Part 5: We Have a Gimmick!

In this update, we'll be covering the first of the game's dungeons.

And it's really the location I think of when I think "dungeon". Schools, man... pshhhh.



Anyway, before we can do anything else, we need to check on Mayl, Dex, and Yai. Checking Mayl results in a Roll R chip falling out of her pocket. I'm not actually going to include the series' posterchild "add this to your folder, it's really good for where you are in the game" in my folder build, however. I don't have anything else in R code.



Yeah, boy! You always get this chip early, and it's always very handy! Unless you have some specific folder arrangement in mind, anyway. Roll chip: the beginner's best friend



Yai is twirling in the hallway outside Lan's classroom, and Dex is chugging around inside it. Nothing drops from either of them.

...but you should check on them anyway! Because they're your buddies, _{and seriously look at them that shit is hilarious}



It seems to take a while for this fact to set into our boneheaded protagonist.

Which is kind of odd, because the solution to every real-world problem is netbattling. This is a lesson we should all learn!



First order of business is finding something that will let us get past the Hypno Flash attack.





Hey, didn't the other classroom go to an umbrella factory? And didn't one of the kids not care about his 100% light-blocking parasol? Told you you'd have to remember these things.





Bingo. Like I've said before, expect things like this to recur often in the game.



You know, last update I tried to play up FlashMan and Rei as a change of pace, but MissEchelon and the thread's comments made it clear to me that the two of them are all bluster. All that talk of killing, and they really make no effort to actually do so.

He's pretty good at bluffing, at least. His mum thinks he's hardcore.



The Parasol successfully blocks the light attack, and we're given a clear shot at jacking in!

Yeah... you can't be too hardcore though when your weakness is umbrellas.



In typical MMBN villain format, FlashMan makes no further attempts to interact with Lan once he's jacked in.

He's just sulking





Welcome to the first dungeon, the Principal's PC. You'll notice a lot of similarities to the School Computer dungeon from MMBN1, but that's pretty much a given considering they're basically the same location.

I dig it. It's got a good, solid theme.



Typical to MMBN first dungeon standards, it's a key hunt to open doors. In the dark!

And Mr Progs to tell you what to do!! Wow I shouldn't be so excited about that. I seriously think I may have a Mr Prog problem.



Thing is, the lights being out prevents the data from being visible.



In line with literally every single other game in the series, Lan is required to do something to help MegaMan in the first dungeon.

And in line with literally every single other game in the series, things are about to get extremely retarded.



It makes no sense, but that's par for the course as usual. MMBN just works like that.

Capcom science and/or technology! What a marvellous future it is in MMBN.



The Mr. Prog gives a hint which room this area corresponds to, however. The room has "Cleaners1" written somewhere in it, and that room's been shown in this update already. Even then, there's only 3 rooms to check in the whole school with light switches, so you should have a trivial time with this.

It just goes to show that Mr Progs are super helpful cool guys and- ok I'm going to have to do something about this Mr Prog problem, where the heck are my scissors...



It's the same room we got the Parasol from.



Amusingly, if it's the wrong room, Lan just turns the lights off again rather than leave them on to be potentially useful later. Conserve electricity, folks!

Lan's a good kid, OK.



The lights in the Cyberworld proceed to flicker on and off rather than staying on, oddly. Presumably FlashMan has something to do with it. Anyway, MysteryData is now visible half the time, though due to the emulator there's a bit of delay such as seen here.

It's uh, atmospheric! Which is a bit out of place in the first, extremely easy dungeon. But hey, still cool!



A very, very easy key hunt ensues. Three keys are needed in the first area, each one opening a new section where you find the next key.

Also something that works to get you used to a mechanic that will be used constantly, forever.



Keys aren't the only things hidden around, however, there are some very nice goodies tucked away too. Lots of Zenny for this point in the game and a few misc upgrades. If you return to this dungeon after this scenario, the lights will be permanently on, so if you miss something collecting it later is very easy.

Makes sense, since Lan's not dumb enough to break into a school at night twice.



The enemies are largely very trivial, so I take the opportunity to harvest BugFrags for later.

I hope you're going to use those BugFrags at a non-shady dealer, mister!



Area1 is very easy and trivial. Area2 is...very easy and trivial, but a tiny bit less so.

It's a nice opportunity to get used to the dungeon areas, which are more exciting than the ACDC town internet.



This area mixes things up a bit in that we need to find all 3 password items to use at once on the door leading to FlashMan. So once again, Lan needs to turn some lights on.

Just imagine if they'd had this kind of security on the lock to the school itself... ... hmm yeah that probably would have been a minor roadbump. But still! IT security for everything!



This area corresponds to the Teacher's Lounge, obviously.



The only thing making it at all notable is the introduction of, at last, a new virus to the series.

EleBall: These guys have pretty complex movement patterns for a virus this early in the game. They move diagonally, slowly drifting from panel to panel, and can even cross over into MegaMan's side of the field. When they move into any panel adjacent or diagonal to MegaMan's panel, they'll stop moving and release a few balls of electricity that orbit them. While not dangerous this early on, later in the game they move extremely fast and can be a real nuisance to hit, especially when they invade MegaMan's field.

EleBall: Just so goddamn happy.





There's an HPMemory here, as well as various piles of Zenny lying around. Overall a very nice place to poke around in for a while.



But enough! Let's get to the boss fight!

First boss fight of the game! And only five updates in!



Well, if you insist. MegaMan has kind of a decent track record with that and all.



Time for the first boss fight of the game, against FlashMan. A very simple boss fight....even boring, you might say.



Fuck that, time to reveal my secret RomHack plans to spice up the boss fights! Crack open the emulator's memory editor, and head to this here address. After a bit of fumbling around, because most RomHack guides are for White version...



Okay, so here's what I'm actually doing here, courtesy of The RockMan EXE Zone. After heading to the address you see listed above, which is the battle data for one of the ACDC1 random encounters, look for this line of data: "FF 00 00 00 00 02 02 00 01 05 03 01 05 05 01 01 05 06 02 01 FF"

FF represents the borders of the battle data, so no fucking with those two. Everything between them corresponds to data in the fight. The first three 00 values do nothing relevant, so leave them alone as well. The next two values, 02 02, specify MegaMan's starting location XY coordinates, 02 02 corresponding to the middle of MegaMan's default field size. The next value, 00, specifies that MegaMan is in fact MegaMan the player character, so don't muck with that or you'll freeze the game.

01 is where the fun starts, because that specifies what type of virus or enemy Navi is present. In the interest of not ripping off the fine folks at TREZ, go follow the link above to find the full list of values, I won't repost them. Beware of spoilers if you do.

The 05 03 values are the enemy's starting location, so I could move them around if I really wanted to, but that's not really important for a Navi fight. The next 01 is the Kind type again, which specifies what the hell the specified item is in more broad terms. 01 means "enemy", and only a few other entries are relevant at all, so I'll ignore them here. This repeats for the second enemy present on the field. In theory I could add a third enemy to the fight, but the game can't handle 4.

In practical terms, however, a fight against 3 enemy Navis would require a lot of buster use after I inevitably ran out of chips, so that'd be boring to watch.

In summary:

FF: Start of battle data. Don't mess with.
00, 00, 00: Irrelevant, don't mess with.
02, 02: MegaMan's XY position, relative to the top-left corner of the field.
00: Kind type, MegaMan = MegaMan, don't mess with.
01: Type of enemy virus or Navi.
05, 03: Enemy's XY position.
01: Kind type specifying what sort of object the enemy is.
Repeat from the type of enemy line.



Result: Double FlashMan boss fight! I can't edit the battle music or background, sadly. I recorded this back before the chat session with Lan's friends, so you'll notice my folder and HP are a bit regressed.

I'll be doing this for every boss fight in the game, though with enemies that are re-fought multiple times in the game, such as GutsMan, I'll wait for their V3 forms to do it with. Storyline bosses will be doubled up each time. While this is me showing off this early on, expect me to start weeping with agony with the later bosses, unless I decide to cut loose and start abusing the myriad game breakers the game offers you, such as Higsby's shop.

What can I say, I love a tough fight. Some people thought I'd be making the game easier with hacks, I laughed.

Nice. I was wondering when the romhacking would factor in!



Back to the game, romhacked or otherwise, FlashMan is defeated, and Rei expresses passive aggressive tendencies.



I guess he'd be double-disappointed though, since FlashMan double-lost that netbattle.



Rule 1 better not be a Fight Club reference.

Rule 1 is best friends forever, enemies never. Oh no wait, that doesn't sound likely, actually. Nevermind.



Oh god, they have at least 98 rules. Talk about bossy.



Despite this, FlashMan proceeds with a kamikaze attack. One wonders if Rei and FlashMan actually understand what things like death and killing actually are.

Well gosh, they're trying. Poor fellas.



Oooh, scary scary. I don't see a trench coat, FlashMan.



Fun fact, FlashMan was voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the MMBN anime, mostly for lines like this.

Oh no! I was hoping an update would derail the Intense Anime chat in the thread. Then again... nobody's posted disco Chaud yet...



MegaMan is completely uninterested.

Ah blink-animation, our ever-present third co-commentator



While it looks like FlashMan did nothing of note, this will actually be a problem later.



Yeah, that's...not threatening in the slightest, Rei.



He's trying... I guess



Off he goes, at any rate.



MegaMan's a bit messed up by the Shining Browser Crasher, but the full extent won't become evident for a while.

This is why you always run updated browsers, people!




Right, no time for that now, let's go check on Dex, Mayl, and Yai.

Be proud, Epee! You just saved all our cool buddies!!



Well, they made it convenient and regrouped at least.

And every player was silently thankful that Capcom didn't make them wander the school collecting everyone. The end.



None of them remember it, but they take Lan's word for it at least.



Mayl won't be getting her Roll chip back. It's mine now.

To be fair, half her interactions in these games is giving Lan Roll chips. It was probably intended for him at some point anyway.



The team decides to just head home, given how late it is. MegaMan is cautious about Rei's parting words.



Yeah. Nothing at all. Sure.

Yep, Lan's already completely forgotten all of Rei's threats.



Upon leaving the school, we get an email from Dex requesting a NetBattle. It's optional, but why not? He also forks over the DexCode so we can access his home page whenever we want. Dex's computer is actually a handy shortcut to multiple places in the game due to it's proximity to something we haven't seen yet, so it's appreciated.

Dex's PC in the last game was also a good screenshot. Dex is a cool guy. And fighting GutsMan is always a super bonus!




But hey, let's go mop the floor with GutsMan.

Godamn, blink animation! I'm not sure what to make of those faces...



Now, GutsMan's arguably at his nastiest in this game, being capable of cracking columns of your field in quick succession. And indeed, later in the game he becomes a genuinely enjoyable sparring partner.



This early on? A joke. Not worth doubling up on, trust me. We'll save that for later.

Now there's something to look forward too



At any rate, that's the end of the first scenario of the game.

I helped also!!




Bonus Update Content: Experienced VLPers Look Away Now.

Also, encoding videos, such as the FlashMan double fight, is such a pain in the ass for me. Trying to use MeGUI resulted in my computer going into an endless cycle of explorer.exe crashing and restarting, then crashing again. Needless to say, I switched to Zarx264 after that. Zarx264 proceeded to just crash instantly upon any attempt to use it. And so the saga of EPM failing to find an encoder went to RipBot. It was at this point I started taking screenshots for your amusement/horror.



RipBot thinks my AviSynth files are corrupt, so the RipBot site FAQ advocating uninstalling AviSynth, all my codecs, and the software RipBot itself uses. The hell with that, so let's try something else.



Trying to install a simple-as-it-gets AVI to MP4 encoder program resulted in this.



Fucking finally!



Right, that's it, I'll just stick to my old ways that at least used software that didn't erupt into shrieking plumes of cyclopean hellfire when I tried to use them.

You know what, better yet, I'll use online converters so the whole issue is bypassed and some other computer does the job for me. At this point you could call it technical ineptitude, I call it being the Cyberworld equivalent to Azathoth. Or, most likely, having some sort of obscure program installed or system setting off-kilter that's interfering with the whole thing.

Buuuut that involves uploading 400+ MB files, and that takes forever to send and then upload, so that's not practical either. Downloading WinX was attempted, and it finally worked and got me the converted FlashFuck1 video in MP4 format.




Other Bonus Update Content: MissEchelon's Mr Prog Problem.

OK I think I solved the problem. With scissors and needles and pins and- oh I guess I need a photo to explain, pictures being worth some large number of words and all that.




wait




shit i don't think that solved my problem at all i think i just made things FAR WORSE.