 3000 in XX/XX version - next spawned item will be 1UP.
so, if player used Rose Cracker a lot and killed a many enemies using it - he will get 1UP much later, if ever.

next, then player picking up 1UP item:
- rank counter decreased by 80000h
- if remaining lives counter more than 5 - player get bonus scores
otherwise (ie if less than or equal to 5) lives counter will be increased by 1

as was explained earlier - lives counter have dual purpose in this game:
- 0-5 regular remaining lives number
- 6 means infinite lives game mode
- 7 means invincibility mode
so... then player already have 5 life stock and picking 1UP item, game checks - if lives (ie 5) more than 5 ? -> NO -> increase lives counter to 6. which effectively enable infinite lives mode. shit happen heh.
NOTE: unlike common belief, all 04/06 and XX/XX versions works this same way. I'm personally tested XX/XX ver and got infinite lives bug/trick, its just happen a bit later because 3000 kills instead of 2500 required.

I'm personally doesn't believe in legends and fairy tales about such planned feature, so all this clearly looks for me like error in game code.

hope this may be useful or interesting to anyone...
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Plasmo »

Interesting, but nothing new.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by xMetalliCx »

Plasmo wrote:Interesting, but nothing new.
except this time it is not pure assumption but game code analysis ;)

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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Plasmo »

I wouldn't call working with the debug menu "pure assumption". You can clearly see the numbers there.

Most of it has already been covered in Arcadia magazine back in 2006 as well.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by xMetalliCx »

Plasmo wrote:I wouldn't call working with the debug menu "pure assumption". You can clearly see the numbers there.
I see your point. but is seems you not aware this game works different then in "special" mode, when you can see debug numbers, but you can not see numbers then it run in normal mode.
bonus 1UP part is not really affected, this code works in same way then normal/special, but for example Rank handling have significant differences
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by To Far Away Times »

R-R-Rise from your grave!

Anyone have a video of this activating in stage 3? I'd like to try it. The debug menu seems a little too hard to read on the fly.
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Re: SD: Hidden secrets of the Pink Sweets infinite lives tri

Post by Plasmo »

I like chocolate milk

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